While I haven't played the game, I'm aware it was in development for quite some time...
If players feel like there are basic gameplay flaws, I don't think it's unreasonable for them to be frustrated given how long the developers had to polish the game...
Art isn't without its flaws and flaws don't invalidate art...
Early Van Gogh works have serious depth and dimension flaws but we regard him as an icon...
Early American art was a mess: babies with facial features of grown men and hands with only four fingers...
And yet it still hangs in museums...

Don't believe all the exaggerations. The game is polished, no crashes, no glitches, no clipping issues, no AI cheats, it is fun to control 99% of the time, and the gameplay certainly isn't poor. Control and camera are improved over Ico and sotc, yet the game still requires a bit of effort from the player and sometimes a bit of patience. The camera does a good job considering what it has to work with. You have an animal that pretty much fills up the entire passage a lot of the time. With a bit of practice you can get better at controlling the camera as well.

However it is not a high speed action game and the boy is not some super warrior. (Although luckily he survives falls from quite high) And if you're really sensitive to framerate drops, you'll need to play it on a pro in 1080p mode. It still runs better on base ps4 than sotc did, yet far from perfect.

Anyway, it's not substandard gameplay, not by a long shot. The gameplay might not be everybody's cup of tea, no reason to call it substandard.

As I said, I haven't played the game so I can't really make a judgement on whether or not the game does fail at certain things. Just wanted to say that "art" isn't an excuse for any problems the game may have.

My only problem with TLG is the horrendous framerate on the OG Ps4 :( that's the only thing that's keeping me from getting the game.

They better patch that shit !

The problem is the core gaming community is dead set on killing any expansion of the industry. Anything that strays from the establishment is squashed and destroyed. This is what happened when Sony tried to go big with PS3 and Vita, and when Microsoft tried to expand the market with XBO. It happened with and to some extent it is happening with VR.

Honestly, the gaming industry needs a revolution, and a lot of the old press and executives need to be booted. We need people in power and press to be pushing for new experiences on both the hardware and software fronts. Games like Flower, Journey, The Last of Us, and The Last Gaurdian should be required material in high school, these masterpieces need to be looked at with the same respect as any other art form.

I just want to hug you right now.

Tbh... i don't care if its considered art or not. I want to know if its a product worth my money. Wether they consider it art or not does not weight on the enjoyment i get.

So many...adolescent views of art. Not here - well, some here - but among the snooty people looking for "that game" that will make games "truly" art. Art isn't some super secret clubhouse you academic snobs. Games can be and often ARE art. I would say they've been art at least since Chrono Trigger. They are a creative medium using visuals, sound, and interaction to communicate with the audience ideas, values, feelings, and in many cases a story. Chrono Trigger is art, all the Bioshocks are art, Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X are art, The Elder Scrolls are art, Team ICO works are art, every 3D Zelda is art, and many, many more are art.

There's plenty that fall into grey areas, like more than half the works of the CoD series due to their lack of anything deeper than the obvious in terms of meaning and communication. But Games being art isn't a question.

And something isn't art by being obtuse, convoluted, melodramatic, "deep" sounding, or niche. It's a work of art when it is an intentional creation birthed of imagination that communicates a distinct message - be that as elaborate as an entire world view in a grand tale (Xenoblade Chronicles) or a feeling (any of numerous "artsy" games) or making a statement of struggles common to man (Last of Us).

These people who say "oh, the Last Guardian is THE game to make games art!" or "The Chinese Room is making games art!" are not advocating for the advancement of games as art but the regression of games as art. And those people are just as backwards and arrogant as the academia who spent decades turning their noses up at fantasy and science fiction, refusing to recognize them as art or literature. It's a pathetic, childish, tree-fort mentality.

The Last guardian is amazing not only as art but also as a game. Its fun to play with an amazing narrative and characters.

Who says PS2 gameplay is a bad thing? I prefer God of War, Shadow of the Collosus and Devil May Cry's gameplay to the gameplay of most games this gen.