PaRappa and The Last Guardian live on in A Profound Waste of Time 3

Ico-n't believe it!

[Disclaimer: I wrote for A Profound Waste of Time 1 and helped assemble many of it's other contributors, like Dtoid alumni Ashly Burch. I also introduced A Profound Waste of Time creator Caspian Whistler to Rodney Greenblat, the designer of PaRappa, which later led to their collaboration for A Profound Waste of Time 3.]

When I first started writing for Destructoid 15(!) years ago, PaRappa the Rapper was still one of the biggest names in the PlayStation stable of mascots, and The Last Guardian just a work in progress called Project Trico. A lot's changed since then. PaRappa was eventually pushed off of Sony's A-list by the likes of Kratos and Nathan Drake, and The Last Guardian was announced, delayed, then quietly launched on the PS4 nearly a decade later. Everything we thought we knew about Sony 1st Party games has completely changed since then, but the inspirational power of PaRappa and The Last Guardian live on, as proven by the rousing success of A Profound Waste of Time 3, now in it's last week of funding on Kickstarter.

The place for print media like A Profound Waste of Time in our lives has also changed a lot in the past 15 years. Like vinyl records, videogame magazines were once everywhere. Then the internet killed them, and now they are back as high end, enthusiast works that aren't just ways to get latest news and reviews, and are really pieces of art onto themselves. That's part of why I think this latest issue of A Profound Waste of Time is looking to be the most successful one yet. Pairing with the likes of PaRappa and the games of Team Ico is a perfect fit. Everyone who still cares about these classic Playstation titles and game magazines must really love them.

I had the chance to ask Caspian Whistler, the creator of A Profound Waste of Time, about that and a few other things as the campaign for the latest issue of the magazine was wrapping up.

A long, strange trip

Dtoid: Caspian, I wasn't sure that A Profound Waste of Time 3 would ever happen. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and who knows how many other destabilizing factors keeping the global economy from settling down, I personally would not have had the guts to launch a massive book-sized videogame magazine in 2022. What were some of the unique challenges that you faced in putting this issue together that you didn't have to contend with in years prior?

Caspian: We've sent people on journeys to do interviews in the past, like yourself in Issue 1 where you flew to meet Yacht Club Games in California. This time we had to get Simon Parkin over to Tokyo from the UK to meet Fumito Ueda [Ico, The Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian], which was a much bigger challenge because of Japan's COVID measures. It was very important to us that we be able to conduct an interview in person, but due to all the obstacles in the way it was one of the trickier things we've had to organize. Since the interview Japan's entry requirements have been easing up, but the whole process of making the mag is still very different in a post pandemic world, especially so in terms of costs. I'm hoping the year ahead is a bit steadier for everyone!

PlayStation Ico-ns return

Profound secrets remain

LOOK WHO CAME:

Jonathan Holmes