Shadow of the Collosus is awesome

[Hellbinder]

i just bought this game and am a couple colossi into it.

What an amazingly origional game. This would make a cool movie imo.

Anyone else playing this?

 

[representation3]

I am a little curous, if it is all boss fights, what do you do in between?

 

[TheWallace21]

Fantastic game. Too bad ICO didn't get this kind of attention when it came out. The game basically sums up to 16 great boss battles with a little exploration in between. However, you start to become emotionally attached to the main characters in a way that not many other games even get close to doing. The ending is very emotional to say the least, and I wouldn't expect anything less from the team that created ICO. Try ICO out when you are through with this one, if you haven't already. It usually sells new at Best Buy for around $15, and used for less than $10 everywhere else.

 

[Tim Murray]

Ending. Whoa. Ending. Whoa.

 

[Hellbinder]

I could ahve sworn i put this in the console forum.. hmm..

 

[London Geezer]

Well, Ico is being re-released - in Europe at least - so i'm sure it will enjoy a new wave of attention to say the least. Deserved too.

 

[Npl]

Hmm, I`m curious about SotC, but I hate ICO. So its weird to seet anyone raving about SotC also likes ICO. I couldnt stand the "run around and find the only damn thing you can interact with"-Gameplay, for example I was running up and down the Tower countless times (a few minutes in each direction) where the Girl is prisoned after freeing her, just to realize I have to push her against a Wall (yeah, very obvious dammit). Realizing that the next few Areas are even bigger and equally boring exploration was the last thing I did with Ico...
Ok, thats enough of my ranting, but I still wonder if SotC is more my thing ( seems there cant be anything wrong with alot of Boss-Battles )

 

[Rodéric]

I keep hearing that and the game is not yet released in europe, so no close (area wise) friend have it yet (don't have a PS2 so relying on them)...

 

[MrWibble]

Hmm, I`m curious about SotC, but I hate ICO. So its weird to seet anyone raving about SotC also likes ICO. I couldnt stand the "run around and find the only damn thing you can interact with"-Gameplay, for example I was running up and down the Tower countless times (a few minutes in each direction) where the Girl is prisoned after freeing her, just to realize I have to push her against a Wall (yeah, very obvious dammit). Realizing that the next few Areas are even bigger and equally boring exploration was the last thing I did with Ico...
Ok, thats enough of my ranting, but I still wonder if SotC is more my thing ( seems there cant be anything wrong with alot of Boss-Battles )

The two games have different styles of gameplay, so it's entirely possible that you could like one without liking the other.

However I can't help feeling that if you didn't appreciate the first you will probably not get nearly so much out of the second as others have.

Both games very deliberately have very desolate environments. The designers are playing with feelings of isolation, loneliness and sadness. If experiencing that doesn't float your boat then fair enough, but it probably will make it a much more dull game.

For reference, other than fighting the 16 Colossi, more or less all you do in the game is run around a very empty environment on your horse. Even the battles are often a case of finding the one particular way of attacking the enemy and then repeating until it dies.

It might be fun on it's own but for me, a lot of the experience from both games came from the emotional involvement - a fairly unusual thing for a video game to do, certainly for it to do well, and maybe not everyone's cup of tea.

 

[Npl]

The two games have different styles of gameplay, so it's entirely possible that you could like one without liking the other.

However I can't help feeling that if you didn't appreciate the first you will probably not get nearly so much out of the second as others have.

Both games very deliberately have very desolate environments. The designers are playing with feelings of isolation, loneliness and sadness. If experiencing that doesn't float your boat then fair enough, but it probably will make it a much more dull game.

For reference, other than fighting the 16 Colossi, more or less all you do in the game is run around a very empty environment on your horse. Even the battles are often a case of finding the one particular way of attacking the enemy and then repeating until it dies.

It might be fun on it's own but for me, a lot of the experience from both games came from the emotional involvement - a fairly unusual thing for a video game to do, certainly for it to do well, and maybe not everyone's cup of tea.

From the reviews, I know you get some visual clues where to ride, does this work well or are you running around aimless, waiting to hit the invisible X that you already passed by a few meters previously?

I dont mind having to figure out how to defeat a boss, or even search for a hidden item somewhere, but ICO reminded me of those old Adventures where your progress depended on finding pixel-size Items (and the need for standing right next to it, else the game just behaved as there was no item on the floor).

 

[MrWibble]

From the reviews, I know you get some visual clues where to ride, does this work well or are you running around aimless, waiting to hit the invisible X that you already passed by a few meters previously?

I dont mind having to figure out how to defeat a boss, or even search for a hidden item somewhere, but ICO reminded me of those old Adventures where your progress depended on finding pixel-size Items (and the need for standing right next to it, else the game just behaved as there was no item on the floor).

Well I never found that effect with ICO to be honest, so maybe I'm not the best judge. I think I almost always knew where I was going or what I was supposed to be doing.

With SotC however, you always know where you're trying to get to in terms of direction, and you have a rough map of the whole game environment to show you where any bridges, etc might be, so really it's pretty simple to work out where to go even if you can't always get there in a straight line. There were only a couple of times where I headed off the wrong way and had to double back, and thats mostly because I wasn't paying enough attention at the map and felt like exploring a bit.

 

[Hellbinder]

In Collosus you have a Magic sword of light that you hold up in the air in the sunlight and as you look around it creates a light beam in the direction you are supposed to go.

It works very will and gets you right where you need to go.

 

[wireframe]

Is there a lot of action in this game or is it a lot of "adventure" between these epic battles with the colossi? I liked Devil May Cry 3 and I thanked the gods that enemies respawned every time you went back to a room or it would have been very boring. I might pick this up just to watch the graphics, but it would be great if it was interesting to play (where interesting to me = something always going on).

I ask because I get the impression from some SotC statements, and ICO, that it is a lot of running around looking at pretty scenery.

 

[MrWibble]

Is there a lot of action in this game or is it a lot of "adventure" between these epic battles with the colossi? I liked Devil May Cry 3 and I thanked the gods that enemies respawned every time you went back to a room or it would have been very boring. I might pick this up just to watch the graphics, but it would be great if it was interesting to play (where interesting to me = something always going on).

I ask because I get the impression from some SotC statements, and ICO, that it is a lot of running around looking at pretty scenery.

You ride around on a horse, you fight 16 Colossi, and and if you feel like it, you can kill small lizards. That's all there is on the action front.

It's about as far removed from DMC as it possibly could be.

 

[wireframe]

You ride around on a horse, you fight 16 Colossi, and and if you feel like it, you can kill small lizards. That's all there is on the action front.

It's about as far removed from DMC as it possibly could be.

So, what drives the sense of achievement? In something like DMC or GOW you grow your abilities so that you can take on bigger and stronger foes that would squash you like so many bugs if you are not "levelled up". How does this work in Shadow? Is this primarily an adventure game? If so, is it dialogue driven?

I got the sense that these colossi would be fierce opponents and that you would need to build skill and acquire special items to defeat them, but how do you do that if there are no other enemies to train on and pilfer for magical items?

 

[Bobbler]

Ueda is one of the few game makers that can make you actually care about the characters without even giving them any real dialog or back story.

In ICO, near the end, when Yorda isn't able to make it across the collapsing bridge, I've never wanted to go "save the princess" more in any other game -- That evil queen had to pay. It was heart wrenching. Long has it been since I've cared about a character in a game as much as that (actually, I can't think of any other example at all).

Ueda's games are seemingly all about self sacrifice. Hes a story teller in the truest sense. Its very easily seen in Shadow of the colossus (for those that have beaten it) -- Its heart warming and heart wrenching at the same time... Someone sacrificing themselves so fully to save someone who (in Ico's case especially) he has no real attachment to (in SotC's case he does, but there isn't any backstory to be certain), other than they are another person in need of help.

Call me crazy... but I think Ueda is hands down the best game designer/story teller this current gen, by miles. I'll take an ICO or SotC over an RE4 or God of War any day (of course it certainly is nice to have stuff to play between the release gaps).



SotC and ICO are rather far apart in the gameplay department, but the story and character design is very similar. It is easy to see someone not enjoying one but loving the other, based on gameplay alone (of course it would be an injustice to ignore the plot/story). SotC offers a lot more action and is a lot more complex (control wise especially) than ICO -- the bosses act as the "puzzle" element of SotC while the environment acts as it in ICO. It usually takes no more than 5-10 minutes to go from one boss to the next, but it never felt like it was a boring task to get between the bosses. The bosses can take upwards of an hour or so (sometimes longer if you are stuck on it - usually less though) -- I never got annoyed fighting them (I know some people might get annoyed falling down a lot).

 

[liverkick]

So, what drives the sense of achievement? In something like DMC or GOW you grow your abilities so that you can take on bigger and stronger foes that would squash you like so many bugs if you are not "levelled up". How does this work in Shadow? Is this primarily an adventure game? If so, is it dialogue driven?

I got the sense that these colossi would be fierce opponents and that you would need to build skill and acquire special items to defeat them, but how do you do that if there are no other enemies to train on and pilfer for magical items?

Id say SotC (and Ico) are more in the puzzle/platformer/adventure realm if I had to attribute a genre. In that sense the Colossi in Shadow are more akin to giant kinetic puzzles that you have to "solve" then they are your traditional action game boss battle. No leveling up, special moves, etc.

And like MrWibble iterated its quality is completely tied to the experience as a whole, so breaking it down to certain elements doesnt do the game much service. The storytelling is abstract and minimalist yet lyrically sophisticated, the atmosphere as desolate as it is ethereal and sublime, the gameplay simple yet intuitive, elegant and inspired. "Addition by Subtraction" is a theme in Ueda's games and it flows through every ounce of his team's work. Its definitely not for everybody but like Ico if it gets you under its spell its one of the most memorable experiences the medium has ever seen.

 

[wireframe]

Thanks for the explanations guys. It sounds intriguing and I think I will have to try it out for myself. I'm a sucker for good graphics and a heartfelt story is always welcomed. I hope it works on me. :smile:

 

[_phil_]

Call me crazy... but I think Ueda is hands down the best game designer/story teller this current gen, by miles. I'll take an ICO or SotC over an RE4 or God of War any day (of course it certainly is nice to have stuff to play between the release gaps).

agreed with your whole post.Ueda is also the only one that know how to end a story.

 

[London Geezer]

Sorry about the ignorance, but what did Ueda do before Ico? Cause really, these last 2 games he made are bloody masterpieces.