Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Shadow of the Colossus is an action-adventure video game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and is considered a spiritual successor and prequel to Ico. Bundled with Ico, Shadow of the Colossus was re-released for the PlayStation 3 as The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. In 2018, Bluepoint Games developed a remake of the same name for the PlayStation 4.

Plot
Wander, a young man takes a deceased girl named Mono to a forbidden land and makes a pact with a powerful entity known as Dormin, who according to legend, has the power to awaken the dead. If Wander can defeat sixteen gargantuan beasts knows as the Colossus, Dormin promises to revive Mono, though Wander will have to pay a heavy price.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) One of the most important artistic points of the game is that it deconstructs the concept of a Boss Battle. The Colossi are not monsters or insane villains; they're just animals who operate on territorial instincts, with Phalanx in particular not even bothering to attack you at all, and none of them would be dangerous if they were just left alone. The game goes out of its way to make you feel bad for killing them, especially given that you do it for a cause you know nothing about. To drive the point home, the game doesn't automatically end when Malus, the de-facto final boss, is defeated. Instead, there is one more sequence where the player takes control of a shadowy giant being attacked by bowmen, who are helpless before your attacks until Emon puts a stop to it, leading to one final moment of helplessness where in order to end the game, Wander has to die. This effectively makes him (and by extension, the player) the final boss as punishment for what they've done.
 * 2) The Forbidden Lands is filled with immense and beautiful landscapes that feels both calming and mysterious since there are many landmarks that aren't explained at any point. This has lead to a great number of theories as to what some of these landmarks are meant to be.
 * 3) There are 16 Colossi and each Colossus has a unique look and requires a different strategy to defeat.
 * 4) While there may appear to be nothing, the world actually has some things that can help you defeat the Colossi.
 * 5) * You can gather fruit which appears on some trees to increase your maximum health.
 * 6) * You can hunt silver-tailed lizards for their tails, which raise your stamina when collected allowing you grip things longer.
 * 7) * The PS4 remake added 79 Enlightenments, coin-like objects hidden in various locations across the Forbidden Land. They're usually in hard-to-get places that require some climbing, or falling, to get to, and some of them you definitely won't be able to reach on your first playthrough. There's no way to mark them on the map, and the counter showing how much you have is in the lower left-hand corner of the map instead of in the Stats screen. The only hint you have is your controller will make a strange sound if you're near one. Your prize for getting all 79 is the Sword of Dormin, the most powerful weapon in the game, but at the cost of reduced health regen.
 * 8) Wander can locate Colossi by raising his sword in the sunlight which converges in the right direction. Using this method on a Colossus will show its weak spots.
 * 9) The death of each Colossus are either sad or heartbreaking, especially since they only try to defend themselves (See Above)
 * 10) Because Agro is your only mode of transportation she's actually pretty smart (kind of). She has some minor path-finding abilities, actively avoiding running into obstacles or off of high cliffs (and this navigational power is essential for at least one of the battles). The flip-side to this is that she does not always follow orders perfectly, will not run on narrow paths, and can be a nightmare to direct through enclosed areas—especially if trees are present.
 * 11) Awesome and beautiful soundtrack.
 * 12) The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection added a trophy list.
 * 13) After beating the game you unlock Hard and Time Attack mode. The latter has rewards for beating colossus under a certain time frame that can be really helpful when fighting colossus.
 * 14) It got a remake for the PS4, which stays true to the original with a massive visual upgrade.
 * 15) The game serves as the prequel to Ico revealing how the horn children came to be.
 * 16) A pretty good story for what there is about an adventurer trying to awake a woman by unleashing a great evil.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Absolutely terrible camera controls that quickly reset to the default position on the left or right side of Wander. You'll be fighting the camera constantly to get a decent view of what you're looking at.
 * 2) Short length clocking in at around 6 to 8 hours depending on how fast you go through the bosses with little to no replay value.
 * 3) It may not be for everyone due to the overall pacing of the game.
 * 4) How often the Colossi shake was based on the frame rate. Since the PS3 version had an increased frame rate, the Colossi would shake more often than originally expected. This unforeseen change made several fights harder than necessary, especially in Time Attack.
 * 5) The game is infamous for having lots of cut content.
 * 6) * Fumito Ueda, the creator of Shadow of the Colossus, originally had 48 colossi in mind when planning the game. Realizing that putting in that many colossi was not possible, the number was cut down to 24 which was then cut down to 16. However, the nine removed colossi were already modeled and at one point, in the game as there are screenshots of these removed colossi.
 * 7) * Players and data miners have discovered that outside the map are tons of unused locations including the famous dam and arenas.

Reception
Shadow of the Colossus is often considered an important example of video games as art due to Wander's emotional journey, immense landscapes, and immersive gameplay. In Japan, 140,000 copies of the game were sold in its first week at retail.

Videos
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