Shadow of the Colossus

[Angry the Clown]

I'm utterly in love with this game. It's like some majestic childhood fable. I wasn't able to get round to starting it until gone midnight last night at which point I switched off the lights, plugged in some headphones and sat with it for a couple of hours. I'm dedicating most of this weekend to it. Marvellous stuff.

I do feel sorry for killing Colossi at times... They're just going about their business and there's me having to skewer the poor sods in the head.

[MattyD]

I have to say, after watching the opening cutscene I didn't feel particularly endeared to the main character. I have problems with his unquestioning readiness to slay twelve giant but apparently benign beasts for such a selfish reason. Maybe when / if I find out what her 'cursed fate' was I'll discover mitigating circumstances, but right now playing this is making me feel like a murder!

Still, I absolutely love the landscape. I could spend hours roaming about harmlessly myself, just taking in all the scenery!

[nero1001]

I`ve been on the final boss for about an hour, what an annoying c**t! I`ve had to have a little break before I smash my controller into smithereens! ft:

edit - I`ve felt a little sad with every colossus that I`ve slaughtered but when number 16 comes toppling down I`m gonna open a can of beer, the f**ker! ft:

[nero1001]

Coupe de grace has been administered and that is the end of the game, all done in 9 hours. It is now time for a hard earned beer.

I`d like to say that I totally understood the games ending and the reason why I killed all of those colossi but.............. I haven`t the foggiest!

Tis a great game though regardless of what mindbending plots those crazy Japs come up with.

[nero1001]

Once you have completed the game and are about as clueless as I was about the events surrounding SotC, go here >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_colossus

It is spoiler laden so don`t look unless you have finished the game but is quite an interesting read 8)

[Concept]

It would`ve been really cool if you rode on the horse to say the bottom of a cliff that you then need to climb to meet the colossus at the top. I think what I`m saying is I`d love for there to be more "Ico like" climbing sections. The sections in Ico where you climb soooo high really build up the tension. The wind howling and knowing that one false move and it`s curtains. I just don`t any sence of achievement when I find a colossus as it`s all too easy. A 300 foot climb and then a boss battle? Now you`re talking!

What I was hoping for, and I realise this was well beyond the limits of the PS2 was for either one of two things to happen at the end (not really spoilers, but I'm marking them as such anyway):

->Open Spoiler<-

1) The whole landscape turns into a colossus and starts moving. That would have been technically impossible, and the sense of scale would have been difficult (or near impossible) to convey in terms of movement, but I was hoping that the very last colossi was going to be what you've been traversing all along.

or, more realistically:

2) The temple itself becomes the last colossi which you have to take down and starts moving. At first, that's why I thought the immediate playing area outside it was so huge and clear... that the end showdown was going to be you against a moving temple (hence why the highest, upper floors of it look climable). Again though, this probably would have been beyond the limits of what the PS2 can process.

[Concept]

Good to see they made some improvements. Is the glitch where you can jump diagonally and not lose any of your grip meter still in? I'm re-doing this on hard mode, just done the 3rd colossi with 2 hours on the clock. Much better in hard mode, battles feel more epic because of the increased amount of weak points. I'm currently re-playing Ico for the first time in 5 years..and the similarities are uncanny.

I think Hard mode works out really well... I was certainly fearful before starting it a few weeks ago that it'd increase the frustration for each of the battles, but it actually prolongs them and makes them more challenging without being annoying. I think I said it before... Hard really does make it feel as though you're single-handedly bringing down giants due to the fact you have to scower them for longer.

[Concept]

I'm utterly in love with this game. It's like some majestic childhood fable. I wasn't able to get round to starting it until gone midnight last night at which point I switched off the lights, plugged in some headphones and sat with it for a couple of hours. I'm dedicating most of this weekend to it. Marvellous stuff.

That's what I love about Colossus - that it's a fable in the traditional mode, bittersweat and meloncholic as opposed to sanitised fluff (for example Kameo). It's definitely one of those games where a good pair of headphones does wonders to the immersion, that's for sure.

[teodi]

Once you have completed the game and are about as clueless as I was about the events surrounding SotC, go here >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_colossus

It is spoiler laden so don`t look unless you have finished the game but is quite an interesting read 8)

->Open Spoiler<-

I didn't even know about the fruit...

Just finished the game for the 1st time and tried a few of the time trials, the last boss was annoying the hell outta me. I got to his weak spot no problem but he wouldn' stop shaking about for me to kill him. I was going mad

[Emir]

What I was hoping for, and I realise this was well beyond the limits of the PS2 was for either one of two things to happen at the end (not really spoilers, but I'm marking them as such anyway):

->Open Spoiler<-

1) The whole landscape turns into a colossus and starts moving. That would have been technically impossible, and the sense of scale would have been difficult (or near impossible) to convey in terms of movement, but I was hoping that the very last colossi was going to be what you've been traversing all along.

or, more realistically:

2) The temple itself becomes the last colossi which you have to take down and starts moving. At first, that's why I thought the immediate playing area outside it was so huge and clear... that the end showdown was going to be you against a moving temple (hence why the highest, upper floors of it look climable). Again though, this probably would have been beyond the limits of what the PS2 can process.

Wow, I love the first Idea. That would've been unreal.(^_^)

Can you imagine how far you'd have to climb though.

[Concept]

I didn't even realise

->Open Spoiler<-

it was possible to arrow his shoulder to get on to his back easier first time through. Took me about five goes of climbing to jump from the hand to the shoulder plate.

[Emir]

I didn't even realise

->Open Spoiler<-

it was possible to arrow his shoulder to get on to his back easier first time through. Took me about five goes of climbing to jump from the hand to the shoulder plate.

The very same thing happened to me. Though it took me considerably more goes than five.

[Concept]

The very same thing happened to me. Though it took me considerably more goes than five.

Yeah, I was worried that

->Open Spoiler<-

the last battle was going to upset the pacing of the game in the its final stretch when I struggled with it but (much to my relief) I fluked it in getting on to the shoulder plate.

Still took a good 30 or 40 minutes though from losing Agro.

Wow, I love the first Idea. That would've been unreal.(^_^)

Can you imagine how far you'd have to climb though.

One way they could have used the landscape

->Open Spoiler<-

for the last boss was to perhaps apply its weakpoints on the corpses of each of the previous colossi you've destroyed, i.e. sixteen in all, with the landscape trembling (or the sky moving faster) as you travel to accentuate the sense of movement. I can understand why this wouldn't have worked though - the last thing Colossus needed to finish on was a backtracking collect-a-thon in the vein of Wind Waker. The final colossi needed to be centeralised (which is where I think the stuck Samurai-like colossi at the end does well at).

I suppose one trick of representing or giving over the impression of the landscape as an entire colossi would be to create a polygonal minature viewed from a distance in the same way ICO (spoilers for that game ahead) represented the outside of the castle destruction upon its conclusion, and then flick back and forth between that and a more immediate representation (say a large head).

I'm thinking too much on this.

[Synthesthesia]

I thought exactly the same as your ideas for the last colossi.




........Any news of a new game being made by the team yet? Haha. Didn't think so . I hope they keep it in Ico's world again if they make another game.

[Concept]

Thought some of you might be interested in these two articles.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060214/cifaldi_01.shtml

The team have yet to begin their next project, though as Ueda says, "we have some ideas that we're kicking around."

"I'm sure that everyone really would like to see something new from us, and I'm sure that they're actually waiting for us," concluded Kaido," but the fact that the studio is letting us take this time to dwell on what our next steps should be, that's something that we should be very grateful for. It's a great environment, and I'm very appreciative of that."

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200602/N06.0216.1853.30213.htm

Ueda: I go both ways with it. I?d like to create something similar to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, and it would be in that same world. However, I?d like to create something different as well. I?d like to create another game that I?d like to play.

I recently read that Fumito Ueda mentioned that the team are already discussing new ideas at the documentation stage, but I can't find a link for the exact quote. Sorry.