Let's Talk about Shadow of the Colossus (Potential Spoilers?)

I just completed my first playthrough of this game- it had been on my "want to play someday" list for years and picked up the Ico/SOTC collection when I got a PS3 last Christmas. (Yes you read that right, I'm special I know)

I thought it might be fun to talk about the game. A PS4 remaster is on the way, and the game isn't talked about on these boards often.

I will admit I probably had too high expectations going in from seeing it on so many top games lists. For a 2005 game it still tops many games made after it in atmosphere. The world is so innocent, yet dark and lonely. Riding the horse was a joy, and made me smile more than anything else in this game. The colossi looked sad as you fought them, not angry. The music and sound were great as well.

The story is fine. It wasn't as cryptic as Ico, and I like the reference to Ico at the end. SOTC obviously is a prequel to Ico after that ending. I don't mind it being open ended one bit, you can decide for yourself what happens at the end.

The gameplay itself though, I found to be an exercise in frustration. I got impatient or frustrated with around half the bosses. The game attempted to give clues if you couldn't figure it out after a while, but they were terrible clues. There were maybe 3 or 4 bosses where I made an assumption about how to beat it, was right, and it gave me a sense of accomplishment. Most of the other ones gave a "I'm glad that's finally over" feeling than an "I did it that was awesome" feeling.

I think the camera is partially to blame for this, as were the slow controls/movement. But I also blame the game design. It asks you to be very observant of the world around you, but makes some things very hard to notice, leading to "What do I do!?" frustration. It puts you through a trial/error process that sometimes isn't even your fault when you mess up. It asks you to wait for a boss to attack you at a certain location, causing an opening to attack or move to a different part of the arena, but it doesn't always work- this leads you to believe you're not doing the right thing, when in reality you just needed to be another step to your right or something like that. The teleports when you're jumping or clinging to a boss were also pretty weird, half the time extremely convenient, and the other half causing frustration because you fell and would have to go through the whole process again to get up there.

In the end, good game, but not as good as I thought it would be. I'm imagining my next playthrough down the line will be more enjoyable because I'll be able to enjoy the spectacle more than wasting hours figuring out a few bosses.

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

It's the greatest game ever made.

There's a ps4 remake coming?

Yes. Was shown at e3.

Because of feeling of acomplishment? Because of the puzzle/action genre?

Another scrub who tackled a game he had no business messin' with. Git gud.

Wasn't Sony attempting to adapt SotC for film? I recall there were efforts underway to make it so.

SotC is in my top 10 favorite games, in spite of its horrendous controls (just attempt hard time trials, they're the f*cking worst).

Too lazy to essay, but on balance I like this write up, of all things from fucking Kotaku: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/04/its-the-gameplay-stupid-shadow-of-the-colossus/ It's really good. Simplest thing to me is it comes down to the grip meter, and how the game is effectively that bucking bronco simulator type thing. The better colossi because of their size n momentum can fling you in a lot of ways which can lead to really impressive solutions. Which is where I think the time trials truly shine, if you're like actually good at the game, but the weaker ones on a gameplay one are the puzzly ones. When it comes to pure play the one in the lake certainly leaves an impression, but the actual sequence is one of the weaker ones to play.

Where as some of the other ones might not leave a similar impression are more enjoyable to play because they are far more flexible in approach like the best colossi in the game.

It's a game I really want to go back to, and one of the few I actually think the words "a complete holistic experience" or "more than the sum of its parts" actually flies as an argument, although I still think there is genuine depth of play where Shadow of the Colossus absolutely needs it, and there is good reason that it's propped up so much as art-house game. Now the the pretense people have that there is this richer story told in the game, and the religious bullshit has any real meat to it, is fucking wank. You can argue there is some rich texture to the setting as a back drop, but it's borderline inconsequential to the players experience, and not even remotely a significant part of the story.

But gamers gonna gamer, namasayin?

I honestly can't stand playing SotC no matter how many times I try it. The gameplay is just utter horseshit, and no amount of atmosphere can make up for it. You can be artsy fartsy and still have good gameplay, but I get why other people like it even if it's not for me.

Ditto

i think it was a eurogamer retrospective that said it best: (too paraphrase) SOTC is a game that leaves amazing memories but actually playing it is a bit of a pain in the backside.

granted i played it on the PS2 which is probably the worst version of the game. but the controls are sloppy and the performance is all over the place. it probably should have been a PS3 launch title.

SOTC gets a lot right. the concept is brilliant. the world and atmosphere is wonderful. the soundtrack is amazing. but i just didnt find the game to be that much fun to actually play due to poor performance and meh controls. it certainly left an impression though.

the atmosphere is there but ps2 was simpyl inept.It was incapable of running such a game

abysmal frame rates and tanky controls just ruined it for me

One of the Greatest games in my humble opinion.

@drummerdave9099:

I loved the concept of Shadow of the Collosus but playing was a big pain in the ass the first time around. The 2nd time, I had a blast. Looking back to that game, I feel as though it should have had more things to do. There was so much land to explore but it was so empty with nothing to do but kill Collosi.

@killered3: Thats what i loved about it. Games nowadays have all these "features", yet they are boring. SotC had nothing to do. You beat one colossus, then you travel far on horse across a void landscape to fight another. Rinse and repeat. Yet it was a masterpiece.

@iandizion713:

I keep telling myself that it is too. But for some reason when someone asks me about the game, the things I tell them are what I would normally complain about a game. For whatever reason, Shadow of the Collosus can get away with being a hollow monster hunter. I guess the purpose was to give the player a feeling of complete isolation. And it did serve its purpose in that regard. It genuinely felt like you were in a land that time forgot.

@killered3: When i game, i easily ignore things that arent there. I agree, today it woudlt be appealing at all and gamers would trash it for missing so much stuff. I love big boss fights though. I saw that movie Reign on Me, dude was playing it. After that, i said, i have to play this game.

Clearly I'm not the only one who got frustrated at the game.

The actual playing part of SotC is trash- the controls, camera, and the framerate (though I hear that last one was fixed on the PS3). I don't know, I understand and respect its merits, but I personally do not care for it.

I loved it on PS2, loved the remake for PS3 in the Ico/SoTC collection, somehow this newest iteration, though the best looking no doubt, feels a bit incomplete without Ico, heck having Ico could have provided Sony a great opportunity to bundle The Last Guardian in some kind of Ueda collection to help boost its sales.

Anyhow, will be interested in getting a third time no doubt, but when the price is right. Until then, there's more PS4 backlog I need to attack.

I feel the same way.

For me it was just God awful waste of my free time. I stopped at "Sand Worm" like Colossi (if memory serves) and never bothered with the game ever again.

Same here (especially the horse and the dull overworld). I enjoyed Ico more.

I think the ending to the game is one of the best I've seen in video games.

I understand the love for this game, but it wasn't for me personally.

I'm not sure why trashing SotC's gameplay is suddenly all hip. Controls aside, each fight was interesting and unique and I actually felt like I accomplished something when I won the game. Much better than a modern run of the mill 3rd person game like Uncharted.

it was good but not as good as people have hyped it to be I find it to be the worst out of the "trilogy"

I agree each is unique, but I don't think they were all interesting. Somewhere from 25-50 percent had some pretty dull and/or frustrating moments.

The PS4 version isn't a Remaster, its a Remake. But yeah, this was a really good game. I actually was gonna buy it again for PS3 untill I heard they're announced it for PS4, so I'll wait for that.