Shadow of the Colossus, part 2

Well well.. here we are again talking about Shadow of the Colossus (just as I promised!) I finished the game two days ago, and I just have to say.. the ending is.. interesting. It actually has a good bit of emotion in it (at least -I- felt it). I would almost venture to say that the ending it worth it.. though I'm strange and some may find it lacking or whatnot. A lot of what I liked about it is that throughout the entire game, there is no backstory. It leaves almost everything up to the imagination of the player, and I really appreciate that. To me, it feels like just a small story in an epic tale. I would almost like to see another game that takes place before Shadow of the Colossus, though I would imagine such game to be more of an RPG type adventure, one with a story that leads up to the events in Shadow of the Colossus.

Speaking of epic, I have to hand it to the developers of the battles. They ARE epic incarnite, and I've never seen any game get me close to the feelings I have when I am fighting the colossi. Every time I am hanging onto one of those things and raising my sword for a strike, I tense up until I actually plunge my sword in. Battles that involve the use of your horse, Agro, are my favourite. It's something I can't really exlain, a sense of wonder at the size and speed of these things, while riding your horse hard in front of them or alongside them just gets me deep down, and I love it. (the animated gif included with my previous post is my favourite battle ever!)

And remember I was questioning the replay value of this game? Well.. as I said I finished the game two days ago. I haven't been able to put it down yet (I forced myself to yesterday, and played a little EQ2). Once you finish the game you unlock two things: time attack mode and hard mode. Hard mode is just restarting the game only this time you take more damage and deal less damage (I would like ot imagine it would be more realistic, considering the sheer size and power of these things compaired to the young man you play to slay them), and also the vital points on most of the colossi are moved around. Time attack mode lets you challenege any colossus to a battle against the clock. Every two you defeat you get an item to use when you play through the game (you can't use the items in time attack mode). The items range from cloaks and masks to make you stronger, to swords, and items that help you find lizards and fruit trees in the world (something they don't tell you about - lizards increase your stamina and fruit increases your health). There is also a cloak you can get that will make you invisible to colossi, handy!

Overall, one of the best games I have played. I love it. And I retract my statment from last time about "at least being a good rent" and change it to "you must get this game."

Shadow of the Colossus

I mentioned over at the Aggro forums a game called Shadow of the Colossus. Well, I ended up buying it last night. Basically the game is a series of boss fights. There is no leveling, no upgrading armor and weapons, no skills to learn. It is just you, your sword and bow, and your horse named Agro. You start off by bringing what we can only assume to be the main character's dead love interest to a templed "at the ends of the world" to try to bring her back to life. Some sort of deity then talks to you and tells you that there may be a chance for it to help you bring her back to life, but there is a catch of course. It wants you to destroy the Colossi of the world.

Sound fun?

So you set out on your journey to slay these enormous beasts. So far, they have been fairly easy to find (though I have only killed five of them so far). You raise your sword in the air and beams of light point you in the right direction. The real fun begins when you actually find the Colossus. Some stand on two legs. Some are four-legged beasts. My favourite so far has been the one that flies (though I know there are more flying ones, I have only gotten to one so far).
Now, you think, "cool I'm going to kill a three hundred foot monster composed of fleshy meaty stuff and weird stone implants!" (they are literally made of stone and flesh). But.. it isn't quite as easy as it sounds. You don't just hack at it's legs and it falls over dead when it's HP reaches zero.

You have to climb up on top of the beast to hit it where it hurts.

So the main part of the battle is figuring out how to get on the things. Sometimes you have to just hop on, sometimes you have to bring the thing to it's knees to climb on it, and sometimes you use the monster's own weapon to get ahold of it. And they don't just let you climb all over them with impunity.. they will often shake violently to try and get you off. There is a gauge that tells you how much longer you can hang on before you lose your grip, and the harder the Colossus shakes, the faster the gauge goes down.

The fight, however, is quickly ended. The "soft spots" on these things are the very definition of soft spots.. a few sword thrusts and you can bring the beast down.


So what do I think? So far, I am loving it. It is a game that, if you were so inclined, you could just pick up and go. Meaning you can put it down for an extended period of time and pick it up again without having to relearn how to play, as is often the case with RPGs and the like. I myself don't see putting it down to be an option. I find it pretty addicting. My only worry is the replay value - the fact that once you figure out how to actually get on the Colossus and get to it's soft spots, the battle that first took you thirty or fourty minutes turns into a ten minute deal. I have heard that they have things to do even after you finish the game (but don't know for sure), so here is to hoping.

I do have to say that at times the camera angles/controls can be a bit frustrating. But I also have to say, that even in spite of this, I don't find it to be that big of a deal. Yeah, I'll bitch about it when it happens, but the truth is the way they made the camera move makes the game so beautiful, that I honestly don't mind (in retrospect). It has a VERY cinematic look to it and the visuals just blow me away when you are engaged in combat with these things.

Overall, a great game so far. I'll be sure to at least post again when I have finished it. I highly reccomend this to anyone, at least just for a great rent if you don't want to shell out the money for it.

And I didn't even know about this game until two days ago when I read this comic at GU.