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."