Topic: Shadow of the Colossus and ICO in HD....

[Quemaqua]

* Quemaqua sighs

Maybe someone will treat me for Christmas.

[idolminds]

ICO = beat. At least playthrough 1. Pretty sure I can get the under 4 hour trophy on playthrough 2 since I wasted a bunch of time trying to remember how to solve the various puzzles. Thoguh beating it under 2 hours would take some practice and streamlining/planning.

SotC I just downed #9 in the geyser field. I love that one. I've been enjoying the experience, doing a bunch of exploring, finding fruits and lizards, etc. Those lizards with the white tails are easier to find thanks to the higher resolution. They are not all that much easier to shoot, though. Crafty little bastards.

[PyroMenace]

Haha I remember not having any idea about the lizards on my playthrough of that game, I didn't get a single one.

[idolminds]

Heh. It's not really that important as you can beat the game without them, but its kinda fun. And the extra grip is nice to have.

Its especially important this time since there is a trophy for climbing the main tower and finding the secret garden up there. The US PS2 version this was easy. Due to a glitch you could diagonally jump while climbing and it wouldn't lower your grip meter, so with a little practice you could get up there pretty easily. The PS3 version is based off the PAL version where this glitch is fixed. So to climb up there you need all the grip you can find, and in fact have to play through the game several times (it keeps between tries) to have enough to do it.

14 down, coming up on completing this playthrough. So fun.

[idolminds]

Ok, SotC beat. Funny, the hardest boss was #15 for me. I had to fight him for an hour since I couldn't remember how to get him to drop his sword, and then I had trouble getting down to his palm for the final stab. I wish you could turn of Mr Hint Voice. The 20th time he tells you the same unhelpful hint you wish you could stab sound.

Edit:  Thinking back, I remember Ico more fondly.  Shadow of the Colossus was impressive to me for its unconventional design, like Ico, and the battles with the colossi were incredible but in between those battles there wasn't much fun to be had.  Sure, there was the wonder of the world and a slight element of exploration, but it was kind of boring.  Ico had far fewer lulls and when it did, there was still a large sense of weight to the game.

I was thinking about the emptiness of the SotC world and how I really enjoy the minimalism. They built this huge land and you only really need a few sections of it. The rest is just there for you to enjoy and explore.

If the game was made by anyone else they would have filled that space with lots of little bad guys to fight so you can earn XP, level up your grip and health, have you find 30 variations on the sword and bow, etc. The simplicity is just refreshing. You don't even have to go "earn" the sword or bow, you just have them from the very beginning. You never come to a colossus and go "Oh I need <special magic widget> to beat this guy."