Shadow of the Colossus - a simple, yet highly effective
game.
*STORY*
The story of Shadow of the Colossus is pretty straight forward, yet very good.
A young man known as the "Wanderer" (not that it's his real name)
takes a young woman named Mono who appears to be dead to a big temple. The
young woman was said to be cursed and killed by her village or something. The
Wanderer takes Mono to the temple and talks to Dormin, some sort of spirit. To
resurrect her, the wanderer must find and destroy 16 beasts named the
"colossi". Why? That's for you to find out.
*GAMEPLAY: CONTROLS*
The gameplay for SOTC is relatively simple. The X button makes the Wanderer
call his horse, or if your horse is out of range and you are fighting a
Colossus, you can whistle to attract its attention.
The square button makes you slash if you have a sword equipped, charge a stab
if you're holding on to something, and charge an arrow if your bow is equipped
by holding square and letting go.
Triangle makes you jump, and if near your horse, you can mount your horse.
The circle button is mainly used with the sword. With the sword equipped, you
can hold the circle button to raise your sword into the air. If the place you
are in is bright enough, strings of light will emit from your blade. You can
aim your sword until the strings of light join at the end into a point, and
your controller vibrates. It points to the next Colossus you must slay. Also,
if your fighting a Colossi using circle will show it's vital spots, more on
that on GAMEPLAY: FIGHTING COLOSSI. Also, if you’re near an alter of some sort
that looks like a tomb stone, tap the circle button to pray. You will be fully
healed and be able to save.
R1 is probably the most commonly used button in the game. It lets you grab.
After pressing the triangle button (to jump) you can hold R1to grab onto
something, like a ledge, some vines, or hair on a colossus. While holding R1,
you can tap the square button to charge up a stab with your sword equipped, and
tap it again to release your stab. You can move around while holding onto
something, but you get very slow. If a Colossus begins shaking around trying to
shake you off, you just hold R1 to keep holding. While a Colossus is trying to
shake you off, you can't stab. While hanging off a ledge, you can tap triangle
to lift yourself up. While we're talking about grabbing, you can't hold onto
something forever. In the bottom right corner, there is a circle with a square
beside it and a bar under it. The square shows what you have equipped. It shows
either a hand (for nothing equipped), a bow (for a bow and arrow equipped) or a
sword (for, you guessed it, a sword equipped). The bar is your health bar. Once
it's empty, you're dead. You can recharge health by just standing, praying, or
kneeling, which is done by holding R1 on a flat surface. Kneeling makes you
heal faster. The circle is your grip/power bar. While holding on, the pink
circle begins to shrink. Once completely gone, you can't hold on and must fall.
You can regain your grip by waiting without golding onto something. When
charging a stab or arrow, the circle begins to fill with a white circle. When
the white circle completely fills the circle, your stab or arrow is fully
charged. You can let go any time however. While holding on R1 on a flat
surface, you will crouch, and tapping triangle while crouching will make you roll.
R2 makes you zoom in.
L1 makes you center the camera to the Colossi when fighting.
I don't know what L2 does :-P. Never used it the whole game.
The right and left directional pads make you switch between weapons. Up makes
you equip your sword and down makes you equip nothing.
The left analog stick makes you move, and the right analog stick makes you
control the camera. You can control the camera in cutscenes too.
The horse is called by tapping X. His name is Agro (the horse). Mount the horse
by tapping triangle beside him. To mount quickly, jump by pressing triangle and
hold R1 to grab onto him. While on the horse, tap X to urge him forward. Every
time you tap X, Agro goes faster. Steer with the left analog stick and hold
down to stop. Hold R1 to lay down on him, and hold the left analog stick down
while laying down to stand on Agro. Press triangle to dismount, and press
triangle while still moving on Agro to jump off.
I may have missed some controls but I think I got the main concept.
*GAMEPLAY: FIGHTING COLOSSI*
Each Colossi is different. Some fly, some walk and run, some stay put, some
slither through the ground. Killing each Colossi is relatively the same but
finding out how is the different.
This game is considered a puzzle game as much as it is a action/adventure game.
Finding out how to kill each Colossus is hard, whether you have to climb up it,
use your surroundings, or make it kill itself (you heard me right). It won’t
really kill itself, but will really do things so stupid it practically dooms
itself.
Mainly, you have to stab parts of the Colossi that do damage. These are called
vital spots. Most Colossi have 1-3 vital spots. To get to the vital spots, you
must go through a series of events. Sometimes, The Colossi will smash something
causing it to fall. Then you can climb the thing taken down to get higher so
you can jump onto the beast. Most Colossi are huge, and I mean HUGE. For
example, one of the Colossi is practically as tall as a skyscraper. Some
Colossi are about as small as your horse. Others aren't very big but very long.
Imagine climbing a skyscraper, only the skyscraper is trying to shake you off
and you're trying to find its vital spots to stab while your grip is loosening
and you may plunge to your messy death bellow. Actually, If you fall from a
hundred feet tall Colossi, you wont die, in fact you may only lose one fourth
of your HP. The only annoying part is getting back up.
You will find yourself swearing at the Colossi telling it to stop shaking so
you can stab it, or yelling at the wanderer to jump instead of hang onto a
ledge like a sissy girl. Actually, the wanderer has some balls to be able to
climb huge beasts out of this world, or hang onto a bull like creature that is
ramming into walls trying to knock you off. Ya.
Finding the vital spots aren't even half of the problem. In fact, it's quite
easy. Just like finding the Colossi, you can use your sword to find its vital
spots. Getting there is the problem.
Some Colossi will require you to stab other parts of their body to get them to
expose their vital spots. These are called trigger spots. For example, you can
stab a trigger spot and the Colossi will fall so you can get on it, or the
Colossi will cover the spot with his hand to tend the wound so you could jump
onto that hand to go up to it's vital spot.
Once you kill the Colossi, you will probably yell at the Colossi using
inappropriate words I dare not put on this review. The music makes you feel
almost sorry for the beast, and maybe you will. But probably you won’t because
most of these beasts are very annoying and you will throw away the controller
and sprawl on your back saying "FINALLY, HE'S DEAD!"
*MAIN OVERVIEW*
The Colossi are the only enemies in the game, but if that keeps you from
getting this game, then I have a couple of words. The land is huge, and you'll
never have any idea how good the detail is in the game if you go from Colossi
to Colossi. The graphics are one of the best graphics in PS2, and the best in
game graphics probably of any PS2. Comparing to some cutscenes in the Final
Fantasy series, these graphics aren't very good but compared to gameplay
graphics in Final Fantasy, SOTC takes the cake. Each battle is thrilling. End
of story.
The ending cutscene is great yet kinda scary. It's about 25 minutes long, and
sets up its sequel. Officially, Shadow of the Colossus is the PREQUEL of the
game ICO. If you watch the ending cutscene and know what ICO is all about, it
really sets it up. I won’t spoil it for you.
The replay value isn't very good however. But you can go to time attack mode
after you beat the game once by praying in front of a statue of one of the
Colossi. When you pray, you can fight the Colossi and try to beat it in a
certain time. Also, you can play in hard mode after you beat the game once
through. The problem is that it's pretty much the same, just harder.
The game has many secrets and unlockables that you can unlock but I won’t go
into detail on that. All you have to do is kill Colossi in time attack mode.
Every 2 Colossi you kill you get an item.
I may have missed some things but overall, the game is great and nothing should
stop you from getting Shadow of the Colossus. It must obviously be good for me
to write a review on it for two hours. So buy, or at least rent Shadow of the
Colossus. It's a great game and a must play for everyone (even though it's
rated T for teen).
