PS Plus Extra's game catalog has a bunch of big games in it, and you best believe I'm making the most out of my subscription by playing as many of them as I can. BACKGROUND:
I've naturally seen and heard of this game given it's a PS2 classic, but I've never played it myself. Lucky for me, it was remade for PS4 and that same remake is on the game catalog. PLOT: This game keeps its storytelling to a minimum, but what it does is enough to set the scene. Shadow of the Colossus takes place in an area of the world where entry has been forbidden due to a supposed evil that resides in it. Our protagonist (who is not named in the game, but is known as Wander) goes to this forbidden land anyway, and he does so with purpose. He had heard through legends that there exists a way to restore the dead in this land, and he intends to bring a young woman back to life (his relationship to her is never spelled out, so I don't know if she's Wander's lover or a beloved sister). A disembodied voice who refers to itself as Dormin makes themselves known to Wander, and tells him how to grant his wish: he must slay the sixteen colossi that reside in this land. It's a pretty straightforward story with a clear emotional thread carrying it throughout (person going through hell and high water for the sake of a loved one) and a lot of mystery surrounding many of its elements (e.g. the history of Wander's magical sword, what civilization used to be in the forbidden land). Like I said, the game's narrative goes for the bare minimum, so you spend much of the game engrossed in the action or pondering what's going on as you make your way to the next colossus. I did not mind this, but if you're hoping there'd be more meat on the game's bones when it came to story, I feel like the ending more than makes up for it as you get a hell of a payoff for defeating all the colossi. Save for one scene that I don't understand, the finale really brings everything together. PRESENTATION: This remake upscales the original's visuals to be on par with modern day entries, but I could tell that they did not go full throttle with elements like super detailed textures or intricate models. With that said, the environments still look gorgeous, so I'm pretty happy with the graphics, nonetheless. In addition to the forbidden land's idyllic landscapes (which feature a surprising diversity of locales both natural and manmade), the sixteen colossi stuck in my memory with their incredible designs. I love their mix of monstrous (black fur, black blood) and somehow artificial (adorned with armor that looks like part of some sort of ancient building), plus nearly every single one was distinct from the rest. You have your usual humanoid colossus that towers over everything like a giant, but you also have enormous quadruped beasts, a giant bird, an eel-like creature, serpent-like monsters, and even a huge lizard. The game does an impressive job of depicting a sense of scale, properly showcasing just how tiny Wander is next to these terrifying colossi with some great camera work. That said, I can't say the camera is perfect, as its frustrating habit of recentering itself made playing the game harder than it needed to be (and it also made me motion sick, which is my one dealbreaker when it comes to graphical/visual hiccups). Appropriately, the game's orchestral soundtrack captures the epic scale of Wander's journey, with tunes that perfectly complement a showdown with a colossus sixty times your size. The fights themselves felt awesome (as I'll get into in a bit), but the music switching to a more triumphant vibe once you figure out how to win makes the experience all the more satisfying. GAMEPLAY: Shadow of the Colossus is a third-person action-adventure game where you control Wander, travel across the forbidden land, and take on the sixteen colossi with only a bow and a sword. At first glance, this game may seem like a full-blown soulslike with deep combat mechanics and an open world, but this game is actually much simpler than any such title. Plus, this originally came out in 2005; I don't think the soulslike formula was really a thing back then. The game does feature an open world, but there's very little to find in it apart from the occasional save point and collectible. You're mostly going to just be making a beeline for the colossus on your trusty steed Agro with the help of your magic sword (which also doubles as a halfway decent beacon that points you towards the next colossus you need to kill). As Wander, you can swing your sword (actually useless in all but a handful of situations), shoot arrows from your bow (mostly to get a colossus's attention, but it does do a tiny bit of damage and can trigger specific weak points), dodge roll, jump, and grip onto specific ledges and surfaces. The last one is quite important, as not only is it how you traverse many of the game's areas, it's also the primary way you get to a colossus's weak point. Every colossus fight is different in terms of how you expose a weak point, but the basic flow for each is the same: observe the colossus and your immediate environment for a way to get yourself on the colossus, jump onto the colossus and hold onto dear life as it tries to shake you off, climb up to the glowing weak spot revealed by your sword, then stab the shit out of it until it dies (or reveals a different weak spot). The very act of scaling a massive enemy, withstanding its onslaught, and killing it with your puny, human-sized sword is plenty satisfying, but the game goes the extra mile by making each colossus fight unique. Figuring out how to climb the colossus is often a puzzle in itself. Sometimes, it's as straightforward as shooting a visible weak spot and waiting for it to come down and give you something to climb onto. Others are trickier, as you have to lure them to specific locations in the environment to give yourself a way up (or open up a weak spot), bait them into performing certain actions so you can create an opening, or go through a whole platforming section to get to where they are. A couple of the fights even have you rely on Agro's speed to keep up with or keep away from fast-moving colossi. Some of the solutions to getting up to a colossus are more intuitive than others, but for the most part, I could at least get a rough idea of what to do for the trickier ones. Regardless, if you end up taking a while, a disembodied voice will give you hints on what to do. Granted, the hints themselves are kind of cryptic, but they're clear enough that they can nudge you in the right direction. I do have my favorites among the colossus fights, but overall, they all felt satisfying to take down. Everything from the size difference (and how well the game depicts that), the whole challenge of just getting onto the colossus, and the struggle of holding on until you hit that killing blow with your sword made every encounter feel like an insurmountable task. Once you figure everything out, though, you feel invincible as you take chunks off the colossus's health bar and eventually watch it fall to the ground. You have the option between playing on Easy, Normal, and Hard. I played on Normal, which I didn't find too troublesome at all; I only died around five times, and all of those were me doing something stupid as opposed to actually struggling against a colossus's attacks. That isn't to say that colossi aren't threatening overall; some are definitely more aggressive than others (a few even shoot projectiles at you), and if you happen to get knocked down, you stay down for what feels like a goddamn eternity, and that's enough time for the colossus to line you up for another attack. Every time you beat a colossus, you get an increase in your health and your stamina bar (which determines how long you can grip onto surfaces like the colossus itself). You can bolster HP and stamina further by collecting optional fruit from trees or harvesting the shiny blue tails of special lizards respectively, though in my experience, the bare minimum was more than enough to get me through a Normal campaign. The game is quite short if you just tear through all the colossi one after another, but if you want to play some more, you can take on time attack challenges where you try to beat one of the colossi as fast as you can. These actually reward you with special items that make subsequent playthroughs easier or otherwise more interesting, so if that's something that tickles your fancy, the time attacks offer more than the usual speedrunning satisfaction. VERDICT: Shadow of the Colossus is actually a pretty short and sparse game when you actually play it through, but to me, the core of what little it offers is plenty satisfying. Fighting all sixteen colossi was a satisfying exercise in puzzle solving and perseverance, and every single fight felt unique and epic thanks to varying colossus designs, settings, and even gimmicks. There's little else to do unless you're into replaying the game multiple times, but for me, that first experience was more than worthwhile. Between the action, the scale, and even the story, I can see why this is hailed as an all-time classic. This is easily in my "essentials" category given it's perhaps one of the most acclaimed PS2 games of all time, so in my view, game enthusiasts ought to play this game at least once. Outside of that, I think this is actually a pretty accessible action game since you're not fighting bosses with tricky/relentless attack patterns or wrestling with complex combat mechanics. Instead, each colossus encounter is more of a puzzle you have to solve, and while there's still execution-based skill involved with the platforming aspect, it's not as demanding as an actual soulslike would be. I feel that even casual players can get into this while still presenting a respectable challenge. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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