Wanda to kyozô

This video game is a masterpiece of minimalism, honing in on fine details to achieve a consistent artistic style. The fantasy setting is bare and barren, bringing to mind the ruins of ancient civilisations. The storyline leaves a lot to the imagination with many hints of a magical time gone by. The design of the colossi are gorgeous and complex, and they feel like real beings with a composition that sparks speculation - the mixture of fur, stone and architecture has an otherworldly feel to it. The design of the architecture also feels like a long lost civilisation has been abandoned in a cursed land. The soundtrack is rousing and deep. The gameplay is intense and fills the player with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. This whole setting has a deep, immersive mythological feel to it. My only gripes are Agro's controls and the lack of replay value.

This is such a wonderful game! I found myself in total amazement as I wandered through this massive world. The music is perfect, grand epic themes, yet always somewhat sad and wistful too. Just right for the death of an age. You are on a quest to resurrect a strange and nameless girl who has been sacrificed. The resurrection can only happen in the Forbidden Land at the edge of the earth,and only if an ancient power is restored through a deadly ritual that calls for the blood of the sixteen titans that walk this forsaken place. Your only companion is a massive war-horse, Agro, and an ancient black sword that points the way to terror and glory. I fell in love with this game as soon as it started. There are very few games out there that can come close to this one is sheer grandeur, and I have found none that equal the sense of pure loneliness and isolation in a land of crumbling splendor. I would almost never tell someone to buy an entire console for the sake of one game, but this would be the exception. This one is worth it!

From the moment the game begins you can tell Shadow of the Colossus isn't going to be like most games you've played. A sweeping orchestra playing a beautiful theme as a lonely figure of a young man carrying something on a horse through a stormy mountainside serves as the prologue. When he finally reaches his destination, a large stone gate, you get to see the area where the game takes place. A large open space; filled with deserts, forests, hillsides and many other strange and wonderful landscapes and ruins. In the middle lies a large temple, stretching higher than the tallest building you can think of. And that's just the opening cutscene.

The story of Shadow of the Colossus is shrouded in mystery. A young man named Wander has come to this area that has been described as a holy place by his elders and thus forbidden. The reason he enters this sacred land is because he has heard rumors that a God lives there that can revive the dead. The person in question is a young woman around Wander's age named Mono. Upon entering the temple he meets the God Dormin who has been sealed in the temple as a shapeless spirit. He tells Wander that while he cannot bring the girl back there is a way it could be done. But it requires slaying 16 giants called Colossi, and at a terrible price to Wander himself.

The rest of the story is simple from there. You merely seek out each of the Colossi one by one and eliminate them. However, this seemingly simple task gets progressively harder as the game goes on and Wander himself goes through a noticeable physical change for the worse as each fight concludes.

The gameplay is fairly simple. Shadow of the Colossus is equal parts an exploration and puzzle game. The exploration comes between battles with the Colossi, where you are free to explore the vast open world before you track down a Colossus. You can do this by riding on your horse named Agro. Agro is the fastest way to get around the map and is critical in some of the battles with the Colossi. When you encounter the Colossus itself it merely comes down to finding out how to climb it and find its weakspot. You are armed with a bow and arrow (which cannot kill the Colossi and is mainly used as a tool to gain there attention and gather fruit from the trees in the land) and an ancient sword which is the only thing that can kill the Colossi.

Each of the Colossi themselves are all different from each other in terms of how to defeat them. They can range from aggressive to peaceful and they all take quick thinking and action to defeat them. They are also the only enemies you encounter in the game, leaving the rest of the world largely uninhabited save for lizards scattered around the area. This makes the traveling to the Colossi all the more intimidating and foreboding for the battle to come.

The soundtrack in the game is one of the best soundtracks ever composed. It perfectly accompanies every part and emotion of the game. For peaceful moments, gentle harps or flutes are played and gives you a sense of wonder for the world created around you. For the battles of the Colossi you have large sounding drums and fast paced instruments that give you a sense of intensity as you fight the Colossi. However for each end of the battle, what you would normally expect as triumphant music is replaced by soft violins and a choir. Bringing up the question if killing these creatures is really the right thing to do. The music used for the final Colossus stands as the most memorable final boss music I've ever heard and I won't dare spoil it here. Neither will I spoil the appearance of the final Colossi itself, which is arguably the most frightening of them all.

Shortly put, this game is amazing. Every little detail in this game is just gorgeous. The graphics are spectacular from the characters to the setting to even the little creatures that inhabit the world. This game is just too good for words. It's really a game that must be experienced rather than told about. If you haven't played this game or have just found out about its existence I strongly recommend you purchasing it (it's available along with its predecessor Ico on the PS3 as a collection). It not only stands as one of the best games ever made but also one of the greatest stories ever told. This game is a magnificent piece of art that should never be forgotten.

There are only a few things to say about this game. It is one of the most interesting, well done, fun and challenging games ever made ...hands down. A solid 10.

Play it!

I can't even begin to explain how amazing this game is, it is beyond words, beyond actions, to explain the precious contents hidden in the case of one of the best games ever made in the entire world.

In all of my years of life, I have not met one person, one living soul that has not liked this game after watching it or playing it themselves.

Yet it all began with me watching my 2 cousins playing it, until I despised it for the playing style and how short it was. It was probably because I was in the middle of my Final Fantasy 8 file and was used to long games. Until I went to their house about a year later and was bored, and decided to play the game to actually feel how it was to play.

I must say it had to be love, I would not put down the controller for anything, not even to watch Full Metal Alchemist at 10:00, I was too concentrated of at the greatness of the game, and the contents it held.

Until I demanded that I borrow the game, I printed out one of the online guides, and played the game all day. For 2 days straight I beat it, after getting about every single fruit and WT lizard that the world could hold, and watched the touching ending that like gasping for breath, and trying to hold back my tears.

But it didn't end there, I did everything there was to do, completed all the time attacks in easy and hard mode, and confirmed the 17th colossi rumor (and btw, it's not real.) It didn't end there either, my cousins were so happy with me that they wanted to borrow my file and show everyone how good I was at the game.

My favorite colossi has to be no.7, the electric eel. I love the water graphics in the game, and the way it moves and how you have to catch onto it's tail. I also love the idea of insignias and the way they look, and how you have to spend breath-taking hours trying to find them, and the colossi acting like a complete idiot trying to shake you off.

But the best thing about this game, is the will and freedom to explore this large and vast land, which takes about 5 hours to cover the entire area, and takes a long time to find all the fruit trees and all the save altars on the way. I would say about half of the area is used for the colossi, the other half is for exploring with your only friend and companion, Agro, the black horse. Be glad that he is with you, for if you would have to travel this land on foot, it would take you about a hour to walk from the top of the map to the bottom, not even thinking about left and right.

This game definitely deserves more praise than people have given it, for it is the best game in the world and got voted 4th on ign.com, (damn that God of War..... DAMN YOU!), but everyone knows, and I know it should of gotten first. So if you find this game sitting alone in EB Games or a movies store, give it a try. You might not like it at first but you will get hooked, like me.