Shadow of the Colossus: Post Mortem
(Longer original post at my gaming Blog)
The premise for this game is simple; you want to bring a young woman back to life that has been sacrificed for some reason that we are not told. The main character, Wander, has taken an ancient blade to a forbidden area, and while there asks forbidden spirits to bring her back to life. The spirits task Wander with killing 16 colossi that are represented by 16 statues that line the hall. Each colossus is a level unto itself. The methods to dispatch them is different with each, and the puzzles involved with figuring them out are mostly ingenious and intuitive. In between fights, there are no other monsters or puzzles to figure out. You are given this vast stretch of land with ruins and beautiful landscapes that are just there for you to discover on your own. You may find yourself adding hours to your gameplay just exploring.
People may be let down by the small amount of story in Ueada's games, but I have always felt the entire world tells a story if you give it patience and curiosity. We aren't told what the colossi are, we aren't told the relationship between the girl and Wander. We are presented with ruined cities, dark spirits, and a world to explore. The ending to the game are likewise vague, and generally if you have not played through Ico, you may be confused as to what a lot of it means. There are still forum posts that have been going on since the turn of the millennium that discuss what these stories mean, and the vagueness is why there is such spirited discussion.
Never forget to watch and wait till the end of the credits on Ueada games, you get rewarded.
There's not much I can say about the graphics, sound and technical aspects. For its time, all of these were the top of their class. The fact that you could get such expansive views on the PS2 was unbelievable. The music knows when to hide so you hear nature and the world. Your "soundtrack" is horse steps, chirping birds, scuttling lizards. Your "graphics" are a simple horse, a simple character, and a hazy, magical world that opens around you. Its minimalism at its best, and done better than anyone else has ever done it since.
The work of Fomito Ueda has influenced hundreds of indie developers over the past decade. You can take a look at games like Journey, Papa and Yo, Monument Valley, and dozens of others and see the elements of the sleepy cult classic Ico and the blockbuster that is Shadow of the Colossus. People want more of this stuff that works "feel" into a game as much as graphical or technical prowess. If you want a game that feels and plays wonderfully, then don't miss either of Ueda's masterpieces.
June 10th, 2014
I know I said I'll do a larger post about the end of David Tennant as Dr Who, but I just have to say that I'm a bit bummed. Now, I have to remember that I was bummed out when Christopher Eccleston left the show after only one season. I felt like his arch did not get finished, and that it was sudden for the change. Eccleston brought me into Dr. Who after trying several times to get into the show, and hten Tennant did not have the best introduction. Well that has come full circle, except that I feel Tennant got his story finished, thankfully. The next one, Matt Smith, did not leave me with a good introduction, and I feel like I may stop watching Dr. Who all together... but this is... THIS is watching Dr. Who. You get introduced to a doctor and just when you like him and accept him as The Doctor, he changes. I guess I will find out soon if I'm a "Whovian" or if I'm just a fan of David Tennant.
I'm still sticking with guitar, playing every day. Still no new amp though, and so its kind of hard to be creative while stuck in front of your TV with a cord that doesn't allow you more freedom. So mainly I sit out on my front porch playing some blues and blues rock because that's easy to practice and sound well without an amp. I love playing outside on my porch the most, the sound that comes when you're outside is just so much more open and you don't have extra vibrations from things around you interfering. I like to get a mug of coffee, a pipe full of tobacco, and sit out and play. Running through my practice routines keeps my fingers accurate. I actually had this funny thing happen, I don't know what it was, but one night after realizing I hadn't played in a couple of days, I started playing and it was like my fingers were numb and didn't want to work all that well. I knew it was probably me just being sleepy, but I was worried that for not playing in a while that my fingers had lost some of the muscle memory. Its silly, I know from Bass playing that it doesn't happen, but still I was relieved the next morning when everything was "working" correctly again.
I'm feeling the urge to learn to paint again. I really really like impressionists. When I got a PS3 and learned that I could make my own themes for it relatively easy, the first one I did was make one featuring about 5 different artists of the impressionism era. I've loaded that theme back up on the PS3 for nostalgia's sake and have really been enjoying seeing the paintings in high res on a big screen. I would love to be able to paint like that, and I know its just time and training that I need, so I could do it when I "decide" to do it for real. I've had a lot of "decide to do it and succeed" moments in the past year and it helps my confidence in many ways... just none of the succeeding things happen to be particularly useful outside of hobbies.
No comments:
Post a Comment