It's fine as a light, atmospheric adventure and I like how the castle loops around and has a sense of place, but the gameplay holds the game back. The escort heavy nature isn't pushed much and usually Yorda just slows the pace down to a needless degree without adding anything interesting. The slow pace isn't helped by lack of automatic checkpoints, meaning that one mistake could easily lead to losing a fair bit of progress which is not fun to repeat and doesn't fit the general feel of the game. There were also one particularly clumsy section with a couple of very awkward jumps that somewhat soured my mood for the following sections.

i don't think it's any secret that games tend to be best at communicating through experience, and ico understands this excellently. you don't need this bond explained through text, and you don't need your goals exposited here. the oblique narrative on display is emotionally engrossing and guides the player's actions very effectively, while giving you a lot of stuff to guess about and discuss with other players. in most games, it would feel pretty silly ending off with a "fin", but i think ico's storytelling has more in common with european arthouse filmmaking than it does with other games, so it feels on-point. i did feel like the last quarter of the game didn't feel as thoughtful and considered as what preceded it, though, and the combat doesn't feel like much more than a waste of time. there needs to be some sort of a threat for this narrative to function, sure, but i feel like ico would almost be better off if you couldn't fight at all.
also, please change the cover for this game on here, jeez. why is it still using a boxart that is literally infamous for being misrepresentative and ugly

Ico has a lot of issues. The combat is dull and repetitive, all the enemies are basically the same. Some puzzles are too obtuse. Dragging the girl everywhere can get tedious and frustrating. And yet, it's one of the most engrossing experiences I have ever played. The game accomplishes to make you care for the girl, something almost every other game with scort missions can't manage to do. The atmosphere is unique. The story is vague but with enough clues to let the players figure things out for themselves and the gameplay transmits being overwhelmed by the circumstances and out of your comfort zone.

A simple yet immensely effective masterpiece. Its spiritual successor gets a lot more love and praise, and for some good reasons, but there's always been something about Ico that elevates it above others for me personally.

The amazingly realistic character animations were enthralling back in the day, and in retrospect they have become even more impressive. How this was managed on the PS2 back in 2001 is beyond me. The subtle effectiveness of the two main characters speaking different languages and being forced to communicate through said animations just emphasizes how amazing they really are. The fact that Yorda's gibberish speech is not translated in the subtitles drives home for the player the otherworldliness of the situation that Ico has found himself in. Even the clunky controls that people so often complain about, are themselves a storytelling mechanic. Ico is a scrawny 12 year old boy, with no formal training at all. So of course when he picks up a large hunk of wood and starts frantically swinging it to defend himself and his new companion, it's going to feel awkward. Of course he's going to throw himself off balance. Is it frustrating from a gameplay perspective? Sure. But if Ico's atmosphere can successfully draw you in, this frustration becomes a vehicle of immersion rather than a product of bad game design.

Everything about this game is a masterclass in subtle storytelling. I can't say enough good things about it. But goddamn that NA cover art is atrocious.

I still stand by my word that Team Ico is one of the very best in terms of character development and story telling. They’re absolute masters at it and have cemented that after I finally got to experience one of the games that started it all for them.

For a game that came out in 2001 and to have a story this driven and told on the level it did was absolutely incredible. It was so ahead of it’s time that it was almost unreal at times rather that was from a visual, performance or story telling standpoint. I was in shock at times and I cannot even begin to imagine what that experience was like for people playing it when it first came out.

I did feel like this story should’ve been expanded out a bit more though. I would’ve loved to have an extra 2-4 hours with this character.

And this may sound bold to a lot but as someone who highly supports video game remakes, I’d love a remake of this game at some point. I think this is a story and world that deserves to be remade, told and shared to the world all over again.

The presentation in this game is absolutely beautiful and I could imagine when first releasing this game visually/aesthetically would've been breathtaking for many. I definitely understand why people love this game.

For me, this game gets lost in its own sauce. The gameplay is bottlenecking the aesthetics affecting the overall experience. Things are designed to be long and tedious and killing enemies is just mashing the square button. I know that this is an 'artsy' game, and I can see it, it's absolutely stunning in its presentation but I feel like in order for a video game to be 'artsy' it should at least make use of it being a video game. In that I mean in most of the game I'm just watching my character go back and forth from places, not much is interactable. I feel like this this is a movie experience, not a video game experience. There's not enough to make me care, just enough to make me wish I cared.

In a nutshell: ICO: Lost in the Sauce Edition.

Jogo incrível, lindo, maravilhoso. A ambientação do jogo é fenomenal, se passando em um castelo enorme, uma construção tão mas tão grande que é bizarro de pensar que foram seres humanos que construíram isso, com tecnologias tão avançadas que nem parece que foram obras do tempo em que o jogo se passa. Ico e a Yorda são muito fofos juntos, interagindo entre si e só conseguindo prosseguir um com o outro, dá pra ver que eles criam uma conexão entre si ao decorrer do jogo, nada amoroso, mais amizade mesmo. Os gráficos são lindos, com paisagens magníficas e até mesmo os visuais dentro do próprio castelo, que na maior parte das vezes são cinzentos e sem vida, conseguem ser belos e bons de se olhar. A magnitude desse castelo é assustadora, você literalmente anda por ele como um todo e parece que ele não acaba, sempre tendo mais lugares pra explorar e resolver puzzles, o que em si é a mecânica principal do jogo. Você e a Yorda precisam sair desse castelo enorme, já que ambos foram aprisionados nele, e pra isso, vocês se juntam pra passar de todos os obstáculos que acabam encontrando, resolvendo puzzles juntos e eventualmente, combatendo criaturas sombrias (literalmente) que querem capturar a Yorda, a mando de sua mãe, a rainha do castelo, tendo total poder sobre as sombras. A OST do jogo é linda pra caralho, como a que toca na cutscene quando você fica muito tempo sem mexer no menu, até a música das partes de save, que é muito linda. Eu amei muito todas as músicas que tem no jogo, e em geral eu amei o jogo como um todo. Eu entendo as pessoas não terem curtido o combate, porque por mais que seja simples ele as vezes não é muito fácil de se acostumar, mas no fim acaba sendo só questão de tempo pra pegar o jeito. Recomendo 100%, foi um ótimo começo pra Team ICO, e sem dúvida deixou bem claro que já no começo o Fumito Ueda era um gênio, e até hoje é.

The three games made by Team Ico have been some of my most anticipated games for about as long as I can remember, and since I absolutely loved the Shadow of the Colossus remake back when I played it on the PS4 two years ago, I was even more excited to eventually give Ico a try. Long before I played any of these games, I remember being struck by the beauty and detail of this game's European cover art, and it looked like one of those covers that perfectly reflected what it was like to play the game. As it turns out, I was half right, because while I would say that I liked Ico overall, the elements that this game handled poorly meant that this statement would have to come with a bunch of asterisks right alongside it.

If there was one word that I'd use to describe the atmosphere of Ico, it would be "mysterious", as practically every aspect of the game's presentation evoked that feeling. This game placed a heavy emphasis on visual and environmental storytelling, as the simple, fairytale-like plot, fictional languages, and minimal dialogue put a stronger emphasis on having the moment-to-moment gameplay be the main source of the game's storytelling than the cutscenes. This stripped down, minimalist approach made me really appreciate the detailed art direction, as the cinematic camera angles gave the castle's mossy stones and rusted metals a strong sense of ancience. Ico also doesn't use music very often in favor of the naturalistic sounds of bird chips, waterfalls, and Ico's own pitter-patter, but the game's few uses of actual music were beautiful, and they greatly strengthened the emotional impact of the scenes that they were featured in. Despite how all I did was have her hold my hand and watch her climb ladders throughout my playthrough, I was surprised with how much I cared about Yorda, as having to take her everywhere made me feel like I had formed a genuine bond with her without having the game straight-up tell me that I did. All of these elements made for an especially impactful ending, as the use of the song "You Were There" being combined with the filmic cutscenes left me in awe.

Despite how much Ico got right in terms of its atmosphere, storytelling, visuals, and uses of sound, the actual gameplay was what held me back from liking the game as much as everyone else apparently does. The worst part of Ico would easily be its combat, as everything about it felt unintuitive with how long it took for enemies to die and how sluggish the weapons were to use. Every combat encounter in Ico felt like it was interrupting the game rather than complimenting it, as spending minutes at a time just mashing square until the copypaste enemies eventually went away felt mindless, and it didn't even really make sense for a quiet, thoughtful game like this to even have combat in the first place. On top of that, the wonky controls felt like they were working against me a lot of the time, as they not only made the combat more annoying to deal with, but they also made making any jumps or even walking in a straight line annoying to deal with. Granted, Shadow of the Colossus also featured some janky controls, but the weighty physics applying to both you and the Colossi made the fights exhilarating, whereas the simpler gameplay of Ico made its unresponsive controls a lot more apparent. That being said, I did enjoy the game's final (and only) boss battle, as having to run behind cover in between attacks made for a tense and exciting fight. Ico is not a perfect game by any means, but I'd still consider it to be solid time overall, and while it didn't reach the heights of Shadow of the Colossus, I'd still say that I'm interested in checking out The Last Guardian at some point.

Um jogo contemplativo com uma direção de arte fenomenal, atmosfera única, OST maravilhosa, narrativa metafórica com uma carga emocional muito boa e um final lindo, mas apesar dos elogios, ICO tem suas falhas.
Seu gameplay é muito prejudicado pela falta de responsividade dos controles, que são lentos e travados, o que torna as sessões de plataforma frustrantes, além disso, a hit box é zoada e muitas vezes ICO não alcança locais que normalmente conseguiria. Os puzzle são bem variados e se utilizam bem do level design e da ambientação, contudo, caem na mesmice por se estruturarem de forma muito similar, quase sempre envolvendo mover blocos e subir escadas/correntes.
No fim, se tornou uma experiência monótona e irritante por conta desses problemas em seu gameplay, fiquei cansado do jogo, mesmo sendo curto, mas valorizo bastante sua ambição, é um Adventure Game único pra aquela época e um marco pra indústria.