holds up remarkably well for a 20 year old game, but I'm glad that this escort-mission style of gameplay didn't catch on in the mainstream. climbing ladders is already slow and tedious in every other 3D puzzle platformer/action game but being forced to wait an extra 20 seconds for your dumbass AI companion to climb the same ladder every goddamn time is such a nightmare that being separated from her starts to feel like a blessing. like, do people actually care about the relationship between ico and yorda? is that a thing people like about this game in retrospect? because the clunky, awkward animation of him dragging her around from place to place is an incredibly accurate rendition of how it feels emotionally to deal with her presence 90% of the time.

oh also two of the worst platforming moments I've ever been put through in any video game (the piston jump and the waterwheel jump) somehow happen right next to each other and I would personally like to grab fumito ueda by the collar and find out what the fuck he was thinking on that one. while I'm at it I have some notes about the 15th colossus too