sexy mutyumu recommended this to me as part of this list thanks dude

a journey so heroic and thrilling in every aspect it covers and yet instead of the triumphant and joyful glory of an impossible quest being completed at the end of it all i was left with nothing but sorrowful reflection and existential dread surrounding the human condition

im not joking bitch

this is how emotionally drenched this game is to the point that i was left speechless till the very end of the ending screen

and i would do it again a 100 times

after loving ICO too much I ended up playing shadow of the colossus because 1 it was recommended to me and 2 i felt it was just handy playing it asap on the ps3 collection and 3 it always looked sexy af . and it was a fucking experience what the hell i didnt think id love this game as much as i did but i was completely bewitched by this masterpiece and i can't stop thinking about it oh my god

i will get to the JUICE of the story topic at the end this time so I can be as spoiler free as possible but an introduction is due

you play as wander a nameless traveler accompanied by his cute horse agro that after a long and perilous trip finally arrives to his destination aka the forgotten lands (kirby cameo) through a narrow and immense bridge with an architecture so slick id recognize it among other 100 similar bridges . try me the bridge comes to an end at the shrine of worship a gigantic and towering structure in the middle of the land that almost seems to observe every part of its environment and when entering the main hall containing an altar it is revealed that wander was in fact bringing the corpse of a young woman to this temple and eases her down on the stones

while he does this shadows come out and he draws his sword with mysterious powers that emits some beam of light and vanquishes them

at this sight a pair of voices fill the room interested in the ancient sword the boy is carrying and wander begs dormin (the voices) to revive mono (the girl) and after some thinking the voices grant him a deal

kill the 16 idols that line the walls of the shrine and mono may be revived and to do so you will have to kill the living incarnations of these idols known as colossi

and so the titanomachy begins

the version i played is the ps3 one and (allegedly . i have no idea what the ps2 one is like) it fixes many framerate issues from the ps2 original and upscales the textures to give them that blocky HD sexiness but i dont care about these that much but since i got the power (of a big pc) to play this version why wouldnt I (+ that 60 fps fluidity in a game like this is something so erotically charged that gave me a mind erection)

uedas design by subtraction (stripping away every aspect of the game that doesnt add to the experience) is a prominent and unique design method that ends up being not only effective but even atmospheric to a point that I coulnt think of this game without this art choice

your only objective is tracking down 16 colossi in the massive land of fucking nowhere and killing them . in your trip to kill these fuckers youre met with yes stellar and absolutely breathtaking landscapes but apart from that ? its just land over land over land and the only stuff that even feels alive is the shit lizards that roam throughout the world and maybe some birds ? the end it could be a completely shut off ecosystem made of this stuff and thats the entire world building around it you got nobody to talk to (maybe mono if only she wasnt fucking dead or agro if she wasnt a fucking horse or even dormin if he wasnt a fucking god that speaks in monologues and only tries to guide you to kill these colossi) and thats it youre left with the vastness of the world and the shadows of these colossi hiding somewhere in these lands

now if the world is fucking vast how do you even begin to search for the colossi

first of all dormin gives you an introduction to that colossus and slowly guides you step by step through this hecatomb and suggests the place that theyre resting in BUT STILL thats clearly not enough and this is where the sacred sword comes into play basically it can reflect the rays of light in such a manner that the more focused the rays become the more accurate is the (linear) direction of where the colossus is supposed to be

now this is already a mechanic so interesting that i was kinda shocked when it was first introduced but the fact that since this effect depends on the availability of light in a precise point in the land if youre sitting in a shadowed zone the sword will be unable to reflect any light and it will give off a shy sparkle that can hardly point you to any direction . i was screaming the first time i noticed that i swear i was ecstatic

sometimes locating these colossi can be tricky but the whole point of this ends up being enjoying every second of the journey feeling the solitude of this magnificent land and admiring every natural formation and every architectural element to the point that i would sometimes just stop and stare at the landscape in front of me endless planes populated with trees castles or fortresses in state of decay and ruin isolated forests and refreshing lakes arid deserts falls cliffs canyons caves literally everything makes you awe in complete disbelief at this absolute behemoth of a game its just a pleasure to simply roam and not think of anything (p hard when I suffer from adhd but I was close to complete enlightenment)

now to the meat of the game which is fighting the colossus

at first I was convinced this was an action paced stuff and you had to slowly take down these titans with the power of button mashing but that couldnt be more far from the truth and in reality theyre slow and contemplative experience that work more like a big ass puzzle instead of a 1 on 1 battle for your life (I mean its also that but you get what I mean)

how this works is every colossus has some weak points (signaled by a mystical mark or whatever) and to get to that you have to "solve the puzzle" observing and figuring out how to climb it to the weak point (most of the time on the top of their heads) and you can do that by logic or maybe try and error but if youre stupid enough (me) dormin will give you hints from above on how to expose their weak points (that also can be made visible by pointing a ray of light with the sword towards the colossus)

now the nature of the colossus is always different it could be a land "animal" and walk around or a flying beast soaring in the sky or a leviathan submerged in a lake or a big ass worm in a desert theyre just v diverse and interesting and are also characterised by their demeanour they may go from completely ignoring you to willingly attacking you

anyhow once you understand how to climb the colossus or get his attention you will meet with the sexiest part of the game . together with the health bar and the little icon of which weapon youre holding theres a (at first) small circle that shows your stamina and its used basically every single time climbing the colossus since to do that youll need to catch onto some fur or maybe stone ledges to get to the top and it will already slowly drain your energy but the colossus will also get fed up and try to make you fall (lowering drastically your stamina every time) and at this point you can either stand on a stable place on the colossus and replenish your stamina or fall like a dumb bitch (also me) and start all over again

these bars will also get bigger after killing a colossus (I think only the stamina one in this case but im not so sure) but you can also search the land for lizards kill them with the bow and get their loot to lengthen the stamina and/or get some weird fruits from some v evidenced trees that can grow your health

and so the gameplay loop is born you get an idea of where the colossus is with the help of dormin you find the colossus you kill the colossus get back to the temple and do it all over again until youre done

but something that should feel massively heroic starts to feel way too off and hauntingly wrong

the colossi start to feel less and less like dangerous tyrants and more like innocent preys that were slayed during their eternal slumber and this is also emphasised by the fact that most of them wont even get into a fight (notice the blue eyes = calm) unless you directly pester them for an unwilling battle they were just minding their business frfr and you instead transformed into the predator

besides that the whole aftermath of a fight feels sketchy as fuck when you slay a colossus a black shadow engulfs the late figure of the creature and black tendrils skewer the body of wander until he's left unconscious and unknowingly transported to the temple again to see a gangbang of shadows surrounding him an idol statue of the corresponding colossus getting completely crushed and dormin trying to lure you into another fight but after all this you realise that slowly these black tendrils are rotting the figure of wander from the inside he gets paler and paler his hair gets darker and his skin gets all crumbled apart and veiny and his clothes get muddier and blackened by the blood of the slain giants and at that point you realise (actually I realised he was worsening by the second only at the end of the game) that this deal with dormin may actually be v dangerous but its already too late youre into this loop of slaughtering gods and after a while you even get used to the tendrils and darkness flowing into you (the game even makes it almost a positive affair since this slowly extends your stamina bar for the next fight)

ok so NOW we will get into more SPOILER ISH territory so if you have not played the game yet . stand back and play it or I will look for you and make you play it by force

when you get to 4 colossi left it is revealed that wander is being followed by the leader of his tribe emon and with 1 colossus left dormin actually tells wander to make haste because they are looking for him

on the road for the 16th and last colossus you get to the most distressful game moment ive ever witnessed in my life while wanders riding agro a bridge starts to collapse and in order to make him reach the other side agro sacrifices herself and falls into the lake below . guys I was BAWLING MY GOD I was completely shocked traumatized unable to speak I needed a moment . as a creature that accompanied me throughout the whole game I grew attached to it somehow and it felt v unfair like why would you make me miserable just like that what the fuck I hate this game

but whatever wander battles with the final boss while emons company makes their way to the shrine and observe with horror as the last idol statue gets completely crushed and dormins power breaks the seal and while theyre praying wander appears in the room in a twisted and corrupted appearance his skin is a white purple hue he grows some horns and his eyes are now black basically the depiction of the devil

the ancient sword falls to the ground and it is revealed that in fact it was an artifact stolen from the tribe that was used by wander for his selfish goals and at this point the soldiers brutally impale him but he isnt killed and gets shrouded in shadows and grows into a colossus-like big ass specter or something and thus dormin is reborn

while you control dormin emons men manage to escape and create a vortex that completely sucks every dark force out of dormin stripping away wander of any shadow and leaving him in a videogame sequence that still haunts me rn that im making this review after like a week from finishing the game

you cant do anything you cant run away you cant call agro you cant fight back you cant get back (or the vortex will suck you in) youre completely alone trying to escape from this massive force that is trying to seal you forever and the camera is fixated on mono . like youre struggling to live and yet the only and last thought in wanders mind is still directed to mono and no this is not exactly explicit it COULD be that wander got incredibly corrupted to the point that he didnt even know what he was even doing here in the first place but i will just take it as him trying to get back to mono even in his last moments and after that cutscene where he gently caresses her this is a hill i will gladly die on

the amount of trauma i had to witness god bless

wander gets inevitably sucked into the vortex and the bridge to the shrine finally collapses rendering it unable to be visited ever again but back in the shrine dormin has kept his promise anyway and revives mono and she wakes up in this unfamiliar environment and meets up with AGRO MY BABY MY SWEET CHILD IM SO HAPPY SHES ALIVE and where the vortex once was she finds a baby with horns she picks the child up and even tho the bridge is now collapsed they manage to get to the higher part of the tower where astoundingly life here is brimming and flourishing and with that the game ends

wow

theres actually something very haunting in the finale when you see all the corpses of the colossi leaving no more life into the forgotten land like youre just confronted with what youve done and what you had to do for the sake of only one life

this is a game that made me actually consider a lot of stuff story wise and more about its themes and atmosphere and for a game that has 1% explicit lore its actually incredible to this moment i got no idea what brought mono to die or why dormin actually granted wander his wish or lots of other stuff

i guess its up to you to understand using the little details what the motivations behind this whole story are but in the end its still just a beautiful tale of the heroic yet wicked nature of the human soul something that has been used and reused in many other medias but here its just stripped to the bare minimum and thats probably why its just so straightforward and effective theres no other reason why wander would do something so selfish something so profane something so foreboding but grief for the loss of a loved one which is so thematically human and near and dear to our existence that im sure everyone will just understand the raw emotions of the protagonist even after just 20 mins into the game

since i said that i will just close this long ass review saying that the gameplay (even tho flawed) is the most enjoyable one ive ever experienced in a while

traveling through the forgotten land engulfed in a sense of solitude and awe is an extra corporeal experience that few games managed to achieve and this one completely mastered it (the camera literally moves so that you can explore and enjoy every nook and cranny of this absolute wonder of nature)

the story is powerful and the themes struck even harder

and even tho i havent talked about the ost till now i swear its some of the best orchestral scores a game like this could have
the sound department is usually very silent but as soon as a battle with a colossus begins the ost makes sure to heighten the experience to another level entirely
listen to this or this and tell me this is not a game to try AT LEAST for this amazing ost alone

i dont usually give this high a score to a game but this is honestly one of the most beautiful videogame experiences to the point that i was brought to tears too many times by how jaw dropping everything in this is

lemme just finish this or else i will talk about it forever just play it i feel like everyone should experience this masterpiece at least once in a lifetime

the end cool game

its pretty interesting to me that dormins voice in the beginning is backed up by another female voice to give it that sense of familiarity and tenderness that completely vanishes when he is summoned again . the details behind this game i swear

idk if the finale is implied to be a prequel to ICO but this is still pretty interesting im not so sure wanders reincarnation IS ico but maybe its about his descendants but anyway i still will treat them as standalones so i dont care that much

now i wanted to play the last guardian but its PS4 exclusive . suffering

AGRO AGRO AGRO whistles AGRO

is it me or the first colossus is hot as fuck im sorry

basaran (9th) fucking sucks thats why this game is a 9 and not a 10 i think

top 3 ok VALUS MY BF 4th and maybe 12th ? actually i love all of them but VALUS UGHHHHHHHHH valus im free on saturday if you wanna hang out and stuff on saturday when im free