So I’d heard lots of good things about this game and decided to finally give it a go. I picked up the PS3 HD collection, which includes Ico and SOTC.
From the get go, it felt like a frustrating experience. Very little is explained to you about how the mechanics of the game work. I found myself trying to grab ledges on the colossi that weren’t intended.
The game clearly wants you to experiment to find out the different ways in which the colussi will react, but it’s often such a slow process that it starts to feel like a chore for half of the battles. And often I was so close to a solution but some small thing would be off, so I’d try something else instead. Then it would turn out that I had it right the first time, I just needed to be standing a metre to the right. So many times the solution felt illogical.
And whilst holding on to the head of a colossus and getting that final hit in is extremely satisfying, on some occasions the window would be so small that I’d get shaken off and have to repeat the whole process to slowly chip away at its health. Knowing exactly what I needed to do, but having to do it multiple times soon became quite dull.
About half of the colossi were genuinely fun to fight. The bird one in particular stands out - soaring through the air as you climb along his wings was incredible.
I will say that the atmosphere, music and story were beautiful. It’s a great piece of art. But a lot of people claim that this is one of the greatest games ever made, and I feel like the ‘game’ part is lacking quite a lot.
Is there something I’m missing? I actually enjoyed Ico a lot more.
Unfortunately this game was an underwhelming experience for me as well. I think the main reason for this is that I never played the game when it came out and I’m missing the nostalgia of playing those remakes. I experienced this with other games as well. I don’t think it is a bad game, I agree with your opinion that it did not age well. I liked the atmosphere, the emptiness and the desperation of the main character. I think I get why this game has a special place in someone’s heart, but it’s simply not for me.
Yes, I think you’re correct - playing the game when it came out would have been a very different experience. It’s obvious that it was very ahead of it’s time and I can see how it has inspired so many others, which have really improved on that style of gameplay (Uncharted comes to mind).
The stumbling in the dark aspect was intentional and added to the charm of the game. Modern games these days and even most of them back then were very heavy on the hand holding and this one just slaps your hand away when you reach out.
I can see how that is not for everyone though.
In some respects it wasn’t that the game didn’t tell you what to do, but instead that it wasn’t clear what to do. Knowing if something is or isn’t a climbable ledge for example. Many other games make clear the ‘meta’ of the game without being hand-holdy
This is one of the things Josh Strife-Hayes pulls games up on. Making people learn things the hard way is one thing, but when they’ve learned it, it has to be something they can then trust in future. Learning a thing and applying it is a game; learning a thing and finding it’s not actually a thing half the time is frustration.
Idk sounds like it’s just not up your alley.
Did you play ICO? What’s your opion on that game?Yes I played Ico (PS3 remaster) and really enjoyed it. The atmosphere felt very similar and the ending was beautiful, but most importantly the gameplay was far less frustrating in my opinion. It was clear what the ‘puzzle pieces’ were/what I was working with - whereas with SOTC I sometimes struggled to work out what was actually intended with each puzzle.
I’ve also played The Last Guardian and loved it. People say that controlling Trico in that is frustrating, but I had far more trouble with the player movement and vague requirements of each boss in SOTC.
I’ve never played Guardian unfortunately, I want to really bad though. I love ICO and Shadow so much. I’m down with the way Shadow controls, to me it makes sense. He’s not a warrior or a hero, he’s just a young guy in love and takes on something horrifying. The controls are very ICOish. Lots of stumbling, and turning around.
But. I’ve only played the original releases. I don’t know what the remasters changed. I replay ICO every five years or whatever. Unfortunately Shadow is a bitch to emulate so I might just have rose tinted glasses for it.
The controls are very fluid, a lot like Ico. Whilst they are satisfying, there’s a lot more time pressure in SOTC so the issues with the controls become more apparent.
Apparently the HD collection on the PS3 made SOTC a bit harder, with stamina draining faster and Wander getting tossed around easier. Perhaps this is is part of the reason why I found it so frustrating at points.
Ah I see. Yeah less stamina and harder to hold onto the things could def be negative. I’m surprised they didn’t make those changes a different selectable difficulty. There’s so much optional extra stuff in the game its an odd choice that they just upped the challenge like that.
It’s been quite a while since I played through SOTC, and maybe it’s the passage of time but I recall the frustration being a minor part of the play and ultimately balancing itself nicely with the thrill of actually taking down the Colossus.
With that said even when I was playing it maybe 10 years back (so long after release) a lot of the control and feel had not aged well so I get where you’re coming from.
I would also tend to agree that it can be tedious. On the other hand it is one of the first games where a lot of things seem to have been conscious design choices which the developer would make even if they were designing the game in 2023. So it is hard to say if it is a ‘good game’. I agree with you.
I’m interested in what you mean in saying it’s one of the first games with lots of conscious design choices. Are you saying that they didn’t let the restrictions of the PS2 hold them back from their creative vision?
Sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner. I am not very good at explaining myself but I’ll try: I think it was a point in gaming where the PS2 was capable enough so that they were able to put the artistic vision first, instead of looking at the platform first (i.e. SNES) and then designing the best game for the system.
Ah yeah I understand what you mean. I guess that must have really changed the design philosophy - having an idea first, and then a game second. I admire what they created as it’s a beautiful experience, but slightly lacking as a game. Almost as if the ‘game’ part was an afterthought.
Honestly felt the Bluepoint remake was a lot less frustrating than the original. Things felt more immediate. The PS3 version actually felt worse than the PS2 version somehow.
Both original SotC and The Last Guardian felt like controlling a game though another person. I mean they’re definitely art and very memorable, but the gameplay sadly takes a back seat. I think Fumito Ueda just has very strange ideas about which way is up.
I played this game when the PS3 was the latest console, so I guess not to far back from release memory is hazy. Played it through pcsx2 if that gives a time frame, but back then I thought the movement was kind of slow and clunky and atmosphere cool but world empty. That was probably the point though. Maybe I didn’t appreciate it back then, but I thought the sizes of the monsters were cool.
I do wonder how the remake is in comparison.
I think spending minutes at a time holding the grip button and waiting to be able to play the game really killed it for me. The colossi didn’t have to thrash that much, did they? At least let me move and dodge attacks instead of just… waiting until the Colossus decides to stop and let me take any action or movement.
Nice vibes, but one of the big selling points of the game is climbing and fighting giant beasties, and it’s just tedious.
You’ve summed it up pretty well I think. The climb, wait, stab, wait, starts to become grating after a while. If there was some actual gameplay there rather than holding a button, it would be way more satisfying.
