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machanist
17th June 2006, 05:28 AM
shadow of the colossus is an adventure fantasy game like no other.
you've played games where you have to climb mountains and fight things, well in this game the montains are giant monsters, such as valus (http://images.slashdot.org/articles/05/10/shadow4.jpg), the minotaurus colossus in latin. or gaius (http://www.ps3camp.info/images/billet-jeux/2005-12/shadow_of_the_colossus2b.jpg) the Terrestris Veritas.

the story is simple, yet very suspensive, you are the man with no name, or wonder as in the credits (note it is wonder, not wonda, it is japanese and they have no words with er on the end, so they had to replace it with a) on a quest to revive your love mono, who is apparently dead...
the only way you can revive her is to do as the "dormin" says, the shrine itself where you proceed to at the start of the game is called the "shrine of worship", but the mystical creature who inhabits the shrine is just called dormin. he requests that for enough power to revive her you must destroy the 16 colossi armed only with a sword and bow.
it uses a brilliant language which is a backwards japanese with latin mixed within it.
not to forget agro, wonders loyal companion on the lonely path to the colossus, he is a horse.

the world you must travel through is beautiful, and thats not just gameplay beautiful,the scenery is actually beautiful. there are forests and plains and deserts and lakes and caves and a lost city, as well as buildings scattered around the land.
the area of the land is huge, it takes a long long time to cross one side of the land to the other and each time you do, you can be guarenteed something new along the way. there is even a giant castle to explore.

to take down the colossus you must draw the path towards its vitals, the area which will most effect the creature once struck there, which usually require climbing and clinging to the fur of the creature, but in some cases it means to find a way to be able to get near to it, which isnt always easy, such as the great sea monster, Permagnus Pistrix, which requires you to control the colossi for a while to move it to a safe area to get the vitals from the water.
unlike some games where if you kill something it dissapears over time, the colossi do not dissapear after a time, they just stay there.
on some colossi there is no set path to follow to the vitals, it is a move and hope method, where you have to get in a strategic place where you will not be thrown off, much like many glitches in games where you can stand in places to get somewhere quicker, but this game makes it intentional.

the graphics are amazing in this game, the fur looks so real you could almost reach out and grab it. the sound it also amazing, there is no colossi that uses the same sounds, and the music is breathtaking.
the game is currently out on ps2, but i am not sure if it is out on any other consoles. however it is out on psp, but it looks strange and doesnt have the same wow effect, just see this image (http://www.gamebe.com/images/biblio/jeux/000000018589.jpg)

i think this is the best game i have ever played... ever. trust me, you will enjoy this game.

playstation2
gameplay: 10/10
graphics: 10/10
sound: 9/10
replayability: 9.5/10
difficulty 10 being hardest: 8.5/10

psp
gameplay: 9/10 (graphics make it more difficult to understand what is going on)
graphics: 7/10
sound: 4/10 (its psp, what do you expect)
replayability: 9.5/10
difficulty 10 being hardest: 9/10

overall
playstation2: 10/10
psp: 8.5/10

the website is here (www.shadowofthecolossus.com)

note: i have completed the game 100% so if you need any help just ask me.

written by machanist, all information from the nico dvd

LaorBR
17th June 2006, 06:19 AM
...Aaand it's an amazing game made by... guess who? Sony themselves!
(you may start bitching now :p)

Nice review, makes me wanna play SotC again. ;) I agree about the somehow stranger graphics in the PSP version.
Btw, do you know God of War? It's another amazing game by Sony, but this one's more focused in action.
I still prefer SotC, but I thought it was worth mentioning. :)

machanist
17th June 2006, 07:43 AM
ok so sony dont make the best games, but there are occasionally one or two that are good, but this game is one in a million from sony.
i have never played god of war, it looked kind of odd from the cover, but maybe i should hire it.

LaorBR
17th June 2006, 08:45 AM
Yeah, Sony is not that bad, at least not as a game studio.
Oh, and by "you may start bitching now" I was actually talking about any random fanboy that may pop up in this thread and start complaining.
Probably noone will, I was just being stupid. :o Silly me.

PS: God of War is great, the main character looks weird, but the way he controls (or more specifically, the way he kills. It's a pretty bloody game) and the way he swings his double swords/whips/thingies is simply awesome.

machanist
17th June 2006, 09:41 AM
it sounds pretty cool
i am going down to my video renting store now, i will hire it if its there.
hey you know what was a really good game by sony, theme park world. its a classic that never loses gameplay value. well ok... it wasnt by sony, it was for pc, although it was released on psx, but... i actually have no idea where i am going, but thanks for the tip anyway.

Tanjo
17th June 2006, 07:05 PM
SoTC and GoW, both are the best games for the ps2. I wish i had a psp so i could buy SoTC for it and play it anywhere. I might get one after i get my 360. Did you know its possible to climb the shrine? But you need to beat the game four times to get your stamina up to a level where you can hold on to the grass (at the back, near where the bridge starts) long enough. Apparently once you get up there you can cross the bridge and get into an oasis or something.

machanist
18th June 2006, 02:40 AM
Did you know its possible to climb the shrine?

yes
if you go to the north-westerly side there is a tall pillar of moss which you can climb up.
it leads to the secret garden which is the woods you see in the cutscene at the end of the game, where mono takes the baby wander.
theres nothing there except a deer, a rabbit called pal and some fruit that lower your health instead of raising it.
it was thought that these fruits might be able to lower your health enough to die at the end movie when you are the colossi in the temple. but the crossbow men only take away a percentage of your health rather than a fixed constant amount. so no matter how much you have, you can only lose, oh say 10% of it.

have you completed the time trials?
i completed them all but the Ignis Excubitor gave me some trouble.
after that they were a doddle and i got all the secret items.
then i did it on hard mode and the hard time trials which were slightly harder.

you can also change wanders cloak to brown if you complete easy time trials by pressing [square] before you load, or white after completing hard time trials by pressing [circle].

also if you have any ICO save files (which if you didnt know is the sequal to SotC (watch the NICO dvd)) agro will have a white I on his head instead of the diamond.

Zy0n7
18th June 2006, 01:13 PM
So you can't change the ending no matter what?
I've tried a couple of times to kill them being the colossus,
even managed to get stuck at the border of "the pool" and avoid being swallowed, but nothing changed.

machanist
19th June 2006, 12:04 AM
nope sorry
cant change the ending.