MIDI Week Singles: "Revived Power" - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

"Revived Power" from Shadow of the Colossus on Playstation 2

Record Label: King records (Japan)

Composer: Ko Otani

Game Developer: Team Ico

The soundtrack for Shadow of the Colossus is, on a whole, fantastic.  Orchestral, exciting, at times dark and fearsome, it might be hard to pick an appropriate single.  However,  Shadow of the Colossus also uses event-triggered music, blending different tracks together.  Anyone who plays this game will agree that the music does a lot of work to augment the experience of the player.  

In this way, the track Revived Power stands out above the rest.  When I hear this track, I am clinging for dear life to the shoulders of a fifty foot tall behemoth, slowly climbing my way to my goal.  It's been a struggle to get here, but the tides are turning in my favor.  

I also hear flavors of John Williams in this track by Japanese composer Ko Otani.  This might be my imagination, or a product of my limited musical vocabulary.  However, if Otani is indeed standing on the shoulder of giants (or colossus), well then, that only seems appropriate.

-D

Second Impressions: Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

http://rebloggy.com/post/gaming-design-poster-fan-art-shadow-of-the-colossus/74106064450

I am midway through Shadow of the Colossus, and I really think I should write something about this game.  The first time I encountered this second release from Team Ico, was when it was new, watching Zor the Red play, and sometimes taking turns.  It left a strong impression on me, and I knew this game would stand out over the test of time.

A few years later, I find myself with access to a PS3, and an earnest desire to play this game again.  Thank you ebay, I now own a copy of Ico/Shadow of the Colossus for PS3.  Though, I do not actually own the console I play it on.  This could be an issue in the future.

For the present, I definitely think Shadow of the Colossus holds up.  The art direction is just fantastic.  The graphics aren't terribly dated, and graphics aren't much of a problem for me as I am perpetually behind on the latest and greatest.  The gameplay is in some ways very simplistic, and this works to its advantage.  The few features in the game are fantastically well honed with very few exceptions.  

Much of the time in this game is spent simply going from point A to point B,  and it's beautiful and peaceful, a stark contrast to the actual Colossus fights.  For this, you employ your horse, Agro.  Agro takes a little getting used to.  My best equine advice I can give is not to try and control Agro too closely.  He's actually pretty smart, and will follow the curvature of the landscape.  He'll get on your nerves sometimes, and he can be a pain in the neck.  But it would take an extraordinarily long time to walk to your various destinations.  

One of the poorest features of the game is actually the difficulty in mounting your horse.  The mount button is also the jump button, and if you're not positioned just so, you'll end up jumping around like a goofball, which can quickly become annoying.  Apart from mounting, the camera can take some getting used to.  It has a mind of its own, and there are times when it simply won't cooperate when I want to get a look at something.  On the other hand, one of the best features of this game are the incredible majestic camera angles you are treated to.  Still, when the camera is a problem, and an 80 ton colossus is bearing down on  you, I'm less concerned about the directors vision and more concerned about not-dying.

The controls, and the gameplay in general requires patience.  This game is not a pick-up and play platforming adventure.  The controls are quirky.  However, with difficulty, there is always the exchange.  Every quirk contributes in some way to the overall artful payoff.  The heaviness of the hero's motions is really great to watch, even if he isn't as agile or quick as I'd like him to be.  If you have the patience and the will, you can become quite adepts at Shadow of the Colossus, and reap the rewards of beautiful, epic monster battles.  

One important thing to note is the third colossus battle.  This is the time in the game when the wheels come off, and everything seems to fall apart.  Typically, a colossus takes me about 30 minutes, start to finish, but the third battle took an hour and fifteen, and that doesn't include when I rage-quit and started again a later time.  And I remember having the same problem the first time through, when Zor and I felt we were slamming our heads into a brick wall.  Still, I made it through, even without consulting a strategy guide.  For anyone else:  consult a strategy guide.  Save yourself the heartache.  It's really amazing how an entire game can seem so terrible when you're having a bad time.  

Ultimately, Shadow of the Colossus is a sort of high-risk, high reward game, that I'm enjoying more and more as I get older.  If you can-- play it.  I'll buy you a copy.  (maybe)

-D

Games Hovering in the Background

Before Starseed Pilgrim infiltrated my brain, I was playing around with a few different games, never really committing to any of them.  My roommate likes to play video games and she's got a Playstation 3.  When I got here, we played a bunch of Hitman: Absolution.  After that, I picked up a copy of Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD collection, and now my roommate has started up Mass Effect Trilogy.  This is interesting to me, because I haven't really played a lot of AAA titles in the last five years or so.

Mass Effect:
This RPG/Shooter seems like a pretty cool game.  So far, it is a fantastic game for watching someone else play, or even just listening to the dialogue.  The story is interesting, the world seems fleshed out.  There are different alien species with different detailed cultures and challenges within the world of Mass Effect.  You can choose to learn about these details through conversation.

The game seems to be composed primarily of dialogue trees, making it kind of like an interactive storybook.  In addition, each game in the trilogy picks up from the previous game, and the character that you play in the previous game continues on, with all major plot choices and character status intact. I have to say: this is pretty dang cool.  I had asked the video game gods for something like this years ago, after becoming aware of the prevalence of sequels in the video game industry.  It's a little late in coming, but then again, perhaps it's never too late.

This is pretty much what Shadow of the Colossus looks like

Shadow of the Colossus/Ico:
These PS2 games were re-released as a single package for the PS3. The games were produced by team Ico and Directer/Auter Fumito Ueda.  Both games make dramatic use of long camera shots and huge spaces.  The effect is very beautiful, even if the graphics are a little dated.  The gameplay for Ico is a bit rough, and requires a lot of patience.  This could be due to it being released in 2001, early in the development of the PS2.  Shadow of the Colossus was released in 2006, and still plays very well- it appears to be timeless.  I recommend Shadow of the Colossus to anyone who loves video games or epic fantasy.  

Hitman:
The third PS3 game I've played lately is Hitman: Absolution.  It's a third-person stealth/action shooter game.  It is mostly generic, and not a game I would normally check out.  However, it has one interesting feature that I really enjoy.  It's called 'contract mode' wherein you can enter a given level, and design your own set of goals.  These goals are limited, but specific.  You choose up to three targets, and the game records what weapon you use, what costume you are wearing and the time it takes.  Each of these things are assigned a point value, and it can get pretty competitive.  The game is online, so you can trade challenges with other players.

La Mulana:
Moving over to the world of Steam:  La Mulana is a pretty tough Metroidvania game of roughly a 16-bit graphic design.  I've just touched on it, and it seems pretty deep. Lots of equipment to pick up and secrets to unlock.  In my first playthrough I was able to venture far outside my skill level, and got stuck and then killed.  I hadn't saved it in a while, so I lost a couple hours of play.  That was enough to make me quit, but I'll be back. 

-D


P.S. In further Steam news, Portal 2 c-op mode is tons of fun.  When I reviewed Portal 2 back when, I hadn't played the co-op mode.  I may have been harsh with that game, I think this feature pushes it back up to a perfect 10.

And this is pretty much what Portal 2 is like :)