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Playing ICO for the first time in 2 years......

SOTC was better than ICO gameplay wise, ICOs atmosphere and story/ending was way more satisfying.

the problem with ICO though, is that gameplay wise it can be a chore. i mean it CAN doesnt mean it always is. Shadows that take FOREVER to kill, seirously the shadows took WAY too many hits to get killed, and them capturing Yorda could also get annoying, theres alot of gameplay potential of being frustrating. If you have a smooth ride through the game though without the frustration of some of the gameplay mechanics with yorda and the shadows, then its simply amazing obviously

Oh yeah, the whole game is an Escort mission with puzzles at the same time, that turns off alot of people
 
BSTF said:
I wouldn't consider Ico an art house game at all. And you can't blame someone for getting the game because it was so highly rated.

The thing about it for me is that if I want great storytelling I'll read a book or a movie. To be a great game you have to have better gameplay than Ico.
Click to expand...

What part of BLAH BLAH BLAH SAVE IT didn't you understand?

Whether or not YOU think it's not art or YOU think it needs more gameplay means nothing. It was trying to appeal to a non-mainstream right-brained sensibility.... that's arthouse.
 
iconu5.gif
 
^ who drew that

oh and to the people who love the game so much, can yal just admit that some of the gameplay with yorda and the shadows was frustrating because the shadows took forever to kill? they took like 20 friggin hits to down one, it is frustrating
 
momolicious said:
oh and to the people who love the game so much, can yal just admit that some of the gameplay with yorda and the shadows was frustrating because the shadows took forever to kill? they took like 20 friggin hits to down one, it is frustrating
Click to expand...

Hint: Bring her to the nearest magic door, or just run away. Those work in the almost all the "frustrating" segments.

tain said:
it's a pretty cool game with some decent prince of persia stuff going on but it'd be worthless if it were uglier
Click to expand...
You can't separate a game from it's aesthetics. If a game looks different, it changes the gameplay, because we interact with it differently. They are videogames, after all. Would Burnout be as exciting if there was very basic audio, and it was just a bunch of blue cubes racing along? It "plays" the same, but the feel would be entirely different. Same with ICO. The looks are meant to express something. So of course without them it'd be worthless - they're an integral part of the game's communication with us and as such the gameplay itself.

Gameplay is not a neat subset of a videogame's constituents.

[/artfag rant]
 
momolicious said:
so some of yall really jus let all the shadows chase you and yorda while trying to get to the door the entire game?
Click to expand...

You can if you want to.

you know... if you really push into the shadows as you attack they're very easy.
 
Shoot me into the Ico bucket. I played them both and I just remember enjoying Ico more with it's ambient peacefulness. I think I connected to the friendship that you shared with Yorda, with no words but it was the only other living thing in a desolate castle.

As adventurous and big as Shadow of the Colossus was, I'll always be a little more fond of Ico.
 
Vexidus said:
You know what I would like to see? Colossus style battles on an even bigger scale, colossi where you have to climb 15+ minutes to even get to the top, of course with 'checkpoint' areas where it's hard to fall back down too far.. More platforming, bigger scale, lots more puzzles to solve while fighting them!
Click to expand...

That's the exact opposite of both Ico and SotC philosophy: less is more. Ueda has explained that in order to make Ico they used Substractive design, first thinking off the puzzles then deciding which ones they were NOT going to use and finally arranging them without considering their difficulty, that is, not from 1 to 5 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) but something like 2, 1, 5, 3, 4.

Design wise, how would you represent an even bigger scale than what SotC presents? They're already giants, if you made them bigger you couldn't grasp their whole form. You'd think you were in something like a moving mountain, but you couldn't figure what's the head, arms, where to go, etc. You can always move the camera away, but you'd loose sight of your character.

I just realized you mentioned "checkpoint areas". SotC point was to get to the Colossi, climb it and stab it. If you could save climbing halfway they wouldn't be as threatening, just some "moving dungeons with levels". They're designed to be completed in one sitting, from start to end, as they represent a life-or-death fight, and you don't stop fights halfway.
 
Tain said:
what's ico i've never heard of it
Click to expand...

Lol, you´re one of those "SotC is great, bought it because of the hype"-people, right?
Man, it´s such a pitty, that ICO got bombed and was used as the hype-generator for SotC...though ICO is the better game.
 
BocoDragon said:
I hate this "it's overrated" crap.

It was an art house game (maybe pretensious, maybe crap.....blah blah blah SAVE IT), and your boorish ass wandered in and you shouldn't have. This wasn't your game.

Ico rules.
Click to expand...

****ING POST OF THE YEAR.
 
Ulthwe said:
That's the exact opposite of both Ico and SotC philosophy: less is more. Ueda has explained that in order to make Ico they used Substractive design, first thinking off the puzzles then deciding which ones they were NOT going to use and finally arranging them without considering their difficulty, that is, not from 1 to 5 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) but something like 2, 1, 5, 3, 4.

Design wise, how would you represent an even bigger scale than what SotC presents? They're already giants, if you made them bigger you couldn't grasp their whole form. You'd think you were in something like a moving mountain, but you couldn't figure what's the head, arms, where to go, etc. You can always move the camera away, but you'd loose sight of your character.

I just realized you mentioned "checkpoint areas". SotC point was to get to the Colossi, climb it and stab it. If you could save climbing halfway they wouldn't be as threatening, just some "moving dungeons with levels". They're designed to be completed in one sitting, from start to end, as they represent a life-or-death fight, and you don't stop fights halfway.
Click to expand...

Excellent points, thinking again about it, I'd have to agree with you

I would've enjoyed a bit more platforming on the way to the fights though, like how you climb up that cliff to get to the first one

I think I just like climbing a lot
cheesy.gif


In any case I will embrace Ueda's next project with open arms
 
MasterMFauli said:
Lol, you´re one of those "SotC is great, bought it because of the hype"-people, right?
Man, it´s such a pitty, that ICO got bombed and was used as the hype-generator for SotC...though ICO is the better game.
Click to expand...

lol!
 
momolicious said:
^ who drew that

oh and to the people who love the game so much, can yal just admit that some of the gameplay with yorda and the shadows was frustrating because the shadows took forever to kill? they took like 20 friggin hits to down one, it is frustrating
Click to expand...
Never for a second while playing the game I felt frustrated by that - reason, as stated above, is that in the first location where the shadows starting to overwhelm me, I changed the strategy and ran away, and realized that as soon as you touch the magic door, the shadow monsters get instantly killed.
 
Good game, but I feel that Ico suffer from trying too hard to be "Artistic".
Not thatÂ’s thereÂ’s anything wrong with it per se, but for storytelling, music and visual arts there are much better alternatives than computer games.
While I can applaud their ambitions, it does not compare favorably to AAA games in the gameplay department nor am I overly impressed with it as a fine art piece.

Oh, and the theme song is ****ing offensive.
 
Marconelly said:
What can be offensive in that piece of instrumental music?
Click to expand...
Bah, English fails me again.
by offensive I meant "I find the music so horrible itÂ’s offensive (to my senses)".
Not implying that if you play it backward it says "kill all the jews" or something.
And I was talking about the song in the video that was posted here (ending song IIRC, and it was also in the commercials).
 
Very beautiful game. It is quite overated but still an awesome experience. The scenery is jaw dropping and the atmosphere is very nice.

SOTC is better though...
 
buckfutter said:
You can't separate a game from it's aesthetics. If a game looks different, it changes the gameplay, because we interact with it differently. They are videogames, after all. Would Burnout be as exciting if there was very basic audio, and it was just a bunch of blue cubes racing along? It "plays" the same, but the feel would be entirely different. Same with ICO. The looks are meant to express something. So of course without them it'd be worthless - they're an integral part of the game's communication with us and as such the gameplay itself.

Gameplay is not a neat subset of a videogame's constituents.

[/artfag rant]
Click to expand...
Y'know, while I disagree generally... when it comes to Ico, I think this is totally valid. When you sit down and examine it's gameplay components closely (32-bit block puzzles, mashy/muddy combat, braindead AI escort) the game comes off as rather amateurish... but the game's overwhelming aesthetic and logical cohesive design really makes it overcome these "problems" in a strange way. I think Ico's one of the few games that's really more than just the sum of it's parts, I wish more games were like that.
 
One of the best games EVER. Seriously. You either get it or you don't.

I am a PC gamer in all my heart but sometimes there comes a console game that simply is so amazing that you almost want to buy a console just to play it. Luckily I have friends who are console gamers.
 
Shadow of the Colossus is overrated I liked ICO better.
Shadow of the Colossus made me so mad at times with trying to find the Colossus and bad camera
 
When the "Game of the Generation" vote is eventually held here, I'll be voting for Ico.

It's one of the those few "recent" games to come out that reminded me of when I was a kid, staring at my TV and just being completely sucked into everything that was happening in front of me.
 
For me, Shadow of the Colossus was better.

HOWEVER if it weren't for playing ICO I probably wouldn't have been nearly as interested in SotC to begin with. I never really loved ICO's essential gameplay (hardcore puzzle/escort game), but I could easily appreciate it for every other facet of its design. More so than almost any other PS2 game (and, no matter what country you're from, the ending is focking amazing). So it was one of those things where I could (easily) tell the developers/game designers had talent and my hopes were that their next game would be a better canvas for showing off their skills.

...and like I said, I think SotC was a perfect way for Ueda to cement himself in the "Great Game Designer" category.
 
Both games are awesome, and Ueda's PS3 game is my second most anticipated PS3 title (without knowing anything about it!) only after MGS4.
 
Vexidus said:
You know what I would like to see? Colossus style battles on an even bigger scale, colossi where you have to climb 15+ minutes to even get to the top, of course with 'checkpoint' areas where it's hard to fall back down too far.. More platforming, bigger scale, lots more puzzles to solve while fighting them! (
Like on colossus 3 where you have to get him to slam the stone slab to progress, what I would love is 5,6,7+ 'stages' to colossus where in order to scale to the top you would need to solve puzzles on the way up
)
Click to expand...

Yeah ... this is what I was expecting SotC to be like based on the initial info., and I was disappointed that the actual colossus battles turned out to be much more straightforward (and similar to one another) :/
 
ICO is good, but overrated.

It's like that new hot girl/guy at school/work that everyone's talking about and when you finally see them you're like, "Oh, yeah, I've seen them." You noticed, there's something different/special, but people talk tooooo much.
 
the only reason why i bought a PS2. It plays like a Nintendo game which is why i was quickly drawn to it. By far one of the most awesome games ever made. I still wonder if they were really in heaven :p


What a beautiful game with such a tragic ending. ICO rocks
 
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