A Shadowy and Colossal Post

Bet you can't guess what game this post is about!

Shadow of the Colossus was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2. I'm playing the 2018 PS4 remake. The game was directed and designed by Fumito Ueda, also known for Ico and The Last Guardian. Ueda is considered a gaming auteur and is known for his principle of "design by subtraction." Let's take a deep dive into the Shadow of the Colossus experience.

The beginning of the game proper.

We start with a lengthy cut-scene introducing Wander, Agro, Mono, and Dormin. Dormin is certainly the most interesting: they (the voice acting implies that Dormin is a hermaphrodite or a collective intelligence) can resurrect the dead, but traffic with them was forbidden and their powers were confined to a temple in a desolate land. Dormin appears to be in some way associated with the sun, as their voice is heard when looking at the oculus in the temple's ceiling and Wander's Ancient Sword relies on reflecting the sun's rays to use its magical abilities. This seems quite unusual for a being with necromantic abilities, and might be Ueda establishing right off the bat that not all is as it appears to be.

The spiral ramp in Dormin's temple. Why not a staircase? Was something rolled up or down here?

Dormin tells you that they will resurrect Mono if you destroy the 16 statues in the temple by defeating their associated colossi, then points you to your first target. It's an ape-like figure with a giant club, and is among the more menacing of the behemoths. Killing it completes the first iteration of the cycle: Wander is impaled by black tendrils and teleported back to the temple, then a new target is assigned.

#1

That's about all there is to the game. Shadow of the Colossus has an open world, but it's as open as it is empty. It feels like a deconstruction of the spaces showcased by Grand Theft Auto III and its countless imitators: there are no side quests, no NPCs, and no enemies apart from the colossi themselves. You're free to leave the beaten path, but there's no compelling reason to do so. The world becomes ever more quiet as you put an end to the colossi one by one.

#2

Calling a video game "cinematic," when it doesn't mean that the game runs at 30 frames per second, means that the game is like Shadow of the Colossus. (Of course, Shadow of the Colossus is a 30 FPS game on my non-Pro PS4.) Ueda's disdain for traditional UI elements is obvious and was quite a shift for me, coming straight from Persona 5 and its gleeful UI maximalism. No doubt grudgingly, the game displays health bars for Wander and the colossi, plus a stamina meter for Wander. These are hidden whenever they're not critical, which does at least tend to make my screenshots prettier.

#3

Many video game players and creators manifest an inferiority complex pertaining to their medium as it compares to film. Whenever someone like Roger Ebert declares that video games aren't art, Shadow of the Colossus is immediately pulled out as a counterexample thanks to its "cinematic" design. In one sense, this term is nonsense: Shadow of the Colossus is a terrible movie. Plot, characterization, and pacing range from lacking to nonexistent. On the other hand, you could be forgiven for mistaking these screenshots for movie stills. Actually playing the game reveals another cinematic aspect: the player is never 100% in control of the camera. Shadow of the Colossus has a traditional third-person camera controlled with the right analog stick like every other game, but the second you let go of the stick, the camera angle will be tweaked just so to focus on whatever the game thinks you should be looking at. It's like Ueda has clamped his hand on the back of your head, directing your gaze to whatever the director chose to frame in his shot.

#4

As the early stages of the game continue, it becomes obvious that Wander is not the good guy in this story. Unlike traditional video game monsters, the colossi are no real threat to anyone; they live in a completely unpopulated wilderness. They pose a danger to Wander only because he waltzed into their lairs and started antagonizing them. He is the aggressor, and the player can only wonder who Mono is to Wander that he would value her life above these beings. The deaths of the colossi vary considerably in their poignancy thanks to their designs. The first and third colossi are humanoid figures with weapons that feel like true threats to Wander, while the second, fourth, and fifth colossi are more bestial; killing them feels like slaughtering animals that just want to be left alone. It's hard to feel heroic after encountering a giant bird in the middle of a lake, shooting arrows at it until it swoops at you in self-defense, then leaping onto its back and stabbing it to death.

#5

After killing five colossi in a single night, I'm surprised by the game's brevity (though I suppose this is another "cinematic" aspect). Expect more to follow.