Not all those who Wander are lost

I'm past the halfway point of Shadow of the Colossus, and thought I'd focus this post on the experience of fighting the mid-game colossi.

#6

The sixth colossus is another ape, but this time it's unarmed. It is quite aggressive, however, so you'll need to run away from it until you can take cover. Once it bends down to search for you, Wander jumps and climbs onto its beard, then proceeds to stab it to death. I didn't feel particularly bad about killing it, partially because of its aggression, but mostly because I can't stand those damn dirty apes. (I have no problem with monkeys, but I think apes trigger my Uncanny Valley reaction.)

#7

Next up is an electric-eel like creature. Its spines will shock you if you get close to them in the water, but this colossus seems more inquisitive than aggressive. Splashing around in the lake will lure the colossus in so you can make your way up its back and disable each spine by stabbing its associated weak point. Finally, you finish it off by stabbing it in the head. This battle seemed particularly tragic, as did the fifth colossus. Maybe Ueda decided that lake settings weren't a good place to make the player fight aggressive foes?

#8

A giant gecko lurks at the bottom of a colosseum. This seems to be an upsized version of the small lizards you can find throughout the game, who are the only land creatures apart from the colossi. You'll need to lure it into climbing the walls, shoot it in the legs to weaken its grip, then run to the bottom to attack. This is the first colossus with a projectile attack, which ups the ante considerably. The gecko's spit will create an area that will drain Wander's health if he remains there. By dramatically increasing the threat level in this way, this colossus inspires the opposite reaction of the last one and feels like a much more fair fight.

#9

To mark the halfway point, we're treated to another cutscene in which Wander hallucinates that Mono has returned from the dead before waking up in the temple and seeing her corpse as usual. This puts us on the trail of the ninth colossus, a turtle-like figure. By exploiting the arena's geysers, the player can knock it off balance, shoot in in the legs to tip it over, then climb onto its back to finish it off. Once again, the creature has a projectile attack and will spew fireballs from its mouth at you. As before, since the fireballs are so dangerous, victory feels like a triumph rather than a tragedy.

#10

To wrap up this post, the tenth colossus is a snake that attacks you by burrowing through the sand. There are no projectiles this time, but it's quite dangerous nonetheless and you have no hope of escaping it on foot. This is the first encounter that requires horse archery, and it took me quite a while to defeat this creature. You need to shoot it in the eye to stun it and reveal its vulnerable points, but I managed to do this the first time without fully comprehending what had happened, which preempted Dormin's hint message to that effect (but not the one reminding you that you need to ride away from it on Agro, to my infuriation).

That's three highly aggressive enemies in a row, and the game's mood has shifted away from the unease generated in its first half. The player is reminded of their ultimate goal and given foes that do more than just thrash about in self-defense. Since I've yet to see over a third of the game, I expect it to take another turn for the morose before too long. See you then!