Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Shity controls: Like(love) the way Wander controls, wish every climbing game could have this. But shit camera. Regular games, move the camera, it centers after some idle time. This game, move the camera, immediately tries to center itself. Agro controls shittily too, but he became better when I stopped trying to control him and let him run on his own. LAughed out loud when he died, the game thought I had an emotional connection to it. But, even when riding in open fields, it's shit.

Like that it has only 2 gameplay modes, ride around open fields, kill colossus. Riding around is shit because agro is shit. It's supposed to be calming after killing a colossus, but it becomes frustrating because of agro. Colossus, killing initially seemed fun, the first three were fun, but I thought the complexity would increase as the game goes on, and the ways to kill the colossus would be unique. But, no they are all incredibly simple and don't require much thought. They are more of a spectacle piece than anything. I like spectacle pieces like Kronos fight from GOW 3, but these aren't as epic as them, but they do give you control over everything. But the controls are shit. Wander movement s good, but the camera is literally the worst camera I have ever experienced in a game. I the colossus would've been a little more complex I would've liked it. Play it on hard mode, you truly feel like conquering a colossus.

Story: It's all very minimalist, and I love it. The only real story is at the start and the end, and there's no problem with that. It gives you no background for the characters and I love it. it lets you imagine your own backstory. If they had given more backstory, it would be generic and wouldn't nearly be as impressive as being vague. It doesn't exactly tell you if Dormin is evil or the society is, which I also love. The main drive of the game is the desperation wander feels towards saving mono, and that makes the scene where he tumbles as he is sucked in that much more powerful. The ending where she wakes up, put a tear in my eye, then I laughed out loud when agro showed up. I like that not everything is fucked. Wander and mono are together, but it's bittersweet. Bittersweet endings are my favorite (fma03>fmab). But the fact that Dormin could be stopped by throwing the sword in the pool felt unclimactic. Also, why didn't they just destroy the bridge in the first place? These two nitpicks would be minor, but the story is so short that they become major. Really like the way they set the slow tone in the opening sequence. Personally, I liked to imagine that they were siblings(wander, mono). Also, people really liked that killing colossus is kind of fucked up and backfires in the end. They like how unexpected it was. But, the music that plays when you kill a colossus, and that cutscene of shadows looming over you afterward clearly indicated that it was much darker, and it didn't hit me as hard, cause I expected it. But, I do kinda agree with people who say this is the greatest ending of all time.

Conclusion: I like what it sets out to do, the loneliness the isolation the minimalism, love it. But that way in which it achieves its goals is the worst I have seen in any game ever.