I never finished Ico back on my old PS2, and the alphabet challenge had me thinking about games that start with "I", so I took a few hours to revisit it last week. Still love the stark, sun-blasted art direction and sound design, but more than anything I was struck by how directly it was inspired by Another World, and …
I never finished Ico back on my old PS2, and the alphabet challenge had me thinking about games that start with "I", so I took a few hours to revisit it last week. Still love the stark, sun-blasted art direction and sound design, but more than anything I was struck by how directly it was inspired by Another World, and how directly it went on to inspire Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. From the central conceit of spending a whole game with a single NPC, all the way down to nitty gritty details of level design and cutscene direction, these are three games in clear conversation with each other, which is really neat to see.
Unfortunately though, I found Ico to be outclassed by both its forebear and its successor. Even disregarding its mediocre combat and puzzles, which arguably aren't the main draw, the core experience of forming a relationship with a partner character just didn't work as well for me here as it does in Another World and Sands of Time. Yorda's interactions in the game world are so limited, and so passive, that she ended up feeling less like a teammate and more like a puzzle piece that I was shifting around the board. I wish she was allowed to be a more active participant in the adventure.
