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View Full Version : Thoughts from Shadow of the Colossus



Fengol
11-06-2009, 04:20 PM
Busy watching an old GT review of Shadow of the Colossus and the gameplay seems to revolve solely around multi-layered boss battles who's body also acts as the map. I've also been playing Super Paper Mario with bosses you need to climb aboard and navigate to defeat.

Living landscapes still seem to be a novel idea in games. Besides Shadow of the Colossus and Super Paper Mario, Mario Galaxy makes some concession towards living landscapes with the micro worlds and curved surfaces and Gears explains spiky, decending ceilings as teeth of a giant worm.

Nearly all platforms have "interactive" worlds; with moving platforms, lifts, doors, etc but I think nearly all just have "magically floating" platforms and doors that look like doors. A living landscape will also have these interactive objects but they'd be so well disguised and be a natural part of the world that in fact they'd be alien to the player who'd have to to learn how to use them.

The second part of a living landscape is the background. Again, Super Paper Mario has the player actually travelling to the background image to travel and interact with what you thought was unnecessary and Shadow of the Colossus shows an earth-like landscape through which the colossus (i.e. the map) moves. The background of a living landscape should be part of the gameplay, either percieved or real as a threat (e.g. falling off) or interactive (e.g. traversing through the background).

While I'm just musing about this at this time, I hope to put together a little demo which can maybe better explain what I'm thinking about

Etiko
12-06-2009, 10:34 AM
Only thought I have about this game is: "When is the sequel coming?!"

Darth
12-06-2009, 10:51 AM
Only thought I have about this game is: "When is the sequel coming?!"

Shadow of the Colossus wasn't the first one in the trilogy.. and the third one was shown at E3...

Where have you been?

Cleric
12-06-2009, 11:03 AM
Um... I thought they weren't related games, other than the common studio (Ico)

DukeOFprunes
12-06-2009, 11:29 AM
Agreed, SOTC is only Ico's spiritual successor, not an official sequel.

dislekcia
12-06-2009, 12:22 PM
Um... I thought they weren't related games, other than the common studio (Ico)


Agreed, SOTC is only Ico's spiritual successor, not an official sequel.

Jack Tretton's said something to the effect of: The third in the trilogy, The Last Guardian!

Also, something happened at the end of SOTC that tied it to ICO. Either Last Guardian links them better somehow or shows us how SOTC started, continuing the reverse-trilogy prequel pattern.

Cleric
12-06-2009, 12:52 PM
Very cool. Haven't finished SOTC yet. Gonna spend some time on it next week.
Thanks dis

Fengol
12-06-2009, 01:22 PM
what about building living landscapes?

Darth
12-06-2009, 01:38 PM
Agreed, SOTC is only Ico's spiritual successor, not an official sequel.

Actually.. all the games are related.. take place in the same world... and unless you know what to look for you might miss it.

But they are sequeals in a way... the stories in each playing important rolls on each other.

DukeOFprunes
12-06-2009, 02:11 PM
Actually.. all the games are related.. take place in the same world... and unless you know what to look for you might miss it.

But they are sequeals in a way... the stories in each playing important rolls on each other.

Yes, that's what spiritual successors are. Fumito Ueda said as much about SOTC and Ico, and later on elaborated that SOTC is a "sort of" prequel to Ico, with Wanda (or Wander depending on your politics) leading to the line of horned boys Ico is one of.

Cleric
12-06-2009, 02:20 PM
Back to Living Landscapes from a Dev point on view:
Surely the key is giving the feeling of momentum to the character as the landscape moves. Seeing your guy get tossed back and forth while clinging on desperately is a large part of what made SOTC so absorbing.

Etiko
12-06-2009, 03:35 PM
Sequel: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-the-last/50284?type=flv

:D Let's hope it rox as hard as SOTC!!