esop's review
3.0
I've never fully played Shadow of the Colossus, but it's a game I've been read about and been interested in for many years (and might pick up now after reading this).
This book's structure is fairly interesting, mostly following along the author's playthrough (which reads somewhat like a novel, somewhat like a walkthrough) while certain moments are interjected with related information like interviews with those who worked on the game, interviews and examples of how it influenced games that came later, its connections to Ico, etc.
While I would've enjoyed more of a focus on the creation of the game and those tidbits about its influence on gaming as a whole, I did enjoy and appreciate what was there, and the passages describing the game had a ton of atmosphere and made me itch to play it myself.
This book's structure is fairly interesting, mostly following along the author's playthrough (which reads somewhat like a novel, somewhat like a walkthrough) while certain moments are interjected with related information like interviews with those who worked on the game, interviews and examples of how it influenced games that came later, its connections to Ico, etc.
While I would've enjoyed more of a focus on the creation of the game and those tidbits about its influence on gaming as a whole, I did enjoy and appreciate what was there, and the passages describing the game had a ton of atmosphere and made me itch to play it myself.
nickfourtimes's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
First Reading
1) "But what interests me is just how far Shadow swung away from those other hits. Its reductions were across the board, and uncompromising: Only sixteen “enemies.” Only two weapons, both of which you start with and will never level up. You’ll never learn new moves, only (almost) nothing to collect.
Yet despite all that isn’t there, Shadow is absolutely riveting. At a time when games were doubling down on the gamer by betting big on proven formulas, and leaning on the legacy of film to tell their stories, Shadow was content to spin its mystery up front and shove you into the blinding sun to fend for yourself and figure out the rest. The entirety of the experience lives deep within me, like some primordial dream. Soaring high above the sprawling desert, clinging to my foe as the wind laps at my unsteady feet. Finding the relief of fire at the bottom of a treacherous crevasse, itself in the shadow of an ancient, endless bridge."
2) "Whether you play wholly in character as I do or tend to keep your entertainment at an emotional arm’s length, Shadow will put your feet to the fire and make you think about your actions in a way that few games ever have—it isn’t just a game about conquering giant beasts, it’s a game about how you feel about conquering them."
3) "Holding the L1 button will focus the camera on a colossus for as long as the button is held, immediately useful in taking in my foe while keeping my distance as I plot my attack. There’s not much space in this clearing, and nowhere else to go—I could climb all the way back down, perhaps find some comfort in seeing Agro again, but there’s no other way to progress. In this way, the game puts my back against the wall while at the same time placing the impetus on me to take action and make the first strike. The colossus patrols nearby, but Wander must disturb its path to begin the battle. While most traditional video game boss battles lock the player in a small arena with an enemy who immediately attacks, Shadow casts the player as the aggressor instead, a distinction with ever-growing importance throughout this tale. It’s the beginning of many role reversals that become more evident as the game progresses—but like many things in Shadow, the theme starts more subtly."
4) "One of my favorite touches here is the visibility of the very bottom of a few of the supporting beams of the bridge from the game’s opening, huge columns embedded deep into the base of the canyon. Again Shadow ’s architecture helps to tie its world together, naturally stitching new locations to previous visual landmarks."
5) "There’s a sadness in Shadow’s spaces, and as thrilling as they are to discover, they’re emotionally taxing to return to. The site of That Horrible Thing I Did, a place to bear witness to the remains of a creature that was once sentient and is now another rocky mound amongst many, thanks to me. In this way, Shadow’s world becomes smaller just as quickly as it expands, the excitement of discovering a new area dashed by the realization that I probably won’t return there."
Second Reading
1) “[Like] so many wonderful moments in life and art, Shadow of the Colossus is defined by the space between its lines: the gulf between its quieter, contemplative moments and its tremendous spectacle. Strung end to end, its titanic battles would make for an amazing if exhausting barrage of action. But driving your horse across an imposing sunbaked expanse, twisting up through shade-mottled woods, only to find your ageless, unwitting foe at rest in the stillness of a lake gives the encounter exactly the breathing room it needs.”
1) "But what interests me is just how far Shadow swung away from those other hits. Its reductions were across the board, and uncompromising: Only sixteen “enemies.” Only two weapons, both of which you start with and will never level up. You’ll never learn new moves, only (almost) nothing to collect.
Yet despite all that isn’t there, Shadow is absolutely riveting. At a time when games were doubling down on the gamer by betting big on proven formulas, and leaning on the legacy of film to tell their stories, Shadow was content to spin its mystery up front and shove you into the blinding sun to fend for yourself and figure out the rest. The entirety of the experience lives deep within me, like some primordial dream. Soaring high above the sprawling desert, clinging to my foe as the wind laps at my unsteady feet. Finding the relief of fire at the bottom of a treacherous crevasse, itself in the shadow of an ancient, endless bridge."
2) "Whether you play wholly in character as I do or tend to keep your entertainment at an emotional arm’s length, Shadow will put your feet to the fire and make you think about your actions in a way that few games ever have—it isn’t just a game about conquering giant beasts, it’s a game about how you feel about conquering them."
3) "Holding the L1 button will focus the camera on a colossus for as long as the button is held, immediately useful in taking in my foe while keeping my distance as I plot my attack. There’s not much space in this clearing, and nowhere else to go—I could climb all the way back down, perhaps find some comfort in seeing Agro again, but there’s no other way to progress. In this way, the game puts my back against the wall while at the same time placing the impetus on me to take action and make the first strike. The colossus patrols nearby, but Wander must disturb its path to begin the battle. While most traditional video game boss battles lock the player in a small arena with an enemy who immediately attacks, Shadow casts the player as the aggressor instead, a distinction with ever-growing importance throughout this tale. It’s the beginning of many role reversals that become more evident as the game progresses—but like many things in Shadow, the theme starts more subtly."
4) "One of my favorite touches here is the visibility of the very bottom of a few of the supporting beams of the bridge from the game’s opening, huge columns embedded deep into the base of the canyon. Again Shadow ’s architecture helps to tie its world together, naturally stitching new locations to previous visual landmarks."
5) "There’s a sadness in Shadow’s spaces, and as thrilling as they are to discover, they’re emotionally taxing to return to. The site of That Horrible Thing I Did, a place to bear witness to the remains of a creature that was once sentient and is now another rocky mound amongst many, thanks to me. In this way, Shadow’s world becomes smaller just as quickly as it expands, the excitement of discovering a new area dashed by the realization that I probably won’t return there."
Second Reading
1) “[Like] so many wonderful moments in life and art, Shadow of the Colossus is defined by the space between its lines: the gulf between its quieter, contemplative moments and its tremendous spectacle. Strung end to end, its titanic battles would make for an amazing if exhausting barrage of action. But driving your horse across an imposing sunbaked expanse, twisting up through shade-mottled woods, only to find your ageless, unwitting foe at rest in the stillness of a lake gives the encounter exactly the breathing room it needs.”
2) “Valus is Ueda’s favorite colossus, a critically important introduction to the true meat of the game—one that took significant trial-and-error to get just right. It feels unfair until the moment it doesn't, all the accomplishment of fighting a ‘boss’ without the typical buildup. But at the same time I feel a bit conflicted by the violence of my actions and the reward of a solemn, uncelebrated death. It's clear even in this first victory that what I'm doing is wrong on some level, though I've journeyed too far to not continue at least a bit further down this road, into the depths of Dormin's deal.”
3) “As I clamber up his shoulder, there's a moment when Gaius seems to have forgotten me, looking out over the beauty of the sprawling lands, still and unthreatened. It doesn't last long, though, and he turns his attention back to the nuisance.
These final moments of fighting Gaius are monumental—it feels like a fight to the death at the top of the world, a clear view for miles in every direction save for the writhing titan beneath me. It's also the first time that the scale of the game is truly communicated. Wander, as a relative ant, on the apex of a stories-tall giant, who's standing on an arena, on top of a towering column of rock, in a lake, in a crater. Somewhere far below, my speck of a horse runs back and forth nervously on the shore.”
4) “Andy Nealen, an expert on minimalist design and an assistant professor of computer science and game design at New York University, regularly uses Shadow as a reference point in his classes. He's also the co-creator of Osmos, a serene puzzle game (and early App Store success) about colliding with smaller objects and avoiding larger ones in a visual Petri dish. Nealen tells me via e-mail, ‘Minimalism allows a designer to have a strong vision, but not describe it in every single detail, thus leaving the player to explore the elements, their connections, and their dynamical meaning. It also means only leaving the best parts in the design: If one part is better than the others, the others become a liability, and need to be removed or radically improved. The best designs and design processes I have witnessed have a 'cutting foor’ that is ten times the size of the final game.’”
5 “[Before] I can fully stand he hits me again—and again—until I'm close to death. I finally manage to dodge one of his blows, luring him back across the courtyard and putting several obstacles between us as I climb back around and above him. He charges the column supporting the upper level that I'm now on and it comes crashing down, shattering off much of his armor and exposing a sigil on his furry back. Without his armor, Cenobia appears much smaller, and the impact of his charges now dizzies him, giving me a moment to jump onto his back. The rest is a messy, violent affair, as Wander is sprayed with the black blood of this bucking beast as its life is drained away. He's become vulnerable as I've become savage, and the city shortly falls silent again.”
6) ”It feels lonely sometimes, having such an intensely personal attachment to a piece of art. While Shadow has affected so many others, no one can really understand what it means to me. Just as I can never understand what it means to them. Or for that matter, anyone's favorite anything. There's a chemistry, possibly even a spirituality, in connecting so deeply with someone else's creation. In many ways, I define my life by relentlessly sharing the things I love with the people I care about.
But that may ultimately come from a selfish place. Maybe it's less about wanting others to experience the same magic and humanity that I felt, and more about wanting to be better understood in some small way.”
em_being's review
4.0
This is a nice window into what it is to be a massive SotC fan, in that you laboriously pour over a game that ain't that deep for all sorts of meaning that ain't there. It's actually really nice to see someone just genuinely nerd out in a warm affectionate way.
tmaluck's review
3.0
Suttner's experience strongly resembled my own playthrough of the game. Where this book's concerned, the most consistently interesting bits had to do with trivia surrounding the game's development and studio's habits. SotC as a game features several repeating elements, and commenting on them in prose becomes a little dull by the end. Still, an observant stroll through an exceptional game (with a significant amount of text devoted to Ico for context/comparison's sake).
ngizmo's review
4.0
No esperaba un libro revolucionario pero terminó siendo un poco más básico de lo que mi expectativa dictaba. Sin embargo, tiene algunas entrevistas que no conocía y no encontré en mis búsquedas anteriores por la web. Y lo que más me cerró, además del relato semi a lo walkthrough del total del juego fue que me ayudó mucho a acomodar unas cuantas cosas que tenía dando vueltas en la cabeza sobre este juego del que tengo ganas de escribir algo serio desde hace un buen tiempo. Espero que sea el empujón que necesitaba.
PD: Jueguen SotC.
PD: Jueguen SotC.
janmartinek's review
4.0
Simplicity of the book mirrors the game. Retelling of the story with some detours noting broader topics has surprisingly familiar shadowy feeling.
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