Review: Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus is an interesting enigma of a game. I certainly enjoyed playing through it, but I couldn’t say exactly why off the top of my head. So, after just finishing my first playthrough, I have decided to put my thoughts into words, and figure out just what makes this game tick…

Shadow of the Colossus follows a boy called Wander, who travels to a forbidden land in the hopes of resurrecting Mino, a girl close to him. However, this ritual takes Wander down a dark and dangerous path, as he and his horse Agro are pitted against sixteen Colossi in all corners of the land.

Unlike many of the games I have reviewed as of yet, Shadow of the Colossus only has two main gameplay features – travelling to the next colossi, and fighting it by climbing up their fur and striking the marked spots. As such, the variations in gameplay come with each new boss, and its unique weaknesses that you need to exploit. And while some bosses are visually similar to one another, each one is technically unique, with its own attacks, arena and weakness.

I did find out that there were collectibles in the game, but only once I had reached to second last boss, and as someone who usually aims to collect all of them, I felt no remorse in leaving the rest of them unobtained. There are dozens of secrets within the game, some of which can be found in a single playthrough, while others the culmination of three to four. However, without deliberately searching these out, they are easily overlooked, making this game fall into the rare category of appealing both to casual players and completionists.

Due to the singular nature of the game, it is very difficult to get over ten hours on a single playthrough, something refreshing from the other games I’ve played. I would play the game in short bursts, spending about half an hour each time taking on a single colossus. This made it accessible and palatable to play, especially since the game doesn’t require a high level of investment or a deep understanding of the lore.

The version I have played was the remastered version by Bluepoint, and I have to say that the graphics and aesthetics are phenomenal. Each cutscene is refined and polished to perfection. The blades of grass, the galloping of Agro, each shrine, temple and building all look incredibly lifelike, making each session a visual wonder to behold.

The story is simplistic, but also deep and thought-provoking, calling into question the nature of the forbidden land and your actions within it. It is done mainly through visuals and cutscenes, not exposition, which only helps to build up the mystery and suspense, leading to an unforgettable conclusion.

I think I’ll have to cut the spoiler-free section a little short for this one, as I’d have to get into content and story spoilers to analyse any further, so what I will say is this; this game is a perfect example of executing a simple premise with nuance, effectiveness and heart, creating a classic that I feel has quite rightly survived multiple console generations, and while gameplay and musical scores could be a little more varied, it has certainly earned a place among my favourites.

Shadow of the Colossus: 9/10

SPOILER SECTION

For me, my favourite Colossi were the ones in dynamic environments, such as lakes, dunes and stormy skies. As such, the final boss stands out in particular. Unlike the rest, it was fixed in place, shooting at you from a distance while you find your way to it. It had a far more menacing appearance than the rest, with a huge stature and more dynamic movements of the head and hands, creating a creature that almost felt Lovecraftian amidst the heavy rain and black skies.

The bird-like one over the lake was also a favourite, combining the rush of the wind, tense music and Wander hanging on for dear life for a captivating experience that blew me away the when I played it.

Now, onto the ending. It was quite evident that something sinister was at play as soon as you beat the first Colossus, with the dark absorbing into Wander, but I had predicted that each Colossus was a vessel for a human soul, and that your quest would lead to you becoming a seventeenth Colossus, manipulated by Dormir, and with the subtle changes to Wander’s appearance, I became more and more sure of this.

However, once Agro had seemingly died, the travellers arrived to halt the ritual, I genuinely had no idea how the ending would play out. I wasn’t disappointed.

Wander became a vessel for Dormir, having freed fractions of Dormir’s soul from each Colossus. It was shocking to see Wander get shot and stabbed as he struggled to reach Mino, as was the transformation into Dormir, letting you briefly embody all of the Colossi in one form.

The power of the sword defeating Dormir did seem to come out of nowhere, I’ll admit that, but Dormir partially reverting back to Wander and getting sucked into the light was another impactful scene that really made you feel for him. He was, after all, just a naïve boy, and to see all that happen to him wasn’t easy. I was glad that Mino woke up, however. It was after all, the purpose of Wander’s quest, so for his sacrifices to pay off was deeply satisfying, and with Agro returning and the new-born child emerging from the light brought about a much happier ending than I thought it would be.

As a side note, I find the way that many Japanese media manages to portray a blend of sadness, joy and change deeply moving and strangely nostalgic. The state of the land and characters is irreversibly changed, with Mino, Agro and the infant stuck in the forbidden land, but suggests that a new beauty can now thrive, and what was once cursed and evil can now be good. Both Wander and Dormir had committed immoral acts to achieve their goals, stealing the sword, performing a forbidden ritual and killing all of the Colossi, but both have a chance at redemption in the form of this new life.

This type of ending really appeals to me. It is neither happy nor sad, it simply is, and allows the player to come to their own conclusions about it. It is heartfelt, bittersweet, and I feel that Western media could learn a lot from it.