Shadow of the Colossus Remake

mcgooch

BelovedAunt wrote: »

I recommend lowering the sound effects and volume dialogue down by about a quarter, that means you can really enjoy the magnificent soundtrack. Also, I’m finding the Faded filter gives it a closer look to the PS2 version.

Agree with you on the Faded filter. It feels much closer to the etheral look and feel of the PS2 version, especially when looking at anything far off into the distance.

Edit: Since we're talking visuals I should probably add that I'm playing this on PS4 Pro in Performance Mode with HDR enabled on a 4K display.

dreamers75

Never finished this on PS2 tempted to borrow the kids Ps4 for it.

wheresmahbombs

I am very mildly tempted to get this remake, maybe when there's a sale - looks like a really nice visual improvement over the original.

Roar

Put this on earlier while the toddler was pottering around. Took down a colossus, she walked into the room at the exact same time and said “oh no, poooor dinosaur” and was a little upset. So that’s me not playing it while she’s awake any more

Zero-Cool

Picked this up today, never got around to playing it before, looking forward to giving it a lash!

jones

Definitely going to pick this up. I loved it on the ps2.

Zero-Cool

1st colossus was epic, kept running around him just soaking it in.

Zero-Cool

I know the word epic gets thrown around a lot but that was truly ****ing epic!

johnny_ultimate

Finished the game, first time I've played through the whole thing in years.

I'd stand by my comments on the aesthetic - this lush world just doesn't quite look like Ueda's game anymore. It's kinda fascinating to me - a game where so many of the fundamental elements are in essence the same or near identical, but the little shifts have this interesting ripple effect. I don't hold any ill-will against Bluepoint, as they've done a stellar job in so many respects and obviously had to make some creative choices of their own to justify this remake's existence. But it simply highlights the interesting consequences of remaking a game with one of the most distinctive looks a game has ever had.

Still, was valuable to play through the game again, because as I said many of the fundamentals are still there. I love its barren open world, which I'd call the polar opposite of, say Breath of the Wild's open world, but valuable because of it - a gigantic map seemingly designed primarily to emphasise mood and scale, without the 'stuff' of other games. I think the added vibrancy here makes it feel a little less lonely, but the essence is very much still there and powerful.

It's still remarkable that a game of this scope was pulled off more than 10 years ago - the Colossi themselves are still nearly without equal in gaming. The vast, overwhelming size of the things, and even the speed of the smaller ones, still wows. More so than when I was younger, I can really appreciate the sense of melancholy here - the contrast between the epic, swashbuckling music / epic puzzles and the close-up innocent curiosity of the Colossi's eyes or the dramatic moment of silence & funereal music that hits once you've landed the finishing blow. The ending is also immense - probably one of my favourite game endings ever.

So yeah, an incredibly accomplished remake that nonetheless loses something. The core is very much still there - it's still possibly my least favourite of the three 'Team Ico' games, but simply being one of the greatest games ever made isn't what I'd call an inconsiderable feat

I'm just after beating the fifth colossus and I'm feeling somewhat underwhelmed to be honest.
It's a good game so far, however the controls leave a bit to be desired and the camera is frankly diabolical.
It's a fantastic world that's been created but as someone who never played the original I feel quite let down by this. Maybe I was just expecting too much from the game

Cienciano

I think maybe the game was built up a bit much. When games/music/movies are built up to be amazing, they usually disappoint. I reckon I'll leave it a few months till I get it.

Started it last night, and I have actually played this before. Well a demo of it from what I recall that had the 1st colossus.

Agree with others re: the controls especially the horse. I got as far the 3rd one before calling it a night. The world looks great but the game is not giving me much to get invested in at this point.

J. Marston

Forgot how much I adored the ending.

Looked at some of the comparison images in the unlocks too and it's crazy how different the games look. Incredible work went into this.

mcgooch

For those having issues with the controls - have you tried changing the controller setup? The controls in the original were never great, but if you change the controller setup to Modern Remapped it improves things a lot.

Did anyone find the

barrel hidden in a cave

?

Zero-Cool

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Did anyone find the

barrel hidden in a cave

?

No, what's that about?

Sephiroth_dude

Zero-Cool wrote: »

No, what's that about?

I haven't played either but I'm guessing

Last Guardian reference I think

one armed dwarf

For the horse stuff, the kind of way they went about it is that you control the guy controlling the horse. So you've got this kind of buffer between Wander and how the horse behaves. It's not really like horse-controls in other games.

It's weird but there's some thrilling moments like when you fight the sandworm

You have to lure the worm to chase you and just sort of place trust in the horse to keep pace sufficient enough that you twirl yourself around on top and let off an arrow in its eye. It's a real satisfying how it comes together whereas if the horse controlled more "car-like" the effect would not be the same

Sephiroth_dude

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

I haven't played either but I'm guessing

Last Guardian reference I think

Indeed it's a

Trico Treat

Finished this the other night it's very much a game of it's time. I felt like I wanted there to be far more to it in terms of the world and gameplay elements. The bosses were great but the world was so empty that it just felt like a chore and time wasted to have to mount the horse and ride to the next location.

johnny_ultimate

Deleted User wrote: »

Finished this the other night it's very much a game of it's time.

While I can see where such an argument is coming from, I'd argue the opposite. I think every Ueda game feels kind of out-of-time, or perhaps operating on a level very few other game designers have managed to catch up with. There's a certain magnificent, complex artistry to the three Team Ico games that - even though the three games were made years apart, in very different contexts - I fail to see in all but the most exceptional of modern games. Echoes here and there, and obviously the occasional masterpiece rolls around that does its own thing. But playing through SotC again, even in this imperfect version, illustrates a design philosophy that's as distinctive and peerless as it was 13 years ago.

J. Marston

Deleted User wrote: »

Finished this the other night it's very much a game of it's time. I felt like I wanted there to be far more to it in terms of the world and gameplay elements. The bosses were great but the world was so empty that it just felt like a chore and time wasted to have to mount the horse and ride to the next location.

No way to counter-point this without sounding arsey and pretentious but I'll try!

The emptiness and stillness perfectly captured the mysterious, forbidden feeling of the world. Plus things like the light beams marking the graves of the Colossi and then seeing them covered in dirt when you revisit their arena after killing them. No text logs or audio logs on why, where and when this place is but I still appreciated it.

I only heard this week that Ico's beach is in the world and I found the barrel too so there is little secrets for those who like exploring.

johnny_ultimate

Yep, the absolutely massive world and the isolated, mysterious emotions it communicates are a fascinating take on the concept of an open world. I actually think Bluepoint undermined it a bit with the addition of their gold coins - a pointless extra that adds a 'gamey' element where it didn't need one.

redfan1

Cake of Tremendous Power wrote: »

I'm just after beating the fifth colossus and I'm feeling somewhat underwhelmed to be honest.
It's a good game so far, however the controls leave a bit to be desired and the camera is frankly diabolical.
It's a fantastic world that's been created but as someone who never played the original I feel quite let down by this. Maybe I was just expecting too much from the game

Couldn’t put it better myself thought the game was very underwhelming . One of the very rare games I stopped playing and swapped it for something else after five are six boxes like yourself.

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

While I can see where such an argument is coming from, I'd argue the opposite. I think every Ueda game feels kind of out-of-time, or perhaps operating on a level very few other game designers have managed to catch up with. There's a certain magnificent, complex artistry to the three Team Ico games that - even though the three games were made years apart, in very different contexts - I fail to see in all but the most exceptional of modern games. Echoes here and there, and obviously the occasional masterpiece rolls around that does its own thing. But playing through SotC again, even in this imperfect version, illustrates a design philosophy that's as distinctive and peerless as it was 13 years ago.

Fair points, and if it was made today by a different developer I'd likely get what I wished for and regret it upon seeing how padded it was with needless rubbish it would be.

one armed dwarf

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Yep, the absolutely massive world and the isolated, mysterious emotions it communicates are a fascinating take on the concept of an open world. I actually think Bluepoint undermined it a bit with the addition of their gold coins - a pointless extra that adds a 'gamey' element where it didn't need one.

To be fair the concessions to 'gameyness' you're bemoaning here is a flaw of the original also. Doing time-attacks for better equipment and such is the worst part of that.

one armed dwarf

J. Marston wrote: »

No way to counter-point this without sounding arsey and pretentious but I'll try!

The emptiness and stillness perfectly captured the mysterious, forbidden feeling of the world. Plus things like the light beams marking the graves of the Colossi and then seeing them covered in dirt when you revisit their arena after killing them. No text logs or audio logs on why, where and when this place is but I still appreciated it.

I only heard this week that Ico's beach is in the world and I found the barrel too so there is little secrets for those who like exploring.

Yes I really love the feel of it. I think SOTC is the most filmic game ever made. Can't think of any other really.

Was watching an LP the other day where they notice at the end how all the 'graves' of the previous collosi are visible from the door where you face the last one. Just a cool detail that you can miss easily if you beeline your way to the credits/platinum.

Powerful expression by a game which has very little dialogue.

johnny_ultimate

one armed dwarf wrote: »

To be fair the concessions to 'gameyness' you're bemoaning here is a flaw of the original also. Doing time-attacks for better equipment and such is the worst part of that.

Absolutely, I agree, part of SotC I never had any interest in and a strange choice for the game. The only minor difference is that the time attack stuff is very much 'optional extra' material for NG+ - whereas it can be a tad distracting here when you're fighting a colossus and you hear the ping of a nearby gold coin!

Just bought this game, really looking forward to getting into it. I've wanted to play it since the PS2 era; never owned a PS2, and missed the PS3 release.

That out of the way, any advice for a complete noob on how to approach this game? I'm guessing just throw on some headphones, dive in and experience it for myself.

(As an aside, is it worth chasing down the PS3 release so I can play Ico also?)

johnny_ultimate

It’s a pretty straightforward game to play, so the only practical tip if you’re playing on PS4 is to switch to the modern remapped control scheme which feels closer to the original game with some minor quality of life tweaks.

It may sound pretentious - OK, it is pretentious - but really pay attention to what design choices communicate in the game. It’s a very particularly directed game, and lends itself to the sort of formal analysis a lot of games don’t lend themselves to. Things like sound design choices, camera placement at key moments, right down to the overwhelming emptiness of the world: this is a game that reveals its brilliance in things like that, rather than being just a series of challenges to overcome (it is that, of course).

As for the PS3, I think SotC is the weakest or at least my least favourite of the three Team Ico games, so yes certainly worth chasing down its predecessor. I’d also argue that the PS3 version of this is a bit truer and more representative of the game Ueda originally made - likely less pronounced for those who haven’t played the different versions, but I’m a bit of a purist

johnny_ultimate

Thanks for that.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

As for the PS3, I think SotC is the weakest or at least my least favourite of the three Team Ico games

The third being Last Guardian, right? Where would you rank that one?

one armed dwarf

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

It’s a pretty straightforward game to play, so the only practical tip if you’re playing on PS4 is to switch to the modern remapped control scheme which feels closer to the original game with some minor quality of life tweaks.

It may sound pretentious - OK, it is pretentious - but really pay attention to what design choices communicate in the game. It’s a very particularly directed game, and lends itself to the sort of formal analysis a lot of games don’t lend themselves to. Things like sound design choices, camera placement at key moments, right down to the overwhelming emptiness of the world: this is a game that reveals its brilliance in things like that, rather than being just a series of challenges to overcome (it is that, of course).

As for the PS3, I think SotC is the weakest or at least my least favourite of the three Team Ico games, so yes certainly worth chasing down its predecessor. I’d also argue that the PS3 version of this is a bit truer and more representative of the game Ueda originally made - likely less pronounced for those who haven’t played the different versions, but I’m a bit of a purist

Problem with the PS3 version is that it exposes a lot of LOD/draw-distance shortcuts and I'd argue does more to spoil its representation than this full on rework does. You need the tube TVs to mask a lot of that far-off rendering stuff.

jones

Sorry for dragging up an old thread but i've a weird problem on the second collassus i stab boths sigils but the beast just stays alive and i've nothing to do that can hurt it? Any help?

Edit i found the third spot which i dont remember in the original

Markitron

jones wrote: »

Sorry for dragging up an old thread but i've a weird problem on the second collassus i stab boths sigils but the beast just stays alive and i've nothing to do that can hurt it? Any help?

Edit i found the third spot which i dont remember in the original

You have just reminded me to replay this

Dave0301

Just got the platinum trophy on this. Passed me by on earlier consoles, and took me a while to get into it on the PS4.

Lovely game and beautiful music.