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- Factors such as an extensive empty land, no tutorials, no side-quests, and no side enemies on the way make this game unique.
- The strange atmosphere, the orchestral emotional music, and the indirect visual storytelling make this game stand out even among today’s games.
- As it was released for the PS2 almost twenty years ago, people enjoy this game due to nostalgia.
- The unused bosses and terrains made room for numerous theories.
Let’s dive into the reasons why Shadow Of The Colossus remains a game that stands out from others in every way.
Nostalgia
This game was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2005. Since then, it has gained popularity that it was remastered for the PS3 with just a resolution upscaling, but for the PS4 it was a great leap in graphics and textures.
With the game looking better, it is much easier to explore and enjoy. Many players stick to the game due to nostalgia as they enjoy the memories they obtained from the game, which they played almost twenty years ago.
Mystery Attached To The Place, Story & Characters
The game begins and you’re shown to a girl, who seems lifeless, and we carry her on a horse after a long, tedious journey. Right from the get-go, we don’t know what happened to the girl. Is she alive, in a coma, or completely dead?
This mystery hooks players in the game right from the beginning. Then, we enter a cobblestone manor with an extremely high ceiling and we’re introduced to a low-pitch muffled sound, which further increases the eeriness of the atmosphere.
Apart from that, the atmosphere is dark and gritty and the extensive map consists of multiple terrains with no human life in sight other than the protagonist and the girl.
Then, there’s an elongated strange bridge that extends across the map but is so high up that it is unreachable until you complete the whole game.
No Other Game Is Like This
The beauty of Shadow Of The Colossus also lies in the fact that this is not just another game. There is no side quest, no tutorial, and no other enemies except for the boss fights.
The game is only about 15 hours long and it leaves you alone on a gigantic map with a sword, a bow, and a horse to explore its vastness.
Considering most players are used to the RPG or open-world genre, being lost in a strange place alone gives players a feeling of unfamiliarity. It’s almost like this game has created its own genre.
Empathy For The Enemies
Unlike most games, this game allows you to develop a soft corner from each boss. After each boss battle, you can revisit the Colossi’s terrain to find that the cobblestone-made bosses have become a part of that terrain.
The game even shows you a montage of all the eliminated bosses when the credits roll, with emotional music playing in the background.
Indirect Storytelling
To expand, it seems like the game’s developers wanted to tell the story visually without blatantly stating it. Where most games follow the path of hinting the players at the potential escape route, this game throws riddles at you and lets you figure things out.
Furthermore, the game is emotional and it conveys sad emotions through its orchestral music.
Moreover, every Colossi (boss) is hidden and you need your sword to find the way into its particular terrain. The light travels from the sky to the sword and points at the location of the Colossi. This also means that in a dark valley, you are practically lost.
Uncountable Theories
Since this game tells the story vividly and lets you put the pieces together, its open-ended ending further reinforces this concept. If that wasn’t enough, this game has unused Colossi’s as initially it ought to have 24 instead of 16.
These couldn’t be used to the system’s limitations and other issues. A few pictures of these Colossis, their terrains, and their movement codes are still available, which created room for numerous theories.
Fans were excited to speculate about the unknown, of what the game would’ve been with these unused beta Colossus.
This created a fan base just for the theories the majority of people embarked on the search for these unused Colossus and were hopeful they would find something in the game or in its data files.
The user’s curiosity led to a rare video of the game in its earlier stages, information about the bosses, and much more.
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[News Reporter]
Abiyan is on track to complete his Computer Science bachelor’s degree. His enthusiasm for writing and gaming motivates him to keep readers and gamers updated with the latest information from the industry. In his free time, Abiyan enjoys playing Dota 2 and Rocket League. Abiyan has also been cited in reputed websites such as Kitguru, Comicbook, GamingBible, Eurogamer and Gamingbolt.
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