Wanda to kyozô

This was a good game, nice graphics and an interesting tale. Maybe it could have used a bit more here or there to spruce it up...maybe a few more characters or something as the game could use some more back story and character development. The game has a young man bringing his deceased loved one to a forbidden valley temple where he is confronted by a voice that tells him of a way to perhaps revive his beloved. He must go out and slay huge beasts which in turn destroys statues that seal this beings powers. So there you have it, you along with your trusty horse must seek out and slay the colossi inhabiting this mysterious valley land. Using the sun to guide you, you track them down using clues given you by the mysterious voice and once you find them you must find a way to climb them so you can find the weak point and bring them down. The fighting is great as it took a bit to figure out what to do here and there, however for the most part I was able to find a way to kill the Colossus without any aid. There were a couple, though, I had to search for the way to kill them on the web. Like I said add some more elements in the valley and this would be really great, because for the most part when searching for the colossi you are simply riding your horse here and there. Still good, but sad.

This video game is a masterpiece of minimalism, honing in on fine details to achieve a consistent artistic style. The fantasy setting is bare and barren, bringing to mind the ruins of ancient civilisations. The storyline leaves a lot to the imagination with many hints of a magical time gone by. The design of the colossi are gorgeous and complex, and they feel like real beings with a composition that sparks speculation - the mixture of fur, stone and architecture has an otherworldly feel to it. The design of the architecture also feels like a long lost civilisation has been abandoned in a cursed land. The soundtrack is rousing and deep. The gameplay is intense and fills the player with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. This whole setting has a deep, immersive mythological feel to it. My only gripes are Agro's controls and the lack of replay value.

This is such a wonderful game! I found myself in total amazement as I wandered through this massive world. The music is perfect, grand epic themes, yet always somewhat sad and wistful too. Just right for the death of an age. You are on a quest to resurrect a strange and nameless girl who has been sacrificed. The resurrection can only happen in the Forbidden Land at the edge of the earth,and only if an ancient power is restored through a deadly ritual that calls for the blood of the sixteen titans that walk this forsaken place. Your only companion is a massive war-horse, Agro, and an ancient black sword that points the way to terror and glory. I fell in love with this game as soon as it started. There are very few games out there that can come close to this one is sheer grandeur, and I have found none that equal the sense of pure loneliness and isolation in a land of crumbling splendor. I would almost never tell someone to buy an entire console for the sake of one game, but this would be the exception. This one is worth it!

This is the most epic game I've ever played, with the possible exception of Half-Life 2. You are a young man who climbs atop the backs of giants and has to bring them down by use of your sword and/or bow & arrow. The first giant is beaten simply by climbing onto him and stabbing marked areas of his body, but other enemies are beaten by interacting with the environment around you, which by the way is one of the most jaw-dropping visual features of this game by far. You ride your horse through grassy fields, barren deserts, vast mountain ranges with waterfalls, you name it. The world is enormous and something you totally would not expect a PS2 to be able to handle (I'm guessing it's pulled off due to the fact that there is no interaction with other characters or enemies at all).

Understandable is the criticism it's received for being, in essence, nothing but a bunch of boss battles. There's no real interaction with anybody else in the game. But most would probably agree that what it lacks in terms of rich gameplay it more than makes up for with the freakin' pretty landscapes and jaw dropping cinematic display.

The 16 giants are something you might see in a Lord of the Rings movie. By land, by air or by sea, you find yourself doing pretty much everything. Grip onto the back of a Boeing-sized Pterodactyl of sorts. Cling to an enormous electric eel as it swims under the water. Ride your horse alongside an enormous galloping bull. Every gamer on the planet needs to at the very least RENT this game. See it before you die or you just might not make it into gaming-heaven. I'm pleading with you here, I don't want anybody at all to miss this.

Oh, and as a music person I must stress the superb soundtrack.

No longer are video games the time-killers numbing the minds of our world's adolescents. Shadow of the Colossus (the English-language release title; the translation of the Japanese would be roughly "Wander and the Colossi") has used beautiful imagery and innovative puzzles on the backs of giants to tell a story worthy of the religious mythologies of an ancient civilization. The technical game-play is stunning in its simplicity, and has truly moved video games to the status of an art form. Fumito Ueda's previous endeavor Ico (to which Shadow of the Colossus is a prequel) is also told in a way that does what was done with comic books in the 1980s; using an unappreciated, stigmatized medium to tell a story that, if told in a cinematic or literary form, would leave the viewing and reading populous speechless. To those of you who do play video games, you simply must play this game. To those of you who don't play video games or have teenage children who play them, buy them a copy and at least watch them play. Most of important to you all, open your minds or you'll most certainly miss out.