Why is Shadow of Colossus held in such high regard?

[Monshroud]

I would like to say something that may sound a bit ridiculously simple:

Its held in such high regard because a lot of people liked it.

You're opinion happens to be different. It doesn't mean you need to question other people liking something. You aren't being the only smart person out there by disliking something. You just happen to have a different opinion. Why try and convince people to not like something just because you don't? You have opinions about the game? Write a review. That's what the User Reviews section is for.

A lot of people dislike JRPGs, that doesn't mean there are no reasons to like them. I happen to like Shadow of the Colossus. I don't feel the need to justify it to someone just because they feel that most people who have played the game are wrong.

I think you may have mis-understood my intention when I was asking about this game. I stated my opinion of the game and asked others why they like it so much. I was asking why people liked it so much because I didn't understand based on my experience with the game. I never told anyone they were wrong for their view nor did I state the game was crap and people were dumb for it.

What I came away with from the people who took the time to reply in some great and insightful ways is that they connected with the game on a level that I did not. Based on that I get why people enjoyed the game so much. I may not agree with their views, but at least now I understand.. That's all I was looking to do.

Thanks again to everyone who provided feedback. I might actually have to play through this game again with a bit more of an open mind and see what happens.

 

[avelmen1889]

I only played a demo of the game before it came out and all i can say is i was blown away from just that little tidbit. it was me standing next to a table with a young girl on it wondering 'OK what happened here' then i stepped outside and i started to randomly press buttons to figure out what to do then i raised my sword and it was all shiny and it pointed me in the direction i had to go i mounted my horse and headed that way in hopes of finding out what was going on. i came apon a cliff wall and started to figure out a way up. apon climbing the cliff i found i was in a bid valley/basin with a humongous beast. i some how targeted something on the beast and started to press the fire arrow button and i thought 'come on die, fall over do something' as the colossus drew closer. eventually i found that irrelevant as i started to charge the beast in hope of finding a way to kill it by hacking at its toes. once i arrived at the Colossus's heels i found the game prompting me to press a button and i did hoping it would be some shenmu-esque quick time event and i found it to be a fun challenging puzzle as i watched my character (which at that point i thought it was a woman) climb the hulking beasts back until i was on its head and i stabbed it until it died. and the demo ended and i was psyched to get the game but i never did because i could never find it.

 

[Blow_Pop]

If you have a Hollywood video/Game Crazy store near you, have them order it. I have two copies of it on order, one for me and one for the boyfriend. That's my advice

Thanks for the advice. Gonna get right on it!

no problem one of my friends told me about it so i'm passing it on

 

[Ninja_X]

Silent storytelling at its best.

It was an awesome game.

 

[delet]

snip

Well, you know there are mini save temples or ruins all around the world where you can go and save, so you can be pretty close to the Colossus from the start.

 

[Captain Pancake]

It's great evidence of video games as art. the gameplay mechanic worked really well, and it tried something new by making it a "boss-fight only" game.

 

[Blow_Pop]

snip

Well, you know there are mini save temples or ruins all around the world where you can go and save, so you can be pretty close to the Colossus from the start.

But i wanna save right at the colossus. that's my problem.

 

[videot76]

To me, it always felt like "wow, 100-foot monsters, what an awesome idea", but they couldn't be bothered to think up a proper motivation or story for this awesomeness so the left the player to "fill in the blanks" and got branded as being "poignant" and "thought-inspiring" as an extra bonus. To me, it reeked of sloppy storytelling with bland gameplay mixed with really awesome graphics and the guts to try something new. Not too good a combination.
But hey, just because I loved "Frog Bog" back in '85 and hated this triteness doesn't make it a bad game - it's just my personal opinion.

"In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust is considered a milestone of western literature, a classic, poignant and thought-inspiring. Yet I believe it to be no coincidence that the ONLY thing anyone ever remembers about those books (eating things remembered from childhood bringing back forgotten memories) is literally on the first page of the first book - it is simply too boring for most people to read beyond the first chapter. I, an extremely patient reader, managed to drag myself through the first volume, never to touch it or the other six ever again.
But hey, to each their own.

 

[Merteg]

I've seen so much praise I'm thinking about playing this game.

Is it only for the PS2?

 

[quiet_samurai]

Because it doesn't suck.

 

[Rawker]

its like mario. its backstory sucks something awful, but the gameplay was fun. And your pretty much going out and buying a gameful of boss fights.

 

[Stoic raptor]

the only fun part about the game was the bosses

they were so good that the game is one of my favorite games.

 

[Beffudled Sheep]

I loved it because it was a blast of fresh oxygen in a room of stagnant methane. It made me feel emotion. Not just anger but sadness and another emotion I don't know the name of.
Then again people have different tastes and attention spans.

 

[Pimppeter2]

It has a great atmosphere and top notch story telling

 

[Halo Fanboy]

Shadow of Colossus isen't a game like oblivion or cod4 are. Shadow of Colossus and all studio Ico games are more works of art they are games. they use the medium of video games to express emotions, such as the complete feelings of isolation and tranquillity throughout. comparing it to most video games is like comparing Ingmar Bergman films to Rush Hour 2.

To say that a game should be judged on different standards than other games seems to be more likely to hurt an artform than elevate it.

OP:
The reason the game is good is because the enemy design is superb. It's similar to Portal in the way that the challenges steadily increase by building on what you learned from the previous puzzle.

I would say that some of the monster do lack a solution as intuitive as Portal's stages often are, which is one way that it suffers. It also has the fairly boring sactions of finding out where the enemies are located and skimpy content. Overall the puzzles and platforming make it still very good.

 

[Clockwerk133]

What made Shadow of the Colossus good was,well, The Colossuses. Killing each and everyone of them was a truely epic experience. The story itself was left open mostly to your guessing, but I'm pretty sure that their was something I read that explained things in a pretty good manner to me storywise.

 

[Mr. Fister]

You're supposed to fill in those blanks for yourself, but really it is unimportant to the game's overall message. The game is about learning to let go. All throughout the game, you are trained to find something on the colossus, and hold on to that R1 button for dear life, to not let go, no matter what happened. Wanderer can't let go you see, that's why he's there. He cannot move on from this girl's death, whoever she is. The end is supposed to be the resolution to that. You are desperately trying to reach mono, even with the winds pulling you back. You see some stairs there, and you do what the game has trained you to do since your adventure began, to find something to hold on to, and not let go. You hang on for a while, but then you realize something. There is no point. You can't hold on forever, and even if you could you can't advance from that point. You're just stopping yourself from moving on. So, in a moment of clarity, you, and wanderer too, learn to do something neither of you could do until that point. You let go. You let yourself fall, and are hence reborn as a new person.

I would just like to say that this is quite possibly one of the best interpretations I've heard of any medium ever.

 

[delet]

snip

Well, you know there are mini save temples or ruins all around the world where you can go and save, so you can be pretty close to the Colossus from the start.

But i wanna save right at the colossus. that's my problem.

Yea. I can't help ya there. You can only get close. Either that, or leave your PS2 on indefinetly...