What went right?

- Most unoriginal game in the series

- No apparent relation to the other games

- Blandest, less profound story of the series

- Cinematic game on rails

- Lack of health bar or stamina bar means inmortality and 0 incentive to rush, also 0 sense of danger

- Command prompts never stop appearing

- Blandest boss in the series

- Recycled story (Agro companion + Child abduction)

- Cheap sense of risk by way of animations or altering the music. Even in the final battle there is no risk of losing anything

- Controls are shit. No button to hold on to things, like in SoTC

-Soundtrack overshadows the game itself

youtube.com/watch?v=-oIUCu68Ehs

Worst in the series

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=-oIUCu68Ehs
youtube.com/watch?v=rEApse3F_J0
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Some observations:

The map is also boring, not because its bad, but because we've seen it before already.

SoTC was a nice progression from ICO, things look older and in ruins. I enjoyed exploring the ruins as much as wandering and fighting the colossi.

However in TLG the buildings are almost just like SoTC, but make less sense architecturally. How on earth does a wall of stone thousands of feet tall rise up from the forest? Why build so many towers inside? Why isnt there anything udnerneath?

Its just verticality for the sake of verticality. Like a try to bait the SoTC nostalgia.

Also as I said before, no health whatsoever. Health in SotC meant a game over. There's no such thing in this game, so there's no way for the player to truly commit. A pain indicator for Trico would have also been great, so the boy has to actually rush when he needs help.

I liked the designed of the white tower, it seemed almost organic. I wish they went further that way instead of recycling SoTC architecture.

I also think that the shadowy, empty enemies in armor are lame by this point. We're already used to empty games with shadowy, vague enemies. Where in the previous games this seemed to add to the mystery of the story, in this game it's just boring and makes the world empty.

Also the other Tricos could have had other colorations, because they all look the same, and by the end and also due to the inmortality and scripted "on rails" movements of the creature you dont even care for it anymore.

Game should've been cancelled like it was originally intended. What a fucking blunder

I got the impression that it was finished and released just to hype up the Sony brand and name.

This game doesnt have any magic, like the other two do.

It also doesnt appeal to true feels, just to a cheap moment at the end where the boy tells the beast to go and the villagers want to attack it.

This only triggers sadness in children, because they cant comprehend why the villagers, that dont know the creature, attack it.

Also this song makes me sad.

I dont see the feels that this song triggers in me anywhere in the game

youtube.com/watch?v=-oIUCu68Ehs

Fuck Japan, long live the West!

people wait too long for it and now creators can't satisfy them with anything

also that's why we wil never see half-life 3

>PCucks this salty

Im mostly upset with the lack of originality.

I feel it would have been better if it had a more technologically advanced setting (like the white tower) and an original story.

The kidnapped kid story is old, and so is the "bond with your companion" thing.

Maybe if Trico only appeared from time to time It would have been more interesting.

Why is the best theme not the main theme?

youtube.com/watch?v=rEApse3F_J0

SO TRUE

>Sonyggers on suicide watch

h-how did you know?

Is team ICO dead after this?

fuck

All their exclusives are shit outside Bloodborne

>Ico and and SoTC have you trying to save a princess/woman the whole game
WOW HOW FUCKING ORIGINAL TEAM ICO, RIPOFF MARIO SOME MORE HUH?

>no apparent relation to the other games
>architecture, style, shadowy enemies, etc that are "recycled" from the previous games don't count
Are you really this dense? Wouldn't this BE the connection to the other games you're looking for?

The game wouldve been fine as a 20 dollar psn download. Theres no excuse for charging full price for an unpolished lastgen 10 hour game

I've got this preordered. I haven't bought a game on release in years. I know I should wait for half price, but there's literally nothing else to buy until January is there? Except FFXV but that's another 50% off

I'm positive he meant relation as in story. That being said, the enemies are completely different.

It wasn't that bad, though it certainly isn't without some issues. While I wouldn't say it's on rails, the linear progression is more apparent here than with Ico. If anything it would have been nifty if you could choose to go to multiple places at the halfway point to collect barrels and maybe free some of the other griffins from control, while possibly finding ruins/artifacts that exposed more of the lore and history.

Was the game worth a near 10-year wait? No, but at least it's not like Duke Nukem Forever where it lacks any of the soul of the previous works its makers had done.

this game was a fucking masterpiece

I love SotC and ico but this game looks like a shitty and uninspired re-hash of them for $60

>inb4 pcuck
I just bought a PS4 on black friday

>No apparent relation to the other games

So? Why should there be a connection? Shadow of the Colossus only had a small connection to Ico in that Wander would go on to create the race of horned-children somehow (either it becoming a kind of curse or an off/on genetic trait) and nothing else. While it would have been interesting to see something like the griffins being part of a bestiary of creatures that served as the template for the Colossi, their lack of relation is hardly a downside when the point of each title is to be able to stand apart from one another.

With all that said, I would like to know just WHAT the Master of the Valley was. All I can assume was that he was someone who either tamed or captured the creatures in life, before dying and becoming that orb thing, since it's clear that the tomb with the mirror was his.

Outside of it having Ico's "explore a ruined fortress with a companion", it doesn't really rehash all that much. Yorda was never this helpful in getting around the castle, and Agro didn't express nearly as much animal-like behavior in her entirety.

I'm satisfied with it. Could have come out much sooner, but I'm not a retard who waits for just ONE game, I actually enjoyed other stuff in the meantime.

The "kidnapping of kids" thing is also rehashed.

So is the "use the kids for energy" thing

So is the "impersonal enemies that are shadowy" theme

So is the "the world is empty" thing

So is the "the protagonist is a kid or a midget" theme

So is the "green decaying ruins" thing

So is the "blue energy" thing

Unoriginal / 10

SoTC is a prequel to ICO set in the same world ( and the same land, since the beach at the end of ICO is there in SoTC)

They could have thrown a little bone to just position this game in the world and the timeline of the series, yet they didnt.

>- Command prompts never stop appearing
Fucking this. What's the point of making the player do random stuff that could be done in a cutscene if the game requires you to tell you which random button to press? It's like a quicktime event without the quick part.

>The kid is sleeping
>Move the stick to make him breath and continue the cutscene. This is immersive, don't you think?

So is this anything other than an interactive movie?

nice deflection shield whats the stats

I'm not reading this thread to avoid spoilers but I'm a couple hours in and greatly enjoying it.
Animation and interaction are unbelievable. It's a gem for sure, but all 3 games are sort of niche and artsy/ambiguous so I'd understand if someone thought it was boring.

Do you ever get the mirror thing back later in the game after losing it?

So it's not connected, big whoop.

So just because it has similar things it's unoriginal? That's not how it works you dingus. It still does all of those things differently. The humans are kidnapped to become the food for the griffins, and probably energy for the Master as well. The Armors aren't nearly as shadowy as the Smokemen from Ico or the "souls" from SotC. And kids being the protags is something nearly ALL Japanese games do.

Japan literally hates the idea of having the protagonist be older then 16 because of some retarded fantasy or whatever. Why do you think Raiden was made for MGS2?

It's hardly a movie-game since you're always in control outside of a few parts.

After the second encounter with the evil-Trico, Trico will spit it up as he swallowed it in the first frenzy attack.

Pretty much what I was thinking. It's not like Ueda is trying to be some pretentious prick who wants to remake the entire gaming market, he just does what he thinks is interesting to him. I'll agree that games like this and its prequels aren't for everyone, but it's not like they're becoming the standard everywhere else.

>That spoiler
Thank fuck. It'd be so stupid if it was gone the whole game.

It was pretty obvious that the thing wouldn't be gone for long. It's kind of like the proton pack from Heart of Darkness. You have that for like 20 minutes of the starting game, then lose it and get the magic fireballs for the duration until near the end and regain the pack from the very same monster who stole it from you.

I literally forgot this was a thing two hours after playing, i haven't seen one since.
Maybe it reads fumbling retards fucking up controls and tries to help.

I had a strong feeling it would be shit when it was reannounced.
Games don't get cancelled for nothing

>Lack of health bar or stamina bar means inmortality and 0 incentive to rush, also 0 sense of danger

Ico had that as well, and you can still die from great falls, or lose if the knights capture you. And unlike the smokemen from Ico, these guys are pretty quick to make sure you can't get away. Doesn't help that the boy can't directly fight back beyond that weak-ass shove or tossing shit like he's got no arm strength.

So you can actually lose in the game?

Care to speculate on what the place where you first get it is?

Seems like a tomb of sorts, and the pool is identical to that of the Shrine of Worship

No, they usually get cancelled because the publishers want to dumb shit down into something more marketable and sequel accessible. That's why Prey 2 is never going to happen and instead we're getting Alone in the Dark 2: In Space.

I had a strong feeling it would be shit when the official name of the creature being Trico was announced, since Team Ico has used Trico in numerous scratched projects and desings.

SoTC was first called project Trico

Yea. You can fuck up a jump and fall to your death (the game usually fades out in most cases), though the huge falls don't feel quite as gnarly as Ico's, where you could almost feel the SPLAT as he hits the ground. The knights cast some kind of hypnotic spell that makes you drowsy and have to mash buttons to clear your head.

And on a few occasions, Trico might miss catching you.

He can also accidentally kick you off things. He field goaled me near the end of the game and I nearly got sent back to the other side of the valley before the game reloaded

Trico ate it. Of course you're going to get it back. All he has to do it spit it up

Why did they call it the last guardian? Trico did not perish at the end and the ruins themselves never were destroyed so those other human boys who were collected would have been returned by the other Tricos.

Trico is cute. Trico is the best. I want to protect Trico. Please everyone discuss how much they love Trico.

If you've seen the ending, it's kind of clear that the mirror is connected to the Master of the Valley. I think he transcended his physical form and became that shadowy blob to gain greater control over the tricos, with the double-edge sword effect that he/it was now vulnerable to the mirror's ability to dispel enchantments

As for the pool, it is fairly similar, though I would guess that's because pools of water are typical in a lot of folklore for being used to cleanse bodies/spirits.

>No apparent relation to the other games

Trico has horns. he's obviously the kid from Ico turned into a monster.

oh shiddd :DDDDDD

Might have just been a red herring since you don't realize just how many tricos there are until the end.

Also, the other boys and girls all got made into barrels

Not really.

Screen goes black if you fall to the abyss, you come back at the exact same place anyways.

And Trico is inmortal

>hypnotic spell that makes you drowsy and have to mash buttons to clear your head
Is this really the worst thing enemies can do?

So the place where you get the mirror is it's physical tomb?

lmao you're fucking retarded. I guess judging by the pcfat-only tears flowing on this board that I should pick this one up

To the boy, yes.

For Trico, they'll stick him with spears, swipe at his feet with swords, and even sometimes use smaller versions of the kaleidoscopic mirrors to subdue him with fear while the others try to capture you.

That's what I figured. If you recall, the sarcophagus is huge, which probably means the Master was a pretty huge person in life

No they didn't. I thought this too until I realized it wasn't true. The boys are used as energy to fuel the master of the valley. The barrels are full of nectar and are used as treats to further entice the Tricos to bring human boys. If you jump to the back of the despenser you can see that there are already barrels inside, meaning the children aren't automatically converted into nectar.
because why would the master of the valley need to mind control the tricos if they're just pretty much making their own food? I have a feeling that the sentinels are harvesting nectar for them. There are barrels of it on rails all throughout the game, meaning they are manufactured elsewhere
also it attracts butterflies so it's probably nectar

There's no implication the children get made into the blue stuff.

SotC > TLG > Ico
:^)
Agro is a shit companion.

I can't play without a risk of failure.
Seems I'll be skipping the game

Care to share some insight into the who / what / why of the final boss?

An AI? The nest tower looked very biocybernetical, as if it was made of bone or some wet organic substance

It can easily be both; the bodies are converted into whatever blue liquid the barrels feeding the griffins is, while the Master harnesses energy from the kids via the runes on their bodies.

There is when you see them being spat out into the statue.

Judging by the lack of originality of the game, my guess is the rests of the children are the guardians. You can see shadowy skeletal forms in their legs that have no armor

>try to get Trico to dive under water
>half the time he goes back on land
>the other half he gets to the tunnel entrance then swims back up
I HATE TRICO

There's plenty of risk. Just because the knights aren't decapitating the boy or trico is accidentally crushing you to death every other instant doesn't mean there's no risk. I'd say it has more than Ico ever did, which only had you dying from falls, getting caught by the bombs exploding, or failing to pull Yorda's scrawny butt out of the portals.

Because your Trico was the only one guarding you while the other Tricos wanted to kill you.

But why? Why would you mind control tricos just so they can make their own blue goo food? Obviously there is a better reason. I am inclined to believe that they might be fed the blue shit to keep them subservient and not waste their time hunting for food when they should be hunting for children. I mean, you have to keep them alive. It's pretty much a treat dispenser. They give the Master of the Valley what it wants, so it rewards them and stops them from starving while being mind controlled
plus there are nectar factories in other areas of the game, and there are glowing blue barrels in the back of the dispenser already filled with nectar

I just assumed they were like robots. Made from pure energy and used to keep the place running. Maybe they even built the crazy towers in the first place. Of course, being made of glowing energy they came from the boys, but I don't believe tthe kids are directly turned into them

What if the last guardian is the master of the valley?

The goo barrels being people makes sense since the butterflies also swarm around the boy like they do the barrels of goo

This made me guess the twist before it happened

Some powerful human or humanlike entity (given the tomb its mirror was found in is pretty humanoid in shape. Somehow, the Master became an entity of magic, not unlike the Queen in Ico, but something far more sinister in form. The tower is probably encrusted with whatever power the Master exudes, allowing it to generate the armored knights on a whim.

It does beg the question of why the valley is in such disarray, you'd think an entity like that would want its lair to be in prime condition to make things easy. Unless the city was used for other purposes before the Master came along.

Judging by the design of the tower and the blue doors, I thought those structures where build at a later date and on top the old ruins, since the architecture and materials is quite different.

Like the guy decided to install himself there after the city inside the nest was in ruins.

Because it benefits them both. Besides, the Master already controlled the creatures with the crystal spires, the barrels are like you said, treats. But who's to say that the Master doesn't take something from the children while the rest of the bodies are converted into barrel food? Yes, you find sources of it elsewhere, but it's not like it can't be split between the Master and his minions. As for there being barrels prepped for dispensing, it's also possible that barrels are loaded after a while, and that the Tricos don't always get a treat for bringing offerings to their Master.

There's also a connection between the colossi and the Trico. Trico's eyes change color and shoot fucking laser beams like the colossi

I see, you're probably right. at least part of the boy's energy must be turned into treats. Where else would it come from? I wonder if Tricos could have a normal diet if the supply of nectar is cut off? What do they eat normally?

Even without thinking of the butterflies, I just figured it could be creepy if the barrels were made of people, or dead tricos.

Certainly possible.

He/it was once someone meant to keep the man-eaters safe, but became dependent on energy to keep "protecting" them from harm.

Another possibility. Kind of like how some people speculated that the Queen in Ico wasn't originally the castle's monarch.

The children are definitely the goo. When you see Trico vomit up the boy he's covered in a blue goo sack. Exactly like whats in the barrels

What is he guardian?

Also what's up with the boy's tattoos? Is there a theory? They also increase as you progress.

Considering the ending implies the griffins are now free of the Master's influence, they can probably scavenge for other food sources. One would imagine they could fish and catch prey not unlike traditional griffins

There's almost no risk of dying in SotC though so the health bar is largely pointless.

The sacks are green, though it could be the stage before blue, which is a color that makes up green.

This is very interesting, and yet I feel they havent exploited it enough

The colossi could then be highly technological biomechanical machines instead of magical monsters, changing the perspective on the whole setting (a high tech civilization in ruins)

Also the creatures have blue horns

They increase every time you're swallowed by Trico.

From what I gathered there are no lose conditions, or at least ones with any kind of punishment.
Maybe I understood it wrong

Yeah but at least it was something to keep the player motivated. That and the respawn at the shrine.

Theres no such motivation in TLG, and you respawn in the same exact point

>that spoiler
don't you fucking dare

My dumb ass thought the boy would end up being Lord Emon

After the first 5 or so colossi, yea. Before that, you could get wiped out if you got directly hit by one of their powerful blows.

I understood the green stuff was used in conjunction with the weird waves to control the creatures through food, since their horns are also blue and receiving the signals like antennae

Also in the last scene you see Trico's glowing blue eyes but dont see his glowing blue horns, which can imply it's not natural for them to have blue horns.

>SoTC was a nice progression from ICO, things look older and in ruins.

SoTC takes place before ICO though. It's the origin of the horned children that are being sacrificed in ICO.

pay attention

what if the tricos evolved into colossi and are keeping Dormin (possibly the original creator of the Master of the Valley) at bay? What if the forbidden lands in SotC is just the deteriorated ruins of what used to be the valley?

There are lose conditions; you get captured, fall to your death, and whatever the controlled Trico tries to do to you (never lost to it, but I can imagine it eats you).

There just aren't a lot of things, but that's kind of how it is with Team Ico games; they have very specific things that can give you game overs as opposed to dying in numerous ways.

I'd say there's plenty motivation if you want to see what happens next. And the game does send you back a ways if you die at certain points. With that said, they were a bit too generous with most of the checkpoints.

I mean progression from an evolution of game / gameplay perspective

It's a good design because its a stylistic change that still keeps in touch with what made the first game magical

You pay attention, faggot

press r1 and circle in the direction if the water and hell look down, then do the jump command and he dives. after I figured that out there was zero problem

I mostly suffer it in the replay value.

I almost see no replay value whatsoever, whereas in SoTC it was fun as fuck to play over and over and over again, and even gave you new treats to beat the colossi with

Your trico's horns are more dull than the other tricos. you can see that a black keratin is starting to form at the base and is covering up the glowing blue

I don't know, they're horns could be blue naturally, but they're not meant to be controlled. Though who knows, we know their eye colors are more or less natural, at least all but the pink/purple they show when controlled.

Nah, tricos are animals.

It seems to me like TLG takes place after SoTC as well, if the architecture we see in both games is from the same people

There's some of that here with TLG, if you get every barrel you unlock paint for Trico. There's also an unlock that I assume gives you Ico's clothes (as it mentions horns in the menu).

I saw something about a badge, though I guess it's something for the mirror so I wouldn't know yet.