Shadow of the Colossus - PlayStation 4

This game is re-made not remastered. Most buying have already played so I'll start with why the Ps4 version is worth it. It is breathtakingly beautiful on the Ps4 Pro.So many times I busted out camera mode and made wallpapers for my Home Page without a colossus in sight. Seeing as taking in the world and noticing elements and clues that are solely visible is the vast majority of the game, its the best selling point. Travel can seem tedious and time wasting at first. But you soon learn the whole point of the travel is to explore the world on the way to each fight, increase health and stamina by finding rare lizards and fruit that make the upcoming battle easier, discover shrines to help you jump right back into the boss fight without the huge punish of long distance traveling again. Combined with the graphics and refined open world controls, I came to enjoy the ride through the complex landscape to reach each colossus. Camera takes some getting used to on the horse when using the sword as a compass but you can quickly learn to manage it. When you are in the actual fight the controls seem to tighten up and when its time to capitalize on a crucial moment, it has none of the issues the previous console versions had. Compared to say..AAA shooter titles that focus on near superhuman agility and fast paced reactions, The controls of this game might seem "poor" but truthfully I felt it was more of an adjustment to the limitations of Wander, who stumbles and trips and fumbles but gets the job done. I only had one poor control moment (that I can't honestly blame on a boss trying not to die) and that was reaching the third colossus on the plateau above the lake. Arrow aiming was also pretty solid, and had a realistic feel. Arrows were always on target, but not lasers. I never had an issue hitting a weak spot. Finally, The new game plus mode is fantastic. Those who want the Time Trials got them back and they are well done. A perfect run will leave you lauding at how much time you had on the clock. But forgives a single big error. Which I think is quite fair. The Items are all still there and done well. And it was so satisfying once I got Wander OP and every fight was an anticlimactic bloodbath after grinding the trials. If only Agro had autopilot too. Lastly, For those who never played and want a brief summary and hook. This is a beautiful platforming puzzle game disguised as action. Each boss has clever behaviors and patterns, Each boss fight has subtle brilliance in how you take them down. Also its basically 16 Boss fights, all ramping up as you go. The intro to the story before beginning the game and the very end are really the only story elements. But don't let that discourage you. Somehow, despite only like...15 to 30 minutes of true actual storytelling, You fear for your steed, you will feel for your beloved, and you will fight against that damn light forever to prove you are not what you seem and the ending will not be forgotten.

For those who have never played this before let me be very clear so that you can make a sound decision about this purchase. - This is a remake of a PS 2 game from the early 2000s. Which basically means that it is the exact same game right down to its old school game mechanics. So you may notice that the boy, horse and camera angles might be a little hard to get used to at first. - This is a very simple game. The only adversaries to fight are the 16 colossi walking around the map. Every single battle basically consists of solving a puzzle in order to defeat them. The puzzle will usually consist of finding a way to disorient them, knock them down or finding ways to surprise them so that you can scale their massive bodies in order to find their weak points and attack them. There are no other enemies in this game. You travel to their locations, you defeat them, and then you do it all over again. As boring as that may sound to some, it is my personal opinion that it is actually quite fun! The world is visually stunning, so it's always like taking pleasant trips through the country. The battles themselves are challenging and always leave you with a great sense of accomplishment. - You might think that this is a very story-rich game due to the lack of gameplay depth, but you would again, be wrong. The story is incredibly simple and blunt, with very little dialogue. You get a basic understanding of why your character is come to this land and what his goals are in the very beginning and then you get right to your task. The bulk of the game's dialogue going forward is basically the voice in the sky dropping hints on what to do when you encounter the colossi. Despite this there is still a great sense of progression in the story each time you defeat one of the giants. Focus not on the story, but instead on what your feeling each time you progress. You will probably feel great accomplishment in the beginning and then this feeling may change to something completely different (not going to spoil anything here). The depth of this story is entirely in the emotional experience and it definitely runs deep. To sum it up this game is like the comparision of art vs. manga, with the game being art. The depth and meaning you find in this game is entirely up to you. But if you find it, I promise it will be a most profound experience. Give this classic a change and you might just find yourself playing it again and again years down the road.

Shadow of the Colossus really pushed the limits of the PS2 to realize the world it's set in, and yet it was way ahead of its time with what it was trying to accomplish. With the power of the PS4 and being completely rebuilt from the ground up, the fields, mountains, structures and, of course, Colossi are all rendered in detail and beauty that the game deserved. The game was already one of the most beautiful for the PS2 and now it is one of the most beautiful for the PS4. Not to say that other games like Horizon Zero Dawn and others don't also look gorgeous, but SOTC had its own unique aesthetic that sets itself apart. Wander is fully detailed, no longer a collection of polygons, Argo never looked better, and the girl... what's her name... is even more angelic now... almost literally at the end. The gameplay is largely unchanged from the original, and in a way the fact it's unchanged makes it feel a tad dated. But it brings a huge amount of nostalgia that connects with the original, like how you shouldn't mess with the mechanics of nintendo classics like Super Mario Brothers. The story also flows exactly the same, with the same cutscenes, now a crap ton more beautiful and more complex thanks to modern computing power. I am reminded of how repetitive the gameplay is, as you take down colossus after colossus, with repetitive sequence of ending and restarting the process. But of course changing this formula would mean changing the story and whole experience. The tactics to taking down the colossi, as well as locations of fruit and lizards, remain the same. So although it's a brand new engine and totally redone textures and designs, it feels like the same old SOTC with an insane facelift. There are some bonuses, such as unlockable gallery items, including comparisons of the graphic of the original vs the 2018 version, which makes you appreciate all the work they put into this remake. There is also a fun photo mode, which is a nice side activity when you have such beautiful scenery. Overall highly recommended for fans of the original, and highly recommended for the uninitiated to experience for the first time.

I played this game when it came out on PS2 and it was such an amazing experience. Playing the remake on PS4 again as an older adult brought me back and made me remember why it's SO GOOD. The remake has such beautiful graphics. It's truly stunning. This game has inspired many modern games, most notably Zelda - Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom. It is an immersive story that transports you into a forbidden land where you must single-handedly hunt down immense colossi to complete an ancient ritual to bring your loved one back to life. There's no onslaught of endless hordes of smaller foes. This is a boss battle extravaganza! The game's sole focus is to explore the gorgeous environment, scale perilous heights, find a Colossus and then use strategy to figure out how you can take it down. This usually involves climbing the colossus itself! This is a gem I recommend any gaming enthusiast should experience, as it would definitely land on many player's lists for one of the greatest games of all time. It's definitely on mine!

I just don't know if kids who were born when the original PS2 version came out 13 years ago would love this or hate it. It is technically an open world game, but the world is small and picturesque, and there is nothing but the core concept at work: use your sword and bow to kill 16 gigantic monster bosses. Other than tracking down and eliminating these beasts, which are platforming puzzles unto themselves, there are no side missions, no XP, no skill tree, no NPCs to talk to, no crafting, no weapon mods...hell, there are no smaller enemies to dispatch as you traverse the beautiful landscape. The experience is lush in atmosphere and intrigue (not to mention graphics and audio) but minimalist in pretty much every other regard and hearkens back to the end of a simpler digital entertainment era where you got the whole game, up front, on the disc...and the experience was complete, polished, and innovative. I only had to play an hour to know that the rest of this game is amazing because I had the PS2 version, which I also loved, and the people who made this must've loved the 2005 original as well. One of my great shames in gaming history is reaching the last colossus in the PS2 version but never beating it. I did buy the PS3 version, which is a simple upscale/remaster job (and included ICO) but didn't have time for it when so much good current-gen stuff was coming out. But after encountering, and besting, the first monster in this newly built PS4 remake (just the same way I beat him 13 years ago on my old CRT TV), I was smiling uncontrollably. I'm playing on a stock PS4 and the graphics are amazing, the frame rate is buttery smooth, and the main character no longer feels heavy and sluggish, straining against the constraints of old hardware. Will the CoD/2K/GTA/PUBG kids get it? I don't know, but I hope they do give this a try, because it's still a piece of unique, essential gaming.

Timeless classic! Stunning game with a deep story and gameplay that holds up today!

Very good game action-platformer game with amazing setting and graphics. The game has barely any tutorials so you must figure it out most of it on your own. It is sort of challenging to figure out how to take down some of the colossi but once you have it figured out it is quite easy to beat them. I played the other two games of TeamICO (first The Last Guardian, then ICO and finally Shadow of the Colossus) and even though I liked this game very much I expected a little more given all the hype this game gets. Basically because, unlike ICO and TLG, this game is pretty monotonous throughout its entirety. All you do is try to find a colossus in the vast world and kill it, and then try to find the next colossus and kill it, and so on until you get to the last one. Even though each colossus needs a specific approach to kill it and it is fun climbing on top of them I was hoping to do something else along the way of tracking each colossus. It is a little slow paced and it will test your patience. But nevertheless it is still a great game! The downside is that the controls can get a little frustrating, especially when grabbing onto something and trying to jump to the opposite direction. Also, after playing The Last Guardian and ICO, I was hoping for some emotional empathy for the main character. Besides all of that it is a beautiful, unique and rewarding game.

It's hard to believe now, but Shadow of the Colossus wasn't a runaway success when it originally released in 2005 on the Playstation 2. Sure it had great reviews, but it's audience started as a little niche before word of mouth spread about how incredible it was, eventually earning a remaster on the PS3 years later. Shadow of the Colossus is such a remarkable game in the medium of video games that it is often cited as THE game one needs to play to recognize that video games are art. Being reissued on the PS4 it's remarkable how original and novel Shadow of the Colossus still feels. This may be because over the past decade Shadow of the Colossus has rarely been imitated. It's minimalistic story telling, narrative undertones and structure are not elements that many video games have tried to imitate time and time again. This means that in a video game market full of sequels and remasters Shadow of the Colossus still somehow manages to at least feel original despite being around for over ten years. The story centers on a young boy named Wander who brings a young girl to the Forbidden Lands. It is unknown what has happened to her, but he intends to revive her and he seeks the help of a God named Dormin to do so. Dormin lays out a task for him, defeat the sixteen Colossi across the Forbidden Lands and he will revive the girl he cares for so much. Wander takes to the task without hesitation and that's as much of a prologue as you need to understand Shadow of the Colossus. Once this happen the player takes control and sets out to defeat the sixteen different Colossi. If there were no greater depth to the story of Shadow of the Colossus it would make for a relatively boring story. But Shadow of the Colossus opts to tell the most of its story through gameplay and visual design more so than words. Much of the dialog consists of Dormin merely telling you were the next colossus is, but as the game presses on Wander's clothes become more ragged, the atmosphere more eerie and cryptic with small to-the-point cutscenes interspersed that the player will have to think about and connect... because the game isn't interested in doing that for you. What unfolds as the player reaches the end of the game is one of the most brilliant twists in gaming and it's even better because the game expects the player to own it rather than letting them passively observe through a cutscene. The minimum storytelling is in full effect here. Fumito Ueda and Team Ico don't put anything in Shadow of the Colossus that doesn't need to be there. The Forbidden Lands are noticeably absent of standard enemies for narrative purposes. That being that no one is allowed in them and they've been sealed off. There is no life, only the colossus. Yet it never gets tiring to ride across the vistas and there's a surprisingly large amount of things to explore. So no, Shadow of the Colossus doesn't have standard enemies or "dungeons." They add nothing to the narrative and so they're not here. This helps the narrative get straight to the point. This is not the kind of storytelling that's for everyone, but what makes this approach so unique is that EVERYTHING about Shadow of the Colossus in terms of gameplay and environment is in service to the game's story. All this means that the only enemies there are throughout the game are the various colossi that you'll face. They not only serve as the main bosses of the game, but also the dungeons. If there was any genre that Shadow of the Colossus could potentially fall into it would be the puzzle genre. Each colossus is massive and part of the fun and challenge of the game is figuring out how to scale them. Wander must latch onto a colossus, climb to it's weak point and stab it several times his sword until it falls. At first this is easy, with the first colossus only having one weak point. Then it gradually ramps up in difficulty. Some colossi have multiple weak points while others require figure out how to scale a colossus. This may entail finding ways to throw them off balance or finding ways get them to hold still long enough. As you scale they'll also try to shake you off or something to that effect. You don't have much at your disposal to fight the colossi. You simply have a sword, a bow and Agro. And while the sword and bow are as basic as it gets, Agro is one of the most amusing concepts of the game. Many have complained about how Agro controls, not recognizing that part of the design of Shadow of the Colossus is that you get to point Agro in the right direction but you do not get to have full control of her because she is not yours to fully control. At first this seems difficult to digest, but in reality it's rather simple. You can steer Agro but that's really about it. Yet the bond that gets formed with Agro through the adventure makes for some rather good moments. There are even some battles where recognizing how Agro controls is rather important to actually getting through the game. For the most part the AI of Agro is competent enough that you won't mind certain moments where all you need to do is simply hold down the X button to make her gallop. On the surface, Shadow of the Colossus isn't a difficult game at all. It's a rather simple game to play. The depths of this game might not be uncovered right away if only because they're not so unabashedly revealed. For instance, it's actually remarkable how much character some of the colossi have. Or just how staggering cool some of their designs are. And some of these designs provide hints of how to scale them and how to handle their aggressive behaviors. But all of this is done in a way that feels natural to the world you're playing in rather than as standard videogame conventions. For instance, when a Colossus is aggressive their eyes turn orange, but when they're passive their eyes simply remain blue. Yet the game makes this feel as though it's just a natural part of this world and not some kind of video game convention like in other games where the hint is that you need to be avoiding an attack. Likewise, the way each colossus moves is absolutely astonishing as well. Their attacks are perfectly choreographed, but you feel the weight of each swing they make. You also feel just how gargantuan they are in comparison to you. Everything about each colossus manages to feel grandiose with each victory feeling like it's own played out version of David and Goliath. These battles are also accompanied by an amazing musical score that puts into perspective how huge, dangerous or majestic each encounter is. All this makes for a great package on its own. Shadow of the Colossus isn't a very difficult game, however. It never was. Most video games where narrative takes center stage are rarely that difficult to play through. Shadow of the Colossus's challenge mostly comes from figuring out how to go about each battle, but the attacks of each colossus are telegraphed that getting hit rarely happens. Even if you found yourself in danger a lot, Shadow of the Colossus has plenty of opportunities to increase your health. Your health increases after each battle with a colossus, but there are also fruits scattered around the world that increase your health if you eat them, and lizards that you can shoot and take their tails to increase the amount of grip you have, which helps for scaling each colossus. After a while the damage from a colossus fails to be a hindrance. There are, of course, changes made to the game. The most noticeable of which is that the game's visual presentation has been given an overhaul. Often when games like this get such a visual over haul there's this idea that they'll lose the art direction that made the game so good to begin with. This doesn't happen in Shadow of the Colossus. The game has been rebuilt from the ground up to feature more dynamic lighting but not at the expense of the visual soul of the game. The areas will still look familar, the art design still shines through and informs us of the world we're playing around in. It's just all better looking, more dynamic and the game is far more fluid to play. Nevertheless it's a faithful recreation. Bluepoint Games (the team responsible for the PS3 remaster) really outdid themselves here. The visual style of the PS2 game already aged well to begin with, but this is still amazing to look at. I can't tell you how much time I've spent just riding across the plains taking in the fantastic visuals of this game. Shadow of the Colossus is not a game that was ever meant to be attempted just once and put back on the shelf. The original game had time trials and a hard mode and both return here. A New Game+ mode is also available but now you can begin on a new difficulty setting carrying over some of your stats as well. The game also has a new control scheme updated for the current era. The original control scheme made sense for it's time, but it's a good thing it's evolved a little over time. It's a little simpler to play, but if you really miss the original control scheme it's also here. If there was anything to lament about Shadow of the Colossus it might be that for die-hard fans of the original you're not actually getting a lot of new stuff here. This isn't really a bad thing, but if you were someone hoping that perhaps some of the colossi that were cut from the original release would be here you'll be out of luck. This is almost an exact recreation of the original game and they've added nothing to it. Again, this isn't really a bad thing. Part of the charm with Shadow of the Colossus is that it isn't a superfluous game. The only other thing that may keep the game down is that as a minimalist game that doesn't waste too much time with its story... it's going to be short. And in an era where replay value doesn't carry as much weight as it used to and where people expect their games to be long (regardless of how padded out or artificial that game length may be) Shadow of the Colossus may end up appealing more to people who have already experienced it rather than to newcomers. This isn't to suggest it won't find it's audience, but is to suggest that it's possible some new players may not necessarily take to the experience as a whole immediately. All that said, Shadow of the Colossus has aged surprisingly well and has retained its status as a cult classic. The game is every bit as exciting and fun as it was when it was released on the Playstation 2. From it's amazing visuals and music to it's charming story, Shadow of the Colossus still stands as one of the greatest games ever made and now it can be experienced in a whole new light without necessarily robbing it of all of its original charm.

Beautifully done

Uno de los mejores juegos jamas hechos, jugue el original en su dia para PS2 y este remake trata con respeto a la obra original, dejanto intacto el gameplay pero mejorando los graficos y el rendimiento y agregando algunos secretos y coleccionables, como un easter egg a The Last Guardian y una espada nueva, ademas de mejoras de interfaz y calidad de vida. Una obra de arte, asi de simple.

Solid game. Arrived the next day.

The story like is sexy. And old classic, perfect game. A lot of patience is need to play. The seller sold the game in perfect packing and price 1.2k.

O jogo é original e funciona perfeito, porém o encarte veio impresso em jato de tinta em papel ofício. Depois de conversas com o vendedor ele me estornou uma parte do valor para conseguir outro encarte por mim mesmo. O caso do encarte deveria ser descrito no anúncio. Para colecionismo e valor do produto isso é bastante importante!