Ico

ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh.

OKAY SO.
I played this game from like, 2001 (re-released in 2006 when it's prequel came out) for the PS2, called "Ico". And WOW. It's the most amazing thing I've ever had the pleasure of playing/watching/interacting with. I LOVED it. And let me tell you, it was better than ANY Final Fantasy and ANY Kingdom Hearts game there could ever be.

So, from here on out, I'm copying+pasting the rant I put on the I'm Vidding It! forum, because if I re-explained and typed everything, I'd leave something out and I'm too excited to think that hard right now, ksfhgkaduhfndljgba.

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I beat the game in about eight hours but oh. my. gosh.

This was by far the best game I have ever played. I mean, I thought nothing would ever be able to top Final Fantasy X for me, but Ico flew by everything that game was. Don't get me wrong; FF is great. But there's something about this that was just...beyond anything I've ever experienced.

The game is a puzzle game, like Legend of Zelda. The story centers around a twelve-year-old boy named Ico, who was born with horns on his head, a bad omen for the village. Upon his twelfth birthday, he was taken to a secluded castle to be sacrificed for the good of the village. However, a tremor went through the castle after the guards left him there and he was able to escape from his tomb.

He stumbles across a girl by the name of Yorda in the castle, the Queen's daughter. She's incredibly weak from being trapped in a cage for who-knows-how-long and Ico vows to help her escape. But evil spirit creatures are after her, determined to drag her back where she belongs. Yorda speaks a different language than Ico and her subtitles are written in a strange text that you can't understand (unless you beat the game and replay it), so Ico takes hold her hand to guide her through the castle.

The main idea is to get through the castle and escape with Yorda. If the spirits take Yorda, then it's game over. Ico can climb chains and ropes and jump up to certain places that Yorda can't get to. It's up to you to figure out how to help her get through the castle with how weak she is. There are doors only she can open, so even if you wanted to, you wouldn't be able to escape without her. If you leave her alone in a room for too long, the spirits will appear and attempt to drag her through their portals. If Yorda is attacked while you're in another room, you hear her gasp and have to return to her as soon as possible. You can reach down and help her up to high places, call to her to help her find you, reach out and have her jump across chasms to you and hold her hand to guide her through the castle, not to mention pull her out if she's taken into a spirit portal.

Ico isn't like normal RPGs in that it doesn't have any items. Nothing. The spirits don't drop anything and there are no enemies besides the spirits. There are no treasure chests, no equipment to keep track of. Either you fend off the spirits using a stick or a sword you can find later, it's one or the other. The pause//start menu consists of "Options", "Return to Game" and "End Game". That makes it feel so...real. There aren't side quests. The only goal is to escape with Yorda and Ico. It feels so amazing when playing because it feels plausible. That's something that no FF or KH game could have, because of all the stuff. Ico focuses on the story and only the story. So you're not distracted, but you can get through the game in eight hours and take away just as much emotion as you would with an SE game. Not to even begin to mention that the area felt totally real. If you stood on the edge of a castle parapet and looked around, you could actually see places you'd been to at other parts of the castle. I stood on one end of the caslte, looked across the area and saw the exact windmill that a few hours earlier I had been standing on.

Ico uses hardly any dialogue, too. You can find the entire script on google and it probably fits on about seven word document pages. The bond between Ico and Yorda is formed by the fact that they hold hands throughout the game, despite the fact that they cannot understand each other.

Really, this game is amazing. I was left in tears by the end, and just thinking about it afterwards left me in an emotional wreck sort of stage, not because the game was sad, but bittersweet. I loved it so much that I wanted to cry. Is that weird? I don't know, hahhaa. But it leaves the player with something unexplainable when all is said and done and fills you with some weird feeling that's completely indescribable unless you've experienced it.

If you've got a PlayStation 2 and a few bucks to spare, go buy this game right now. It's probably the best gaming decision you'll ever, ever make. And even if you don't have a PS2, but rather a PS3, Ico is being rereleased with its prequel game, Shadow of the Collosus as a PS3 collection in 2011. But...really. Just...go. It's really, truly amazing.

This game sounds really interesting...wow, I guess this shows that people remember the days without side-quests/mini-games...XD

I really want to play this now, I added this to the list of the many games I want to play! XD

Put it at the top, because it is better than anything you will ever experience.

I think I actually enjoy it more because there isn't anything extra. Makes me wonder what my real idea of a "great" game is now.