Backlog Burnout Review of Shadow of the Colossus: Joy and sorrow in a forbidden land

System(s): PS2, PS3
Release Year(s): 2005, 2011
Rating: Teen
Current Amazon Price: $59.90 (PS2), $19.39 (PS3)

The Skinny:

Holding a very secure spot in my top 3 games of all time, Shadow of the Colossus is a beautiful, fun, challenging game that succeeds at everything it attempts to do. An interactive work of art, this game is an absolute triumph that provides exciting action, perfect art direction and design, and an emotional experience very few games have achieved.

The Meat:

Last week I talked to you about the often forgotten gem that was Ico. This week I bring you the reason that people don't really talk about it anymore. While Team ICO created an extremely solid game in Ico their next offering completely blew it out of the water and out of people's minds. Shadow of the Colossus is a game that I believe anyone who enjoys video games needs to play at some point, and with the extremely reasonably priced Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD collection for PS3 there has never been a better time to do it.

First thing's first. I will reveal nothing of the story of Shadow in this review. The game is an experience that is best enjoyed blind so my comments will be intentionally vague so as not to ruin it for you. What I will do however is describe what your task within the game is. Your sole purpose in this game is to hunt down and destroy the sixteen giant beings that populate the beautiful, desolate landscape of the Forbidden Land in which the game takes place. That's it. While at first glance this may not seem like enough content to fill out an entire game I can assure you it is. Gameplay is essentially broken into three different categories. Locating and travelling to each Colossi, figuring out how to destroy it, and then executing your plan.

Step one in your quest is locating your quarry. This is done by standing in sunlight, raising your sword above your head, and using the way the light reflects off of the blade to pinpoint the location of your next foe. This is a really cool mechanic because it really provides a supernatural and mystic air to the proceedings and gives the feeling that you're on an epic adventure for a higher purpose. After the sunbeams give you an idea of the general idea of where the next fight will occur your task becomes to traverse one of the most beautiful game worlds ever created. What is so cool about it is how there's really nothing in it, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. Aside from the occasional lizard or bird its just you and your horse exploring the remains of what was once clearly a living, breathing place but is now a haunting, empty land. There is so much story that is never said in words oozing out of every ruin, temple, and forest that you traverse. The world sucks you in and captures your imagination. Anyone who says games can't be art has never seen this game.

After you have shaken the feeling of wonder and sadness that the world invokes and actually manage to bring yourself to the lair of the next Colossi the action begins. The music swells and you find yourself face to face with some of the most epic and unique boss fights in gaming. Some of the Colossi are vaguely people shaped, some are animals, and some are just plain terrifying. One thing that they all have in common is that they all have distinct behaviors and personalities that are immediately apparent. Some are passive, some are hostile, and some seem sad. It is truly amazing how unique and unusual each Colossi is and each one brings a distinct flavor to the proceedings that prevents the game from ever getting stale, even for a moment. Their uniqueness doesn't just stop with their looks or personalities either. Each one is fought in a completely different way. While the way you kill them is always the same (climbing onto their enormous bodies like a flea and stabbing their weak-points) the specifics of each fight are completely distinct. Some involve using the environment to your advantage in order to disable the colossus or to get yourself onto it in some way. Some involve causing the colossus to do something in order to hurt itself in some way. Still others require you to fight from horseback while dodging and riding like mad. Each one is fresh, unique, and extremely fun.

Finally, once you've analyzed the landscape, personality, and nature of each battleground and colossus its time to actually do your duty. You climb aboard the giants and locate their weaknesses. These behemoths don't like being climbed on and will do everything in their power to get you off of them. This creates extremely exciting and tense moments, where you're about to land the killing blow but the creature is shaking and roaring, trying to throw you off, as your grip meter slowly drains. Dropping from the head of a 200 foot tall giant is a doom that always is lurking and providing an incentive to find secure rest points and handholds. Its difficult to explain just how epic and thrilling each fight is, but I'll try. Take the most exciting, large scale, and unbelievably crazy boss fight you've ever done in a video game and make it better. That's every fight in this game. Yeah.

The Bottom Line:

Melding aspects of puzzle games, platforming, climbing, adventure, and action, Shadow of the Colossus is a triumph in every sense. Its a beautiful game, with a mysterious story, exceptional art design, sublime gameplay, and an atmosphere that is second to none. This game receives my highest of recommendations and I envy those of you who just might still get to experience it for the first time.

Backlog Burnout Review of Ico: Living in his younger brother's Shadow

System(s): PS2, PS3
Release Year(s): 2001, 2011
Rating: Teen
Current Amazon Price: $74.99 (PS2), $19.99 (PS3)

The Skinny:

Ico is a haunting, beautiful game that is often forgotten due to it's impeccable "sequel" Shadow of the Colossus. Artistic, moving, well crafted, and only occasionally marred by awkward AI or character control Ico is an excellent, somewhat overlooked gem that you should definitely check out.

The Meat:

Shadow of the Colossus is in the top five of many people's best games of all time lists. It's consistently heralded as a work of art and is deserving of all of the praise it receives. But we aren't here for that game. We're here to talk about Ico. The "older brother" game of Shadow that, for some reason, people don't seem to talk about or like nearly as much. Is it just one long escort quest? Absolutely. Is it as good as Shadow? No. Can the AI occasionally drive you up the wall? No doubt. Is the combat kind of meh? No argument here. Do any problems that the game has fall to the wayside while you're playing it and you you realize you've lost yourself in a beautiful, desolate haunted castle and couldn't care less about minor grievances? No question.

Ico was the first major release of a development team inside SCE Japan Studio known as Team ICO. Recently  It is a puzzle/platforming game in which a young boy named Ico with horns is taken to an ancient ruin by the elders of his village and sealed inside a pod and apparently left to die. After escaping his pod he finds a strange girl locked in a cage who speaks in a language neither he nor the player can understand. This girl is hounded by mysterious shadow creatures and has some unknown connection to the decrepit castle our hero has found himself in. Together, young Ico and Yorda (mysterious foreign girl) try to escape the castle.

The entire game is one long environmental puzzle. Your only goal is to escape the castle, but this is much easier said than done. Many doors are blocked by odd statues. These statues react to Yorda and move aside for her, so the goal of most rooms is to get Yorda to the statues. While Ico is very nimble, Yorda is not at all. This creates a really fun dynamic in the game where Ico goes scrambling along tiny ledges and climbing pipes on walls to get to a higher platform, and then reaching down to pull Yorda up after him or drop a box down for her to climb up. It makes you feel like you're really helping her and she in turn helps you by opening the way forward through the castle. I personally grew attached to Yorda throughout the course of the game, which is impressive considering that she never says a word you can understand at any point.

Threatening this new budding relationship are the denizens of the castle, the ghostly shadow beasts. These dark creatures will pop up from time to time and try to steal Yorda away. They will knock Ico down, pick Yorda up, and attempt to force her through a shadow portal. If they succeed a shock wave comes from the portal, that turns Ico to stone. Yorda will also be captured if Ico leaves her alone for too long. Your job in these situations is to fight off the shadow beasts with a stick that you pick up near the beginning of the game. The combat is extremely simple, with one button for swing sword. However, there are subtle layers of nuance to it. Some of the beasts will go for Ico and attempt to incapacitate him while others bee line straight for Yorda. Or a big hulking beast will distract you in front while a smaller one flies around to sneak up on Yorda from behind. It creates tense situations where you're trying to protect her from multiple foes or chase down a flying beast that is carrying her off. While not an impressive or mind blowing combat system, it is effective and enjoyable in its own right.

The puzzle design of this game is sublime. Figuring out how to get through each room is a unique and enjoyable experience and is really divided into two parts. First off, you need to figure out how to get Ico through the room. Then you need to figure out how to get Yorda through. While some of the puzzles are fairly simple, some of them took a little outside the box thinking to unravel. Are there objects in the room I can make a bridge out of? What would smacking this do? The game perfectly walked that line of difficult puzzle solving without ever dipping into the annoying or arbitrary zone that many games fall prey to. If you're the kind of person who uses walkthroughs for games, this is one I would strongly encourage you not to do so for. The entirety of  this game is figuring out how to traverse each room, so having someone tell you how to do it really defeats the purpose and takes away the joy of accomplishment.

One of the most impressive features of Ico is how effective the atmosphere of this game is. I mean that in more ways than one. The environments are both beautiful and forbidding at the same time creating a sense of wonderment coupled with unease at all times. The way that Yorda behaves timidly and strangely, and yet seems to understand far more about what is going on than you do is intriguing and draws you in. The fantastical designs of the shadow beasts hunting Yorda are truly remarkable. Some just look like men whereas others are hulking monstrosities or bizarre birdlike creatures. There is a minimalist attitude to everything that I find refreshing. There is very little music so what is there is all the more effective. The castle is desolate and empty, except for the powerful moments when it isn't. There's no real story being told directly, so every little snippet you can discern for yourself is that much more rewarding.It is just an incredible journey that can't be adequately explained and has to be experienced.

There are a few minor gripes I have with this game. Occasionally Yorda just won't cooperate. You'll stand at the top of a ladder and yell for her to climb up and she'll just stand there for 30 seconds before doing it. Sometimes she'll refuse to jump a gap three times, and then just do it. It's rare but these moments are really immersion breakers because they show that Yorda isn't a person, she's just a stupid AI. Also, sometimes Ico won't do exactly what you tell him. If you've played Assassins creed you know what I'm talking about. Yes of course I wanted you to jump at that angle directly off the platform instead of 2 inches to your left. That's what I needed.

The Bottom Line:

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Ico is a beautiful game that any serious video game fan should play. It has enjoyable gameplay, wonderful artistic design, an appealing main concept, and a fantastic atmosphere. Small technical gripes here and there do break immersion or cause frustration, but these moments are few and far between. Oh and let me save you a major headache and say that you can swing on chains using the circle button. You're welcome. Took me far too long to figure that out. With its recent re-release as part of the Shadow of the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD remaster collection you should definitely check it out. And, for its low price of $20 you get this wonderful game as well as its "sequel" which is one of the greatest games ever made. But that's a discussion for another time. Thanks for reading!

Backlog Burnout Review of Tales of Graces f: A tale well worth telling

System(s): Playstation 3

Release Year: 2012

Rating: Teen

Current Amazon Price: $37.70

The Skinny:

This touching and extremely well crafted game is a must play for fans of Japanese RPGs or action RPGs in general. With loveable characters, a fantastic battle system, and an effective musical score this tale is a blast from start to finish.

The Meat:

Tales of Graces was released as a Japan only Wii exclusive in 2009. However, American fans of Namco Bandai’s Tales games were clamoring to get their hands on the latest release. In 2012, they got their wish in a PS3 exclusive port of Tales of Graces titled Tales of Graces f. The game boasts boosted visuals and a continuation of the original game’s story titled Lineage and Legacies.  While we here in the states never got access to the original game, I’m not crying over that as this port is an extremely good game that is enjoyable and solid throughout its entire 50+ hour story.

This game has two primary strengths: its characters and its battle system. Let’s start with taking a look at the characters. You play as Asbel Lhant, the energetic and mischievous son of the duke of the village of Lhant. The game begins when as children Asbel and his much more responsible brother Hubert take a little rule breaking adventure to the nearby wilderness of Lhant Hill, where they find a strange girl with amnesia. From here the story follows them through their childhood and budding friendships with the crown prince of their Kingdom of Windor, Richard. This segment also exists to lay the foundation for the problems and trials that will face the characters in the future. While this initial part of the game may seem slow and particularly small in scale for people familiar with the normal earth shattering and world saving antics common to Japanese RPGs it is in fact one of the game’s greatest and unique features. This time spent with the characters as children helps give background and foundation for all of the events that take place later in the game and in their lives. It allows you to understand the characters and their motivations better than any other game I have ever played. In most games, especially JRPGs, a character will reference their mysterious past or a figure from their childhood and it’s just that. Them discussing it. In Tales of Graces f when they reference childhood events you understand exactly how they feel, because you were there and experienced it with them. This adds a personal layer to the story and events of the game that I have never experienced before in a video game and is truly an unusual and pleasant device that I hope more games in the series implement. While the story isn’t as robust or unusual as some other games I’ve played, you feel more invested and interested in it as a result of this style of presentation and it makes the story much more engaging.

The characters are brought to life through exceptional voice acting and the skit system, which fans of the series will be familiar with. For new players, the skit system involves optional cutscenes which the player can trigger at certain points in the game. These skits range from silly, farcical moments among the cast to deep, personal internal monologues when characters are trying to make important decisions or work through personal problems. Regardless of their content, all of them are enjoyable, well written sequences involving animated portraits of the characters, and they really bring vibrancy and life to the proceedings.

The games second greatest strength is its battle system. In a unique new twist on the series typical combat MP has been completely disposed of. Instead, your characters all have a rapidly regenerating resource called CC, which is used every time the character attacks. The combat is based off of A artes and B artes, or in a more simple sense basic attacks and magic attacks. They both draw from the CC pool and can be combo-ed together. B artes all take a set amount of CC, but A artes are where the interesting and strategic aspect of the combat comes in. A artes work in a combo tree, with each step of the combo taking more CC to pull off. For example, you start with a 1 CC basic attack, and then move on to a 2 CC sideslash followed by a 4 CC flipkick. CC regenerates rapidly when guarding or being passive so you are chaining combos left and right, however proper management of your CC and how it reacts with your A and B arte chains adds a new level of involvement and care typically not seen in Japanese RPGs. It’s a fun, interesting, and refreshing system that never gets old. And that is definitely a good thing, as there is a lot of fighting to be done.

Over the course of the game your group will fight quite often. Battles are typically encountered by running into enemies on the field, which transitions the player into a battle screen. At the conclusion of battle the player will receive both xp for basic levels and for whichever “title” they have equipped. As these titles gain levels they give stat boosts or teach new skills that can be kept even after the title is switched out for a new one, which can be done at any time. It’s a refreshing system that allows for excellent character customization. One thing I will say is that to effectively play the game a lot of leveling needs to be done, so if excessive fighting and experience gaining isn’t your bag then you may have issues with the game’s level curve.

Finally, the music of the game is excellent. Not in the Nobuo Uematsu, stand out in your memory forever kind of way, but in more of a subdued, effective manner. At no point in the game did I feel the music was out of place or going against the tone. At all times I felt it was enhancing and facilitating the events on screen and at several points I stopped just to enjoy it. While it may not be a particularly memorable score, it is still fantastic in its own right and is an interesting mix of pop, classical, and heavy rock themes.

The Bottom Line:

 Tales of Graces f is an excellent, character focused action JRPG with a loveable cast, fun combat, and excellent sound work from the music to the voice acting. While the story is nothing ground breaking, the characters make it an extremely enjoyable journey from beginning to end. The added Lineage and Legacies mode found in this port is a welcome addition as well, adding at least 15 additional hours of story and gameplay as well as he “true” final boss. All in all I give this game an extremely high recommendation.