Shadow of the Colossus

Wander on Agro, raising his sword to pinpoint the location of the next colossus.

When a colossus is found, Wander must find its weakness. Each colossus has at least one such weak spot, indicated by a blue sigil. If the area is lit by sunlight, he may use the sword's light once more to illuminate them temporarily. In order to defeat the colossi, Wander often has to find a way to climb onto a colossus and navigate towards its weak spot, holding onto its fur while it thrashes about. Weak spots can only be destroyed with the sword; arrows do minimal damage.

Agro and the Environment

A noticeable trend as the game progresses is the extent to which the environment must be utilized to Wander's advantage if he is to succeed. The first three battles take place on a simple, large, flat area of land; the only goal is to find out how to climb the colossus and attack a weak point that is indefinitely unprotected. However, the next three battles require that some aspect of the environment be used in some way, and the colossus's behavior must also be studied. From this point onwards, Wander must use his surroundings to his advantage more and more; the final three battles in particular require extensive use of the environment, as well as a keen knowledge of how the colossus acts and reacts to environmental changes.

Story

With the death of each colossus, Wander's physical appearance deteriorates. After the death of the twelfth colossus, it is revealed that Wander is being pursued by a group of warriors led by a shaman called Lord Emon. Urged to hurry with his task by Dormin, Wander defeats the last colossus; on his way there, however, Agro falls from a crumbling bridge into a canyon river far below. Lord Emon's company arrives in the Shrine of Worship just as the last temple idol crumbles. When Wander appears, his face is pale, his eyes are glowing, and he has two small horns protruding from his head. As the possessed Wander staggers toward Mono, Lord Emon orders his warriors to kill WanderEmon: "Eradicate the source of the evil. Look... He's possessed by the dead. Hurry up and do it! It is better to put him out of his misery then to exist, cursed as he is." (Shadow of the Colossus). They obey, and one warrior shoots Wander with a crossbow; another stabs him in the chest. Black blood sprays out from the wound and he is covered in darkness as he falls to the floor - a death identical to those suffered by the colossi.

Dormin's consciousness enters Wander's fallen body, and it grows into a colossal giant that explains that his body was separated in order to seal away its powerDormin: "Thou severed Our body into sixteen segments for an eternity in order to seal away Our power..." (Shadow of the Colossus). Wander unknowingly freed a fragment of Dormin after the death of each colossus and stored it inside his bodyDormin: "We have borrowed the body of this warrior..." (Shadow of the Colossus). Lord Emon casts the ancient sword used to kill the colossi into a small pool in the back of the temple hall, creating a whirlwind of light that absorbs both Dormin and Wander. Lord Emon and his men flee the forbidden land. Emon hopes that Wander is someday able to atone for his sinsEmon: "Poor ungodly soul... Now, no man shall ever trespass upon this place again. Should you be alive... If it's even possible to continue to exist in these sealed lands... one day, perhaps you will make atonement for what you've done." (Shadow of the Colossus).

Mono awakens. Agro limps into the temple with a broken back leg. Mono follows him to the pool into which Wander and Dormin were pulled by Lord Emon's spell, finding a male infant with tiny horns on his head. She takes the child with her, following the horse to higher levels of the Shrine of Worship, arriving at a secret garden within the shrine. It is at this point that the game ends.

Characters

Wander is the protagonist of Shadow of the Colossus. He is a determined warrior armed with only a bow and a magic sword; so determined is he that he agrees to perform Dormin's task even though it tells him the price he pays for the granting of his wish will be heavy indeed. Wander's appearance degrades each time he defeats a colossus: his body becomes paler, bruised, bloodied, and calloused (as evidenced by his feet, legs, arms, hands, neck, and face), and his hair becomes darker and more matted than at game's beginning.

Mono — voiced by Hitomi Nabatame.

Mono is the young maiden who Wander seeks to revive by going to the Shrine of Worship. Little is known of her except that, in Wander's own words, she was sacrificed because her fate was cursed. Her relationship to Wander is uncertain. A voice which is possibly hers can be heard while Wander is being transported back to the Shrine of Worship after defeating a colossus. The voice gets louder and clearer each time, but no subtitles are given for the speech, and even at best it is still barely audible.

Agro

Agro is Wander's horse, and as such his means of transportation. Agro is very loyal to Wander; he generally stays as close as possible. He even returns to the Shrine of Worship every time Wander defeats a colossus, and is there to greet him when he awakens from his ordeal. Agro proves to be a key asset in beating several colossi, particularly Dirge (the tenth colossus), Basaran (the ninth colossus), and Phalanx (the thirteenth). His actions during the ninth colossus battle make the battle easier rather than Agro being key in defeating Basaran.

Dormin — voiced by Kazuhiro Nakata (male voice) and Kyoko Hikami (female voice).

Dormin is the mysterious, disembodied entity that resides in the Shrine of Worship. Dormin refers to itself as "We" and speaks with two voices at once, one male and one female. It agrees to revive Mono if Wander can slay the sixteen colossi. The colossi contain fragments of Dormin's essence; slaying the colossi releases these pieces, allowing them to join each other: an event Lord Emon hopes to prevent, and about which Wander does not care even if he realizes it is happening. Dormin is a very ambiguous character with an obvious dual nature—light and dark, male and female, benevolent and malevolent—seemingly represented all at the same time. Dormin does warn Wander that his quest will exact a heavy price.

Emon — voiced by Naoki Bando.

Lord Emon narrates the vision in the game's introduction, but is not seen in person until the cutscene that plays after the defeat of the twelfth colossus. He wears a mask; his face is not revealed until the end of the game. He has a small group of soldiers at his command. Emon is pursuing Wander in order to prevent the use of "the forbidden spell" which, though it will resurrect Mono, will also release Dormin from bondage to the sixteen colossi. He seems to be ambivalent toward Wander. On one hand, he orders his death after seeing what has happened to Wander, although that may have been as much an act of mercy as condemnation, and casts a spell that traps both Dormin and Wander in the shrine. In the end, however, he expresses hope that Wander can atone for what he has done, if he is alive in any shape or form at all.

Colossi

Although the colossi are unnamed in the game, the Japanese preorder "making of" CD lists the Colossi as such:

#	Proper Name	Representation	Latin Name	Latin translation
1	Valus	Minotaur	Minotaurus colossus	Minotaur Colossus
2	Quadratus	Bull	Taurus magnus	Taurus Major
3	Gaius	Knight	Terrestris veritas	Earth Truth
4	Phaedra	Horse	Equus bellator apex	Peerless War Horse
5	Avion	Bird	Avis praeda	Bird of Prey
6	Barba	Bearded Giant	Belua maximus	Great Beast
7	Hydrus	Electric eel	Draco marinus	Sea Serpent
8	Kuromori	Lizard	Parietinae umbra	Wall Shadow
9	Basaran	Tortoise	Nimbus recanto	Storm Echo
10	Dirge	Sand Worm	Harena tigris	Sand Tiger
11	Celosia	Tiger	Ignis excubitor	Flame Guardian
12	Pelagia	Sea Monster	Permagnus pistrix	Great Sea Monster
13	Phalanx	Flying Serpent	Aeris velivolus	Air Sailer
14	Cenobia	Lion	Clades candor	Destruction Luster
15	Argus	Warrior	Praesidium vigilo	Vigilant Sentinel
16	Malus	Sorcerer	Grandis supernus	Grand Superior

Connections to Ico

. For several months during and after the game's release, Ueda maintained that the prequel nature of Shadow of the Colossus was simply his personal take on the game and not its canon nature, intending for each player to decide the truth for himself. Later, during an interview in March, 2006, Ueda revealed, specifically, that the connection exists: the world of the two games is the same, with Shadow of the Colossus taking place an unspecified time before Ico.

A few in-game features hint at this connection:

• Both games feature a fictional language spoken by the voice actors, and accompanied by subtitles in most instances.
• Architectural similarities exist between the two games, in that both prominently feature castles, statues, and ruins.
• A distant structure, visible to the west from the endpoint of the arched bridge, appears to be the giant castle in which Ico is played out. [link]
• At the end of Shadow of the Colossus, Wander/Dormin is shown to have become a baby with horns. Ueda has confirmed this to indicate that Wander/Dormin sires the line of horned boys, of which Ico is a descendant. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}
• The shadowy figures that surround Wander after he defeats a colossus are of a similar design to certain ghosts that rise to challenge Ico; this may be a hint that these spirits have the same origins. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}
• In Ico, immediately after releasing Yorda from her cage, the player comes to a long bridge with a statue at the nearest end. The statue is of a man with horns (one is broken off), who is wearing a tunic and has a hair-cut similar to Wander's.

Some in-game features may simply be hints to Ico and not story related.

• Clothing, and designs on those clothes, are of a similar style. This includes Ico and Wander's tunics looking very similar and Yorda and Mono's dress looking very similar. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}
• Some fans have found a beach that looks very similar to the one shown in Ico's ending.

Early development as Nico

The Nico DVD cover.

During development, Shadow of the Colossus was given the project name Nico and was intended to be a sequel to Ico. A trailer for Nico depicted a group of horned horsemen, wearing masks, attacking and defeating a colossus. Japanese pre-orders of Wander and the Colossus included a bonus DVD with a trailer describing Nico's plot, and an introduction which the development team states they wanted to use in Shadow of the Colossus. The trailer can be viewed [here].

Nico is a Japanese wordplay on ni ("two") and Ico.

European version

The European version of the game was released on February 16 - 17, 2006, depending on the country. Much like the European release for Ico, the game came in a cardboard sleeve displaying various pieces of artwork from the game, and contained four art cards Zone of the Gamers: Wanda to Kyozou/Shadow of the Colossus Scans/Photos. Retrieved from http://z-o-g.org/gallery2/ico/watc/ on 17th July 2006.

The game also came with a "making of" documentary, a trailer for Ico, and an gallery of concept art, accessible from the game's main menu. Sony Computer Entertainment also published a reprint of Ico in Europe at the time of this release, both to promote the game through Ico's reputation, and to allow players who did not buy Ico during its original limited release to complete their collections.

\"Wander\" versus \"Wanda\"

Some confusion has arisen in the European version of the game concerning the official name of the protagonist, due primarily to the manual's usage of "Wanda" while the game itself keeps to "Wander." This mistake in the proper translation has plagued the game from the moment it was first announced for release in the English-speaking market. The confusion results from a failure to account for the Japanese language lacking an "er" phonetic. A common compromise is to use an "ah" syllable instead, in an effort to simulate a non-rhotic "er" phonetic when transliterating foreign words into Japanese. The fact that "Wanda" is a female name in English-speaking countries is merely a coincidence, hence the importance of its romaji representation as "Wander," which, while not used commonly as a proper noun, let alone a noun at all, is at least not instantly perceived as a female name. In the end credits of the game, the character is listed as "Wander". This shows the game's manual to be in error.

Viral marketing campaign

In October 2005, a viral marketing campaign was launched to promote the game. A website called [Giantology.net] posted links to several websites claiming that remains of five giants resembling certain colossi had been unearthed or discovered in various parts of the world. These giants were:

A fake cave painting of the second colossus, found after calling the hidden number in the "Stop Polarneft" site.

• The [Tsunami Giant], resembling Valus (#1), found in Mahabalipuram, India after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
• The [Ice Giant], resembling Quadratus (#2), found in Franz Josef Land, Siberia by [Arkady Simkin and his crew].
• The [Incan Giant], resembling Gaius (#3), found in Nazca, Peru by [Andrew and Ellie Sayre].
• The [Sunken Giant], resembling Hydrus (#7), found in the Sulu Sea by [Ed Guyler].
• The [Giant of Jebal-Barez], resembling Phalanx (#13), found in Kuh-e Jebal Barez, Iran by [Casper Shilling].

There was (for a time) a small puzzle in which the discoverers of the Ice Giant were said to be hiding from their company, called "Polarneft" (of which no record has been found). There was a hidden phone number in the page of their website, "[Stop Polarneft]", which when called gave the password ("polaricegiant") to a [hidden directory] in Stop Polarneft, which featured a movie of a "scan" of the second colossus, a memo, a cave drawing (seen to the right), and a parent directory link to the Shadow of the Colossus branch of the website, which is no longer accessible.

No other news has been heard in a while. The author of Giantology.net last posted on December 26, 2005, claiming to be traveling to Lima, PeruGiantology.net: "My Journey Begins". Retrieved from http://www.giantology.net on 17th July 2006.

Awards

• Wander took fourth place on GameInformer's Top 10 Heroes of 2005 list.
• Shadow of the Colossus won Best Original Game and Best Art Design, and was ranked third overall in Playstation Magazine's 2005 Game of the Year Awards.
• Shadow of the Colossus was a runner-up for 2005 PlayStation 2 Game of the Year in Electronic Gaming Monthly; it also won the award for Mightiest Boss, in which the winner was listed as "Anything from Shadow of the Colossus".
• Shadow of the Colossus won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, and was nominated for Game of the Year, by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.
• The musical score, released on compact disc under the title Roar of the Earth, was named Soundtrack of the Year (in 2005) by Electronic Gaming Monthly.
• Shadow of the Colossus was nominated for Best Original Music, Best Artistic Graphics, Best PS2 Game, and the dubious honour of Most Aggravating Frame Rate in Gamespot's awards for 2005GameSpot's best of 2005. Retrieved from [link], [link], [link] and [link] on 17th July 2006.
• At the 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards, Shadow of the Colossus won awards for Best Character Design, Best Game Design, Best Visual Arts, and Game of the Year, as well as one of three Innovation Honour awards.Colossus looms over GDC Awards. Retrieved from http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=63539 on 29th June 2006
• IGN cited Agro as the best sidekick in the history of video games.Top 10 Tuesday: Best Sidekicks. Retrieved from http://ps2.ign.com/articles/698/698916p1.html on 29th June 2006

References

• Discussion with members of the North American localization team on the official US Playstation message boards (parts [1] [2] [3]).
• Nico DVD liner notes (Japanese pre-order bonus disc).
• [Interview of Fumito Ueda by Wired News].

See also

• Roar of the Earth, the Shadow of the Colossus Original Soundtrack

External links

Official Sites

• [Official International site]
• [Official North American site]
• [Official Japanese site]

Media and Interviews

• [Zone of The Gamers's Shadow of the Colossus Screenshots Gallery]
• [Shadow of the Colossus ~Roar of the Earth~ Original Soundtrack] at MusicBrainz

• [Pre-release feature including interviews with Fumito Ueda]
• ["People Versus Shadow of the Colossus" interview with Fumito Ueda]
• [Making Colossal Games with the Creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus]

• [Shadow Of The Colossus Technology]

Plot Analyses

• [Shadow of The Colossus Analysis]
• [Plot/Theory Analysis FAQ - Contains plot theories and analysis]

 

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