Ico is a game that you experience as opposed to play for cheap thrills, and it’s the protagonist’s bond to his companion that makes it so special. Combat is dull and rather repetitive but thankfully doesn’t impose itself so much as to tarnish the overall experience.
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At its core it’s essentially a puzzle game with platform elements moving from room to room and figuring out how to traverse each section’s obstacles. As mentioned, Ico’s mechanics are fairly basic. After escaping from his immediate captivity he soon finds a waifish girl named Yorda and the two must find a way out of the strange, labyrinthine castle together. Ico (a small boy with horns on his head) has been imprisoned by his fellow villagers inside a giant fortress under the pretense that he is cursed. In Team Ico’s case - with their minimalist approach - less is most definitely more. Although the simplistic approach to gameplay employed by the two undeniably works in their favor, it is thematically and aesthetically speaking where they really excel. Ico and Shadow simply aren’t games that can be judged on their mechanics alone. This is because both titles did, and most tellingly still do, display a level of ambition and creative vision that is practically unparalleled within the medium. These minor shortcomings are still very much evident in the 2011 renditions of each game, but as with their original PS2 counterparts, in the greater scheme of things they’re easily forgivable. For all of the praise that was lavished upon Ico (2001) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005) (and rightly so), there were still some niggling flaws with both titles.