Game Debate #136: Ico

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Never played although I always thought it looked cool. That box art is hideous though 

[RH | 4,903]

I just watched the first 12 minutes of this game from the walkthrough.  Wow, this game is a beautiful nightmare for me.  It's so open, expansive and strikes wonderful balance of both "nothing" and yet quite explorative.  I'm drawn to wide-open spaces.

It's a nightmare, though, because I'd have to explore ever accessible nook and cranny, and I simply don't have time for that, even though I wish I did.  I think I would have loved this game when it came out.  It's just not one for me now.

Oh, and does this game not have a HUD or pause menu?  I guess that's cool, but not necessary.  Maybe it does but as I've looked through this playthrough, I'm not seeing the menu being accessed and the lack of a HUD makes me think they try to make it uber-immersive by removing those standard functions.

[fox | 1,667]

@RH

It is a pretty linear game that is locked into a single location.  But there is a great use of space and scale and atmosphere to make it feel bigger.  It’s a fairly short playthru, so if it vibes with you at all I’d  make time to check it out.

[Sumez | 2,950]

If you don't love this game, I think you probably don't have a heart!

8/10

[Sumez | 2,950]

On 1/11/2023 at 9:49 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

Seriously, this is the image you chose to represent the game? 

[Sumez | 2,950]

On 1/12/2023 at 8:15 PM, darkchylde28 said:

Not having any luck finding anyone claiming to have completed the game unarmed, or documentation for a complete unarmed walkthrough.

I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of places that requires you to use the stick as a torch, or even defeat all enemies. I seriously had no idea it was possible to even progress without picking it up, that's quite amazing!

On 1/12/2023 at 8:35 PM, RH said:

It's a nightmare, though, because I'd have to explore ever accessible nook and cranny, and I simply don't have time for that, even though I wish I did.  I think I would have loved this game when it came out.  It's just not one for me now.

The game actually has no real exploration, so that shouldn't be an issue. The progression is completely linear, but it is very good at retaining its sense of location, giving you a constantly expanding feeling of the layout of the castle as you move around until you finally start coming around to new perspectives for earlier locations towards the end. I honestly think Dark Souls took at lot of inspiration from this game.

On 1/12/2023 at 8:35 PM, RH said:

Oh, and does this game not have a HUD or pause menu?  I guess that's cool, but not necessary. 

Not having a HUD is pretty much the entire point of the game, honestly. Immersion is everything when it comes to the experience of playing Ico. It was the first game where I thought you could really feel every step taken by your avatar, rather than just floating over a map. That stuff is common now, so it probably feels less novel playing the game today, but it was a crazy experience at the time.
Ico is also still today the game most commonly referenced when talking "game design by subtraction". The developer made a point out of them having pretty much removed every single potential component to the game that isn't completely essential to the experience, resulting in a very minimalistic adventure that is extremely good at getting its point through.

It's hard to really explain it because it's super subtle, and I think going too in depth about what makes the game memorable is almost spoiler territory - but I guess you just have to try it.

[TDIRunner | 2,737]

On 1/12/2023 at 1:07 PM, RH said:

 I will literally try to do everything I can before I do what I'm suppose to do. 

I often do the same.  Sometimes if you have two paths to choose from, I try to figure out which is the correct way to go so that I can go the other way and explore.  Sometimes you go the "explore" route and later find out you were going in the correct direction, which means you missed out on whatever was down the other path.

 

 

[TDIRunner | 2,737]

On 1/12/2023 at 1:15 PM, DoctorEncore said:

The US  box art is hideous though 

I fixed it for you.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

22 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

I fixed it for you.

Absolutely. I have the PS3 remaster that came with the reversible box art and flipped that thing immediately.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

On 1/14/2023 at 6:33 AM, Sumez said:

If you don't love this game, I think you probably don't have a heart!

8/10

I probably don't!

I never seem to like these artsy-farsty games as much as most people though.

I'll give it this: It certainly beats Journey.

[Sumez | 2,950]

I can see why you'd see it as artsy, but I don't think you really need to look deep into it to appreciate it. It's the kind of game that just grabs at your feelings. Or, it grabbed at mine.  

[wongojack | 214]

I actually played this through for the first time in 2023, so I feel comfortable voting.  I love these polls!

 

Here's what I wrote in the Games Beaten thread:

Ico - the ultimate backlog game.  Everyone knows about it but few have finished.  Well, I did.  I'd say that pretty much everything you've heard about Ico is true.  I was playing the blurry PS2 version because I am playing another PS2 game right now, and I've got them both installed on an internal HD.  Anyway - when Ico is good, it is really good.  The puzzle solving is very engaging, and the minimalist storytelling does an excellent job of conveying a sense of mystery and agency for the player to complete the game.  The game also doesn't overstay it's welcome and even felt a bit short.

The knocks on Ico are well known.  The combat is repetitive and serves only to slow the player down.  Without it, a short game would be even shorter.  The save system is also a bit unfriendly for 2023 gamers as you are expected to advance to a specific spot or you lose all progress.  EXCEPT that sometimes when you die, you get to start at a checkpoint - confusing, but not terrible.  Overall, I'd say that in 2023, Ico is an enjoyable experience, but it has a lot of competition from 20+ years of short, quirky indy games that can do some of the same things a bit better now.  I think I am going to give Ico a strong 3 out of 5, and on a binary scale (thumbs up or down), I'd give it a thumbs up.

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

GREAT game; easy 8/10 for me.

[wongojack | 214]

On 1/11/2023 at 7:02 PM, darkchylde28 said:

I was never very impressed with it, and never finished it.  It was fairly pretty, especially as a PS2 title, but to me, it was nearly all gameplay with a little bit of forced atmosphere to try to fill out where a story should have been.

Funny story, when I finally sat down and got around to playing it, I apparently got about 50-60% through the game before hitting a point where I just couldn't make any progress.  So, after a few hours, I broke down and looked up a guide.  @Rhapsody98 was in the room and either reading over my shoulder as I looked it up or heard my commentary on it, as I discovered what was up.  The solution to the room I was in was simple, "hit all the bad guys in the room with your stick as quickly as possible, then climb up, pull the princess after you, and scoot."  I was left scratching my head, saying out loud, "Stick?  What stick?"  So I paged back to the beginning of the walkthrough, only to discover that I hadn't picked up a piece of my destroyed cage on the very first screen, but had instead been playing the game on "super hard mode," having to dodge around all the floaty bad guys without it.  I swore a bit and yelled about the the damned stick, all the while @Rhapsody98 is cackling, and doing her best to get air while being paralyzed by the lunacy and idiocy of my predicament.  So, I ended up going all the way back to the beginning, got the stick, then getting back to the point where I'd originally gotten stuck, got to the screen past it, saved, then forgot to go back and finish it, probably for more than a decade now, lol.

Holy cow - I just went back and read this.  I have a pretty clear memory of this since I played it in the last year.  I also did not pick up the stick right away (I clicked and he didn't pick it up), but I couldn't even save her from that first guy, so after she died a few times, I eventually stood on the right pixel and pushed the right button to pick up the flaming stick.

Get The STICK!!!

Later there are piles of sticks that give you the chance to pick up a new one.  You definitely need that stick to light lanterns and stuff.  If you were trying to play on super hard mode, you'd likely have several places where you'd actively have to DROP the stick to ram the bad guys instead.  It would make the somewhat pointless fighting segments completely intolerable IMO.

[Gentlegamer | 174]

10/10 puzzles and atmosphere, -1 for shitty combat = 9/10