I'm glad to see this. It's a unique channel in that it looks at games in ways I've not seen before, but it makes note of things I'd reflected on before. My favourites are the "weird places in maps" ones. I used to load into Halo 2 Zanzibar map by myself and just walk around. The far end of the beach and the little tower across from camp froman are very cozy spots
Shadow of the Colossus locks the intro area like every other game, but if you play the game enough and build up your stamina, then you can just climb back up to it. You can even explore the area in the final cutscene. Games don't naturally let you do that, especially when it involves a legitimate 8 minute walk. Secrets like that are rare. It even existed in the demo, but I don't think they were expecting anyone to do it in the demo. I wish games surprised us more like that.
rain world downpour has a secret where you can loop around to the beginning of the tutorial area in outskirts through a hidden passage in outer expanse
They definitely didn't expect us to do it in the demo. You had to do the diagonal climbing jump glitch to severely reduce stamina usage to get up there, and you were immediately greeted by a headless Mono model just kinda standing there. IIRC the area up top wasn't even totally finished in time for the demo.
I like that they use wind to keep you from leaving the forbidden lands instead of just an invisible wall. It's the attention to little details like that that makes this such a timeless masterpiece.
I remember hearing (might have just been a theory) that the garden atop the shrine is the only uncorrupted part of the Forbidden Land, and the fruit there cleanses the corruption from Wander's body... including the gifts of health and stamina that it gave him.
It's an interpretation that Ueda himself provided in an interview with 1UP in 2009. 1UP: Why does the fruit in the secret garden take away your stamina? Is there any specific reason for this in the story, or is it just a way to reset your stamina meter? Ueda: The fruit in the ancient land was set to get you closer to non-human existence. The [secret garden's] fruit was set to return you to a human one.
13:00 I'm disgustly overeducated in this gamd's development history , but there was actually some sort of plans to explain where the colossi came from! Below the cliff , there is a tiny cave inside the mountain that you would never see unless you used some free-cam function , so its completly unused and just left there for the most brainrotted person to find (me :DDD)
I love this game and its aesthetics so much, it’s so comforting to me oddly. In the HD version there’s these little shiny spots on the ground all over the world and if you collect them all you can open a secret door to the sword of dormin and it is beyond cool. The secret has so much history to it and it’s amazing. Hunting all the spots is a very good way to explore parts of the world you normally wouldn’t!
10:43: Weelllll... here's the thing... there actually sorta IS context and backstory for stuff in SotC (it got leaked a few years ago). However, like with EVERYTHING related to this game, it answers 1 question while raising about 5000 more. To quickly summarize what the leaked backstory is, SotC takes place hundreds of years after a series of apocalyptic natural disasters that drastically reduced the human population, and the survivors had to band together into tribes to not die. One of these tribes, the Dormin Tribe, headed south and found the peninsula that eventually became the Forbidden Lands. They found a lot of Colossi there, and blamed them as some sort of evil gods who caused the apocalypse, and started killing them, building the Shrine of Worship (which I assume was not its original name) and the smaller shrines that serve as the game's save points where they killed a Colossus to mock them. However, killing the Colossi eventually corrupted the people that made up the Dormin Tribe, making them form into the entity from the game (which is why Dormin speaks with both a male and female voice, the Tribe was made up of men and women). Now, did you notice the lack of explanation for ANY of the other structures in the game, both why they were built and how? 'Cause I sure did. On top of that, it’s HEAVILY implied that the Colossi were created specifically when Dormin (as in, the entity/being) was sealed away, to contain its power, so how the hell were there Colossi before then? It creates a kind of chicken-and-egg scenario, which, again, is not explained. It's a backstory I honestly can't make heads or tails of. It does confirm that yes, SotC is post-apocalyptic (though frankly that should've been obvious to anyone with a working pair of eyeballs in their head) but leaves so much unexplained and vague that it's kinda frustrating. People can go ahead and debate amongst themselves if they wish, from here, I will not reply to any of them.
This. I think the title of this video is a bit misleading cause as u said there is context. Even without the background informtation there is enough to give u some kind of idea what this land is: old, barren, destroyed and almost forgotten. It doesnt need more context per se because it has its purpose in giving the player the feeling of loneliness which is a heavy topic of this game. With every colossi slane u make this already dreaded place even more empty of its life. And i think that this is the strongest point of the world from SotC, it tells a story without words and gives u emotions without a whole story behind it just by existing.
@@damonullerick6572 Really? I felt the backstory explained everything. There was a whole tribe here, them constructing the other ruins seems like a perfectly reasonable assumption. Nothing in the game implies that the Colossi were created when Dormin was sealed away, I always interpreted that one line as Dormin was sealed inside the statues in the Shrine of Worship.
The thing is... that this particular "leak" is probably just a fanfiction someone made and called it a leak. I remember people on reddit saying that the only person who got access to this information was known for making things up and pretending they were a member of Team Ico. He was banned because of that. The true leaks were things related to images of the unsued content of the game, provided by a real member of Team Ico.
@@juromori I was unaware if that's the case. It's hard to find details about this because the team making the project was controversial in their own right apparently. Could you link me to where he was exposed as a fraud?
@juromori Yeah... actually I read about that just the other day. Oops. '^^ Guess this game’s mysteries will always be just that, huh? Though truth be told, I do kinda like the post-apocalyptic angle, though I'd probably throw out everything else if writing an SotC adaptation that provides more backstory.
To me the colossi are giant golems made with the purpose of guarding a piece of Dormin that stay dormant and awaken when they sense the ancient sword nearby, their whole purpose being to defend themselves or stay away from the sword's reach, so the piece of Dormin that they're guarding inside them doesn't escape
I feel that Forbidden Area was devastated in massive conflict ages ago that caused Player Character's culture to leave it. That conflict broke Dormin into colossi. Effects of that conflict are brutal as even time itself seems to be stuck. It is not wild area - it is abandoned for a reason and forbidden for even bigger reasons, but it being too dangerous is not reason for it. Dormin is too dangerous to even risk becoming intact.
The game's story bible was leaked a few years ago by one of the devs, you can read the entire backstory. It's nothing too complex but it was pretty interesting.
@@GhabulousGhoti I personally don't like them if game is as ambiguous as this and Ico are. Everything necessary is in the game itself and there must be some connection between Dormin, Ico and Queen.
Watching you explore this game reminds me of the time I read The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft: the main character finds an impossibly ancient city tucked away deep in an untouched land and buried by the sands of eons, trying to put the pieces together and uncover the purpose of the ruins. Seeing this game stripped bare of its actual game mechanics or plot gives me the same vibe; a lonely archeologist trying to comprehend the ruins of a strange and mad kingdom built for Colossi so above the human condition. The question is... what will become of you when you disturb the gods that lay dormant beneath the ground? Full disclosure: I know nothing about this game. I just love the vibes lol
What even casual observer notices: occupants were very skilled at building stone structures. Their religion was most likely animistic placing great emphasis on appeasing spirits.
SotC has one of my favorite settings for that exact reason. It gives you absolutely nothing, while still being filled with tons of weird little locations. It's one of the first times a game really made the setting feel real to me, and it was probably only because all the stuff that was supposed to fill the map that got cut.
Played the OG on ps2 and I swear the first few minutes it feel like the realest most awe striking thing ever. The silence, the buildings with no explanation of why you’re there or where you are. It’s the og liminal space game 😂
There is explanation why Wander broke several, very important laws: he took death of his wife very badly. So badly he would rather risk horrifying death and uncertainty just for chance to bring her back.
ye, and I feel like the ps2 aesthetics add so much to it. truly the best game of the ps2 era, the best era for these fake sandboxes game, liminal space games as you called them lol
I actually did make the climb legitimately, I collected all the fruit and lizards, did multiple play throughs. I had gotten close many times, but the final time I just barely made it up to the top. It was a magical moment, probably my favourite moment in a video game, I even ran all the way across the bridge to see if I could exit lol.
Shadow of the Colossus just begs to have a BoTW style traversal system modded in, one that lets you climb on all the different surfaces and get around more easily so you could explore more thoroughly. Alas, aside from the views and hidden spaces, there's not that much more to see. I guess that the ancient people that used to live in these lands took everything not nailed down or too big to carry with them when they left. Celosia is referred to as a guardian of the flames by Dormin, so it probably somehow keeps them lit. Which is funny because it seems to be afraid of fire, but probably mostly because you're waving a lit stick in its face to get it to fall off a ledge. I'd be upset too if I had baked a cake and someone threw it in my face.
YEAH, THE SECRET GARDEN! Knew you wouldn't let me down, man. That climb took me forever and it's great to see that you did it! I actually did my climb legitimately by hunting the stamina boosting things for a long time to get enough and even then just barely had enough. Also, I'd love to see you do one on ICO or The Last Guardian sometime. They're not AS weird and mysterious, but they're up there.
13:08 i think he was probably climbing all the way up as wonder approached. I picture he'd just stabbed his knife-like weapon into the cliff below where we could see, before reaching up further with their upper hand
There are plenty of bodies of water with no streams or rivers feeding them. These lakes, ponds, wetlands, etc, are fed by precipitation, groundwater exposure, or artesian springs.
Guess I wasn't quite done. If you keep the camera slightly above the water while keeping Wonder's body under the water, you will swim faster. It's tricky to pull off. Yes, I knew about the Secret Garden even before the game was released. You could access it in the demo. No, you're not the only one to explore the entire beach. lol. Never get tired of listening to discussions about S.O.T.C.
This is my absolute favourite video game, and favourite video game world. The only reason for that? The beautiful, desolate landscapes filled with nothing. I've spent dozens upon dozens of hours just wandering these lands, seeing the weird little lonely areas and quietly taking in the scenery. If I could live anywhere, it would be here.
You can only use the diagonal jump exploit and rest spot in the PS2 US (NTSC) version - in the later PAL version these were fixed, so that's why it takes four playthroughs.
15:35 You might not be far off given that his feet are indeed physically bolted to the floor. He cannot move from that spot at all. 20:15 Opposing the fruits outside which raise your health instead (can't remember if you mentioned it last video)- combined with the ending and its connection to ICO, which has some interesting implications.
15:11 After finishing the game and unlocking the time attack mode, you can earn special items and one of them is the invisibility cloak, this way the colossus will not see you and you can explore the arena of the last colossus freely without worrying about being hit by it.
The colossi probably don't function like animals we're familiar with. They probably don't eat or even breath. Although the fact they roar means they have lungs, or at least it would seem so. Around 3:36 you didn't look up at the ancient tree hanging over the mountain edge. Get the "Cloak Of Deception" & you can easily explore colossus 16's lair.
Randomly recommended this video. Haven't finished watching the video yet, but Sotc's structures feel like various arenas feel like they they were designed for gameplay first and being structures human beings would actually use last, which isn't a bad thing. The context of humanity has been removed for a better game play experience.
4:50 Lol you ain't the only one out there, I've been up and down that beach when I did an All Lizards run, I made sure to hit every cool little bit in the map. That beech is very similar to the beach from the ending of Ico and might be the same location?
"i would say he could cool off from all these geysers..." yeah regardless of the toppeling mechanic, geysers are scalding hot. great start of the video, i don't recommend standing near a geyser to "cool off".
This is genuinely my comfort channel. My sister is on life support and your videos bring me the peace and calm that I need to get through this. Thank you Pretzel, now time to actually play shadow of the colossus
I heard, around a decade ago, that the colossi were buildings or structures given life when a piece of dormins soul was put into them, or maybe the other way around, to prevents dormin from ever being resurrected again
I did that climb path without the diagonal jumps glitch. It was 10 years ago, i dont even remember how i did that. I just remember the felling of euphoria to get on top of the castle, it was amazing.
Lovely. And I climbed up there legit too, took multiple playthroughs and lots of lizard eating. And I ran all the way across the bridge... and all the way back. 15 minutes of running!
Fantastic video as always! If your looking for ideas, I'd like to recommend Vermintide 2 for a tour video. The amount of detail fatshark put into each one of their levels (particularly in V2) that players would never notice while fighting hordes of rats is astounding. I've done it myself using the "no enemies" mod on the workshop to take in the incredible ambience and detail they created, and I highly recommend it to anyone who like doing that type of thing themselves. A quick example off the top of my head is at the end of the "against the grain" mission, where there are little offering of food and drinks on the waystone portal you use to escape (that isnt there in any other level). This ancient shrine/magic leyline was created by elves several millennia ago, was stumbled onto by some human peasant farmers on the edge of the forest, was likely covered in moss and vines, and they thought "must be important to some god or another, better not piss them off!" before cleaning it up and leaving some gifts (or at least thats how I interpret it)
4:45 I know I've been to that spot for sure! Can't remember if it was PS2 or PS4 lol but I remember the disappoint of coming to the end of the beach. And I feel like I've barely explored that game
Loved the video. I think the Monster Hunter series could fit quite nicely with this format. There's so many locations and nice spots throughout the whole series it'd take a while to get through all of them.
The white tails of lizards by the shrines can be eaten for extra stamina. Which would reduce the number of playthroughs to just 1-2 before having enough stamina to climb the main shrine. And yes the developers wanted you to climb it. With how little the game has in the world it sticks out as the final challenge
I wonder if they are only moving around because Dorman said "hey go kill these dudes" and then turned them on. I like to think a lot of it was specifically made to fulfill a prophecy and then abandoned as the act of creation was their form of worship. So they left their perfect sacred lands. Wanders people I mean It sounds cool so I like it.
A game I fell in love with recently is way of the samurai. It's a ps2 era game that had a pretty neat world to explore. Won't lie, no caves. But there is a steel foundry that you can climb, and a man who is nice enough to tell you it's (Admittedly brief) history.
I read it before the first movie came out. I'm SO glad I did, I'm glad I could appreciate the visuals without trying to figure out what was going on plotwise. 😅
There's another path up the center tower which only requires a single playthrough worth of lizards to climb. I did that climb legit since this is the first time I'm hearing about diagonal jumping.
One interesting thing about the desert where you fight 13 is that there's a bunch of odd giant stone rings scattered across the sand that no one can agree on a purpose for
Back in the day I got up there. 2006. One must harvest Lizard tails. Most are by Save Shrines. An empty world yet has a way of... I guess testing us. lol.
Monster hunter world has a neat sand cave in one of the levels! And if you want to see a short vid about people really in love with shadow of the colossus, give jacob geller’s vid on the secret seekers a try!
Dude you should definitely try Shenmue im sure youre gonna love it, its like a timr capsule for the 80s Japan with a small town all NPCs have their routines and have dialogues as well. Pretty amazing stuff
I like to see interviews with the level designers so I can get an idea of what were they thinking putting these things there? What did they think used to be there?
Playing this game as a kid (the year it came out) is probably the reason I always turn music off in free-roam games. I mean, music doesn't just start playing in your head when you walk outside irl... Why would I need that in a game? (LOVE your videos, btw)
A detail I've just noticed is how the contrast in this game (and other games of that generation) seems low. The lack of modern dynamic lighting being the culprit perhaps. But this low contrast of sorts gives my eyes a rest. It's good like this.
i wished they made more games in the World of ICO and SoTC (possibilly the Guardian too), i love how surrounded of mystery and full of interesting concepts it is, and how dreamy it feels with this very bright lightning and graphics. It gives me this feeling that i could only feel something similar with Dark Souls 1 (wouldn't be surprised if this was intentional since ICO was miyazaki's inspiration to start making games), this feeling of a world with so much to be explored, so much they could show us. I know it's not even real, but i wonder what's far out there in this world, beyond the limits of the game, what could we find and theorize about, what else is there. Something that could only be made possible if they made more games...
I’m really starting to love this channel. You think you could do some videos on Red Dead Redemption 1 and Grand Theft Auto 4? I think those titles would fit what you cover and I’d love to watch them!
I would love to see what you think of Elder Scrolls IV’s world. It was the first real big RPG I had played at the time and I remember being so enamored with the night sky. It’s dated now unfortunately, but it captured my mind so well at the time and I get flickers of nostalgia now and then. I can give you many other spots that made me just stop and stare.
I'm somewhat familiar with TES 2, 3, and 5. I have practically no experience with Oblivion.😭 I'm gonna have to give that game a good and chunky playthrough sometime. It does seem like a super unique world.
@@PretzelYT To give you a starting point. My favorite city is Cheydinhal. Anywhere in the Shivering Isles dlc is a vibe. And finally, taking a night stroll through the Great Forest is just like *chef’s kiss* good luck playing and have fun!
hye bro hope you doing well , recently found your chanel and i think its very cool i like your vids, keep up , and can you make one about the darksiders 2? ithink it have a great era kinda thing
This channel has become one of my favorites. I wish more people showed appreciation for the underrated charm and smaller details in games.
check out Face Full of Eyes
I'm glad to see this. It's a unique channel in that it looks at games in ways I've not seen before, but it makes note of things I'd reflected on before.
My favourites are the "weird places in maps" ones. I used to load into Halo 2 Zanzibar map by myself and just walk around. The far end of the beach and the little tower across from camp froman are very cozy spots
I'm one of those people and I agree, this genre of video never gets old. It's great to share in the discovery and discuss it.
Right, this video speaks to me on a molecular level. FInally I can be sure I'm not alone in caring about niche stuff like this
Definitely check out Any Austin's "Odd and Unremarkable" series! He's a slightly different vibe but does some similar content
Shadow of the Colossus locks the intro area like every other game, but if you play the game enough and build up your stamina, then you can just climb back up to it. You can even explore the area in the final cutscene. Games don't naturally let you do that, especially when it involves a legitimate 8 minute walk. Secrets like that are rare. It even existed in the demo, but I don't think they were expecting anyone to do it in the demo. I wish games surprised us more like that.
I feel you. I miss the sensation of 'doing something I'm not supposed to' in games, in game universe and in gameplay universe
rain world downpour has a secret where you can loop around to the beginning of the tutorial area in outskirts through a hidden passage in outer expanse
They definitely didn't expect us to do it in the demo. You had to do the diagonal climbing jump glitch to severely reduce stamina usage to get up there, and you were immediately greeted by a headless Mono model just kinda standing there. IIRC the area up top wasn't even totally finished in time for the demo.
I like that they use wind to keep you from leaving the forbidden lands instead of just an invisible wall. It's the attention to little details like that that makes this such a timeless masterpiece.
I remember hearing (might have just been a theory) that the garden atop the shrine is the only uncorrupted part of the Forbidden Land, and the fruit there cleanses the corruption from Wander's body... including the gifts of health and stamina that it gave him.
It's an interpretation that Ueda himself provided in an interview with 1UP in 2009.
1UP: Why does the fruit in the secret garden take away your stamina? Is there any specific reason for this in the story, or is it just a way to reset your stamina meter?
Ueda: The fruit in the ancient land was set to get you closer to non-human existence. The [secret garden's] fruit was set to return you to a human one.
13:00 I'm disgustly overeducated in this gamd's development history , but there was actually some sort of plans to explain where the colossi came from!
Below the cliff , there is a tiny cave inside the mountain that you would never see unless you used some free-cam function , so its completly unused and just left there for the most brainrotted person to find (me :DDD)
I love this game and its aesthetics so much, it’s so comforting to me oddly.
In the HD version there’s these little shiny spots on the ground all over the world and if you collect them all you can open a secret door to the sword of dormin and it is beyond cool. The secret has so much history to it and it’s amazing. Hunting all the spots is a very good way to explore parts of the world you normally wouldn’t!
6:50 Oh wow, I wasn't expecting to be mentioned in the video.
Thank you for the little spotlight! Sorry it was not what you were expecting 😅
10:43: Weelllll... here's the thing... there actually sorta IS context and backstory for stuff in SotC (it got leaked a few years ago). However, like with EVERYTHING related to this game, it answers 1 question while raising about 5000 more.
To quickly summarize what the leaked backstory is, SotC takes place hundreds of years after a series of apocalyptic natural disasters that drastically reduced the human population, and the survivors had to band together into tribes to not die. One of these tribes, the Dormin Tribe, headed south and found the peninsula that eventually became the Forbidden Lands. They found a lot of Colossi there, and blamed them as some sort of evil gods who caused the apocalypse, and started killing them, building the Shrine of Worship (which I assume was not its original name) and the smaller shrines that serve as the game's save points where they killed a Colossus to mock them. However, killing the Colossi eventually corrupted the people that made up the Dormin Tribe, making them form into the entity from the game (which is why Dormin speaks with both a male and female voice, the Tribe was made up of men and women).
Now, did you notice the lack of explanation for ANY of the other structures in the game, both why they were built and how? 'Cause I sure did. On top of that, it’s HEAVILY implied that the Colossi were created specifically when Dormin (as in, the entity/being) was sealed away, to contain its power, so how the hell were there Colossi before then? It creates a kind of chicken-and-egg scenario, which, again, is not explained.
It's a backstory I honestly can't make heads or tails of. It does confirm that yes, SotC is post-apocalyptic (though frankly that should've been obvious to anyone with a working pair of eyeballs in their head) but leaves so much unexplained and vague that it's kinda frustrating. People can go ahead and debate amongst themselves if they wish, from here, I will not reply to any of them.
This. I think the title of this video is a bit misleading cause as u said there is context. Even without the background informtation there is enough to give u some kind of idea what this land is: old, barren, destroyed and almost forgotten. It doesnt need more context per se because it has its purpose in giving the player the feeling of loneliness which is a heavy topic of this game. With every colossi slane u make this already dreaded place even more empty of its life. And i think that this is the strongest point of the world from SotC, it tells a story without words and gives u emotions without a whole story behind it just by existing.
@@damonullerick6572 Really? I felt the backstory explained everything. There was a whole tribe here, them constructing the other ruins seems like a perfectly reasonable assumption. Nothing in the game implies that the Colossi were created when Dormin was sealed away, I always interpreted that one line as Dormin was sealed inside the statues in the Shrine of Worship.
The thing is... that this particular "leak" is probably just a fanfiction someone made and called it a leak. I remember people on reddit saying that the only person who got access to this information was known for making things up and pretending they were a member of Team Ico. He was banned because of that. The true leaks were things related to images of the unsued content of the game, provided by a real member of Team Ico.
@@juromori I was unaware if that's the case. It's hard to find details about this because the team making the project was controversial in their own right apparently. Could you link me to where he was exposed as a fraud?
@juromori Yeah... actually I read about that just the other day. Oops. '^^
Guess this game’s mysteries will always be just that, huh? Though truth be told, I do kinda like the post-apocalyptic angle, though I'd probably throw out everything else if writing an SotC adaptation that provides more backstory.
To me the colossi are giant golems made with the purpose of guarding a piece of Dormin that stay dormant and awaken when they sense the ancient sword nearby, their whole purpose being to defend themselves or stay away from the sword's reach, so the piece of Dormin that they're guarding inside them doesn't escape
I feel that Forbidden Area was devastated in massive conflict ages ago that caused Player Character's culture to leave it. That conflict broke Dormin into colossi. Effects of that conflict are brutal as even time itself seems to be stuck. It is not wild area - it is abandoned for a reason and forbidden for even bigger reasons, but it being too dangerous is not reason for it. Dormin is too dangerous to even risk becoming intact.
The game's story bible was leaked a few years ago by one of the devs, you can read the entire backstory. It's nothing too complex but it was pretty interesting.
@@GhabulousGhoti I personally don't like them if game is as ambiguous as this and Ico are. Everything necessary is in the game itself and there must be some connection between Dormin, Ico and Queen.
Watching you explore this game reminds me of the time I read The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft: the main character finds an impossibly ancient city tucked away deep in an untouched land and buried by the sands of eons, trying to put the pieces together and uncover the purpose of the ruins. Seeing this game stripped bare of its actual game mechanics or plot gives me the same vibe; a lonely archeologist trying to comprehend the ruins of a strange and mad kingdom built for Colossi so above the human condition. The question is... what will become of you when you disturb the gods that lay dormant beneath the ground?
Full disclosure: I know nothing about this game. I just love the vibes lol
I so badly wish I could take a crew of archeologists out there and see what we could learn.
What even casual observer notices: occupants were very skilled at building stone structures. Their religion was most likely animistic placing great emphasis on appeasing spirits.
@vksasdgaming9472 hm yes that's a fair observation
SotC has one of my favorite settings for that exact reason. It gives you absolutely nothing, while still being filled with tons of weird little locations. It's one of the first times a game really made the setting feel real to me, and it was probably only because all the stuff that was supposed to fill the map that got cut.
Played the OG on ps2 and I swear the first few minutes it feel like the realest most awe striking thing ever. The silence, the buildings with no explanation of why you’re there or where you are. It’s the og liminal space game 😂
There is explanation why Wander broke several, very important laws: he took death of his wife very badly. So badly he would rather risk horrifying death and uncertainty just for chance to bring her back.
ye, and I feel like the ps2 aesthetics add so much to it. truly the best game of the ps2 era, the best era for these fake sandboxes game, liminal space games as you called them lol
I actually did make the climb legitimately, I collected all the fruit and lizards, did multiple play throughs. I had gotten close many times, but the final time I just barely made it up to the top. It was a magical moment, probably my favourite moment in a video game, I even ran all the way across the bridge to see if I could exit lol.
Shadow of the Colossus just begs to have a BoTW style traversal system modded in, one that lets you climb on all the different surfaces and get around more easily so you could explore more thoroughly. Alas, aside from the views and hidden spaces, there's not that much more to see. I guess that the ancient people that used to live in these lands took everything not nailed down or too big to carry with them when they left.
Celosia is referred to as a guardian of the flames by Dormin, so it probably somehow keeps them lit. Which is funny because it seems to be afraid of fire, but probably mostly because you're waving a lit stick in its face to get it to fall off a ledge. I'd be upset too if I had baked a cake and someone threw it in my face.
No
YEAH, THE SECRET GARDEN!
Knew you wouldn't let me down, man. That climb took me forever and it's great to see that you did it!
I actually did my climb legitimately by hunting the stamina boosting things for a long time to get enough and even then just barely had enough.
Also, I'd love to see you do one on ICO or The Last Guardian sometime. They're not AS weird and mysterious, but they're up there.
13:08 i think he was probably climbing all the way up as wonder approached.
I picture he'd just stabbed his knife-like weapon into the cliff below where we could see, before reaching up further with their upper hand
There are plenty of bodies of water with no streams or rivers feeding them. These lakes, ponds, wetlands, etc, are fed by precipitation, groundwater exposure, or artesian springs.
Guess I wasn't quite done. If you keep the camera slightly above the water while keeping Wonder's body under the water, you will swim faster. It's tricky to pull off. Yes, I knew about the Secret Garden even before the game was released. You could access it in the demo. No, you're not the only one to explore the entire beach. lol. Never get tired of listening to discussions about S.O.T.C.
This is my absolute favourite video game, and favourite video game world. The only reason for that? The beautiful, desolate landscapes filled with nothing. I've spent dozens upon dozens of hours just wandering these lands, seeing the weird little lonely areas and quietly taking in the scenery. If I could live anywhere, it would be here.
You can only use the diagonal jump exploit and rest spot in the PS2 US (NTSC) version - in the later PAL version these were fixed, so that's why it takes four playthroughs.
15:35 You might not be far off given that his feet are indeed physically bolted to the floor. He cannot move from that spot at all.
20:15 Opposing the fruits outside which raise your health instead (can't remember if you mentioned it last video)- combined with the ending and its connection to ICO, which has some interesting implications.
15:11 After finishing the game and unlocking the time attack mode, you can earn special items and one of them is the invisibility cloak, this way the colossus will not see you and you can explore the arena of the last colossus freely without worrying about being hit by it.
I was going to mention that 😆
@@NomadColossus Believe it or not, I was hoping to maybe find you in the comments, but I didn't expect it to be in mine.🤯
13:05 there is a cave just below the edge that can only be seen with a free camera
The colossi probably don't function like animals we're familiar with. They probably don't eat or even breath. Although the fact they roar means they have lungs, or at least it would seem so. Around 3:36 you didn't look up at the ancient tree hanging over the mountain edge. Get the "Cloak Of Deception" & you can easily explore colossus 16's lair.
"No beautiful environmental detail can hide from my observant peepers!"
Interestingly, some of the colossi do have breathing sounds
Randomly recommended this video. Haven't finished watching the video yet, but Sotc's structures feel like various arenas feel like they they were designed for gameplay first and being structures human beings would actually use last, which isn't a bad thing. The context of humanity has been removed for a better game play experience.
This has quickly become my favorite series on youtube. Just getting to see the little places no ones gonna show you in a normal playthrough.
4:50 Lol you ain't the only one out there, I've been up and down that beach when I did an All Lizards run, I made sure to hit every cool little bit in the map. That beech is very similar to the beach from the ending of Ico and might be the same location?
I climbed it legit as a kid, i did have to beat the game like 4 times before being able to do it legit thouh. Felt badass
1:43 cooling off with a geyser is like trying to heal a burn with the stove
Here goes the loopy man, walking around and saying shit again (I love this treasure)
"i would say he could cool off from all these geysers..." yeah regardless of the toppeling mechanic, geysers are scalding hot. great start of the video, i don't recommend standing near a geyser to "cool off".
This is genuinely my comfort channel. My sister is on life support and your videos bring me the peace and calm that I need to get through this. Thank you Pretzel, now time to actually play shadow of the colossus
I'm glad I was able to provide any amount of comfort during such trying times.😊 I wish you and her the best of luck.
I heard, around a decade ago, that the colossi were buildings or structures given life when a piece of dormins soul was put into them, or maybe the other way around, to prevents dormin from ever being resurrected again
Random horse just standing there on the stairs 🤣
I always wonder things like this in games, of course the answer is always "whoever built the level lol" but it's fun to think about!
I love how chill your videos are
I did that climb path without the diagonal jumps glitch. It was 10 years ago, i dont even remember how i did that. I just remember the felling of euphoria to get on top of the castle, it was amazing.
Lovely. And I climbed up there legit too, took multiple playthroughs and lots of lizard eating. And I ran all the way across the bridge... and all the way back. 15 minutes of running!
These world tour videos are my favorite series on RUclips.
I have a theory that it is the Ancient Sword that ends up awakening the sleeping Colossi. While the roaming few are active, most are just sleeping.
Fantastic video as always!
If your looking for ideas, I'd like to recommend Vermintide 2 for a tour video.
The amount of detail fatshark put into each one of their levels (particularly in V2) that players would never notice while fighting hordes of rats is astounding.
I've done it myself using the "no enemies" mod on the workshop to take in the incredible ambience and detail they created, and I highly recommend it to anyone who like doing that type of thing themselves.
A quick example off the top of my head is at the end of the "against the grain" mission, where there are little offering of food and drinks on the waystone portal you use to escape (that isnt there in any other level). This ancient shrine/magic leyline was created by elves several millennia ago, was stumbled onto by some human peasant farmers on the edge of the forest, was likely covered in moss and vines, and they thought "must be important to some god or another, better not piss them off!" before cleaning it up and leaving some gifts (or at least thats how I interpret it)
4:45 I know I've been to that spot for sure! Can't remember if it was PS2 or PS4 lol but I remember the disappoint of coming to the end of the beach. And I feel like I've barely explored that game
Loved the video.
I think the Monster Hunter series could fit quite nicely with this format. There's so many locations and nice spots throughout the whole series it'd take a while to get through all of them.
fun fact: the beach in this video is the same beach from the ending of ico (supposedly)
It’s not, geometry is different. The watermelons there are more likely just a fun reference (watch nomad colossus’s video on it)
The white tails of lizards by the shrines can be eaten for extra stamina. Which would reduce the number of playthroughs to just 1-2 before having enough stamina to climb the main shrine. And yes the developers wanted you to climb it. With how little the game has in the world it sticks out as the final challenge
You've done it again, excellent video, thanks.
One of my favorite games, and your commentary is always great and insightful. Excited to get into this one!
Always happy to see a Pretzel upload.
Man It's so cool that the video is 4:3, suits the vibes of the channel well
A lake with a waterfall but no river flowing in would have an underground cave river that flows into it below the surface.
Anyone else loves these 1:1 video formats on yt?
This is 4:3
sorry but the aspect ratio of these videos is 4:3
The other commenters are right and this video is 4:3, but this comment made me see it as a square for a solid 20 seconds. The mind be whack, yo…
pedantry aside, the 4:3 aspect ratio feels super cosy and reminds me of watching vhs tapes at home
because in vertical mode the sides are a little croped - at a glance it looks almost squared but isnt
This is one of the few games that i think somebody has been on every inch of this game
I could go for a third part just of pretzel talking about the massive dam structure found out of bounds
I wonder if they are only moving around because Dorman said "hey go kill these dudes" and then turned them on.
I like to think a lot of it was specifically made to fulfill a prophecy and then abandoned as the act of creation was their form of worship. So they left their perfect sacred lands. Wanders people I mean
It sounds cool so I like it.
Fruit and Lizard tails. An amazing dream world to traverse, think in and test your imaginary limits.
A game I fell in love with recently is way of the samurai. It's a ps2 era game that had a pretty neat world to explore. Won't lie, no caves. But there is a steel foundry that you can climb, and a man who is nice enough to tell you it's (Admittedly brief) history.
The 15th colossus is actually in a pretty small hole in the mountain that you can only see by using a free camera
I'm currently listening to dune for the first time on audiobook...i've never read it before. It's great and I love that you mention it
I read it before the first movie came out. I'm SO glad I did, I'm glad I could appreciate the visuals without trying to figure out what was going on plotwise. 😅
Love your videos!
You’re the Bob Ross of game world appreciation.
Dude I love your videos so much
There's another path up the center tower which only requires a single playthrough worth of lizards to climb. I did that climb legit since this is the first time I'm hearing about diagonal jumping.
is this guy Otacon from mgs lol first video ive seen of his and all i can think of is the end of the mgs2 tanker segment
I’ve been waiting for this episode
One interesting thing about the desert where you fight 13 is that there's a bunch of odd giant stone rings scattered across the sand that no one can agree on a purpose for
Phalanx flies only inside those rings, watch nomad colossus’s vid on it its very interesting
@Mo-fx2ud That video was how I heard about them. Interesting things.
There's actually a cave besides 15th colossus canyon, but you can only really see with free cam or jumping on to it
Dont let mysterys be mysterys
You like sand caves, huh? Well, the Mad Max game definitely has you covered, it's chock full of them
Back in the day I got up there. 2006. One must harvest Lizard tails. Most are by Save Shrines. An empty world yet has a way of... I guess testing us. lol.
Monster hunter world has a neat sand cave in one of the levels! And if you want to see a short vid about people really in love with shadow of the colossus, give jacob geller’s vid on the secret seekers a try!
Dude you should definitely try Shenmue im sure youre gonna love it, its like a timr capsule for the 80s Japan with a small town all NPCs have their routines and have dialogues as well. Pretty amazing stuff
we love a good 4:3 aspect ratio
I like to see interviews with the level designers so I can get an idea of what were they thinking putting these things there? What did they think used to be there?
14:35 TURTLE 🐢
I would definitely survive AND thrive in this world.
I’m surprised you didn’t notice or talk about the colossal tree on the other side of 10’s domain
I could listen to him talk about the world in mario kart
Playing this game as a kid (the year it came out) is probably the reason I always turn music off in free-roam games. I mean, music doesn't just start playing in your head when you walk outside irl... Why would I need that in a game? (LOVE your videos, btw)
A detail I've just noticed is how the contrast in this game (and other games of that generation) seems low. The lack of modern dynamic lighting being the culprit perhaps. But this low contrast of sorts gives my eyes a rest. It's good like this.
Never checked out this game. That run has to be a meme. Holy shit.
I would love to see you doing a video about Midnight Club 3! It's one of my favorite games of all time
i wished they made more games in the World of ICO and SoTC (possibilly the Guardian too), i love how surrounded of mystery and full of interesting concepts it is, and how dreamy it feels with this very bright lightning and graphics. It gives me this feeling that i could only feel something similar with Dark Souls 1 (wouldn't be surprised if this was intentional since ICO was miyazaki's inspiration to start making games), this feeling of a world with so much to be explored, so much they could show us. I know it's not even real, but i wonder what's far out there in this world, beyond the limits of the game, what could we find and theorize about, what else is there. Something that could only be made possible if they made more games...
They’re making a new game!!!!!! It’s called project robot so far and there’s a trailer out already
as always, great video :)
always enjoy some fresh pretz
It can definitely be done with 3-5 playthroughs.
been waiting for this 🙂
Twisted bread man
I builded it the ruins, my Friend Ashibleassiumossas helped me 125.690 years ago
4:45 I was there recently, I can't prove it aswell
You should check out Ico. It was made in the same universe as this game and by the same devs.
I’m really starting to love this channel. You think you could do some videos on Red Dead Redemption 1 and Grand Theft Auto 4? I think those titles would fit what you cover and I’d love to watch them!
I would love to see what you think of Elder Scrolls IV’s world. It was the first real big RPG I had played at the time and I remember being so enamored with the night sky. It’s dated now unfortunately, but it captured my mind so well at the time and I get flickers of nostalgia now and then. I can give you many other spots that made me just stop and stare.
I'm somewhat familiar with TES 2, 3, and 5. I have practically no experience with Oblivion.😭
I'm gonna have to give that game a good and chunky playthrough sometime. It does seem like a super unique world.
@@PretzelYT To give you a starting point. My favorite city is Cheydinhal. Anywhere in the Shivering Isles dlc is a vibe. And finally, taking a night stroll through the Great Forest is just like *chef’s kiss* good luck playing and have fun!
The best content
Part 2 yippie
PRETZEL TIIIIME 🥨🥨🥨🥨🥨🥨
hye bro hope you doing well , recently found your chanel and i think its very cool i like your vids, keep up , and can you make one about the darksiders 2? ithink it have a great era kinda thing
Geisers are not cold
best game ever.