A Look Back At • ICO (Analysis)
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- Опубликовано: 28 июл 2024
- Ico is an action-adventure game developed by SCE Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released for the PlayStation 2 video game console in 2001 and 2002 in various regions. It was designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, who wanted to create a minimalist game around a "boy meets girl" concept. Originally planned for the PlayStation, Ico took approximately four years to develop. The team employed a "subtracting design" approach to reduce elements of gameplay that interfered with the game's setting and story in order to create a high level of immersion.
Special Thanks to:
*Team Ico & GenDesign
*Fumito Ueda & Shuhei Yoshida
*ProjectLongplay
Footage from:
*ProjectLongplay
/ @projectlongplay
Patreon: / medievalmegaman
Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/aesiraesthetics
Essays&Espresso:
/ @essaysespresso8637 
Игры
Love your videos aesir.
While i've played Shadow of the Colossus, I havent played ICO. This is the first time i'm actually taking a youtuber's advice on this.
I'll come back to the video once I've played it myself.
smart choice!
If you have a PlayStation 4 then please play The Last Guardian as well.
@@franjaff6919 Is the last guardian on PSNow? Thats how I'll be playing ICO when I get round to it
@@Efcaz Not a clue. It goes on sale at a heavily discounted price a lot though, so if you don't mind waiting you should be able to snag it at a cheap price eventually.
@@franjaff6919 Cool, I'll keep an eye out for it
It's such a shame that 6th generation of consoles was probably the last time that big budgeted games were allowed to be so creative.
Death stranding is pretty creative
@@federico520 thats one AAA game from hundreds open world sandboxes
Wild Willy Yeah, it’s not the norm sadly. But still some pretty bold creative AAA games have come out in the past 10 years.
@@federico520 because we didn't have tons of shovelware in pretty much every generation. And we still have incredibly creative games, not just the weird stuff Kojima creates. Breath of the Wild offered actual freedom in an Open World Game. Ghost of Tsushima had the player spend time with writing haiku in a samurai hack 'n' slash. From Software gave players a refreshingly brutal challenge in beautifully desolated worlds. SquareEnix created the most ambitious Remake as of today with the FFVII Remake. Doom 2016 transitioned the classic FPS into the modern gaming landscape while Wolfenstein: The New Order was a strong shooter with a well written and well presented story. Witcher 3 gave depth to a massive open world (while having one of the most consumer friendly business models) and Cyberpunk is just around the corner. Hitman's World of Assassination presented incredibly large murder playgrounds with lots of opportunities to approach and dispose of your target. In addition to those examples, VR games get more refined with recent releases like Boneworks or Half Life Alyx. There are still a lot of awesome games out there and more are released every year, in addition to a growing market of AA games and... not quite indie games... and of course all those great little indie gems. It is a pretty awesome time to be a gamer.
Hit it on the head
"No other medium has the audience hold hands with someone", beautifully put.
This game is legend at this point.
Thanks a lot. Having played "Shadow of the Colossus" before "ICO", and I've always liked the idea of communicating non-verbally, and videogames like the foreamentioned successed very well in portraying and telling engaging stories with a minimal of text or dialogue.
Essentially a "Show, don't tell" philosophy, which in turn works on wider range of audiences. Sure it may leave a lot of room for interpretation, head-cannon, and speculation, but a good story is one that is understood by all people, no matter ethnicity, cultural background, social status, economical situation (this is a broad generalisation of course, but one that still applies to the majority of humans).
And I wish all of you whom read this comment all the way a good day/night. Cheers!
Hell yeah dude, this game needs more love.
I feel like SotC overshadowed it after it came out and not enough people talk about ICO anymore.
So many games from this era have such a unique atmosphere. That hazy, dusky feel. Ico, shadow of the colossus and twilight princess come to mind. I always felt a strange loneliness with these games. It's probably just a product of the technology of that time but I wish it would come back.
Majora’s Mask may have been one of the games I’d include in that group. Along with the first two Silent Hill games and maybe the first three resident evils.
Every time I hear that save music it takes me back to the summer when I was younger and first played the game. If I could summarize the game simply, it wouldn't be great gameplay, fun puzzles, excellent characters, although it is all those things, I would simply say... good memories.
A childhood favorite. Ico was such a calming game for me.
wonderful video! Sometimes just thinking about the beauty of Ico is enough to make me cry. I play it about once a year
THE PILLARS ARE MOVABLE???!!!
It took me sooo many tries to beat the Queen. I kept getting killed during the final sequence, when the sword is knocked right to the back of the room. Now I know that the pillars are movable I'm surprised I was able to win at all without doing so
Lol
A great video on one of my favorite games ever.
It's funny, at 30:15 you mention how even when the AI glitches out, it feels believable. For me, the moment I realized I loved the game was during that very puzzle you show, where Yorda climbed on top of the box I was pushing. Instead of chuckling at the AI glitching out, I immediately wondered "I wonder why she's doing that? Is she trying to show me something?" It was at that moment that I realized that the game had "worked" on me, and that I totally bought these characters and their world as being truly alive.
Whenever I think about ICO, that's the scene and the emotion that plays in my head. It's nice to see other people talking about it, as it really is something special.
These games should be in a museum if they aren't already. Truely a touchstone point in gaming culture/history.
Oh boy, BloodBorne is my favourite game of all time, I can't wait for your commentary! Good job on Ico though!
Thanks for doing an ICO retrospective!
Nice to see some some appreciation for such a beautiful game. It's a master piece of art in a videogame form.
This is an excellent analysis of Ico; nuanced and insightful. I appreciate your framing of the game design lessons as you explore player experiences and insights of Ico!
Thank you :)
I covered the rest of the Team Ico games as well if you're interested :)
Loved the video. You really have a good understanding of what makes Ico so good, and communicated that very well.
Why is it that whenever anyone mentions how Yorda keeps collapsing on the bridge, they never mention how this can be prevented by just calmly walking with her hand in hand?
Maybe that relationship building and mutual understanding wasn't effective when so many try to drag around a clearly sickly girl at a full sprint, so is that a failing of the game for not properly conveying that, or a failure on part of the players doing it?
The former. Plus, IT'S NOT FUN TO DRAG AROUND A SICKLY LITTLE WILTING FLOWER THAT FALLS OVER JUST BY BREATHING ON HER. Nobody is going to be inching along at a snail's pace across that bridge, you're supposed to be scrambling to make it over there, cuz at that point you know the Queen can see you and could stop you at any moment. It's bad game design, poor conveyance, and just plain annoying.
Ok does it stop the bridge from collapsing? If not then that's just more attention to detail that's only their to make Yorda more of a person
It's just attention to detail. The outcome ends up being the same regardless so I don't think it needs to be hinted at to the player. If anything it's better off being something hidden.
@@WobblesandBean damn so hostile
I, for one, instinctively started walking when I noticed her falling. By that point I cared about her and didn’t want to make her run if she was too weak to do so. I felt like “we’re in this together and I will not leave you behind. Even if we don’t make it out alive, I will walk with you.” I put myself in the boy’s shoes and did what I would do in that situation. I would have picked her up and ran but that was not an option.
Fantastic analysis! You really nailed both the strengths and the weaknesses of substracting game design, which is most clearly seen in the combat. As you said, a "fun" combat mechanic would shift the focus of the game to be about the excitement for the next combat section, instead of the moments between the combat sections.
I was also glad that you mentioned the brilliant design of the save points. It also got me thinking about how functional the save points are from a gameplay-perspective: forcing the player to save the game with Ico and Yorda in the same place eliminates the possible problem of forgetting Yorda's location on your next play session, if you were able to save anywhere at will. It's a very simple but elegant solution to bring the duo together every time you quit your play session and it also helps to strengthen the bond between the player and Yorda everytime you save.
WOW! THE ENDING BEING A DREAM SEQUENCE IS SOMETHING I NEVER WANTED TO KNOW. THAT MAKES ME SAD.
Dude I've been binging your other videos and now I get to bring more YAY
Incredible video Mr. AesirAesthetics. I always held this game in incredibly high regard but you managed to make me appreciate the game even more. Great job.
You pick great games to cover, one of my favorite subscriptions for sure.
Thank you for your work, man!
Been waiting for this forever!
Been waiting for this for too long
Great video as per usual, Congrats on the 20k subs, been quite the progression from the days of your system shock videos!
Those were dark times
Ico was one of the first games I ever played as a kid, which really shows how Ueda's drive to make a game for non-gamers paid off. It was just the right amount of challenge and critical thinking for someone graduating from collectathons like Spyro the Dragon. It's a tad bit embarrassing to admit, but Yorda was one of my first crushes, period. Being maybe 6 or 7 at the time, my infatuation wasn't fueled by "wow look how hot this character is" but rather "she's my friend and I want to protect her from the enemies." Once again, for me personally, Ueda managed to secure one of the objectives he had in development. The details are fuzzy but I remember being pretty upset when the first time I got to the final act. So upset that my brother ended up finishing the game on my save file. I replay the HD version from time to time just to spend time with Yorda again and watch the tragedy of losing her unfold. The ending is always bittersweet for me. Even the coveted Melon ending is pretty sad if you buy into the theories around it. Speaking of theories, you should check out the YT channel YordasLanguage. Some madman actually deciphered and translated Yorda's ingame speech and alphabet. At least, I think he did. It could just be nonsense. That's enough rambling for one afternoon.
Play the PS3 version of ICO.
The NA PS2 was rushed and was missing several features and extra's, one of them being all of Yorda's dialogue is translated in NG+.
@@videotroll72
Oh wow! I haven’t played this game since it was re-released on the PS3… You have made me want to break it out and play new game plus on it since I know I completed it already… I didn’t even know there was a new game plus for it! Thanks for leaving your comment. :)
Wonderful review! A very special story. Definitely in my top 3
It would be cool if there was a direct sequel to this showing what happened to Ico and yorda as well as expand on the world and give a bit more of the origin of things.
Thanks for another great video!
Watching this video certainly made me want to play Ico again.
I don't even remember subscribing, but very glad I saw this in my box 👌
I dunno how I only just now found your channel, it's fantastic! I missed out on this game back in the day, but I managed to grab Shadow of the Colossus, eventually. It had been years after it released because I had seen it advertised in magazines as only having boss battles, which I felt would be used as a gimmick that wouldn't come to anything substantial overall. Boy, was I wrong! Appreciate the videos & can't wait to dive into the rest of your content!
god I really adore your videos!
absolute masterpiece
This may not be perfectly objectively true, but based on what I personally observed online, at least the way I perceived it, I firmly believe that Ico was THE landmark game that first popularized the idea within “gaming culture” that video games could potentially actually be an art form. Like, perception bias and salience effect and all, but (boomer time!) I very distinctly recall seeing this wild new notion of “games as art” spread across video game message boards like wildfire, and Ico always seemed to be at the centre of that discussion, right up until Shadow of the Colossus was released and triumphantly surplanted it as example #1. It felt like a phenomenon.
I don’t think I’m completely crazy here, either, because Ico itself (at least its original release) didn’t even sell all that well, but by the time SotC rolled around, there was this disproportionately massive level of buzz and anticipation for that game. Although (if I recall correctly) SotC got a bigger marketing push from Sony than Ico ever did, and the PS2 obviously had a much larger install base by that point, I still strongly strongly suspect that the hype for SotC was primarily driven by the fact that the gaming internet had been talking up Ico like crazy on their forums during those 4-ish years in between.
I’ve been thinking about all of this ever since you first announced this video and I’m writing all of this right before I actually watch it, so I probably shouldn’t be too surprised if you cover all of this in the video and make me look completely redundant and totally silly. Hahaha.
I’m really excited to watch this now. Cheers, Aesir!!
Lmao, we’re at 0:26 and I’m already getting owned
Great video as always. I really like how in the beginning of every video you give the audience something akin to a bibliography of the coming materials, things the audience should be familiar with to truly understand what is being said and compared. Haven't really seen that a lot in other channels and it's something I appreciate.
Your game seems interesting. Zelda-like? I hope we get to see more of it as it grows as it's been fun seeing snippets of it here and there at the end of your videos
The presentation structure is:
Tell them what you're about to tell them.
Then Tell them.
Then tell them what you just said.
And yes, you'll see more of my game.
great video, one of my all time favourite games
Good stuff. I hope you do the other games in the Team Ico trilogy
*chef's kiss* very good, ty for the video, Aesir
Bon Appétit
To this day, Ico is my 2nd favorite game on the PS2 (was #1 until SMT Nocturne robbed it of its throne) and I've been safe from the knowledge of the fact that the ending sequence is a dream... up until today.
I don't know whether to be in awe of the fact that there are things about this game that I still didn't know or inconsolably sad at the notion itself.
Great video. Thank you. Just subscribed. :)
Never cried with another game, movie, book ar anything, like with this game.
this was amazing brings back so many memories
:)
I love this game. I still play it once in a while.
The atmosphere, animation, art style, and enigmatic nature made the game truly awesome at that time.
This isn't my first video on this game but this is the one that best brings out its strengths and makes me want to play it
This game was such a pleasant surprise for me back then. Never expected it to be so good.
The author comes near the legend of the games he cherishes, excellent videos
While I love all of Ueda’s work, Ico is my favorite game he’s made. It may honestly be one of my favorite stories in any type medium made in my lifetime.
Having a preference for ICO over the magnum opus that is Shadow of the Colossus is absolute insanity.
I never heard of that game before, but I can clearly see how it influenced later games- And after watching your video, I'd like to play it myself. Sadly I do not have a ps3 or ps4 so it's not gonna happen very soon.
I got this with my first ps2 as a child to hard in my teenage years a joy to play as an adult it Makes you question life
Out of every long form critique channel I follow, you make videos on the most interesting games.
Thank you
@@AesirAesthetics Love you, bro. Stay safe.
I'm about to go to sleep to your Silent Hill 2 analysis now.
@@mellowvalentine9354 pleasant dreams
Ico is an amazing game. Great analysis
Never heard of the game but I bet you will make it interesting
I think ico is the reborn wander and mono is the daughter of the queen. In some weird way.
Great analysis as usual. Ico does such a good job with minimalism and conveying emotions. My experience with Ico was playing it a few years ago, along with Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian right after. Between the three, I definitely enjoyed Ico the most. All of them were unique and valuable experiences, but by the end of TLG I was so sick of the patented Ueda clunky/loose movement style where the character scrambles in the direction you point. It fits with the themes and designs of his games, but I personally value the feeling of precise/satisfying movement way more, so that took away from my enjoyment quite a bit, especially in SotC and TLG where more platforming skill is required over a longer period of time.
Ico is one of my top 3 favorite games ever, and this was a good analysis of it, an enjoyable listen. I'm always grateful of those spreading the good word on this gem, which is too often overshadowed by it's successor SOTC, a more conventional game that while it is still one of the best games ever made, is to me the weakest of Ueda's titles.
Of Ueda's titles, Ico takes design by subtraction to it's most extreme, and is such a fine honed game for it. It is the best example of how to implement gameplay-story integration in a video game, and is imo the most important influential work in gaming of this century from a narrative perspective. It opened people's eyes to the strength of the medium as a storytelling device like none other before it.
Since you seemed to imply that you think The Last Guardian is brilliant and it's just taking time for the world at large to recognize this, would be great to see you do a video on it. Most days, I consider TLG to be Ueda's magnum opus even over Ico, a truly magical journey.
Thank you for making these videos! Also are you planning to release a demo for the game you're working on?
Yeah, probably
The last levels had confusing camera angles but I also appreciate that I in deed had to look what way get me further. I did swim to the looked gate but wasn’t angry because together with the missing safe points I felt disoriented and a bit helpless. So.. mission accomplished?
Also about the horns, if I remember correctly you can use them as a attack if you don’t have a weapon. Your only attribute that got you in this situation also symbolizes that you are willing to fight about that.. against monsters that never will attack you when they got the girl. That last point really made me sad as I understand that those souls are not your enemies…
As a person who loves the relationship between young boy/man and older girl/woman, I will put this game on the soon-be-played list.
Thanks for your analysis.
The fictional language in the game also makes localization much, much easier; the only thing that needs to get translated then is basically a few menus and prompts, which can be done by anyone on staff with a beginner-intermediate understanding of the target language within an afternoon instead of having to contract it out at huge cost. It's also why some games have murmuring instead of speaking for their characters, with their words being represented in a text box (don't have to pay for voice acting in multiple languages then).
Great video as well, I've been binging on your stuff. Speaking of murmuring and text boxes, will you do an Okami retrospective by chance?
Okami, maybe?
I've never played it and it's not currently on my videos to make list
@@AesirAesthetics No worries. Won IGN Game of the Year back in 2006 (when IGN wasn't a meme), and received critical acclaim. Try and pick up a PS4 or Xbox One remaster copy if you can.
Just hearing the music just makes me want to tear up man
My favorite game ever!
Is the Kings Field 4 video coming soon? I love the other King’s field videos cuz there aren’t many good videos about them or Shadow Tower
Next Weekend!
Coffee: Gotten. Disclaimer: Go away, we can't all afford games.
[But I can afford that coffee if I make it myself.]
Keep making videos. You are good at this. And it is a refreshing take on games I have never- and will most likely not have time- to play.
3:37 and my nostalgia is gonna kick in hard!
Love this game
I am glad i could finish this game before my PS2 broke.
Amazing game. Wish I still had it 😒
I highly recommend the novelization.
Oh snap!
Ico and dark cloud 1 are art and moved gaming as a whole imo
What programming language are you using to develop your game, and what tools do you use? I'm just starting out learning programming and the world is a very large place. 😬
Gamemaker2
I was really hoping this was the game blue point where working on before we found out they where working on demon souls remake. Maybe some day ♡
Can show the soundtrack to explain how good the soundtrack is next time?
comment for the algorithm. But actually, I dug the video and decided to watch this before watching the original video I intended to. The Shadow of the Colossus one.
Also, my god ICO is over 20 years old. I've played through it at least 3 times I can remember. Possibly once or a few times more. Mmm, well enough times to get the special sword in one of the secret rooms? I don't remember that being in your video, but you and anyone else that knows what I'm talking about may recall how many playthroughs it takes (or maybe it wasn't even tied to the number of playthroughs haha). The only thing that bums me out is that this game currently isn't easily accessible. My PS3 died a long time ago and Sony hasn't made it digitally available (for PS4 or PS5) via backwards compatibility or made another remaster of it. Shame. With Sony opening up to the PC more, I really hope that it finds its way there eventually, even if they do make a new/remastered version for the PS5. I'd love that ease of accessibility for this classic.
Where in the game does it state the boy is named Ico?
@SpyengoEen Where?
The game is called ICO but I see no reference to the boy.
I honestly got a little fed up with Yorda from time to time tough...
mostly because of how passive she is, the least she could do is run away from the shadows or at least struggle a little but she usually just stands somewhere ogling and idling while I have to dash all around the map flailing my wooden log like a madman forming the thought of "a little help here girl?!" in my head
Please make one for Colossus and Last Guardian, pretty please!
eventually, rest assured.
Journey is amazing! And Dark Souls is my heart 💜
This is the one gift I wish I’d taken back during a breakup lol 😂
Looking forward to the Bloodborne review
I would like Aesirs take on the fallout series
Could happen.
@@AesirAesthetics i think you misspelt "im already onto it" 😂😂😂
Looking forward to whatever you do mate
Great video but I gotta disagree with you on the combat. Having a 'more fun' combat system wouldn't have hurt ico and yorda's relationship because they are together throughout the game. I didn't think the combat was that bad though. It's a type of desperate keep away that I've never experienced in a game before. I especially like how if you know where you are going you can just run past them. The whole point of the combat (apart from the ending) was to keep yorda safe.
This game inspired later Prince of Persia and Uncharted games.
Where Elden Ring started.
Do a critique video dragoon saga video!!!
I dont really see the Ico combat as like 'not fun', it just seems more immersive to me a kid isnt some epic sword master. All he knows to do is swing a stick around and thwack the enemies.
Which creates a great moment that whenever the girl gets kidnapped you run over and start panic swinging around while im yelling to yourself "LEAVE HER ALONE".
Ratchet & Jak? Nvr heard ov it 😂
Games? Hundreds of thousands of years? What???
Is this ben shapiro
Ps2 best console of all time
Yes
I know they were done by the same composer but I just now realized how similar Fullmetal Alchemist's 2003's "Brothers" and ICO's main theme sound.
Interesting analysis but I am not so sure if I can be very forgiving of combat that is intentionally bad. I mean it's easy to see what they were going for but at the end of the day, bad combat is bad combat and bad combat is just going to frustrate the shit out of me, no matter what the intentions are. I get it's about keeping Yorda safe but at the same time, I am sure you can make somewhat competent combat while giving players agency to keep her safe.
RE4 does do escort missions well. Ashley's AI is very good and you can hide her in a bin during tougher fights.
I haven't played this games in so many years. I remember loving it at the time, but my priorities have changed now and if I were to play it now, the game would probably annoy the shit out of me. I can appreciate for what it tried to do with the gaming medium and it how tried to elevate storytelling.
I think I would like a ico remake
Why won’t they remaster this beautiful game!!!?
I’ll never consider this a great game, because of all the gameplay flaws it has. But it does have an ethereal charm about it, that arguably makes it a great piece of mixed media. I think there should probably be two separate ways of judging games. Purely on the quality their gameplay defines how good of a game they are, but how the other factors blend with it, defines the mixed media aspect. Killer 7 is another game I feel is a much better piece if mixed media than a game.
The gameplay's quality is determined by the standard you use to critique it.
If Ico is about building a bond with Yorda, I'd say it's a complete success.
I just couldn't being myself to like Ico. Having to babysit such a weak wilting flower like Yorda for 90% of the game was incredibly tedious and frustrating, and like you said, fighting the shadows was _not_ fun. Losing her shouldn't have been a failure state, especially given how difficult it was at times, and how utterly useless Yorda was at doing absolutely ANYTHING. It made me bloody hate Yorda, and start rooting for the Queen! The cheap death traps at the end of the game was just the mayo on the shít sandwich. And yet, SotC is one of my all-time favorite games, I still fire up my PS2 to play it quite often. But Ico? Never.
.....Catchy theme song, though.