As the next generation of consoles eclipsed the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube into obsecurity, in 2006, I wanted to include more titles for the PS2. It wasn't that I wanted to be a collector of gaming titles, I just felt that there were more games that I desperately needed before they were exonerated from the retail market completely. Enter ICO: An action-adventure game that was released in 2001, during the PS2's beginnings. It involves a young boy named Ico, who is considered to be a curse among the villagers, because of the horns attached to his head, (which to his native village is a form of a curse among the people). So they perform a ritual on Ico to lock him inside a castle where to them, won't be any harm toward any of the inhabitants in the village. ICO was created by Fumito Ueda, who was also behind its eventual successor, "Shadow of the Colossus", released in 2005 (which eventually was reissued in 2011, along with ICO as a two game package, re-released for the PlayStation 3 in High-Definition) wanted to create a game that was unconventional compared to other genres; and, create, perhaps an experience that was opposite to other video games, where your reflexes required just about every one of our five senses, but back in 2001, ICO was a rare breed. It perhaps led the way for games to be more innovative and less like its opposites; like, for example, its lack of an interface (or HUD) that gives indicators about a characters health, quantity of equipment, number of life bars, et cetera; to inform the individual playing the game on the well-being of the protagonist that's being controlled by the player. ICO doesn't rely on such functions and really didn't need one, because the enemy types are shadow creatures that are attempting to take your companion, Yorda (more on her in a moment) who is a crucial part of the game because if she's captured by these beings, the game ends. You don't have a lot, in regards, in physical action against them; though, using a 2 x 4 and just hitting your foes with it seem to do the trick. You could also use it as a way of evasion by adding an element of fire because these creatures are vulnerable to it. As for the character Yorda, just like the protagonist Ico, she's also in the castle, forgotten, like him, as well. She speaks a language foreign to the player and he luckily seems to understand. They eventually find a way out of the castle only for these shadow creatures (that appear to be the souls of other horned children) to come for Yorda back and take her back from once she came and without her Ico can't access certain passages, saves, or secrets to traverse through a colossal castle and, most importantly, isn't very agile; so, getting used to her is a process, albeit frustrating, at times. Fumito Ueda gave an interesting viewpoint on how he doesn't define ICO as a video game; and, didn't want to have people perceived it as something that it's not. "I thought that the games industry had a negative image for many people. If I called my work a video game, people would think, "Well, this is just a video game, so I don't want to play it." That was from a Wired article called "Behind the Shadow". Fumito's goal was to create a game that was your typical "boy meets girl" narrative without many lines of dialogue (called minimalism) and for his many inspirations for his novel concept were "Lemmings" and Flashback for animation specifics; Outer World (called Another World in America) for its cinematic experience, including the emotional connection. The game was originally a PlayStation title, but given the limitations of that console (one of them being that it was a 32-bit console) the production was shifted to its eventual predecessor: The PlayStation 2 (which is a 128-bit console). The PlayStation 2 allowed for more leeway for the developers to work with; and, one of the processes that the development team did was "subtracting design". Basically, they purged elements that interfered with the game's stoic reality. They took out interface elements; so, the gameplay was confined to the castle and reduced all its enemy types to just one. What was improved is that the team used a lighting method called "bloom lighting"; (when an object has light behind it, the light will look more realistic and overlaps the front of an object.) it was the first of it kinds back then, when games didn't have such a technique. The animation was more key frame (hand drawned) than motion capture (recording of natural movement). The goal with the animation was to make the characters flow freely, but, due to time constraints, that was the process that the team was left with. Defining ICO as a renaissance for gaming is an understatement because, back in 2001, there weren't many games of its kind. It was surrounded by heavy hitters like Metal Gear Solid 2, Halo, Grand Theft Auto III, Super Smash Bros. Melee, among others. It was a hard market to promote a game like this, ten years ago; and, having played it in 2006 made me appreciate developers like one, Mr. Ueda for being so bold. ICO was a gorgeous looking game on the console, with its lighting, atmosphere and infrastructure. It controlled very well (despite Yorda not being responsive to some of my commands) and its minimalist story was surprisingly effective. It was a game that knew what it was and wasn't afraid to be different.
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