Ico & Shadow

One last note on video games before I return to real life on Tuesday.

I finished Ico late last night. It is a short game and took me only about 10 hours to complete. However, it lived up to its promise and I found it as moving and introspective as its prequel, Shadow of the Collosus.

In short it is the story of a young boy who is believed to be "cursed" by his community and is imprisoned in a gigantic fortress at the games beginning. In fact he is the latest in a long line of "cursed" boys who have been so imprisoned. The game begins with his entombment and proceeds with his attempt to escape. Along the way he find a mysterious girl in a cage who he sets free and they set off together to find their way out. Or, at least, the boy is looking for a way out. The girl is easily distracted by the clouds and small animals. She seems confused and unearthly.

Basically, your role as player is to solve puzzles which create pathways that allow Ico (the boy) and Zorda (the girl) to leave. On that level it is very Tomb Raider like and isn't all that impressive.

It is on the narrative level that Ico (and SotC) really impress me. But, it is difficult to describe the beauty of the narrative in words because the story telling technique used is so minimal. In fact, the story seems beautiful not because of what is told in the story, but because of what isn't told. It is kind of like a sculpture where everything non essential is chipped away and only the absolute barest details are left behind. And even they are subject to great interpretation.

I was just reading this narrative analysis of Ico and the author there said it best. He said that the story in Ico "insists on holding silence on its own narrative." I love this kind of story telling . If done well the audience is left stunned by witnessing something beautiful but they are also unable to describe that beauty without imbuing the story with their own interpretation.

As such, whoever is describing the story is not describing just the story. Instead they are describing the story in a way that is intertwined with their own perspective on life or beauty or whatever. Everyone brings something of themselves to the interpretation, which is required because the story is so minimal that it requires interpretation to be described.

I won't bore anyone with my own interpretations. That would be out of place here when all I really wanted to do was describe the sense of wonder I'm left with after playing these two really great games.

Some Ico and Shadow of the Colossus links:
Here are a number of nice high rez screen shots of Ico if anyone is interested.
Here is a set of fan created art which is pretty impressive.
Also, here is a blog dedicated to both games.