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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Ico: is it all it's cracked up to be?

The Return Of Rothkoid

02:48 / 15.09.05

Well, is it?

The reason I ask is that it's horrendously expensive down Australia way. Largely because it needs to be imported from th eUK/Europe, because it doesn't seem to be released down here - or, if it was, it was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of affair.

I'm kinda convinced that I'll like it, based on the artwork that I've seen, but thought I'd canvass opinions from posters here. What'd you think? (And do you have a cheap PAL copy you want to part with...?)

12:09 / 15.09.05

Well, put it this way: I don't want to part with my copy. I love Ico. I don't think that it is by any means a perfect game, though. The accent on fighting is perhaps overplayed given the slight ropiness of the fighting system. It can feel a little too much on rails: you wish you could explore more freely sometimes, revisiting particularly beautiful areas. And it can get annoying steering Yorda about. But as an experience, to me, it is incredible. The atmosphere, conjured through light and sound, is magnificent. Characterisation, made through beautifully nuanced animation, is great. It's perfect, simple story is told without words and screen furniture - health bars and so on - which I find amazing.

However, my girlfriend dislikes it - for her, Yorda is a pathetic sappy female character that is designed to play to male needs. I'm inclined to agree to an extent, though it's such a common state of affairs that I'm not sure Ico deserves to be hung up over it.

14:26 / 15.09.05

Rothkoid... when I get a moment (at work now), I'll follow up. In the meantime, the SCEA team that put together Ico is about to release Shadow of the Colossus. We have a thread on that title here and it talks about perspectives that a few of us on the board have about their work and Ico. Maybe it'll help a bit...

hanabius yamamura

16:06 / 15.09.05

re Well, is it?

... as well as adding my hearty agreement to rotational's comments above, all I can say is that it's possibly one of the best games I've ever played and it's one of about three games that have brought a fairly large lump to my throat and tear to my eye ...

... moving, original, brilliant ...

h

18:56 / 15.09.05

I liked it a lot, for what that's worth.
Fighting- the point of the game isn't fighting so much as it's about defending. Ico's fae is tied to Yorda's, but she's not as strong or confident as he is. Ico has to leave her side for extended periods, and during those times Shadows may come to take her. If they succeed, Yorda is sacrificed and you turn to stone. Ico can take as many hits as he needs to (there's no health bar), but once the Shadows have Yorda the game's over.

Puzzles- the puzzles are pretty standard, to be honest.

Graphics- There's lots of running around, back and forth, but this is so you can enjoy the scenery, which is beautiful. Also, there is very little music, but lots of ambient, atmospheric sound.

I'm pretty sure that Ico is the reason that Prince of Persia:Sands of Time got made. The gameplay is similar, and like PoP, you have to defend someone else's life above your own. To be honest it lacks some of the polish of PoP, but PoP was made 2 years later. If you liked PoP, you'd probably like it's thematic ancestor.

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:22 / 16.09.05

Excellent. Now I've just got to find an affordable copy. I believe it was released to Platinum in Japan, but such a likelihood over here is... well, pretty nonexistent.

00:40 / 16.09.05

It's like anything else collectable, Roth - the price fluctuates wildly. If you want an affordable copy, your best bet is either to trawl the second hand bins and hope you get lucky, or else wait until the hoopla about Wanda has died down. People have got short memories - prices of certain games soar whenever a magazine does a feature on them or a sequel comes out, then drop right back down again after a few weeks.

Or you might want to try eBay France, or another of the non-English speaking versions (which seems to be my automatic response to anybody searching for R@RE!!! PAL games at the moment, I realise) - I've just had a quick look and there are a bunch of copies there that are currently up for a tiny fraction of the ludicrous prices of those on the UK site.

It's not that it's rare - in fact, I think I'm correct in saying that the limited edition (with postcards and all that nonsense) is actually more common than the standard release - just that it's been talked about a lot in the last year or so.

The Return Of Rothkoid

04:45 / 22.09.05

Sage words. I've been trawling for quite a while, but also recently picked up a $17 copy of Area 51 which will probably keep me occupied for a while.

It seems that every copy I've ever seen of Ico comes with those damn cards. How limited can it be, really? Not very, I'd imagine.

Only query about the Euro version would be as to whether they're set to a certain language or not? I bought a copy of Manhunt from France, but it worked absolutely fine (presumably as there's only one PAL version, and it just tailors itself to the language your console's set to). Does this sound like the way Ico works, in your experience?

But seriously, people wanting fifty quid for the game? Goddamn. Fuck that.

15:42 / 22.09.05

To the best of my knowledge, the French release is in English. Not played it myself, but that's going on what a number of people have said.

16:27 / 30.09.05

If my American NTSC game disc is going to work on your PS2 drop me a PM with your address. You can have it if you want to pay postage from North America.

The Return Of Rothkoid

22:28 / 30.09.05

Thanks for the offer, Krug. It's getting to the point where I'm considering chipping my PS2 anyway, so I may just take you up on that!

Anyone know where to get 'em done in Australia?

23:45 / 16.10.05

You can get no-solder chips, Roth. There are also those Swap Magic discs. Both solutions require you to take your console apart, though - I think the Swap Magic stuff includes a slide card thingy that you've got to stick in the disc tray, or something - so if you're not confident about doing that yourself it might be best to grab a tech-friendly mate to perform the honours.

02:13 / 17.10.05

I picked up a mod flip-top case and Swap Magic disc combo for my brother and ended up with it even after a cancelled order. Since it was such a hassle in the first place, I decided to keep it. I haven't messed with it yet, but I imagine it should work fine for you if you're thinking of getting one for yourself. I'll see which one my bro ended up getting one from so you might be able to avoid what I went through.

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:47 / 18.10.05

Cool, let me know. I've been pontificating the swapmagic. I know Videodrome has used one and had very little trouble - though I've heard that they can wear the drive down faster than normal use? Anyone know?

Krug - I may well take you up on your offer...

08:13 / 18.10.05

If you get the slimline PS2 which has a flip top lid anyway - you can just use the Swap Magic disc without the need for any mod chips, soldering, or slide trays etc... all very easy!

03:06 / 02.11.05

I can't speak to the gaming experience since I haven't messed with an import yet, but the mod I bought for my PS2 seemed solidly built and worthwhile. I purchased the last one from Lik-Sang.

17:08 / 05.11.05

Ico's getting a re-release in Europe to coincide with the PAL release of the sequel. There's a story up on Eurogamer about it - I'll grab the link later.

I'd still recommend getting yr PS2 fixed to play imports, because having done so myself recently (in a roundabout way) the console's taken on a whole new lease of life, but this should prevent you having to hunt around for this particular game too much.