Ico

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This article is about the video game. For other uses, see ICO.
Ico
European and Japanese PlayStation 2 box cover for Ico
Developer(s) Team Ico
Publisher(s) Sony Computer Entertainment
Designer(s) Fumito Ueda
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Release date NA September 24, 2001

JPN December 6, 2001
EUR March 22, 2002
Re-release
EUR February 17, 2006
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single player
Multiplayer (EU & JP)
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen
CERO: 12+
ELSPA: 3+
PEGI: 7+
OFLC: G
Media CD-ROM (US & JP)
DVD-ROM (EU)
Input methods Game controller

Ico (pronounced /ˈiːkoʊ/) is a 2001 action-adventure video game developed by Sony Computer Entertainment and released for the PlayStation 2 video game console. Ico was designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Though not a commercial success in North America, it received critical acclaim from many video gaming news outlets and won several awards. Europe has since received a reprinting in 2006.

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Setting

The player takes on the role of Ico, a young boy born with a pair of horns, who must escort a princess named Yorda safely out of a castle without her being captured by the shadowy figures that prowl nearby or being killed by the castle's numerous environmental hazards.

Ico is noted for its highly individual artistic style. Key factors contributing to the game's absorbing atmosphere include the absence of any HUD; a bleak and washed-out use of color; low-key use of in-game music, played only in selected scenes of the game; and atmospheric, ambient sound effects in the background. It makes effective use of story with minimal dialogue to forge strong emotional connections with the characters and environments in the game. It includes action, adventure and puzzle elements. The game also has notable fictional languages.

[edit] Characters

A total of three main characters are encountered throughout the game. The game's protagonist, Ico, is a boy born with horns and is taken out to a castle as a sacrifice since the people of his village see children with horns as a bad omen. Apparently many children born with horns were sacrificed before him. Ico is voiced by Kazuhiro Shindou. Yorda is the girl Ico encounters in the castle. She possesses a strange power, and many of the castle's locked doors open as if by magic when she is brought close to them. She is held captive by her mother inside the castle; it appears that she has no knowledge of the outside world. Yorda is voiced by Reiko Takahashi.

The game's antagonist is the Queen. She holds her own daughter – Yorda – captive in the immense castle and controls a magic dark force. She resembles Yorda, but is shrouded in shadows, with only her pale white face visible. The Queen is voiced by Misa Watanabe.

Several shadowy figures, similar in appearance to the queen, are also encountered throughout the game; they emerge from dark portals that appear without warning in the ground, and attempt to drag Yorda back through these portals with them. There are several different variations, including a large horned bipedal creature, a medium winged creature, and smaller creatures that travel in packs.

[edit] Story

The game begins with Ico, the protagonist, being taken by a group of warriors to an abandoned castle. They lock Ico in a sarcophagus inside the castle, fearing that if they do not, the land will be cursed. After they leave, the room starts shaking. Ico rocks the sarcophagus back and forth until it breaks open. Upon crashing into the ground, he is knocked unconscious.

Ico dreams that he is climbing a staircase. At the top of the staircase, he finds a black figure of a girl sitting in a cage. He is then captured by shadows that emerge from the wall.

When he awakes, he finds the same stairs he saw in his dream. Climbing them, he finds the same room with the same cage, but finds a pale girl dressed in white inside the cage. He frees her, and they begin to make their way to the castle gate. As they approach it, a huge shadowy figure appears and closes the gate. The figure is the queen of the castle, and calls the girl Yorda, her daughter. The queen tells Yorda that she cannot survive in the outside world, then leaves.

As Ico and Yorda search for another way out, they find the controls for the gate. They open the gate and try to leave again, but this time, the Queen raises the drawbridge, separating Ico and Yorda. Ico tries to jump across the gap, but fails to jump far enough. As he begins to fall, Yorda grabs his arm. A shadow begins to overtake Yorda, and she releases Ico as she loses consciousness. He passes out.

Ico awakens on top of a cage, hanging below the castle. He begins to make his way back into the castle. While doing so he finds a magic sword that the warriors had left. In the sarcophagus room, he finds Yorda, turned to stone. He takes the sword and finds the Queen in the throne room, where he asks what she did to Yorda. The Queen explains that she intends to extend her own life by taking Yorda’s body. Ico lunges at the Queen with the sword, but the Queen throws him back, breaking one of his horns against the wall. He tries to engage the Queen again, this time blocking her magic with the sword. He plunges the sword into the Queen, and as she dies, she causes a shockwave that throws Ico into the wall and breaks his remaining horn; he is knocked unconscious. The castle then begin to crumble. The curse on Yorda breaks, and she is now a shadow figure like the Queen. Yorda carries Ico to one of the boats that the warriors had used, and sends it out into the ocean. She chooses not to follow him.

Later, Ico awakens at a beach. There he finds Yorda, also washed up on the beach; she is no longer a shadow creature, looking more like she did when they first met. The game ends with her showing weak signs of life.

[edit] Audio

Ico's audio featured a minimal amount of music and sound effects. The soundtrack, composed by Michiru Oshima & Pentagon, was released in Japan by Sony Music Entertainment. The CD is titled "ICO: Melody in the Mist" (「ＩＣＯ」～霧の中の旋律～ "Iko" ~Kiri no Naka no Senritsu~?). The last song of the CD, ICO ~You Were There~, is sung by former Libera member Steven Geraghty.[1]

[edit] Soundtrack listing

[edit] Influence

The gameplay in Ico is often compared to a 3D updating of that found in the original Prince of Persia[2][3]. A washed-out soft lighting visual style, similar to the distinctive style of Ico, was later used in the critically acclaimed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and other games of that series.

Since then, the "soft lighting" graphic style has been used in a number of other games, from first-person shooter titles like Project Snowblind to stealth games such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, as well as Shadow of the Colossus, which was created by the same team of designers as Ico.

In addition to the visuals, many action-adventure games since the release of Ico have drawn inspiration from its "companion" dynamic, with the male protagonist leading, helping, and caring for a female character through his adventures.[citation needed] Examples of these include Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Disaster Report, Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 4: The Room.

[edit] Development

Fumito Ueda's main influence for Ico was Another World (video game), which was made by Eric Chahi. It used cinematic cutscenes and a HUDless experience in order to play like a movie.

Ico was in development for about four years. In the first stages of development, Ueda created an animation in Lightwave in order to get a feel for the final game and better convey his vision to the team. In this animation Yorda was the one to have horns rather than Ico and looked rather different in general, as can be observed in the video of Ico's demo reel [1], particularly the scenes of Ico looking down on Yorda on the couch and Yorda's hand examining Ico's face. In the final game, Ico was given horns instead in order to be more easily identified onscreen.

Originally planned for a release on the PlayStation, development started in earnest in 1998 with a team initially composed mostly of people from outside the game industry. Game design was guided by three key notions: to make a game that would be different from others in the genre; that would feature an aesthetic style that would be consistently artistic; and that would play out in an imaginary yet realistic setting. This was primarily achieved by subtracting common gameplay elements, such as the HUD, leaving only what is essential. Another method was key frame animation instead of the more common motion capture technique.

Development switched to the PlayStation 2 in late 1999, which gave the team a more powerful platform upon which to achieve their original goals. Elements present around this time included a storyline trying to get Yorda back to her room rather than an all-out escape from the castle and enemies that resembled the horned warriors seen at the beginning of the final game rather than the shadowy wraiths. The demo edition of the game (available on a 2001 PS2 Jampack disc) features several minor changes from the final version of the game. These include an altered windmill puzzle, different-looking shadow creatures and the ability to retract Ico's extended hand while Yorda leaps across ledges, allowing her to fall and die. All of these were removed or altered in the final game. Despite these and some other differences, stylistically, the game remained faithful to the original vision presented in the video and maintained core gameplay elements that centered around puzzle-solving. It should be noted that a behind the scenes featured on a CD from OPM magazine featured Ico combating giant versions of the Shadow wraiths, though whether this was a planned and eventually cut element from the game or simply the developers playing around is unknown.[citation needed]

[edit] Reception

Despite selling only 700,000 copies worldwide [4], Ico received strong reviews, and has become a cult hit among gamers.

[edit] Awards

Ico received positive press from critics with an average score of 90% at Game Rankings, making it 15th game of 2001 (10th on the PS2)[5].

2002 Game Developers Choice Awards

  • Excellence in Level Design
  • Excellence in Visual Arts
  • Game Innovation Spotlights

2002 5th Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Achievement Awards

  • Original Game Character of the Year
  • Nomination in Game Design
  • Nomination in Level Design
  • Nomination in Visual Arts
  • Game Innovation Spotlights

Others:

  • #18 on IGN's 2005 "Top 100 Games of All Time",[6] Editors Choice 09/25/2001[7]#6 on "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time"[8], and #57 on IGN's "Top 100 Games of All Time"[9].
  • Official US PlayStation Magazine The Annual Ico Award For Ico
  • Penny Arcade: Best Use Of Smoky Shadow Guys Who Try To Steal Your Princess, Who Might Be Blind Or Something We're Not Really Sure (Game of the Year 2001) [10]
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly in their list of the greatest 200 games of their time listed Ico at number 121.
  • #8 in X-Play's 10 Best Games for the PS2.
  • #2 on 1up's Top 10 Cult Classics. [11]

[edit] Successor

Main article: Shadow of the Colossus

A spiritual sequel from the same studio, with an atmospheric style similar to that of Ico, was released in October 2005 in North America and Japan, titled Shadow of the Colossus (ワンダと巨像 Wanda to Kyozō?, Wander and the Colossus). The numerous indirect references to Ico observed throughout Shadow imply that there is a connection between the two games. On March 9, 2006, Fumito Ueda, the creator and lead designer of both games confirmed that Shadow of the Colossus is indeed directly connected to Ico and that both take place in the same universe. He also confirmed that Shadow of the Colossus is a prequel to Ico. [12]

[edit] Versions and merchandise

Cover art comparison
The cover art for the North American version of the game. The cover art for the Japanese and European versions of the game.

In 2004, a novelization of the game titled ICO: Castle of Mist (ICO -霧の城- ICO -Kiri no Shiro-?) was released (ISBN 4-06-212441-6) in Japan. It was written by the author Miyuki Miyabe because of her appreciation of the game. [13]

[edit] Regional variations

There are major differences between the releases of the game in different locales. The US version was rushed to release to meet an early shipping deadline and as such misses some bonuses found in the Japanese and European releases. The second playthrough bonuses present in the EU and Japanese releases are removed, as is the expanded dialogue (the subtitles that were indecipherable runes the first time through are now translated), the option to have a second player control the princess, a secret weapon which resembles a lightsaber from Star Wars, and the option to play the entire game in the "film effect" seen in certain cut scenes. There were also a few changes made to the game itself, such as the shadow generation points and the AI. Most notably, the Waterfall and Windmill puzzles are more complex in the Japanese and European versions than the US version. The original box artwork, designed by Fumito Ueda, is a homage to the surrealist painter de Chirico (compared to The Nostalgia of the Infinite) and helped to add to the minimalist feel of the game.

The US and Japanese versions were also released in CD-ROM format in a standard case, while the European version came on a DVD-ROM in a limited edition cardboard packaging, containing four postcards with artwork from the game. This latter version was highly sought after by gamers, at one point the game sold at up to £80, however demand has since died down. Ico was re-released in a standard case on 17 February 2006 in PAL territories[14] (except France) to tie in with the release of Shadow of the Colossus to enable gamers to "fill the gap in their collection," according to Sony.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Boy Choir and Soloist Directory - Steven Geraghty
  2. ^ Ico review. Gamespot.com.
  3. ^ ICO review. Gaming Age.com.
  4. ^ Hardcore Gaming 101: ICO / Shadow of the Colossus
  5. ^ ICO Reviews
  6. ^ IGN's Top 100 Games
  7. ^ IGN: ICO Review
  8. ^ IGN: The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time
  9. ^ IGN Top 100 Games 2007 | 57 ICO
  10. ^ Penny Arcade! - Awards Ceremony, Part Four
  11. ^ Top 10 Cult Classics from 1UP.com
  12. ^ Behind the Shadow: Fumito Ueda, Chris Kohler, Wired
  13. ^ IGN: ICO Novel Coming In Japan
  14. ^ ICO re-issue confirmed News // PS2 /// Eurogamer

[edit] External links