ICO

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

I have a strange connection with ICO, the PS2 game.
I'm known for being dramatic about things, but since the first time i played this game i felt like i have always played it, i felt like it showed me something that actually happened to me, that i knew the places or the characters. It's a game that makes me believe that i one day belonged in that world, that i'm not supposed to be here, it's like an abstract feeling of uneasiness for longing for something you lost, even though i'm 100% sure i never played it before. I don't feel that way even for Shadow Of The Colossus or The Last Guardian.
Again, maybe i'm the one that is too dramatic and attached about everything, but can you guys relate? Maybe there is a game that makes you also feel a similar way out there, it would be cool to know.

 

[bjork]

I can't say I've had that happen with any kind of media, but the game itself sure is unique and interesting.

 

[moonbits]

R1 to Hold Hands

 

[ZombieFish]

At the risk of getting Jungian, I think something about the simplicity of the world, its characters, mechanics, and iconography, plus the lack of dialogue and music, give it an almost dreamlike quality, maybe a dream in the akashic record?

 

[Stingy Perry]

the devs took 4 years to develop to develop this masterpiece.

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

At the risk of getting Jungian, I think something about the simplicity of the world, its characters, mechanics, and iconography, plus the lack of dialogue and music, give it an almost dreamlike quality, maybe a dream in the akashic record?

Absolutely. It is for a reason that my favorite images depicting the game are the characters sleeping. It reminds me something Slavoj Zizek about video games interpellating us into a pre-oedipal not yet castrated subjectivity, and seeing how this game is basically this strong pre-oedipal notion of a secure place free from worries in a dreamy place and even more with the representation of a woman being with you at all times, maybe subconsciously representing a motherly figure. Or maybe i'm thinking too much about this in a video-game forum lol

 

[Stingy Perry]

To think this game was released during the early years of the PS2 but why do I feel this game is vastly better than the ones that we are getting now.

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

To think this game was released during the early years of the PS2 but why do I feel this game is vastly better than the ones that we are getting now.

I think Team ICO likes to do things their own way, so the results are always unique and hard to replicate by other studios. I think this is what lacks nowadays, more big studios doing different things than usual, innovating and taking necessary risks

 

[ZombieFish]

Absolutely. It is for a reason that my favorite images depicting the game are the characters sleeping. It reminds me something Slavoj Zizek about video games interpellating us into a pre-oedipal not yet castrated subjectivity, and seeing how this game is basically this strong pre-oedipal notion of a secure place free from worries in a dreamy place and even more with the representation of a woman being with you at all times, maybe subconsciously representing a motherly figure. Or maybe i'm thinking too much about this in a video-game forum lol

No, that sounds about right. But to say it like Zizek you’d have to get your keyboard wet.

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

No, that sounds about right. But to say it like Zizek you’d have to get your keyboard wet.

No, you see *sniff* that's the thing, *gesticulates rapidly* i got a new Stalin poster *sniff harder* and so on and so on

 

[ZombieFish]

Wow, it’s like he’s really here.

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

Not really much for ICO to me it's more SOTC for the way it felt open and desolate and just me and my horse. Is this real? Will this be a "you're already dead" cop out? And I just want to be there even if it's just a dream or will be destroyed like Majora's Mask at the end of it. I think I would feel the same in TLG if I went back to complete it but not in that game's current timeline maybe one further in time. Life is simple, it needs no words or hardly uses them. I like that simpleness.

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

Can't say I've ever felt quite that connected, but it's an interesting perspective to hear.

I really need to get back to Ico. I played a little of it yeeeears ago, but never got back into it. I really liked what I played though. Absolutely adore Shadow of the Colossus and would one day love to see a 'full' version with a bunch of the cut colossi included, but I imagine that'll never happen.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

I have a strange connection with ICO, the PS2 game.
View attachment 22832

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Same boat for ICO. It is a masterpiece. I played it in 3D VR with RPCS3 last year.

 

[DaxterDotEXE]

Bought this game at launch as there was nothing else catching my eyes and it really surprised me, both gameplay wise and graphically. I recall zooming the camera on the trees in that courtyard area because I was mesmerized by that shiny shader they put on the leaves, good stuff! LMAO (I miss my pre-Internet brain tbh)

Loved this game, there was genuinely nothing like it back in 2002... for about 8 months or so, then Prince of Persia The Sands of Time came out and immediately rendered ICO obsolete imo. Thankfully Shadow of the Colossus exists, and that has yet to be topped to this day!