Ico is a boy with horns. At the age of twelve when his horns grew large enough the elders send him away to be sacrificed to prevent evil spirits from attacking the village. Entombed in a crumbling ancient castle Ico only manages to begin his escape when a freak earthquake shakes loose the vessel he has been locked in.

Ico shortly meets a Princess named Yorda who has also been imprisoned by the evil Queen. Ico must negotiate the puzzles of the ruined castle and escort the Princess to safety. She, as well as Ico, cannot climb or jump, so Ico has to clear or create a path where there is none. Yorda is the only one capable of opening the many magical doors necessary to escape. Ico needs her as much as she needs him, so he must protect her from the many evil spirits that will try to take her away.

Shown through a third-person perspective, mixing action-based exploration gameplay with puzzles, the game has no HUD. Other striking features are the soft lightning visual style, later adapted by many other games, low-key use of in-game music, and conversations through a fictional language, leaving much to the player's imagination. The game takes place in the same universe as Shadow of the Colossus (2005), to which it is a sequel.

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Part of the Following Group

HUDless games

Merchant	Title
	ICO
	ICO
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User Reviews

Action and meditation at once... is this possible?	Unicorn B. Lynx (53164)
One of the Playstation's finest.	DANIEL HAWKS ! (1141)
The Princess and the Draggin'	Terrence Bosky (5239)
Mystical and pretty, and with a bit of retro-cool.	Shazbut (130)	unrated
Annoying for women, pleasant for men!	Melody (119)
The only computer or video game so far that I would unreservedly call "artistic". Also fun and playable	weregamer (157)
Superb environmental puzzles with a pair of characters that you will care about.	Random Fiste (9)
Finally a really really good PS2 game	nullnullnull (1480)

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The Press Says

GamersMark	Mar 28, 2002	10 out of 10	100
Playstation Illustrated	Dec 07, 2002	100 out of 100	100
Just Adventure	Nov 07, 2001	A	100
PSX Extreme	Sep 26, 2001	9.9 out of 10	99
Game Chronicles	Oct 15, 2001	9.5 out of 10	95
Game Over Online	Jan 22, 2002	91 out of 100	91
ZTGameDomain	Jun 30, 2005	9 out of 10	90
GamesAreFun.com (GAF)	Apr 27, 2003	9 out of 10	90
GameZone	Nov 05, 2001	8.5 out of 10	85
GameCola.net	Jan, 2003	7.2 out of 10	72

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Trivia

The original artwork, designed by Fumito Ueda, was inspired by the works of the surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico. For comparison, the painting The Nostalgia of the Infinite bears a strong resemblance in style to the cover art.

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This entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by nullnullnull (1480) on Oct 15, 2001.