Ico

Moby ID: 5158
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Description official descriptions

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 in order 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 been imprisoned by the evil queen. The two children must explore the ominous castle, trying to find a way to escape, persecuted by the queen's shadow minions.

ICO is a third-person perspective game that mixes action-based exploration gameplay with puzzles. The game is set almost exclusively in the castle, which consists of dozens of rooms, passages, platforms, and contraptions. Ico will run, climb, and jump his way through these environments. The puzzles in the game are physical (environmental): Ico must push and pull objects, manipulate switches, re-arrange structures, etc.

Yorda will accompany Ico throughout most of the game. Many of the puzzles revolve around creating a way for Yorda to access special glowing blue doors, which only she is capable of unlocking with her powers. Being less athletic than Ico, Yorda will often need a more comfortable path built for her. Ico can hold Yorda's hand to lead her with him, and also call her to come nearer.

With the exception of the final (and only) boss, all the enemies in the game are shadows. They attack in groups, either at pre-set points, or when Ico is separated from Yorda for a long time. Their goal is always the same: to capture Yorda and carry her towards a black whirlpool. If the player fails to rescue her before she is consumed by this shadow portal, the game is over. Conversely, Ico can not be killed by the shadows; they can only push him, preventing him from reaching Yorda in time. The player must therefore fend off the shadows (Ico uses a stick for the largest portion of the game), at the same time hurrying towards Yorda. Protecting and rescuing Yorda is one of the primary gameplay elements in ICO.

The game has no HUD (heads-up display). Other distinguishing features are the soft lightning visual style, low-key use of in-game music, and conversations through a fictional language, leaving much to the player's imagination.

Spellings

  • イコ - Japanese spelling
  • ěť´ ě˝” - Korean spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

193 People (147 developers, 46 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 90% (based on 66 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 192 ratings with 8 reviews)

The Princess and the Draggin'

The Good
Every generation the Curse is visited upon the Village and a child is born with tiny horns. The horns grow larger and the child is blamed for failing crops and sickened animals. When the horns are full-sized, faceless riders take the child from the Village, across the water to the Castle. There the child is entombed in an urn and left to die—for the good of the Village. Except that is not the fate Destiny has in store for Ico.

Alive, in his funerary urn, Ico has a vision of a Princess trapped in a cage suspended by a chain, high above him. Freeing himself from the urn, Ico now has a purpose, escaping the Castle with the Princess, even though that means defying the Queen of the Castle. To do so, he will have to overcome the greatest of all environmental obstacles—the entire Castle. He will have to lead the weakened Princess through one gigantic, intricate puzzle while fighting off the Queen’s Shadow Demons who seek to return the Princess to her mother.

Ico has three major elements. First Ico must find a way to navigate through the Castle. He climbs, crawls and jumps well so he is able to find hidden switches, creep along narrow ledges, and swing from ropes and chains. The Princess is in a weakened state, so Ico must lead her through the Castle by pulling her hand or calling out to her and also by finding a less acrobatic way for her to get through the Castle. Finally, if the Princess is out of sight for too long (or certain events are triggered) Shadow Demons rise up from smoky portals and attempt to drag the Princess away.

Ico’s primary weapon is a length of wood he can use to hammer at the demons. He can find a sword (later in the game) which makes quicker work of them and there is at least one (maybe two) secret weapon to be found. The Shadow Demons are cunning opponents seeking to distract Ico while kidnapping the Princess or knocking him off high areas, but they cannot kill him. The game, except for the final sequence, ends only if Ico falls too far or the Princess is taken away.

When playing Ico, I was struck that no extra lines were drawn, no extra words spoken, no extra notes played. Ico is detailed where detail is called for and sparse where it is not. Previous reviews have referred to Ico’s artistic merits and they are definitely there in terms of graphics, sound and music. It is a beautiful game, yet players who play Prince of Persia: Sands of Time before Ico will probably be disappointed.

Lastly, I was initially annoyed with the mechanics behind the Princess. She comes when called and goes where dragged, but as a character she offers little. In terms of game play, she is used to open certain magical doors, so she is mostly a key shaped like a girl. But there is something sweet about Ico’s interaction with her—the way he protects her, how he holds her hand, the way they sit together on the couches which act as save points—and this pays off with one of the best endings I’ve ever seen.

The Bad
Ico doesn’t take long to play. It takes time to figure out what to do, but not that long to do it. While I appreciate that nothing was added to the game to lengthen game play, I do wish that the NTSC release had some of the features of the PAL release which add to replay—learning more of the story the second time around and allowing a second player to play as the Princess.

The Bottom Line
If you play Ico before Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, you probably think Sands ripped Ico off. If you play Ico after Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, you probably think that Sands really improved on what Ico accomplished. I recommend this game, but you may have been here before and already done that.

PlayStation 2 · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2004

Superb environmental puzzles with a pair of characters that you will care about.

The Good
I personally love these type of games. They are ones that do not really rely on twitch reflexes but more brain power. Puzzles are in the form of mostly environmental puzzles. That is, you manipulate the environment around you in order to progress. The graphics are top notch with volumetric lighting and fog. The castle is EXPANSIVE and completely interconnecting. Meaning, you at time cross a place where you were at earlier in the game but in another position (higher or lower or on that bridge you wondered if you could get to it). You and your female counterpart need to stay together to solve this game. You can leave her alone for a little while but the baddies will come and take her away if you neglect her thus ending the game. I like the fact that you have to have her with you in order to save the game, it adds an extra layer of complexity. As for people who have complained that the game was too short, I disagree. It converyed what the story was in a tight time frame that leaves you feeling that you completed a great game, not painfully trudged through a all nighter. The puzzles range from easy to diabolical! The sound is excellent. Ambient sounds and light music intersparsed gives a great feel for the environments. Nothing is loud or nerving.

The Bad
My only complaint for this game is that the combat system is TOO simplistic. It boils down to swinging your board, or sword over and over with one button until they baddies are dead. Nothing more to it. Granted this is a thinking persons game but would have liked a little more oomph.

The Bottom Line
Hey! You want some puzzles and a beautifully created world to explore? ICO is your best bet for that intellectual game that dazzles you with a great story and visuals.

PlayStation 2 · by Random Fiste (8) · 2001

Mystical and pretty, and with a bit of retro-cool.

The Good
This is the only PS2 game I'm interested in really. Well alright, Metal Gear Solid 2 has my attention but it's not the sort of thing I can be bothered with. Especially because I saw my friend playing it and near the end there was a 45-minute cutscene...

I like ICO because I'm still fanatical about old games, like Prince of Persia and Flashback, and their styles of playing. Maybe this is because my PC is pretty much incapable of playing any games released today (I don't actually own a PS2 but I have completed ICO), but at least this carries on the traditions of old. Although, unlike Prince Of Persia, it is gorgeous to look at. Even though graphics don't mean a thing these days, at least not in terms of the game having any lasting appeal, ICO has a particular look. It's sparse and drab, but it gives a hell of a lot of atmosphere because of it. And it also lets the lighting effects do their thing: inside the castle it's dark and gloomy, outside it's so bright it makes your eyes hurt. But that's great. The sense of scale too is a sight to behold. Standing on a bridge overlooking most of the castle, with about 3000 feet below to fall, is an experience in itself. As is plunging from the top of a windmill into a pool of some of the most brilliantly rendered water seen in a game.

The characters are beautiful too, especially in their animation. Ico really does run about and act like a 10yr old, albeit one with the combined fitness of 30 top class athletes. Yorda on the other hand would blow away in the wind and her daintiness is so great you just want to sit back and watch her do her own thing for half an hour.

Fighting is great fun. The shadow monsters are intelligent and almost funny to watch as they evade your blows; but there is still a real satisfaction when your strike hits home and you save Yorda and yourself from the jaws of death. Again, the graphics are top notch with the enemies. Even though they look like they've been stolen from Heart Of Darkness a little bit.

Finally, the showdown at the end is really exciting and tense to play and to watch. In fact, the whole game is a visual feast so I might as well shut up about the graphics. I don't actually remember any music in the game though, even though I'm sure there was some, but at least that shows it doesn't impose.

Great box covers too.

The Bad
No-one else I know seems to think this, but there just wasn't enough to it for my liking. It's very linear from start to finish both in the gameplay and in the environments. The latter is what I found the hardest to cope with: other than the grey stone walls of the castle and the beautiful skies and grass outside, there is nothing to look at. Even though the appeal is in the simplicity, there needs to be some other environment. It gets better near the end when all of a sudden Ico finds himself somewhere else, but that's not enough. My favourite bit in the whole game was with the windmill, that's the only time there is any water. Considering water has rarely been done so beautifully you think they'd have used it just a little more often.

Also I don't think there is any real story in this game. The game does give reasons for the presence of both characters but the reasons aren't important. The story never moves on except for one or two instances, the rest is just a lot of...dare I say...jumping around?

Also, because of the lack of variety, it can almost get boring. I can't imagine playing for much longer than an hour as the puzzles never let up, and they're all very similar anyway - usually involving Yorda, some boxes and switches.

The Bottom Line
Tranquil, occasionally frustrating and beautiful. If they just add a bit more to look at and do, (but not too much), for the sequel it'll be perfect. Still worth buying anyway.

PlayStation 2 · by Shazbut (163) · 2003

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

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512x256 PAL shots GTramp (81965) Jun 30, 2013

Trivia

Art

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.

Development

ICO was originally meant to be released for the PlayStation, but the development was halted and then continued for the PlayStation 2. A screenshot gallery of the first version has been included with the limited edition of Shadow of the Colossus. Also, originally Yorda was due to have horns, not lead character Ico

Extras

The European Limited Edition version has a double cardboard-sleeved case and contains four postcard-sized art cards.

Novel

In 2004, author Miyuki Miyabe released a novel in Japan based on the game. She wrote it because of her appreciation of the game (ISBN 4-06-212441-6).

Version differences

The US version does not contain the second playthrough bonuses present in the Japanese and European releases. These include translated subtitles (initially hieroglyphs), the option to have a second player (who controls the princess), a secret weapon different from the one findable in the first playthrough, and the option to play the game with one of four cinematic video filters. There are also changes to some of the shadow generation points, fights with enemies are slightly harder, and the Waterfall and Windmill puzzles are simplified.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002 – #7 Best PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002– Best Atmosphere of the Year
    • 2002– Special Game Idea of the Year
  • EGM
    • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #121 out of 200 in the "Greatest Games of Their Time" lisz

Information also contributed by Big John WV, Indra was here and Mark Ennis

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by nullnullnull.

PlayStation 3 added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Macintrash, Jeanne, Sciere, Leandro S., Zeppin, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, yenruoj_tsegnol_eht (!!ihsoy).

Game added October 15, 2001. Last modified March 15, 2024.