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 191 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

One of the Playstation's finest.

The Good
ICO was the first Playstation 2 game I bought. It only took about eight days to finish it, but it was a memorable experience. Nothing on the Playstation 2 has ever quite managed to out do it. This is a game that is nothing like anything I've ever played before. A true masterpiece. Read onto the review to find out why.

Gameplay-

Puzzles galore. And not all the puzzles are the typical push the block stuff. No no, these puzzles require a fair amount brain matter to solve. Some require some backtracking, but it's usually a minimal distance. One of my favorites for instance- You have to get Yorda to a high ledge. But there's only a locked door and a climbing chain to get there. Yorda can't climb chains, so you have to figure out how to unlock the door. Once you're on the higher ledge, there are grates and a tunnel beneath them. You climb into the tunnel and go to the end and stand on a pressure pad. It opens the locked door and you call Yorda. She stands with you and on the pad. You leave her on the pad and go out the door. Climb back up and call Yorda to the open grate where you can pull her up.

Simple, yet requires thought. The first time I almost drove myself crazy trying to figure it out. If won't reveal anymore, but needless to say the puzzles are great.

The platforming in the game is good, but plain. It's mainly jumping across gaps and scaling ledges. Some of the scaling in the later parts of the castle is cool, but some of it can be tedious. It certainly doesn't detract from the gameplay, but only adds one really innovative thing. When you're travelling with Yorda and you cross a gap, you can call to Yorda to come to the other side of the ledge so she can leap across and you can grab her, and pull her up. You have to do the same with some ledges and ladders. You have to escort Yorda throughout most of the game, but it's not usually aggravating. The first time she's being abducted by shadow beings, you might jump out of your seat with fear of not getting there in time. It creates a special bond between the two of you. If she gets lost you feel you have to go back and get her. It may be somewhat cumbersome to go back whole areas to do it, but you have to in order to finish the game, and to have some peace of mind.

The combat in the game is simplistic, but I wouldn't want something more complicated in a game like this because it would bog it down. The square button is always attack. But you gain weapons in the game. It goes from a wood plank, to a sword, to a mace and ultimately the magic sword. The mace is the best weapon for most of the game. It beats out the sword easily, and anything beats the plank. The magic sword kills shadow beings in one swipe. But by that point, they won't try to seriously harm you. The showdown with the evil queen is actually the hardest part of the game. Once you hit her, the sword goes off in a different direction out of your hands. It took me about seven tries to finally get her.

All in all the gameplay is some of the best I've ever experienced in a Playstation game.

Sound-

Like no other 3D game, it does audio in a minimalistic way, but it's incredibly convincing. When you're near the sea, you hear gulls, the sound of waves crashing into the cliffs below. The crackles of torches pop and crack while your footsteps echo in the lonely halls. In the courtyards, birds chirp, the breeze rustles the leaves in the trees gently lulling them back and forth. The sounds of shadow beings squirming out of their pools makes your skin crawl. You...am I getting too poetic ? Well it was at least it was well written. The music is a bit more difficult to describe. It's mainly made up of classical pieces, but some sound like keyboards or like they were electric. Regardless of how it was made, it absolutely resembles nothing I've heard in other videogames or movies, or otherwise. Very incredible. The voice acting is good, but somewhat hard judge. All the dialogue is done in a fictional language. I heard somewhere it was backwards Japanese. But not to fear, all of it's subtitled. But some of it (everything Yorda says) is done in symbol subtitles that aren't translated. But I suppose that would be redundant. The queen sounds as nasty as she acts. Very condescending. ICO himself sounds concerning but innocent. Yorda is impossible to judge accurately, because almost all of speech is very quiet. But not bad at all. To wrap it up for sound. Great ! Fantastic !

Graphics-

Now this is where ICO shows how well it has aged. The one thing people talk about when discussing this game is the lighting. And rightly so. Never before or since in my opinion has a game ever managed to duplicate light so perfectly. That type of blue-grey you get in the shadows, the way the grass almost looks yellow in the sunlight, or how it shines brilliantly in the open. The shadows come across like they do in real life. Words simply do not do most of it justice. A tired cliche' yes but true. The areas you get to play in are no slouches either. Drab, broken down, overgrown with weeds, and not too much color. Why is this appealing ? By itself it would look horrible. But the light gives it it's color and depth. Like in real life. And boy are those depths and colors pulled together well. Torches give off a flickering glow, the sun makes even the blandest looking of stones brilliant. One cool graphical element is that if you look at certain points in the game, you can see future ares of the game.

Whoever did the character animation should get a award for their work. It can be a little jerky sometimes, but more realistic than any other game in 3D history. The cutscene at the gate after the queen leaves, ICO looks filled with dread and shock as rushes back towards Yorda. His eyes grow wide, and his shoulders fall back just before he runs. That attention to detail is impressive and puts most other 3D games of that era and even today to shame. Yorda shivers when the wind blows, and looks around curiously. Most impressive of all are the shadow beings. They drip of black, smokey, oil like stuff. It's almost impossible to believe that those things are made of polygons. Amazing. One last thing I wanted to mention are the trees in the courtyard of the earlier mentioned puzzle. It just fun to zoom in on them and see the bright green leaves sway back and forth in the breeze. It's for whatever reason very captivating.

Controls-

Simple. Intuitive. Precise and responsive. A perfect dream for those who hate complicated, unresponsive control schemes. Nothing more need be said.



The Bad
Graphics-

I noticed that some of the textures were a mix of high-res and low-res textures. It didn't look cohesive in some spots and was slightly distracting in one part of the game. I know this game was originally intended for the Playstation 1, but I swear I saw some textures that looked like there on the Playstation 1. At one point early in the game I noticed that a wall looked like a mess of pixels. When I zoomed in on it, it smoothed out. But zoom out and you get pixels. I just wonder if they were in such a rush to get it onto the Playstation 2 if they cut corners there. It ultimately doesn't matter though. And at the top of the cart rail track during a fight, the frame-rate dipped slightly.

Gameplay-

Yorda can be a bit much to handle at times. If she gets lost you have to go get her. Sometimes she'll climb a ladder, stop, and go back the other way. Sigh.



The Bottom Line
I have said everything I can to convince you to get this game or try it in the review above. If you actually read (Yes most people skim huge reviews like this)it that is. But I fully recommend it for something that's truly a unique experience.

PlayStation 2 · by GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) · 2008

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
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.