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An incredible first for many people, beware action fans.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It's an innocent game. It's one of the better games i've seen.

Pros: Incredibly simplistic story and setting. Easy controls Breathtaking scenery. Challenging. Impressive physics engine(unless everything and every possibility was scripted).

Cons: The replay value of an 80's drama. An annoying effect with camera controls. An annoying effect with lighting. Too short. Very linear (like a movie).

Common game elements: Save points, checkpoints (idol doors), custom controls, timed game (not countdowns), static camera positions, limited dynamic camera angles, equipment(3 swords), no items, no life meter, no HUD, zoom feature, game length: 3 hours to 12 hours: firsttimmers- 5-10 hours.

This game is very simple. It harkens back to some of the most basic elements of any game: run, jump, move blocks, lead princess, fight monsters, find switch, pull switch.
The Jist.

You, Ico, boy with horns, lead a princess, Yorda, glowing angel, around. You have to escape the castle. You must protect Yorda.

The trick is that you need her to open these "idol" doors. Easy enough. But she's not as phsycally able as you are, so you need to find an easy way to get her to these doors that seem out of her reach. Another twist is that at certain points these monsters try and take her away from you, which you must defend her from. Another twist is that they will take advantage of your absense and attempt to take her if you leave her too long. You have no control over her at all... only one command which lets her know you want her to move towards you (kinda like following) and to litterally grab her hand and pull her along. She won't wander off a cliff but sometimes she likes getting really close.

The Puzzles

The puzzles are challenging, and each differs slightly from the first. But they are a lot the same: find a way to get yorda to the door. There are no hints or tips to find out which way to go (but in the beginning Yorda will hint on the answer with her position if you take too long). Some of the puzzles are trial and error, and some can be trial and death. But the game can be played with the absence of death for the first time. The puzzles never change after solving them, duh, and there are no second solutions. The puzzles are so simplistic in their creation that there's nothing left to tinker with for a second solution.

The Combat

The combat sequences are easy, relative to a Tekken player or Legend of Zelda player. Nothing twitchy at all. The only way to lose the battle is to be knocked off a cliff(which is rare) or to let Yorda get taken. The final battle is a puzzle in and of itself. The battles do tend to get redundant and even annoying at times. There are three ways to get out of the battle: deafeat all the monsters, run out of the area, or open an idol door, which kills all monsters in the area. The second option was never intended to be used, but it can be. There are up to 3 weapons in the game, one of them is secret. But the basic weapon also serves as a way to solve puzzles. A few objects can be used as weapons, such as bombs and barrels.

The Princess

Yorda is unable to do a lot of things. She can only jump short distances, or longer ones with your assistance. She can climb short climbs on her own but will require assistance from you higher ledges. She can't run as fast as you either. Anything that involves climbing with arms is a cannot-do. She can do ladders, but not ropes, chains, pipes, ledges, gear parts. She will not go where she needs to go, except maybe three times. Her AI is a little stupid sometimes and she won't get the picture until she's in the right position. I've stood next to her up on a ledge and reached down to grab her and she looked at me for about 30 seconds before walking away from me and then turning around quickly and running to my hand. Generally she will stay where you put her, but her AI sometimes has to have contact with you. If you call her she goes into "get to Ico" mode and will not come out of it until she gets close to you. If you leave her for long periods of time she will wander around and play with her elbow.

The scenery is breathtaking. It is beautiful. It is highly detailed, though on a 1080 scanline TV you can see the limitations of the graphics at the time of the game's production. It is one of the earlier PS2 games. The music is rare but beautiful and she is like an angel... really, she glows, you can only see her face in a few places. It has no replay value, unless you want that 3rd weapon, or are aiming for a quicker time. But it is beautiful and touching. It is for almost anyone, children and adults, women and men. I wouldn't recommend this game to heavy actions players, heavy power gamers, or sports fans. My brother found it very boring, and my friend found it redundant. My girlfriend fell in love with it when she saw me playing it, it was her first video game since she was a little kid in Taiwan. It was the first video game my sister played, and my mother. It was the first game my dad watched. I bought it used.... For the price it is more than worth it.

Give it a rent to see if you like it. It isn't for every gamer, but it can be a lot of people's first game.

BEST GAME EVER MADE!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Seriously. It is. No game is as emotionally involving. Its a wonderful adventure with an ending that is felt in your heart. The game gives us entertainment all while it reaches into your soul and brings you into its world. So few games do this, and this one does PEFECTLY. The soundtrack, the story, the ending, the gameplay, the graphics, and design all come together to form the most enjoyable game ever made. You'll care about your adventure, and when its over, you'll miss it. But you will feel complete. This is ART disguised as a game. This is a cinematic, romatic, fantasy adventure full of joy and wonder. DO NOT MISS THIS GAME. IT BELONGS IN EVERYONES HOME LIBRARY. This game is innocent enough for your children, and emotionally strong enough for adults (MEN AND WOMEN). It reaches into the very heart of all of us and takes us into another world. Enjoy. You will not be sorry. As a 25 year old gamer ever since Pacman.. This is the best game i've ever experienced. Better than Zelda, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid... Better than them all.

The Best Game You've Never Heard Of

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If by chance you are wondering how spectacular ICO really is, and I quote, you owe it to yourself to pick this wonderful experience up as soon as it hits store shelves. Not only is it the most wonderfully crafted piece of Playstation 2 software I have had the privilage of testing, but also quite possibly the most original. You don't just play the character, you feel the emotional bond that only a good game can bestow upon a player. ICO is your extension into a world, so beautiful and surreal, that the experience will stay with you well after you've played them game.
Gameplay reminiscent of "Out of this World", "Prince of Persia", "Flashback", "Blackthorne", and "Heart of Darkness", but fully realized in a true 3-D environment. Also boasting some of the most amazing visuals on any PS2 game thus far, looking more like a live painting, brushed over a living breathing world, then a standard live action environment.
If you love adventure, fantasy, and you are craving for something new, then you truly do owe it to yourself to experience ICO. The greatest game you've never heard of.

Ico is a great experience

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I read all of the positive reviews of this game and decided to give it a try. When I first began to play, I was a little let down, because the reviews I had read had built up some pretty high expectations. As I kept playing, I slowly began getting attached to Ico and Yorda, and before too long, I was really taken in by the wonderful environment.

As you've read, the graphics are stunning, the castle design is brilliant, and the gameplay is simple. I like puzzle games, and I like to play them without using any guides. There are so many puzzle games that can be very frustrating or overly difficult without a guide. Ico provides a very refreshing game experience with puzzles that range from easy to fairly challenging, but that are completely solvable without referring to any guides. The puzzle solutions make sense, and they often use things that are naturally found in the environment, so they are very logical.

Also, many games only allow you to interact with items that can be used to solve puzzles, or that are relevant to the game. One great thing about Ico is that there are many times that you can interact with items/areas in the game that don't relate to a puzzle. For example, you may find an extra box that can be moved around, but that isn't part of a puzzle in that particular area. I really liked this aspect of the game because the environment and items in it are more realistically logical.

Generally if games are short, it doesn't bother me because there are plenty of other things to do other than play games all of the time. However, after finishing Ico, I felt just a little sad that it was over, and felt i would miss it a little.

I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun experience or a way to get lost in another world for a little while.

!CO

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I could not type enough exclamation points to get across to you how good this game is. You are Ico, a 12 year old boy that was born with horns. Because of this, he is exiled to a Gormenghastian castle (only bigger) where he is locked up in a stone-shelled sarcophagus.

Then the earthquake hits.

His sarcophagus falls to the stone floor and cracks open, letting Ico out. But Ico is unconscious. He has this dream.

When he awakens, the game starts. Some of the rooms in this castle are HUGE. One thing that I like about this game is that you can move the camera around with the R2 button. When a game boasts such beautiful graphics and settings as ICO, this is an outstanding feature to have.

Less than an hour into the game, you find a ghostly but glowing princess locked up in a cage and free her. In most games, you are struggling to reach the princess. In ICO, you already have the princess. But now, the question is How Do You Get Out? The earthquake has caused bridges to collapse, stones to crumble, forcing you to do things that most people wouldn't do--like jump onto windmill blades or chandeliers.

The sound effects in this game are also fantastic. For one, throughout the whole game, Ico breaths heavily. Probably because of all the physical exertion he's putting up with, but one could almost feel the adrenaline going through this young boy's veins, especially when he first breaks out, that sudden urge of I MUST GET OUT OF HERE!

As far as graphics go, I have NEVER seen a tree look so realistic in-game. Every LEAF has light and shadow on it, both of which change when the limb sways back and forth. Also impressive are the effects of sunlight filtering through windows.

Unlike some puzzle games, the puzzles in Ico are logical. There is very little back-tracking, and nothing ridiculous like one of those silly Nintendo-ish find 5 golden banana's to unlock the door. I have never been stumped by a puzzle in Ico, just gotten impatient (never frustrated). And when you go on the internet to find the answer, you will often feel stupid.

But you will not be solving puzzles throughout the whole game. Black Shadows come out of dark pools and attempt to walk off with your princess. The shadowmen are nothing more than 2D shadow shapes that are blurred around the edges, walking around your screen, but they look pretty impressive.

Everything following the events of the opening of the Main Gate is fantastic, especially the last battle. And guess what? Even the last battle is a sort of puzzle. Once the credits roll, hang around, because once they're done the game is not entirely over yet.

The Playstation 2 is my favorite console system. Unfortunately, some of the games that I was hoping to give 5 stars (Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2, etc) disappointed me in one way or another. Ico doesn't disappoint and fans of this game will be glad to know that there is a sequel in the works.

A template for the evolution of gaming

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Some time ago, when the original PlayStation was still in the process of taking over the gaming industry, I remember reading an article stating that the next generation of consoles will be so technologically advanced that developers will have unlimited possibilities - the next step would be how to incorporate real, timeless emotion into gaming.

Years later, we've got not one, but THREE highly capable consoles to choose from, and there's still been only one game to tap that emotional potential: Ico.

It's ironic to consider that Ico has well over 100 reviews on amazon, but would probably still be considered a sleeper in the States. So many people have passed it up for whatever reasons they may have, which is really too bad. The programmers of Ico have managed to instill the game with such genuine emotion that no words or expressions are needed to convey them. The true genius of the game lies in the animation of Ico and Yorda - a picture may speak a thousand words, but a moving picture speaks a million.

The gameplay itself is an echo of this creativity. No on-screen icons, meters, or indicators of any kind, ever. Nothing to distract your attention from the vivid, surreal realm of the castle. The environmental puzzles are still the most clever ever conceived in any game - Ico and Yorda's path to safety lies right in front of your nose, hidden in plain sight. The smoky shadows of the creatures are as unnerving as any mansion-haunting undead. The castle itself is washed in a perpetual glow, which is comforting and haunting at the same time.

At a glance, Ico is short, easy, linear, and perhaps even repetitive, but that's missing the point. Under that apparent superficiality is a story and a world built for the purpose of teasing your heart-strings, and only the utterly jaded will come away from the journey untouched. The purpose of the game's ending is to stoke the fire of one's imagination. Ico is the closest anyone's come to an interactive fairy tale, and stands as a triumph of how dedication can find the soul in the software. Beyond the atrocious and misrepresentative cover art (the only flaw in the game) lies a waking dream come to life, a work of subtle yet powerful emotion rivalling the best in literature and film.

I urge you not to pass it up.

Entertainment For The Mind And The Eye

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The Story:
We play Ico, a twelve year old boy born with horns. According to village lore a child will be born each generation that is cursed and will bring misfortune to the village. To restore safety the child must be sacrificed. In the opening scene you are taken to a forboding castle and entombed in a stone coffin amongst the coffins of the children that came before you. When you begin to struggle the tomb topples over and you are freed from your prison. As you explore the enormous castle you come apon an ephemeral girl in a cage. When you set her free you are attacked by shadow creatures and when you persist in trying to escape with the girl you are confronted by the queen of the castle.

Your Mission:
Your job is to navigate the sprawling castle with the girl in tow, performing various actions to help Yorda, who is weak from imprisonment. You will be required to pull levers, turn cranks, climb ladders, chains and ropes, move boxes and platforms, skillfully jump over huge casms and fend off the shadow creatures that try to pull poor Yorda into thier black vortex.

The Positive:
Ico is a truly unique game among the same old same old RPG's of our time. Instead of relying on complicated battle systems, item collecting or leveling, Ico really makes you use your brain to figure out different puzzles and mazes. Unlike most games you are responsible for your partner and must help her navigate the castle, coaxing her to perform simple tasks like climbing and jumping. When the queen sends the shadow people to steal her away you must fend them off all at once making sure you never take your eye of Yorda or focus to heavily on any creature. This is a game of stratedgy, patience and creativity. While there isn't much music the ambient sounds really make you feel like you are there and the music that is included is simply beautiful. The graphics, while a bit fuzzy sometimes are quite beautiful. A combination of comic book, anime and photo realism, the style really grabs you and pulls you in. And while the game is certainly entertaining it is also educational. Not only are you forced to consider the ramifications of your actions you must plan the sequence in which you perform them so as not to leave Yorda vulnerable. You learn to communicate and cooperate with Yorda instead of focusing on yourself. And the game doesn't focus on materialism as many popular games do (getting gear, making money or gaining fame). I find this refreshing and reccomend it to parents looking for a game for thier children that builds character and evokes empathy. And of course there is the adorable interaction between Ico and Yorda. The way they hold hands, stick close together, lean on it each other when resting and pull each other to safety. It's quite charming and endearing, so much so that you really feel invested in saving both Ico and Yorda.

The Negative:
The game is rather short, I beat it in about eight hours. Since I bought this game recently, thus it was 'old' by game standards, I didn't pay forty or fifty dollars so I wasn't terribly disappointed. It doesn't have a lot of replay value, especially the north American release because there really is only one ending and you don't get anything terribly spiffy for playing through again. Some of the features seemed a bit unfinished to me. For instance when saving the display is very plain and it is somewhat hard to see which save you have highlighted. And the story is never truly finished which leaves you feeling a bit jipped in the end. I really would have liked more background information to fill out the story but perhaps the mystery is what makes it so great. I also thought the fact that you can't save during the last chapter of the game was very annoying. The last portion of the game is by no means short and is very tricky which means you will have to play the same section again and again. I feel they did this to make the game longer and tougher, making the game needlessly difficult. There are only three weapons in the NA version of the game, a stick, a sword and a mace. At the very end of the game you get a forth weapon but you only get to use it briefly. The mace, which you finally get close to the end of the game is almost immediately taken away, which again seems pointless and absurd. Finally, I was a bit disappointed in the ending as the story never was clarified and is never resolved. The ending scene is the equivelent of the prize in your cracker jacks and when you are jipped on the ending it's like getting a box without a prize.

Overall I really enjoyed ICO even though it was a departure from my usual Final Fantasy type RPG fare. The puzzles were just hard enough to get you really thinking but not so tough that you end up throwing the controller at the screen. The visuals and sound were enchanting and the characters were lovable and real, not cartoony or unrealistically cheery. Ico is a fairytale in motion and a unique piece of interactive art, fun for kids and adults. I highly reccomend it to anyone looking for something a bit different, something challenging, something with heart.

Good luck and blessings, Prana aka Melissa Clancy

A thing of beauty

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is a piece of poetic genius. Don't bother reading War and Peace if you want a life changing experience, just sit-back an enter the world of ICO for a few days. You won't want to come back.
I, for one, now call my wife Yordi and carry a large hitting stick wherever I go.

Brevity is wit

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: July 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There was a band in 1974 that hailed from Queens, NY. They were tired of self-indulgent guitar solos, tired of 20-minute songs with movements, tired of the things that had filtered into music that didn't belong there. So they brought it back to basics, stripped everything that didn't need to be there and just made quick, catchy songs and have since been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

That band was the Ramones.

I bring them up because ICO is the video game equivalent of the Ramones. In the age of GTA, it seems like almost every video game tries to cram in as much content as possible, but in most cases this added content is a bore to play and is only there to increase game length. ICO doesn't bother with such things. It does one thing and it does it well and it repeats that one thing. From beginning to end, ICO is a joy to play, with each new room you cross being more enjoyable then the last. It's over somewhat quickly, but the experience is so wonderful, you won't care.

I describe ICO as a minimalist Zelda. To be more specific, ICO is basically a giant Zelda dungeon, with dozens of puzzles, enemies, items and upgrades awaiting. The puzzles in ICO are fiendishly clever and they're also not obvious right away due to the puzzles being part of the castle's architechture and not typical "hey this is a video game!" puzzle. In most video games, there's an obvious button you need to stand on, or lever you've got to throw, but in ICO, it feels like you're really exploiting loopholes in the castle's structure. When you get to the windmill, you'll know what I say is true.

Some would say the combat in ICO is poor and the game is over far too soon, but these people are simply wrong. Difference of opinion be damned. The combat is simple, like the rest of the game, and the overall experience of the game is one that I will not soon forget. The story of the game, which I purposely did not talk about, is amazing. It can be summed up in a few sentences, but experiencing it is absolutely emotionally powerful. ICO is one of the best games of this last generation and you would be wise to pick this game up.

This is not an RPG and this is not an action game so stop rating it like one

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: October 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is about the puzzles dangit. So stop telling me "This game sucks because there's like no fighting and the enemies are stupid" and "This game sucks because I can't understand half of the story" Well guess what? Unless you go on Game faqs and read the translated dialouge or live in Europe nither can the rest of us. And another thing, it's from Japan so it has about a 50/50 chance of making sense. No offense to the japanese but some of the stuff that comes out of there is just strange. This game is strange and wonderful. Now remeber, not an action game and not an RPG.

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