ICO CREATOR LOOKS BACK AT COLOSSUS DEVELOPMENT
1UP’s just-published interview with Ico creator Fumito Ueda looking back at spiritual sequel Shadow of the Colossus some three years later was interesting not so much at what it revealed about the game, but about the practicality of Ueda in his approach to its creation.
Both games are heralded as some of the high-water-marks of games as art, and Ueda wins points for his approach the narrative debate (“there should be game design first and a story that suits the design, not the other way around”), and commercial intentions (“if I were to choose between something that sells for a moment and is forgotten, and something that doesn’t sell much but is remembered, I would choose the latter”).
His response to the hero dynamic was interesting, though:
Making a lead character female seems to be fascinating cinematically, but I picked a male character since most game players are male, and they need to become emotionally involved with the lead character. However, recently there have been many female gamers, so it is possible to have a female leading character, I guess.
And it was interesting to see that in both games, unlike most other adventures which are built on the very foundation (see: Zelda), Ueda deliberately left out unlockable weapons that would operate as “skill changes” — keeping the player on an even keel throughout.
As for what the team is doing now, nothing much has been said other than the above teaser image used for a recruitment ad, and a comically unhelpful appearance on the PS3’s Mainichi Issyo channel (aka, where those Sony cats come from), where he showed up and parted with nothing more than a drawing of the cats being chased by a colosso-feline.
Shadow of the Colossus Postmortem Interview [1UP]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Shadow of the Colossus
