ICO

'''Ico''' (IPA pronunciation: ) is a 2001 action-adventure video game developed by Sony Computer Entertainment and released for the PlayStation 2 video game console. ''Ico'' was designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It did not sell very well in North America, but it received critical acclaim from many video gaming news outlets and won several awards. Europe has since received a reprinting in 2006.

Contents

Plot

Setting

Characters

Story

Audio

Soundtrack listing

Influence

Development

Reception

Awards

Successor

Versions and merchandise

Regional variations

References

External links

Plot

Setting

The player takes on the role of Ico, a young boy born with a pair of horns, who must escort a princess named Yorda safely out of a castle without her being captured by the shadowy figures that prowl nearby or being killed by the castle's numerous environmental hazards. Despite selling only 650,000 copies worldwide, Ico received strong reviews, and has become a cult hit among video game enthusiasts.
''Ico'' is noted for its highly individual artistic style. Key factors contributing to the game's absorbing atmosphere include the absence of any HUD; a bleak and washed-out use of color; low-key use of in-game music, played only in selected scenes of the game; and atmospheric, ambient sound effects in the background. It makes effective use of story with minimal dialogue to forge strong emotional connections with the characters and environments in the game. It includes action, adventure and puzzle elements. The game also has a notable fictional language which has been theorized ^[1] to be backwards Japanese.

Characters

A total of three main characters are encountered throughout the game. The game's protagonist, Ico, is a boy born with horns and is taken out to a castle as a sacrifice since the people of his village see children with horns as a bad omen. Apparently many children born with horns were sacrificed before him. Ico is voiced by Kazuhiro Shindou. Yorda is the girl Ico encounters in the castle. She possesses a strange power, and many of the castle's locked doors open as if by magic when she is brought close to them. She is held captive by her mother inside the castle; it appears that she has no knowledge of the outside world. Yorda is voiced by Reiko Takahashi.
The game's antagonist is the Queen. She holds her own daughter – Yorda – captive in the immense castle and controls a magic dark force. She resembles Yorda, but is shrouded in shadows, with only her pale white face visible. The Queen is voiced by Misa Watanabe.
Several shadowy figures, similar in appearance to the queen, are also encountered throughout the game; they emerge from dark portals that appear without warning in the ground, and attempt to drag Yorda back through these portals with them. There are several different variations, including a large horned bipedal creature, a medium winged creature, and smaller creatures that travel in packs.

Story

The opening sequence of the game introduces the protagonist, Ico, a boy born with horns. Legend has it that when such a child is born, the boy must be sacrificed, or else the land will be struck by a terrible curse. Ico is taken by a handful of warriors to a castle, where they make their entrance by boat through a small cave. One of the warriors takes a magical sword from the cave that opens a magic door leading into a great hall. Inside, stone sarcophagi line the walls. The warriors reluctantly lock Ico inside one.
After the warriors leave, the exit is sealed, causing the entire hall to tremble. This trembling loosens the sarcophagus, and as Ico shifts inside it, it falls over and breaks, freeing him. He passes out and dreams of a long spiral staircase in a tall room. Outside the windows are dark storm clouds, and at the top of the room a cage hangs, holding a pitch black figure of a small girl sitting. As their eyes meet, Ico is consumed by shadows emerging from the wall behind him. Ico wakes up later and eventually makes his way to the room he dreamt of. As he ascends the stairs, he sees the same cage, except now there is a pale girl, clad in white, inside it.
Ico frees the girl and discovers she can open the magic doors he cannot. They begin their journey, solving puzzles to progress through the castle. When they finally arrive at the open main gate, they set off happily for it. As they close in, however, the gate begins to close. Ico rushes for the door, hand in hand with the girl. As they near it, the girl stumbles and falls. In a cloud of darkness, a huge figure appears. The dark figure is the queen of the castle and reveals herself as the girl's mother. She tells her daughter: "Yorda, why can't you understand? You cannot survive in the outside world." Her appearance makes it clear that she controls the shadow monsters in the castle. The queen then disappears. The doors stay shut, so the couple seeks another way out of the castle.
After another puzzle-filled journey, Ico and Yorda manage to open the gate and reach the bridge to leave the castle. The queen reappears and retracts the bridge, separating Ico and Yorda. Ico, determined to save Yorda from the castle, jumps the gap back toward the castle. He doesn't jump far enough but Yorda catches his hand. As she tries to help him onto the ledge, a dark shadow creeps over the landscape, petrifying Yorda. Yorda has to let go of Ico's hand, plunging him downwards towards the sea.
Ico awakens on a cage suspended from chains underneath the retracted bridge, far below the castle. Ico makes his way in pouring rain through the belly of the castle, all the way back to the northern part of the castle. He finds the very cave where the warriors first took him at the beginning of the game. The magic sword is in the same place, so Ico can now enter the hall with the sarcophagi. He finds Yorda, now turned to stone. Shadowy ghosts appear, clearly the previously imprisoned horned children, and they mischievously dance around him without trying to harm him. Each time Ico defeats one of them, one of the sarcophagus's magic symbols start glowing. When all the spirits are vanquished a stairway that leads out of the hall appears. The stairway leads the boy into a large, seemingly abandoned throne room.
The room and the throne appear empty, but when Ico decides to leave, the queen's voice calls him. When Ico turns back to see where the voice came from, the queen is sitting on her throne. Angry, Ico demands to know what the queen has done to Yorda. The queen replies that it is too late anyway and reveals her plans. The queen is aging and she wants to grant herself another life by seizing Yorda's body. Ico, desperate to undo what has been done, runs at her with his sword drawn. He is knocked back, and one of his horns snaps off on impact with the wall. A battle follows, the magic sword shielding Ico from the queen's magic attacks. Finally Ico manages to reach the queen and plunge the sword into her heart. With her final breath, the queen tells Ico that Yorda will never leave the castle. In a magic blast the queen disappears and the castle begins to crumble. Ico is hurled by the blast all the way across the hall and is knocked unconscious, losing his other horn in the process.
The sarcophagi start to glow and bolts of magic energy break the curse that petrified Yorda. Yorda however is no longer pale, but dark like the shadows that had tried to kidnap her. She quickly understands what has happened and seeing that the castle is crumbling around her she decides to rescue Ico as he rescued her. She brings Ico to the boat in the cave where the warriors first landed. She chooses not to join him. Ico's boat is then shown floating away from the crumbling castle. Before the whole castle collapses into the ocean, the strange door guardians are shown glowing intensely.
Later Ico awakens, finding his boat washed upon a beach. He travels along the coast until he finds Yorda inexplicably washed up on the shore. No longer black and shadow-like, Yorda is dressed in white like when they first met. As Ico approaches her, her fingers curl and she slowly opens her eyes, whispering something, but no subtitles are given. The game ends there.

Audio

Ico's audio featured a minimal amount of music and sound effects. The soundtrack, composed by Michiru Oshima & Pentagon, was released in Japan by Sony Music Entertainment. The CD is titled "ICO: Melody in the Mist" (「ＩＣＯ」～霧の中の旋律～, ''Iko~kiri no naka no senritsu~''). The last song of the CD (ICO ～You Were There～) is sung by former Libera member Steven Geraghty.

Soundtrack listing

''ICO: Melody in the Mist'' track listing
# prologue # coffin # impression # Castle in the Mist # beginning # Who are you? # darkness # heal # The Gate # Queen# continue # déjà vu # shadow # Entity # collapse # ICO ~You were there~

Influence

The gameplay in ''Ico'' is often compared to a 3D updating of that found in the original ''Prince of Persia''. Interestingly, a washed-out soft lighting visual style, similar to the distinctive style of ''Ico'', was later used in the critically acclaimed '', a sequel to ''Prince of Persia''.
Since then, the "soft lighting" graphic style has been used in a number of other games, from first-person shooter titles like ''Project Snowblind'' to stealth games like '' to '', as well as ''Shadow of the Colossus'' (see below), which was created by the same team of designers as ''Ico''. In addition to the visuals, many action/adventure games since ''Ico's release have also drawn inspiration from its "companion" dynamic, with the male protagonist leading, helping, and caring for a female character amid his adventures. Examples of these include '', '', ''Resident Evil 4'' and ''.

Development

''Ico'' was in development for about four years. In the first stages of development, Ueda created an animation in Lightwave in order to get a feel for the final game and better convey his vision to the team. In this animation Yorda was the one to have horns rather than Ico and looked rather different in general, as can be observed in the video of Ico's demo reel [1], particularly the scenes of Ico looking down on Yorda on the couch and Yorda's hand examining Ico's face. In the final game, Ico was given horns instead in order to be more easily identified onscreen.
Originally planned for a release on the PlayStation, development started in earnest in 1998 with a team initially composed mostly of people from outside the game industry. Game design was guided by three key notions: to make a game that would be different from others in the genre; that would feature an aesthetic style that would be consistently artistic; and that would play out in an imaginary yet realistic setting. This was primarily achieved by subtracting common gameplay elements, such as the HUD, leaving only what is essential. Another method was key frame animation instead of the more common motion capture technique.
Development switched to the PlayStation 2 in late 1999, which gave the team a more powerful platform upon which to achieve their original goals. Elements present around this time included a storyline trying to get Yorda back to her room rather than an all-out escape from the castle and enemies that resembled the horned warriors seen at the beginning of the final game rather than the shadowy wraiths. The demo edition of the game (available on a 2001 PS2 Jampack disc) features several minor changes from the final version of the game. These include an altered windmill puzzle, differently-looking shadow creatures and the ability to retract Ico's extended hand while Yorda leaps across ledges, allowing her to fall and die. All of these were removed or altered in the final game. Despite these and some other differences, stylistically, the game remained faithful to the original vision presented in the video and maintained core gameplay elements that centered around puzzle-solving. It should be noted that a behind the scenes featured on a CD from OPM magazine featured Ico combating giant versions of the Shadow wraiths, though whether this was a planned and eventually cut element from the game or simply the developers playing around is unknown.

Reception

Awards

Ico received positive press from critics with an average score of 90% at Game Rankings, making it 15th game of 2001 (10th on the PS2)^[2].
'2002' Game Developers Choice Awards

★ Excellence in Level Design

★ Excellence in Visual Arts

★ Game Innovation Spotlights
'2002' 5th Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Achievement Awards

★ Original Game Character of the Year

★ Nomination in Game Design

★ Nomination in Level Design

★ Nomination in Visual Arts

★ Game Innovation Spotlights
Others:

★ #18 on IGN's 2005 "Top 100 Games of All Time",^[3] Editors Choice 09/25/2001^[4] and #6 on "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time"^[5]

★ Official US PlayStation Magazine The Annual Ico Award For Ico

★ ''Penny Arcade'': Best Use Of Smoky Shadow Guys Who Try To Steal Your Princess, Who Might Be Blind Or Something We're Not Really Sure (Game of the Year 2001) ^[6]

★ Electronic Gaming Monthly in their list of the greatest 200 games of their time listed Ico at number 121.

★ #8 in X-Play's 10 Best Games for the PS2.

★ #2 on 1up's Top 10 Cult Classics. ^[7]

Successor

Main articles: Shadow of the Colossus

A "spiritual successor" from the same studio, with an atmospheric style similar to that of ''Ico'', was released in October 2005 in North America and Japan; its Japanese title is ''Wanda to Kyozou'' which may be translated roughly to ''"Wander and the Colossus"'' or (literally) ''"Wander and Giant Statue."'' The game is titled ''Shadow of the Colossus'' in the United States and Europe. The numerous indirect references to ''Ico'' observed throughout ''Shadow'' imply that there is a connection between the two games. On March 9, 2006, Fumito Ueda, the creator and lead designer of both games confirmed that ''Shadow of the Colossus'' is indeed directly connected to ''Ico'' and that both take place in the same universe. He also confirmed that ''Shadow of the Colossus'' is a prequel to ''Ico''. ^[8]

Versions and merchandise

Cover art comparison
The cover art for the North American version of the game.	The cover art for the Japanese and European versions of the game.

In 2004 a novelization of Ico was released (ISBN 4-06-212441-6) in Japan. It was written by the author Miyuki Miyabe because of her appreciation of the game. ^[9]

Regional variations

There are major differences between the releases of the game in different locales. The US version was rushed to release to meet an early shipping deadline and as such misses the second playthrough bonuses present in the EU and Japanese releases, such as expanded dialogue (the subtitles that were indecipherable runes the first time through are now translated), the option to have a second player control the princess, a secret weapon which resembles a lightsaber from ''Star Wars'', and the option to play the entire game in the "film effect" seen in certain cut scenes. There were also a few changes made to the game itself, such as the shadow generation points and the AI. Most notably, the Waterfall and Windmill puzzles are more complex in the Japanese and European versions than the US version. The original box artwork, designed by Fumito Ueda, is an homage to the surrealist painter de Chirico (compare to The Nostalgia of the Infinite) and helped to add to the minimalist feel of the game.
The US and Japanese versions were also released in CD-ROM format in a standard case, while the European version came on a DVD-ROM in a limited edition cardboard packaging, containing four postcards with artwork from the game. This latter version was highly sought after by gamers, at one point the game sold at up to £80, however demand has since died down. ''Ico'' was re-released in a standard case on 17th February 2006 in PAL territories^[10] (except France) to tie in with the release of ''Shadow of the Colossus'' to enable gamers to "fill the gap in their collection," according to Sony.

References

1. http://dos.crashjah.com/works_ico.html
2. http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/367472.asp
3. http://top100.ign.com/2005/011-020.html
4. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/164/164833p1.html
5. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/772/772296p3.html
6. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/12/24
7. http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141616
8. Behind the Shadow: Fumito Ueda, Chris Kohler, Wired
9. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/358/358332p1.html
10. http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61556

External links

★ Official Website (Japanese)

★ Official Website (North America)

★ Official Website (Europe)

★ Online community for Ico and Shadow of the Colossus fans

★ Cursedlands Very big ICO, NICO and Shadow of the Colossus fan site

★ The ICO Repository

★ Group about Team ICO and their games (by Alex Rowe)

★ Talking ICO: An Annotation by Peter Elliot

★ ICO @ VideoGameChat Comprehensive ICO fan-section.

★ The Bequest of Dormin - The Story Behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus - by BrunoF

★ The Method of Developing ICO - Development background from Ueda at 1UP

★ Continue... - English ICO fansite

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