So I'd heard lots of good things about this game and decided to finally give it a go. I picked up the PS3 HD collection, which includes Ico and SOTC.
From the get go, it felt like a frustrating experience. Very little is explained to you about how the mechanics of the game work. I found myself trying to grab ledges on the colossi that weren't intended.
The game clearly wants you to experiment to find out the different ways in which the colussi will react, but it's often such a slow process that it starts to feel like a chore for half of the battles. And often I was so close to a solution but some small thing would be off, so I'd try something else instead. Then it would turn out that I had it right the first time, I just needed to be standing a metre to the right. So many times the solution felt illogical.
And whilst holding on to the head of a colossus and getting that final hit in is extremely satisfying, on some occasions the window would be so small that I'd get shaken off and have to repeat the whole process to slowly chip away at its health. Knowing exactly what I needed to do, but having to do it multiple times soon became quite dull.
About half of the colossi were genuinely fun to fight. The bird one in particular stands out - soaring through the air as you climb along his wings was incredible.
I will say that the atmosphere, music and story were beautiful. It's a great piece of art. But a lot of people claim that this is one of the greatest games ever made, and I feel like the 'game' part is lacking quite a lot.
Is there something I'm missing? I actually enjoyed Ico a lot more.
I think spending minutes at a time holding the grip button and waiting to be able to play the game really killed it for me. The colossi didn't have to thrash that much, did they? At least let me move and dodge attacks instead of just... waiting until the Colossus decides to stop and let me take any action or movement.
Nice vibes, but one of the big selling points of the game is climbing and fighting giant beasties, and it's just tedious.
You've summed it up pretty well I think. The climb, wait, stab, wait, starts to become grating after a while. If there was some actual gameplay there rather than holding a button, it would be way more satisfying.