Shadow Of The Colossus - (Gaius) - PlayStation 2 Gameplay - (2K 60fps)
1One cloudy night, a lone kite flies by two longtime companions - Wander and his horse Agro - navigating an unforgiving cliffside path on the edge of a canyon. The two have been traveling for a long time on this offbeat path, through murky forests and wet grasslands alike.
They arrive at last at their destination: a tall stone gate with a narrow passage. On the other side lies an enormous bridge of near-otherworldly construction. The bridge spans over the Forbidden Lands, a dramatic landscape of plains and canyons with enclosed and cut-off environments ranging from arid deserts to clefts with tall geysers to dark forests and murky crevasses.
The bridge finally comes to an end at the Shrine of Worship, a gigantic structure in the middle of the Lands. Wander and Agro make their way to the ground floor and the temple's main hall, which is lined with sixteen stone idols. At the end of the empty hall is an altar. Here it is shown that Wander is carrying something with him: a body wrapped in a cloth sheet. He places the body on the altar and removes the sheet, revealing Mono, a young woman clothed in a white dress.
The game suddenly cuts to a picture of an owl mask amidst a cloudy sky. From here, Lord Emon, a spiritual leader in Wander's society, speaks an esoteric monologue:
That place...began from the resonance of intersecting points...
They are memories replaced by ens and naught and etched into stone.
Blood, young sprouts, sky - and the one with the ability to control beings created from light...
In that world, it is said that if one should wish it, one can bring back the souls of the dead.
But to trespass upon that land is strictly forbidden...
Agro is suddenly frightened by a noise from behind the trio. Several shadowy apparitions are emerging from the temple floor, and Wander sees this and draws a mysterious sword from its sheath, pointing it towards the shadows. The blade emits an otherworldly energy, and the creatures immediately dissolve into thin air. Immediately, a booming pair of voices fill the halls from a great aperture above, surprised that Wander possesses the "Ancient Sword". Wander correctly identifies the voices as belonging to Dormin and asks that Mono be revived. Initially, Dormin expresses an indifference towards the matter, but ultimately cannot hide the interest in the sword Wander carries.
Remarking that it "may not be impossible" to bring Mono back to life, Dormin makes a deal: destroy the sixteen idols that line the walls of the Shrine and Mono will be revived. The idols can only be destroyed by killing their living incarnations: the sixteen colossi. Dormin warns Wander that in doing this, the price he pays "may be heavy indeed". Wander's reply is simple: "It doesn't matter". With that, Dormin instructs Wander to be on his way, telling him to raise the Ancient Sword up in a sunlit area, and when he does, eight soft beams of light emit from the blade's tip in the eight compass directions; the beams converge and become brighter when they are pointed in the direction of a colossus.
The colossi prove to be intimidating creatures, but Wander is able to exploit their behavior, hidden weaknesses, and the environment to bring them down. He kills each one by stabbing glowing sigils in their fur, often located on their heads or torsos. After each colossus dies, its corpse is covered in a layer of shadow, and several black tendrils emerge from the colossus' body and embed themselves in Wander, rendering him unconscious. He is returned to the Shrine through unknown means, with a number of shadow creatures (equal to the number of defeated colossi) standing around his body. The camera pans to the colossus' idol, which implodes in a flash of light. The camera pans back to Wander - the shadow creatures have since vanished - who looks up to the aperture to receive a hint about his next target from Dormin.
As Wander kills more colossi, his physical appearance deteriorates. His skin becomes darker, with dark lines becoming visible on his face and neck later on. His hair, initially an auburn shade of red, becomes darker. His clothes become torn and dirtier, blackened in streaks with the blood of the slain giants. His overall health, stamina, and physical strength, however, all increase with the mysterious dark force collecting inside him. When only four colossi remain, it is revealed that Wander is being followed: a cutscene plays showing several horsemen stopping in a clearing. They are led by Lord Emon, who sees the entrance to the Forbidden Lands and the top of the Shrine of Worship on the horizon and tells his men that they only have a short distance to go.
With just one colossus left, Dormin tells Wander to make haste, for the arrival of Emon's company is imminent. Wander heads towards the final colossus, opening a seal in the far southern area of the Lands with the sword's light to gain access to the final area.