I still stand by my word that Team Ico is one of the very best in terms of character development and story telling. They’re absolute masters at it and have cemented that after I finally got to experience one of the games that started it all for them.
For a game that came out in 2001 and to have a story this driven and told on the level it did was absolutely incredible. It was so ahead of it’s time that it was almost unreal at times rather that was from a visual, performance or story telling standpoint. I was in shock at times and I cannot even begin to imagine what that experience was like for people playing it when it first came out.
I did feel like this story should’ve been expanded out a bit more though. I would’ve loved to have an extra 2-4 hours with this character.
And this may sound bold to a lot but as someone who highly supports video game remakes, I’d love a remake of this game at some point. I think this is a story and world that deserves to be remade, told and shared to the world all over again.

Pure Fantasy - A game designer's favorite game

One of the most difficult challenges I've faced as someone who has tried making multiple games for a considerable portion of my life is to get the people actually playing my games to even fundamentally have any sort of investment in understanding the mechanics/story of the world I set up, and I'm still working on that.

It really says enough how this game does not explain anything to you so you feel absorbed in just trying to understand it even if it does have a very strong adventure-game/Zelda origin point. The emphasis on realism with the art direction is insane and only serves to make you believe you are actually sending commands to some boy in a box (even the rumble is used for the footsteps of the main person you're trying to protect here).

The map is about as fluid to move through as you could get in this era, puzzles are hidden about, and the combat is basic but plays into your fears and uncertainty.

Ico is a game that isn't really about blowing your mind or making you live in the game for a long time, it's a short fantasy adventure with emotion and heart and I had a pretty good time with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOwreeWIz_A

peaceful, at least the same way a fly at a picnic in the park is; it may be overwhelming when trying to steer you away from food, but it becomes another charming addition to the outdoors. despite how much it deviates from typical formula of video games, as well as how much the team set out to create smth "realistic", ico is essentially going thru the bare essentials of what amounts to a bedtime story that became a dream of a child. everything feels so simple: the combat is always the same when fighting the shadowmen, the tasks are similar to each other more often and not, and the story plays out like a fairy tale

but, not in spite of, but because it moves by, it feels less then charitable to say that it goes against the "realism" aimed for this game; more then anything, my favorites parts of the game was when i decided to walk instead of run and just press myself into how much love was put into the design, how each pristine pixel and low-key sound mixing; the flies are always at every picnic, but they're just as much little creatures of their own nature as any of the quirks and bugs here. no need to be bothered by how it took ya out of everything; it's the exchange between the two that is another form of interactive beauty

The three games made by Team Ico have been some of my most anticipated games for about as long as I can remember, and since I absolutely loved the Shadow of the Colossus remake back when I played it on the PS4 two years ago, I was even more excited to eventually give Ico a try. Long before I played any of these games, I remember being struck by the beauty and detail of this game's European cover art, and it looked like one of those covers that perfectly reflected what it was like to play the game. As it turns out, I was half right, because while I would say that I liked Ico overall, the elements that this game handled poorly meant that this statement would have to come with a bunch of asterisks right alongside it.

If there was one word that I'd use to describe the atmosphere of Ico, it would be "mysterious", as practically every aspect of the game's presentation evoked that feeling. This game placed a heavy emphasis on visual and environmental storytelling, as the simple, fairytale-like plot, fictional languages, and minimal dialogue put a stronger emphasis on having the moment-to-moment gameplay be the main source of the game's storytelling than the cutscenes. This stripped down, minimalist approach made me really appreciate the detailed art direction, as the cinematic camera angles gave the castle's mossy stones and rusted metals a strong sense of ancience. Ico also doesn't use music very often in favor of the naturalistic sounds of bird chips, waterfalls, and Ico's own pitter-patter, but the game's few uses of actual music were beautiful, and they greatly strengthened the emotional impact of the scenes that they were featured in. Despite how all I did was have her hold my hand and watch her climb ladders throughout my playthrough, I was surprised with how much I cared about Yorda, as having to take her everywhere made me feel like I had formed a genuine bond with her without having the game straight-up tell me that I did. All of these elements made for an especially impactful ending, as the use of the song "You Were There" being combined with the filmic cutscenes left me in awe.

Despite how much Ico got right in terms of its atmosphere, storytelling, visuals, and uses of sound, the actual gameplay was what held me back from liking the game as much as everyone else apparently does. The worst part of Ico would easily be its combat, as everything about it felt unintuitive with how long it took for enemies to die and how sluggish the weapons were to use. Every combat encounter in Ico felt like it was interrupting the game rather than complimenting it, as spending minutes at a time just mashing square until the copypaste enemies eventually went away felt mindless, and it didn't even really make sense for a quiet, thoughtful game like this to even have combat in the first place. On top of that, the wonky controls felt like they were working against me a lot of the time, as they not only made the combat more annoying to deal with, but they also made making any jumps or even walking in a straight line annoying to deal with. Granted, Shadow of the Colossus also featured some janky controls, but the weighty physics applying to both you and the Colossi made the fights exhilarating, whereas the simpler gameplay of Ico made its unresponsive controls a lot more apparent. That being said, I did enjoy the game's final (and only) boss battle, as having to run behind cover in between attacks made for a tense and exciting fight. Ico is not a perfect game by any means, but I'd still consider it to be solid time overall, and while it didn't reach the heights of Shadow of the Colossus, I'd still say that I'm interested in checking out The Last Guardian at some point.