I remember back in 2005/06 my mother bringing home a copy of Shadow of the Colossus, rented from the local Blockbuster. We had it for a week before we were required to hand it back and in that week I totally fell in love with the game. It remains a favourite of mine and its influence on my tastes proved to be pretty formative.

I was never actually able to see the ending on that copy that we rented all those years ago. I think I made it all the way to the last colossi before getting stuck and running out of time. It wouldn't be until years later on different hardware that I would finally finish the game, and so I find it oddly emotional having now taken the time some 15 years later to finish the game on the PS2.

Though I am glad remasters & remakes have allowed more people to experience this work in the time since I still contend that the PS2 is the definitive version, framerate issues & all. Something about the overblown bloom effects and muddy textures lends a kind of ethereal quality to the environments you traverse. Even the shoddy framerate, slowing to a halt during some of the more dynamic colossi battles, creates a sense of scale that I can't help but admire. This many years later, my older more jaded self can't deny there's still a kind of magic in this game that never fails to pull me back to its forbidden lands once more.