WOW! You can feel the passion and emotional weight poured into this game for every minute of playtime. I love the puzzles, I love the game logic, I love the combat, and I love the characters! To me this deserves the ports that shadow the colossus has gotten, not to disparage that game, but this game has an incredible soul in it that you can still feel. I'm still not entirely sure why shadow of the colossus is labelled a "spiritual successor" to this game. It can make sense in terms of gameplay with the ledge hanging, jumping, and acrobatics you can make your little boy do, but to me the AI companion role is not filled in by Agro. I like that there are no collectibles in Ico. I don't think this game would have been as good with the modern sensibilities that many games have now. This game is so focused, brilliant, and enlightening that I need another dose of it.

What a game! I don't know how they packed so much life into a game released only a month or two after the console's release, but playing this, at any point in time, feels like I'm peeking into a microscopic world of its own. The gameplay and controls are pretty simple and leave a lot of room for you to master them. For this playthrough I beat the game in 16 days, but I know I could have gotten all 30 ship parts much sooner. This game comes from a tangible trend of games that deliver an ultra-dense, tight experience that rewards replays, like Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and others. So quaint and so charming.

So so so amazing. The only true detriment is for a game so keen to callbacks, there is no playable Lady. They did have to make an entirely separate DLC for Vergil over a year after the original release date, so I imagine adding content to this game has to be strenuous. It shows, this game feels incredibly balanced and scratches and itch that feels better than any other DMC game. A bit on the easy side though. I never had to give up in a level due to lack of Gold Orbs, and only ever died during bosses. I'm so used to DMC3 kicking my ass that this game seemed more on the fair side, which isn't too much to complain about. As compared to DMC2 and even DMC4, it does pose its own share of challenge that keeps you on the edge. Maybe one of the best games to come out in a long time.

I will probably never beat this game. With the way it was introduced to me, and my perception of it from playing for a bit, this game seems so underwhelming, and I do NOT understand the hype. I can't say there's a lack of things to do.. There certainly is, but the objectives are so arbitrary and don't feel worthwhile. The game feel itself is subpar with the art direction. I don't know the condition the game developers worked in but when it comes to the finished product, this game does not look good and the effort put in does not show. The game scratches the itch that any snowball roguelike will do, and that bare minimum is all that this game achieves. This is what Isaac addicts smoke when they're all out of Gungeon cigarillos and they find this on the ground playing on a lost steam deck outside. It's kind of fun though.

A spectacular game. Feels so good to play once you get the hang of it, and has that quality that makes it easily replayable countless times. I'm thinking of tackling the hard mode at some point, but not now. Unfortunately, what's keeping it from 5 stars to me is I personally don't feel the need to keep playing beyond beating the story once, which the game wants me to do. For whatever reason I'd rather play another game rather than grind out 100% completion. I can imagine this could not be said at the time of release.