Breakdown: Shadow of the Colossus

September 30th, 2007 by DanB | Posted in Games |

I. Premise

There aren’t many games that compare to Shadow of the Colossus.  This game comes at players offering utility in a way few other games have. Many games try to create utility by modifying a traditional mechanic of gameplay. For example, the recent Prince of Persia games tried to modify the action-adventure formula by adding in the concept of time manipulation. Shadow of the Colossus comes at this idea of modifying tradition in a completely different way. Instead of modifying the mechanics, they modified the premise.

The concept of the boss battle is a long-running gaming tradition, stretching all the way back to the beginning of gaming itself. Fight through a level full of lesser threats and obstacles to get to the boss, an enemy that is much more challenging and powerful than any other. These bosses exist in Shadow of the Colossus, in relatively standard forms. What has changed is the premise of how you get to these bosses. No longer do you have to slag your way through armies of weak minions and slight obstacles. The only obstacle between you and these massive enemies is the landscape you must travel to find them. This eliminates a part of the game that could be considered filler, and packs in more of the events that are traditionally seen as high utility.

II. Scale

This idea begs the question, “How can the enemies be considered ‘bosses’ if there are no ‘normal’ enemies to compare them to?” The answer to the question is the most interesting element of the game: the scale. We are used to enemies being larger than our characters. In almost every genre, size relationships between characters and enemies denote some type of challenge. In the case of Shadow of the Colossus, the designers have taken this relationship to the extreme.

So back to the question: how can these enemies be bosses if they are also the standard enemies? Simple, because they are utterly massive. I can’t think of any other game that portrays discrepancy in scale so strikingly. The smallest of the Colossus is larger than the ultimate enemies of most games. Even though the Colossi are the standard enemy, they are so mythically large that the battles take on a sense of intensity and heroism that is distinct to the traditional boss battle. This incredible sense of scale completely changes the way players see their foes in the game.

III. Summary

Shadow of the Colossus has an interesting blend of unique premise and massive scale. It is almost the antithesis of the traditional action-adventure in that it trades a lot of premise action for a few completely epic boss battle moments. It also goes to show that there is room for genre bending while still following the traditions that already exist. I would love to see more games challenge tradition as much as Shadow of the Colossus has.