What makes Shadow of the Colossus so special?

[SvennoJ]

konnichiwa said:

mZuzek said:

I would indeed. Not featuring villages, dungeons and smaller enemies isn't a flaw of the game, you only make it out to be because you expect games to follow certain tropes. As I said in an earlier post, Shadow of the Colossus is all about not ticking the boxes we expect from games, and that's why it's so great.

If you think the game didn't have much of a story, well, that's as much proof of that as you need, because it's one of the best that's ever been made in the medium. It's a story that isn't told through exposition or lengthy dialogue, it's told mostly through gameplay (this is a game after all) and that's why it's so good. If your mindset going into Shadow of the Colossus is the "ticking boxes" mindset, you're not going to have anywhere near as great of an experience as other people would. Whereas you're going "#1... done, #2... done. Okay, 14 more to go", other people are soaking in the environment and reflecting about the meaning of their actions. This is only possible because of how the game handles its atmosphere and especially by how it doesn't throw dozens of NPCs and enemies and interactions at you. It only gives you a desolate world and exploring it is supposed to make you feel alone and powerless. That's what it is about.

If you want an open world game with NPCs, quests, villages, dungeons, smaller enemies in addition to bosses, and stories filled with lengthy cutscenes and character interactions, well, I think you can find another dozen or two great games like that. But even today, you still can't find a game like Shadow of the Colossus.

I didn't at all and I think many others aswell.  You could say that a game like dark souls is going from point A to B and kill sometimes an insane boss but people don't because going from point A to point B is an adventure aswell, the game is not full with NPC's but it has some and they make the game better, in SOTC going from A to point B was more annoying than fun

Getting stuck on a boss, going from point A to point B became very annoying in Dark souls. The bosses weren't very good either imo. Dark souls had its strength in level design and common enemies. SotC has its strength in an empty landscape with wandering giants. Enemy or NPC encounters in between would have ruined the game. You are supposed to alone in a forgotten ancient land. Find a blacksmith with weapon upgrades does not fit the game.

Anyway I loved exploring the landscape in SotC unhindered, getting lost between the mountains or following the coast without interruptions.

Both games are in my top 10 games of all time, SotC is top 5 material, Dark souls sits at 8. Two great games that a are very different.