Your argument isn't well thought out, because you deliberately ignore the context of time to make your point.

If it had all that it wouldn't have been anywhere near as special. You really didn't understand what this game was about.

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.

The PS3 version has worse controls actually. It was made off of the original European PS2 version, which came out after the Japan/NA releases and had a bit of "extra polish", which somehow made the game worse to play. I know most people don't even notice this, but it is true, the first time I tried the PS3 version I could instantly tell there was something off and after looking up online I confirmed it. Specifically the one thing that was changed was Wander's ability to hang on, which was made worse (I assume to make the game more realistic), so very often whenever you're trying to stab a colossus or just stand in a safe place, you won't be able to do anything or just clumsily fly away because even the slightest movement from the colossus completely screws up your balance.

That said, the controls complaint usually goes further than that, and then it's a problem with every version. I have to say, I never once thought the controls were bad or clunky and still don't really understand what everyone goes on about. The camera is a bit tough, sure, but even that I didn't realize before I saw a lot of people complaining about.

I also don't know how the PS4 version is supposed to feel, so I'm hoping it's closer to the original release on PS2.

The game didn't sell millions. The peer pressure was coming from other gaming journalists, so sales of the game were pretty much irrelevant to their decision.

Shadow of the Colossus had neither the sales nor the influence on other games to label it as one of the most important games of the decade, that's why its standing in the gaming community (including gaming journalists) is greatly overrated.

I gave the game back in it's day an 8/10 while Resident Evil IV an 9.5 and Okami 9.5.

Got a lot of hate for it but it did not amaze me that much.

The music is the best part and I scored it a 10/10 but story a 7/10 and gameplay 8/10.

It is a game I maybe spend a little more than 10 hours to complete it and going from A to B wasn't really fun for me.

The fights are amazing to experience but they were fast finished (if only the fights time are counted you probably don't much go much higher than 5 hours).

I don't think I was harsh, if their was more of a story, dungeons with common enemies, villages it easily could have been a 9-9.5/10