Haha this thread is hilarious. SotC doesn't hold a candle to Ocarina of Time, or any console Zelda for that matter. And yes I've played it.

I played this game... I own this game... the vast area of nothingness says NO.... Besides the boss fights there is nothing that interesting about the game.

Sigh.

You know, if Team ICO had gone with their original plan, and put small enemies around the map, it probably would have been more popular, and sold better.

But it would have completely wrecked the feel of the game. You didn't get that, did you? The feeling of loneliness, with only Agro for company, with only the sounds of galloping and the wind, with massive scenery in the distance, and the temple behind you, riding at full speed? Then, you see the colossus, and quiet music begins, you are cautious. Then you jump onto the colossus, and a full orchestra comes in, and you find yourself grabbing on for dear life. And you climb up, slowly, your heart jumping whenever the colossus shakes. And you stab, and stab again, and again. And the massive beast falls to the ground, destroyed, and transforms into a shadow. The quiet music comes in, the shadow enters you, and you are back at the temple, lying right next to the woman you love, but she doesn't even know you are there.

You didn't get any of that? It was the whole artistic feel and psychological attachment that I thought put this game above the generic masses of games that don't dare to do anything new.

It felt like the developers wanted to outdo Zelda and fell short on development money along the way.  Hence the dead and empty world, the short story and the emphasis on the boss fights. 

Also, the game was plagued with slow down and graphic glitches.  It felt a little cut short and rushed.  I assume they had bigger plans for the game but saw the PS3 and the launch of the Xbox 360 and decided to just release the game as is. 

The boss fights would often become a chore once you died.  If I'm suppose to feel lonely, why not have a good resurrection system for the main character to cut the boring sections out of the game?  I didn't have that lonely feeling while playing when I died 6 times fighting the boss in the colloseum.  It's an over rated game.  I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Also, what did this game do that was so new? Metroid conquered the loneliness aspect on the SNES.  Zelda has had the big boss fights with secret strike zones since the NES.  Metroid on the SNES also had some huge boss fights.  Nothing that took over an hour to accomplish though... which to me felt a little over kill.  Especially when most of the fights were wash and repeats. 

Get the stakes and torches ready, because I thought Shadow of the Colossus was boring and repetitive. I enjoyed it moderately for about 10 minutes, and then suffered through the rest of the game because I'd bought it and felt like I should at least beat it. It was one of the most boring and painful experiences of my life.

I would personally rate it behind every single Zelda since, say...  A Link to the Past.

Shadow Of The Colossus is the greatest adventure game of all time?

You learn something new every day.

WRONG!

1) Burn him! Burn the witch!

2) Yeah, well I don't like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, every Mario RPG, Knights of the Old Republic, Civilization, Fable (and 2), Pirates!, WCW/NWO World Tour, Bioshock No actually, I love all of the above games that I have played.

3) Anyway, there's no game that everyone will like, so I accept that some people just don't have the level of patience and awesomeness required to love Shadow of the Colossus.

Fun fact: I don't own and have never played Ico.

Team ICO have no shortage of development money, and they especially didn't back when Sony was swimming in the stuff from 2001-2005 when they were developing SoTC. I don't see any resemblance to Zelda, tbh.

I noticed no slowdown, but you are right about the graphical glitches. That pop-in is the worst I have ever seen. Worse than inFamous. It took away from some of the immersion when riding around, but not enough to severely harm the game, I don't think.

They certainly did have different plans for the game. One was to make an online game where many players team up to kill the colossi. But that would have wrecked the story. One was to sprinkle basic enemies around. But that would have killed the sense of being alone, and the calm before the storm. They chose what they did because it fit best with Ueda-san's vision. It had nothing to do with the 360 and PS3. I'll also mention that SoTC outsold the majority of, if not all of, the 360's 2005 titles.

You're not meant to always feel lonely, that would be a pretty pathetic game. Only when riding around and finding the colossus. When fighting the colossus, you're meant to be too focused on killing the damned thing to feel lonely. As for the resurrection system, I think it's your own fault that you died six times fighting "The boss in the Colosseum" (number 15, I assume, he was my favourite). What were you doing, running around his feet? I didn't die once fighting that guy.

What did it do new? Firstly, neither Metroid nor NES Zelda was 3D. SoTC, firstly, managed to create a seamless open world without a single load time. It had some of the best graphics on the PS2. Every boss was different (none of them were repeats, what are you talking about? Every boss had a different strategy required to beat it). There was not a single quick time event in any of the 16 boss fights.

And above all, I've never felt so immersed in, as attached to the characters in, or thought so much about, any other game.