Memories and Myth - A Close Look at Shadow of the Colossus 

All Fumito Ueda wanted to do was make a fun boss battle game. Little did he know at the time that "Shadow Of The Colossus" would go on to become so much more than anything he could have ever imagined. 18 years later the game is still played, discussed, scrutinized, studied. That really says something. The amount of time I've spent on this game (PS2, PS3, PS4) is mind blowing. To this day I still explore the Forbidden Lands & continue to make new discoveries. Nice review/discussion.

So, now having watched and listened to all of it I want to thank you again! The level of dedication it takes to make something like this is very humbling. your reflections and interpretations of the themes and expressions of this great piece of video game history are much appreciated! The experience of playing this game had a monumental impact on me and how i think about video games. It shows that through this medium, through this interactive link, we can experience a piece of art. we can take part in something more than just "save the world" or "kill the bad guy" There are true depths here. True substance to enjoy. Thank you again for your great and though provoking take on this gem of a game! with love. 🔥❤️🔥

as with all ur work this is criminally underappreciated. your interpretations of the themes of human, spirit, and nature echo ancient eternal feelings. it's simply worth it, because it *is*, and there's beauty in that

I always wanted to play this game as a kid but never owned a PlayStation. Seeing this analysis it’s crazy how much even recent games like the recent Legend of Zelda’s and Elden Ring (really all souls games) seem to be directly inspired by this game’s design and themes.

this game was my childhood peak, I remember being at my friend's home playing god of war, then changing the game to this masterpiece. it literally changed what I look for in games

Loved this analysis -- you did an excellent deep dive! Really made me think about our existence and how the game was able to present those themes so well

Very good video. What you say about our current human relationship to nature and our hyperfocus on use value over intrinsic value, as exemplified by many other videogames, resonates with what I myself think is fundamentally wrong with our current social world.

Wonderful analysis of the game. Great job, I really enjoyed this

I subscribed when I stumbled across your excellent Twin peaks and David Lynch related videos.. Now I'm again glad that I did. Not even half the way through at this point and I'm delighted by your deep dive and analysis of one of my most precious games. Thank you! 🔥❤️🔥

great video as always!!! the idea that our notion of "self vs other" gets exploited to create all these messy binaries kinda blew my mind a little lol even if it feels obvious in retrospect.. really cool stuff keep it up

great video

I recently played and beat the game and playing the game felt so good 👍 😌

That was nice, thank you.

I like listening to these types of videos to sleep, and I really enjoy this

Amazing game, excited to see the vid!

whoa when I saw the vid in my recommended i was not expecting it to be a malmrose vid. hell yeah

ty that was fantastic

I believe Shadow of the Colossus is meant to be a "prequel" to Ico in the same way Genesis comes before Revelations in the bible. It's not meant to be a direct origins story, I believe it's meant to reinforce the themes and style of the games as you mentioned as myth.

I love this game! It’s a classic!

Such a great video! Your comments on plurality and gender were really interesting and something I’d never thought to associate with this game before. It got me wondering about how dormin is referred to in the original Japanese, since Japanese doesn’t often use traditional pronouns like English does. Might be something to look into!

added to watch later n case theres spoilers for the game. I havent finished it yet sorry!

I've tried to do some digging into alternative translations of the game into English, and it seems like Dormin referring to themselves with plural pronouns isn't present in the Japanese version. However, none of the discussions I found were by people who seemed to know a lot about what they were talking about. Japanese and English have a lot of differences in grammar when it comes to pronouns and there might be some subtlety that resulted in translating with "we" and "us" in English. It definitely seems like a deliberate choice. The most I could find is that Dormin speaks with an older fashion of Japanese, and there might be some connection with old-fashioned English using plural pronouns which Japanese might also have, but again none of the discussions were by experts. I just thought it was worth bringing up because a lot of your thematic analysis about patriarchy and dualism stems from the translators' choice of "we" and "us". I think there's still enough in the text to make that an interesting read on it, but it's interesting how much localization can muddy these kinds of things. Especially in a script with this little to work with.

eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy i should play this game one of these days, huh

wahee !!

Is the footage from 1:34:06 from the demo disc?

!!!

Did you ever leave the inland empire?

Look, no offense, but I think you're looking WAY past the solution here. In the opening myth, the "intersection points" line is just a clever reference to polygons, which make up the game world. The ens and naughts are the 1's and 0's of binary code, referencing the programming. The one with the ability to control beings made of light, is you, the player, as your character is made of light coming out of your screen. Memories (computer save files) are etched into stone (really plastic game discs but it's artistic license, the disc does not change.) That's how I took it anyway. It's all just telling you it's aware it's a video game, but artistically.

Phirst