From the art book: Another idea was having the girl come back to life earlier on. She would awaken in the midst of Emon and his men tormenting Wander, very far from being human, her body radiating light. A guard would see this and try to kill her with his sword, but it would be flung away and become embedded in the earth. Emon and his men would run away in a hurry and seal the land once more, and Wander and the girl would be left behind to start a new life together.
I think it would’ve been more like Wander gets the dark side of Dormin(the male voice), and the girl would’ve gotten the light side(the female voice). I guess that would explain why the female voice fades with each colossus you slay.
It’s so perfect and right, but maybe because we are not satisfied with the ending or more like we don’t really clearly get it, makes us more attached/addicted to it
From the art book: Actually, we also had happier developments in mind for the ending, but perhaps there is no happier ending than being able to revive the girl. We were considering having the ending change a little bit if the player had save data from Ico, but we gave up on that.
Is there an English version of the art book? I'd love to read that. Been a bit obsessed with this game since I played the demo on a "jampack" disc. It's great to see I'm not alone.
Close. Except that Agro would only have the memories of Quadratus, Phaedra, Basaran, Dirge and Phalanx, which where the ones she actually saw... and probably a flashback of her falling...
Ricardo "BTC" She would've been able to see a bit of Gaius because of how high he towered on the plate and possibly a bit of Celosia from the top of the crevice that battle was in, but only when they were out in the open. I'm not sure with Pelagia as I don't know if they were tall enough for Agro to see even a little bit of them.
***** Yep! Fumito confirmed her gender in an interview. But the mistranslation in the tutorial makes everyone think it's a stallion. The name and conformation doesn't help either...
I prefer the ending we got. It was so bittersweet and mysterious, I remember not knowing what to feel the fist time I watched it. Happy? Sad? Relieved? I like to think I felt like she did when she was revived and found wanderer in his new form.
Yea me too. Mixed feelings. Also I hoped for wander to see her wake up which he never did. So I hoped there was some kind of way for her to find out what he did for her so he could tell him later when he grows older
There were some grander ideas," Ueda said, "such as changing Shadow's ending or adding some of the colossi that got cut from the original, and honestly having features like that would've been attractive from a business perspective. If we put just a few extras in, though, gamers would naturally expect more than what we could provide. Instead of just putting in a few half-baked things, I thought it'd be better to stick with the original concept of staying faithful to the base work. If I get another chance in the future to do a remake, I might wind up changing quite a lot more." Fumito Ueda - Famitsu magazine August 2011
Unsyed433 but it's not a remake. The ps3 version is an HD remaster. Remaster. Not remake. HD remaster is a just changing textures and upscaling the resolution. remake is making a whole new game from scratch based on the engine of the previous game.
It'd have to be the original team or as close to the original team that could be gathered (Ueda specifically), otherwise it wouldn't be true to how Ueda's original ideas would be. Also, I think it would have to be a PC release in order for the machine to have enough memory to house all the original colossi and enough power to perform the way it'd be meant to... then again, I'm not keen on PS4 specs (cause let's face it, it'd probably be a PS4 exclusive) to know if it is up to par to play something of that caliber. :P This would be great tho, and I think many people would be willing to back it on kickstarter or something if resources is an issue. I know I for one would! >:D
*gasp* the legend that is nomad colossus!! I've read about you and your pure dedication to this game and all of its secrets and mystery! I first found out about you on a really old thread, way back in the day. I had no idea you had a RU-vid channel. Where I am from you were like an urban legend. Thank you sooo much for sharing your journey and everything you found. Now I can see what you discovered rather than just reading and imagining it!!
Yeah, I agree - seeing the corpses has more emotional impact. I had a feeling people would say this, the original ending was perfect as it is - but I just wanted to see what the alternative would look like ; )
The all time awesome game, every encounter both a boss battle and a puzzle to be solved. Best musical score ever in a game also. Nice to see it is still appreciated as a classic.
I think that is one of the reasons for Ueda's decision to produce another ending. Because Agro has not seen all the colossi it would not make sense why she knows all the colossi's appearance and behaviour. And sooner or later, people would find out the meaning of that kind of ending and probably would be disappointed. So, he decided to produce the ending we know today which is absolutely understandable. By the way, there are much more colossi which Agro was not able to see like Barba, Cenobia or Argus.
***** except that right at the end, she has a limp. after all that she's been through - almost being stomped on, hit, etc. - and she comes through with nothing more than an injured foot. amazing creature, she is.
The thing that ruins the replay value for me is that I can never forget, even though I once went 6 years between playthroughs, how to defeat each Colossi. I beat it 6 times before the charm mostly wore off, but I just think it would have been on another level if their weak points were randomized and each Colossi had at least three distinct, very different behavior sets and animations that were also randomized. Oh, and It really bummed me out getting to the top of the temple only to find there was no payoff. Some people dig that there was nothing to gain by going up there "It's about the sense of discovery." "It's about the journey." Personally, I agree it was fun and challenging to make it up there, but It would have been so much more climactic if there was a real point to all the effort.
That does seem like a more fitting tribute to the Colossi than showing their remnants. It also does feel like there is some closure - like what you did actually mattered.
Y'know, if Mono TRULY is the queen in ico (which i'm almost 100% sure she is) the whole memory thing would make a lot of sense for her wanting to become the queen and live forever. because she would have seen how powerful wander was when she saw that Dormin was locked inside of him. she may have even dropped him off at some village so she'd get a steady flow of "cursed" horned children, thus giving her more power, and would explain the need for the large amount of horned kids and Yorda for the the revival ritual she has to commit to stay young. And it just so happened that the last child she needed was the one that killed her.
and to add to that, the female voice of Dormin disappears after he/they possess wander at the end, implying that the female half of Dormin may have manifested into Mono in order to revive her. Maybe that's what made her all evil and power hungry?
"one day, perhaps you will make atonement for what you’ve done." this is what Emon says at the end of the game just before he leaves the forbidden lands. Amazing bit of foreshadowing if you ask me.
Mahjonk well, it does say at the beginning mono was sacrificed because of a "cursed fate" or somethign of the sort. Maybe she was cursed to become part of dormin's return from rhe start?
Mahjonk | Think Tomb Raider's Yamatai Queen. She regulary needs new host bodies. Here in Shadow, the first Queen was created, when the Shadow Energy entered her and revived her. Later on to create new host bodies, they gathered Horny Boys, extracted their liquid Shadow Energy, gathered all of the liquid to a pool, and a girl made out of the liquid come out, ready to be new host body. Er… why is that it sounded more ecchi than it needs to be?
it wouldn't make much sense...cause you don't have agro on most of the fights, so she wouldn't have any memories on the colossus... but it does look good
during a lot of the fights, Agro's at least in the area and can see what's going on. but you're right about ones like the 16th. Agro's nowhere in sight, so where'd the memories come from? that makes no sense.
Qualquer gamer | Plot Twist: Wanda is actually the Personification of Agro's Soul. And the game is actually about you controlling the Spirit of a Horse.
I will say that I really like what you did here Nomad, it's a nice alternate ending that you made here, but I do believe that if we are really to go by Ueda's true comment, in that the flashback would be the "horse's memories", and not those from Wander, or even a omnipotent, gamer perspective. No, I believe this ending could be even more endearing if it came from the horse's perspective. Although that does limit what colossi can be shown, it would give the game a special ending. It could better highlight the relationship between the two. Because there is very little known about their relationship. But if they showed Agro watch Wander fight some of the colossi, even show his emotions through the movement in the camera (his face and line of sight), we would be given a much more endearing end to an amazing game. They could have Agro whinny in triumph after slaying Dirge, or even sprint for his life, maybe have him cheer at the sidelines of your fight with Cenobia. And even watch him throw Wander to the tower of Malus, and zoom in to Wander, and then having Agro fall. It would give the game yet another level of depth and meaning, to an already vast and beautiful game. And if we think about it, if these are the horse's memories, he would at the very least be limited to those he witnessed, even if they left the 3rd person view the game uses. But I do love your interpretation of what Ueda's ending looked like, and I understand that my idea, could not be achieved through the means you used Nomad, Heck, even if Ueda had of dreamed this same ending as have described, it most likely could not of been done timely or cost effectively, and would of been scrapped. But hey, this is all a thought experiment.
Well, I must say, your comment is the most comprehensive and detailed response to this video, so I thank you for that ; ) And I agree, Agro was only present during some of the colossi battles and many players have had issue with this dilemma, but when I made this video I was just going on what Ueda himself stated in the official art book (translated by Glitterberi). Somehow, Agro 'knew' what had happened to Wander... perhaps she could sense it with some other (unknown) horse sense? Or perhaps Dormin transferred the information to her?, or perhaps Agro had such a deep connection to Wander she was aware of all he suffered? We will never know - and I think that is why this game is so amazing, the fact that it leaves us thinking of why and how? Such a breathtaking experience! I almost tear up at the end when the soldiers are riding across the bridge as it collapses behind them - the music is so uplifting and final - proclaiming the end has arrived - so sad, and yet so wonderful ;)
My idea for an alternative ending is: The girl wakes up after you defeat the colossus. As Dormin is waking up the solders put Dormin back into 16 chunks (the colossus). Wander gets horns because he committed sin. The solders ride off with the girl and leave wander. Dormin then says to Wander that if he defeats the colossus again, Wander will be set free. This gives a more realistic explanation for the time trial mode. (But Wander will have horns in Time trail mode)
Reminiscence: Plato's so-called "theory of reminiscence" consists, then, in affirming that knowledge in man is innate; that the soul of the human being knows the truth before incarnating in the body, and the task of man in life is to remember all the things that his soul knew. I am sorry for my bad english.
To those who say Agro would have only remembered a few of the colossi, I suggest a theory that what if Agro and Wander are memory linked? So that of one dies, the one left may be able to carry on the memories of the dead one.
It is the official book released with the game, not a game guide as such more an exploration of how the game came about etc. with large glossy pages. You can pick it up on eBay relatively cheaply. It's all in Japanese though, but some of it has been translated by Glitterberri.
Thanks, and I realize this, I just wanted to show what he may have once intended to show. They obviously changed their minds and produced the original and much more emotionally impactful end cut scene we see today.
Caspianm2 Well, even 999 colossi isn't enough, and the battles should have been more complex and last longer, like weakening them before taking them down or two colossi at the same time, some of them appear only under certain conditions like night or when it's raining, and are vulnerable to wind, ice, fire...there is a lot that can be done but unfortunately this is just fanboys wet dreams :/
Dakota Johnson So adding more content is bad now!!! exploring temples & solving puzzles before having more complex colossi battles won't make the game worst, please tell me, you must hated the part where you scare the bull with fire!! cause i want more of that not just escalating and stabbing mechanics. The atmosphere will remain the same, no multiplayer or noob friendly gameplay.
jonjo monjo Dude, the atmosphere of SotC was that of a desolate land, forbidden to people and forgotten to time. The whole purpose of that abandoned city was to house the colossi and keep them sealed away from the rest of the world. Having Zelda like dungeons or some extra enemies would subtract from the overall adventure. It's not a matter of more content is bad, but there is a virtue in subtlety within video games.
Richer ofpoorlings | It's implied the Girl was controlled by the Shadow Energy. She/Them later on started a civilization. To made a new vessel, they regulary extract Shadow Energy from Horny Boys. The Ico Girl is made out of that pool of liquid Shadow Energy, she is meant to be the next vessel of the Female Ruler. And no, she is unable to leave the Castle.
maybe a bit late to the party but what i was thinking is that it would be sweet if you saw the memories from agro's point of view. so the collosi that he wasnt there for you would see wander leaving and climbing up somewhere agro couldnt go. wich would add to the character of agro watching wander leave. he always knew to return to the shrine to find wander again. maybe even add him seeing wander leave to fight a collosus and then turning around walking back to the srine. maybe even add a memory of wander looking at agro and calling his name, maybe a memory of agro hearing the wistle and reacting to it running in that direction to wander.
I appreciate your work. I do think the original ending is more poignant though considering that Mono has no idea of the Herculean feats that Wander underwent to save her. His acts were completely selfless and that's what makes this game such a great love story. Its all the more impressive when you consider how far back love stories have been told and how this game managed to take it in a completely new direction where the main characters are never even alive at the same time.
That's how I did it. I recorded stuff in reminisce mode then altered the colour during editing. In the Preview version there is a way to play Malus in rem mode (first shown by Pikol) so that's how I did the final colossus.
Your new intro looks AWESOME, very nice! :D I think is so much more powerful with the corpses (makes you feel even more sad and guilty XD). Your job was really cool, keep up the good work we all love! ^^
You know here I am in 2019 after watching the decade long quest video and I never had more than a slight curiosity with this game and I’m hooked reading theories of the games ending and correlation to Ico and I’ve never even played it
A sit down interview between you and Fumito Ueda is something I'd gladly "donate" to or pay for. So much speculation could finally be put to rest. It'd be amazing.
nomad hello, two days ago I see your videos and I'm really enjoying it, I'm also a fan of very shadow of the colossus already zeroed often and try to unravel some mysteries but never can. I have this channel shortly intend to put videos in them. I'm from Brazil and I wish you continued to post videos. Thank you and very beast nomad
We're together guy, what you said is right! I also love Shadow of the Colossus and I wouldn't like the movies series about it they finished like this without continuation! The Brazil loves so much SOTC!
joaldosanju pois e, sotc e um jogo unico e espetacular, muitos falam q nao tem graça montar em um cavalo e matar monstros, mais nao e simplesmente um cavalo, e o agro, nao sao monstros sao "colossus", a cada colossus que eu matava, a cada cavalgada que eu dava, a cade segredo que descobria ia apaixonando mais e mais pelo jogo. olha eu ate tenho vontade que um dia tenha "shadow of the colossus 2", mais tambem nao vejo uma continuidade, pois Dormin ja foi derrotado, mas........... a esperança e a ultima que morre. SOTC PRA SEMPRE
hey nomad, im proud of all the hard work you put into your vids, this game is my favorite game and i love to see that people still live this game...i just subscribed
I really love sotc and i'm a big fan, seeing the teories of the game while in childhood, everything about this game is amazing, i'm almost an adult now and i'm still a fan, but Nomad is the king between all fans, happy 2021 to everyone.
It makes sense that Mono would know what you did, you hear her voice after absorbing a piece of Dormin's soul, so really the point of that alternate ending is intact in the game.
Great video. The flashback scene showing every colossi Wander fought is simply amazing. Even though Ueda ultimately didn't do it, I am glad that you did. Ueda would have been proud.
The Colossi are actually Prisons for the Shadow Energy. The Statues are actually to Observe and Extract Shadow Energy from them. Wanda basically released the Shadow Energy from the Colossi, so that they can enter the Girl. Later on the Baby Wanda was created as her Caretaker. Because the Prison got destroyed, the Statue also got destroyed. In short, the Statue only acted as a form of Display and Extraction Point in somekind of a Control Room.
There was a fan theory about an alternate Ending i like alot.(but it isn't possible to achieve) . By using the fruits inside the secret garden decreasing HP enough so Dormin could be killed by the soldiers in the end (when you controll his body) and changing the future events. I liked the idea to use the Apples you earn from climbing the tower.
Played this game 9 years ago as a child and never could beat the last colossus. I just beat the game like 5 minutes ago!! Wild ending. This game is so mysterious to me. The solitude and all the open areas that lead to nowhere. I've always felt there was more to this game then what is being told but who knows
Though, even in the current version, I think she still knows. While she's "dead", see still is aware of what Wander is doing, and that's why you keep hearing her trying to tell you to stop after each colossus battle.
You get white Agro after completing the time attack challenges in a hard mode game. I made this ending by playing reminiscence mode then splicing it together in a video editor - there is no alternate ending in the game.
They need to Remaster this game with Up to date Graphics using the same art style with better animations camera and Controls fully utilizing the originally designed 24 colossi (the 8 unused Devil Griffin Monkey Sirius Spider Roc Worm Phoenix)
One problem with the idea is that Agro was only able to be at the battles of like, 5colossi. Meaning She wouldn't be able to have seen them, much less know how the battles went. But then again, the damned horse survived a several hundred foot fall that only broke one leg, so I can't argue logic.
Ueda was thinking to include an Alternate Ending if the player had also a gamesave of Ico in the Memory Card..but this didn't happen.... -nothing Happens with or without Ico save data, there's only one Ending for this game.. (as far as i know..this video is fan-made and its only to show you what the Alternate Ending could be like if Ico-Team made it..they had lot of thoughts that they didn't put in the final game....)
Hmm. Not sure that part of the ending would have worked considering Agro wasn't there for a lot of the fights with the colossi. Perhaps that's why Ueda changed his mind on the ending? Of course, now I can't help but imagine Agro standing on top of the cliff overlooking no. 11's lair, watching 11 fall out of the temple and Wander jumping down after him.
Just imagine if this was the real ending. It would be so cool to catch one final glimpse of Wander before his downfall. I could just imagine Ueda making it so that Mono and the players could see the hardships Wander had to go through. Though the ending with just the corpses is moving (I cried at that part the first time through) this still would have been beautiful. Well done.
Ueda said that the alternate ending was Wander and Mono leaving the forbidden land with Wander looking beastly with horns and stuff due to a part of Dormin still being in him. I like the concept of that one a lot more and wish they would have put it in the game.
Also, AGRO is WHITE when you beat the game, beat it on hard mode, beat all the time trials, and then beat all the time trials on hard. The uploader obviously loves this game. (btw, it's WORTH it. White agro looks amazing against the scenery when you unlock him.)
it happens in real life too. if an animal has a strong unbreakable bond, they will have a strong will to live. even Agro after she fell off the broken bridge she walked all the way to the temple to see Mono after separating from Wander
Oh snap, this just made me realize. Can you imagine what the girl is going through though? She probably knows she died, so she wakes up in some mysterious place, thinking it could be her afterlife. But instead, she sees a familiar face, Agro, and sees a horned child. With no *understanding* of where or why she is where she is, coming back to life was probably worse for her. The alternate ending is a slight more forgiving because it allows her to know why she's there by seeing Agro's memories.
se você sequer se desse ao trabalho de usar um tradutor, teria entendido é um "fan-ending" feito a partir de um final com o qual o Ueda PENSOU em trabalhar, mas não chegou a usar: "Durante os créditos finais são mostradas as carcaças dos colossos.Eu queria, na verdade, colocar um flashback. Quando a garota tocasse Agro, as lembranças do cavalo seriam vistas por ela, e a garota entenderia o que aconteceu." F. Ueda e a grafia é montagem.
This was really well done :) Only thing that would have been different is that it wouldn't have shown all the colossi, as Agro only accompanied you for a few so he wouldn't have memory of most of the battles.
It likely would have had a filter to show the point of view from Argo. Imagine it as this: show footage of fights Argo was present for. Apply filter to view so to convey that it is Argo. This does make sense. Think of this as a case by case situation not an all out throughout the entire game situation.
@_@ finally i feel relieved. Because the fact that Mono was unware of what Wanda had done to save her life was killing me, when i saw the final scene. I was feeling so bad for Wanda who sacrified his life for her. But now, i know that Mono has understood what happened when she touched Agro. That's a huge relieve for me, Ueda is a myth. Nomad thanks so much for sharing this video. It is important for me :)
The irony is that, the Girl was probably killed to avoid this kind of Cursed Fate. However because she was killed, it caused this Cursed Fate to happen.
Unlikely. Even though it's false that hitting water from extreme high up is like splatting on concrete, a significant enough height is still enough to kill most living things on impact. That, and Agro feel with several large, heavy stones. And according to Ueda in the artbook pages, Agro surviving is a miracle in his view.
Nomad, Theres something I think you should see, On the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus PS3 remastered edition, When you get the choice to choose between Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, there's some interesting stuff in between the 2 selections. Like when you go from Ico to Shadow the camera pans over and on the way there seems to be some secrets. Please look into this :D
This scene made it as if Wanda is the Soul Personification of the Horse/Agro. Agro/Wanda told the Girl on the experiences she had as the 'human' Wanda, fighting against the Colossi. Meanwhile the Soul of the Horse got her image captured, and then a baby was born from her image. Note that in Ico, the girl was created from the liquid Shadow Energy gathered from all of the sacrificed Horny Boys. She was an artificial creature. While in Shadow of the Colossus, it was told on how the Girl was killed due her Cursed Fate.
I might say that, THIS is the best tragic ending in gaming ever since FFVII.I personally didn't like the ending at first but…it kinda sticks on my mind up to this day.…so… It's tragic, but i guess that's how things should go. Cause it's UNFORGETTABLE for that matter…
once i got an ending, i clearly remember it, where Wander got to the altar to Mono and she woke up. they were probably gonna hug but the black spirits dragged Wander into a thing and white spirits dragged Mono so she wouldn't be sucked in too
I have to say. This game should make it wander could level up and change rarity of items and weapons as well as keeping time trials and finding items around the world. Who agrees?
nomad hello, I love your work on shadow of the colossus, and would you return to make videos ........ and also wanted to ask if you have to send these hackers that you use, why I wanted very venturing map SOTC .. :) thanks
