Buried Treasure: Ico

After my Ode to Ratchet and Clank, I decided to make a series of posts dedicated to the promotion of more obscure games. Some of these games have been marketed rather well (Ratchet and Clank's marketing was actually quite good), but for some reason, a shameful amount of players have never played them, and some have never even heard of these games. This is how the "Buried Treasure" series was born, and its first OFFICIAL installment will cover the absolute gem that is Ico.



Ico is an "action puzzle" game that features a young boy with horns. This boy was banished from his village and left in a "castle of traps" to die. Escaping from his cell, Ico finds a white girl named Yorda and they decide to work together to find their way out of the castle. The puzzle elements in this game come from this relationship. Ico can jump, hang from ledges, and pretty much anything else that's standard in Tomb Raider/Prince of Persia-type games. Yorda, however, is practically crippled in comparison. You literally have to take her by the hand and drag her behind you as you make your way throughout the castle.



She can jump across short gaps and climb on boxes, but only when you're there reaching out your hand to help her. There will be MANY instances in the game where you reach a new area, and can make your way across with the greatest of ease, only to stand there and ask yourself "How the hell am I gonna help this girl get all the way HERE?" And you need the her to open doors for you, so it's not as if you have the slightest chance of making your way out alone. The camera can be controlled to let you examine the environment. You can even zoom in when you think you see something interesting, and the zoom feature comes in quite handy in some of the larger, more breathtaking sections of the castle.

The combat in Ico is more cosmetic than strategic. As they travel through the castle, Ico and Yorda will often be ambushed by mobs of monsters made up of some sort of "shadow liquid". These monsters always appear from a black portal, and their goal is to bring Yorda back through this portal. Ico spends about 80% of the game fighting these monsters with a wooden stick (the stick is necessary because many of the puzzle elements require lighting something on fire). Ico cannot lose through actual combat, but whenever the monsters knock him down, they take Yorda and drop her in the portal where she slowly starts to sink. If you can't make it to her in time to pull her out, the game is over. This may seem stupid and simplistic, but it fits in well with the rest of the game, and provides a nice change of pace from the exploring and puzzle-solving you'll be doing. And considering how simple the combat is in this game, it's amazing how the creators managed to make the final boss battle so thrilling. Let me rephrase that just to reinforce my point: The final boss in Ico is AMAZING, and well worth the trip.



The main attraction in Ico is the atmosphere. The creators do a WONDERFUL job of drawing you into the story, and the whole experience emanates an aura of mystical wonder. The world they've created feels so real that they didn't even need background music. There's music during some sequences (and all of the fights, if I remember correctly), but for most of the game, the only sounds you'll hear are the wind blowing, the characters' footsteps, and sometimes some birds will sing in the background. Somehow, THIS DOESN'T GET OLD! I still can't understand how they managed to pull that off, but they most definitely did. It's like 90% of your brain is trying to solve a puzzle, and the other 10% is just in awe, thinking about the breathtaking nature of the castle. There's nothing left to worry about music anyway.

All in all, Ico is a tremendous accomplishment, and an absolute masterpiece of a game. You should definitely check it out if you get the chance. Sadly, this isn't an easy game to obtain, but if you're not a huge action junkie, you'll feel that whatever you went through to get a copy of this game will have been worth it.