Team ICO is like the Studio Ghibli for videogames (3,342 views)

[Mario the black knight]

Yeah, it makes no sense

Also, didn't you say Euro ICO have 2 player and the other play mode in addition to that new sword?

I'll remember this page and read it when I beat both games, It already looks facinating, I read the very top of the page where there was no spoilers

I think it's officially a life goal now, that I must meet Fumito Ueda before the end of my life

[pichubro]

Yeah, 2 player, the sword, and an extra ending.

Ueda and Miyazaki both are on my list of meets, though Miyazaki's getting pretty old. Might be tough to see him before he retires or dies. xP

[Mario the black knight]

Yeah, something about watermelon or something?

Yeah, probably, Ueda looks young though, so it might be still possible. Maybe you can be lucky and see him in Japan

I also wanna meet Big Shig himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, and maybe Hideo Kojima, just because he looks like he'd be a funny guy to hang out with

[pichubro]

Hahaha Kojima. I can't really see myself with him, but it'd be fun if it happened. Miyamoto I'd be a little more comfortable with since Super Mario Bros. was my very first video game and so he holds a special place in my heart.

[Mario the black knight]

Awwww, indeed, me too, it was my second, and I like it more than the first game I played, and my own personal name sake the that exact reason. He seems like he would do cool hippy stuff like Dylan and be awesome like that

Yeah, are you familiar with the Metal Gear series at all? I've never played it myself, besides Metal Gear Solid 1 a long long time ago, but I love watching the story for those games, I've watch the first 3 played out in their entirity multiple times, and I love playing as Raiden on Metal Gear Online, school the gunners with a sword, the way it's supposed to be. His other games seem interesting as well, although I've never played any of them because they probably never came out here. But he has to be a hilarious guy with all the great humor in all of his games. He also had a bad childhood like me, and has strange querks because of it, like the fact that he always turns the TV on and leaves it on whenever he stays at a hotel, to deal with his feelings of lonelyness. He seems like he'd be interesting to meet though.

He's one of the game designers that proves every great game designer has some strange mental disorder or querkyness or strange past, like Kojima has that, and Satoshi Tajiri, the guy who invented pokemon, supposeably has Asburgers Syndrome, which I think is a crock because I don't think that disorder exists, but still, he has a strange personality that fits those "symptoms" and it fits my theroy, and Shig had one too, but I forget it, but it proved my theroy.

[pichubro]

Well I have MGS4, though I really didn't play it much and I've seen videos of the other Metal Gear games, but yeah, I'm not up to speed on the Metal Gear universe.

Heh, kinda reminds me of a quote "Normal people aren't authors to begin with." Though I think it can also reply to video game developers.

[Mario the black knight]

Yeah, you might have trouble getting MGS4 if you don't play the first three storywise, I think only hardcore fans who get the story are really capable of understanding some of the jokes and sitting through some of the Hour+ long cutscenes. It's all crazy stuff though, 1 is the best overall, 2 is great storywise in the end, although the rest sucks, raidens still a pussy in that one, 3 is awesome because it follows the legendary Big Boss and kinda sets up the back story more, and then 4 ties up loose ends. The first three, 3 in particular, really teach you the stealth tactics nessesary though. 4 depends less on stealth, but stealth definatly helps, and definatly gets you a lot more as far as end of the game achievements, not real ones, just in-game ones, like no alerts, which gets you the Patriot, and other stuff like that. It makes you knowledgeable about real guns too, Ha ha ha. It's a good game though. We'll have to play MGO together someday, I'll teach you how to be awesome at it, and have your back as Raiden ninja style

Yes, yes indeed

I dunno if Ueda has a real querk, although he sounds like a crazy perfectionist, but other than that, nothing particularly strange

[pichubro]

Ah well, I heard MGS4 is a great game anyway. Though I did a search last night and found out that I also own MGS3, so maybe I should play 3 first. When I get around to re-plugging my PS2 back in.

Ueda's games must be different and must be perfect and must have the least amount of dialogue possible. Hahahaha

[Mario the black knight]

Well the thing about 3, is that it has nothing to do with Solid Snake. It's about Big Boss, a character from the other games whose dead in the modern games. still quite a good game though, but very different from the rest of the series. MGS2 tells you a lot about the story of the Patriots, and Ocelot, a very important character from the series and his plan. MGS1 is the first Incident and the best, which sets up the rest of the series. They are all crazy good in their own way. They won't help you with the controls though, they really changed the controls in MGS4, ha hah ah a

Ha ha ha hh a ha, I don't think they have a diagnosis for that one, Hah a, perfectionist counts though

[pichubro]

The Metal Gear universe sounds just as confusing as the Zelda universe, maybe more. Hahahaha

[Mario the black knight]

Oh hell yes

My head almost exploded when I heard the final codec call in MGS2 from fake Colonal Cambell AKA JD, the AI who runs the Patriots, talking about deep philosophical questions about existance and seemingly basic ideas of society being intentionally censored by the Patriots in order to in essence rewrite history in their favor to influence humanity and run the world. I had to watch it at least 3 times to get everything. You have characters from 2 different generations, from games spanning back all the way back to the original MSX/NES Metal Gear.

[Mario the black knight]

So ICO is really really really really really good.

I just got the sword and opened the East Reflector, this is the first game in a long time that has given me a genuine challenge, I love it. So awesome

And Yorda has to be one of my favorite female characters in a platformer, she doesn't seem totally helpless, and you actually form a bond with her, so you actually WANT to protect her, and the fact that you can never understand her makes her seem that much more mysterious.

I love the enemy AI too, the enemies actually work together strategically to break you and Yorda up or will lure you away from Yorda as another one sneaks up on her, just so smart, it makes fighting so much more fun. This game is already quicky making it's case for a top 10 bid in my list, it has already earned a top 20 spot

[pichubro]

It's a shame such a good game never had the popularity it deserved.

But the fact that you have to keep the button held down to hold hands with Yorda increases her bond with you, I believe. Just with everything else, Ueda is a genius, and knows that simple things such as button holding can make a big difference in gameplay and tone.

When you beat the game, Yorda's speech is translated when you re-play the game, but I don't think that option is available in the American version...

But, Team ICO games are like math: the simplest product is the best solution. Case in point, simple story and memorable moments backed up by wonderful music is all you need to create a masterpiece. <3

[Mario the black knight]

Indeed, I really really hope it gets rereleased, it deserves to get played

Actually technically you don't have to hold it, just tapping it makes you grab her hand or let go, but I hold it anyway just to keep closer to her, it just feels right

Yeah, I think thats Euro version only, I perfer it untranslated though, It makes the connection feel even better just in that simple way it is, it's so great

Yeah, they really are one of the best, and such amazing settings that really are memorable, every room is so distinct and easy to remember, and everything feels like it serves a purpose, and some of the odder aspect make you wonder, like "whats that for" or things like that, like the subtle adding of horns on certain things in the castle, makes you wonder all about the horn tradition, like how long they've been sacrificing these kids and what else this castle has been used for, it just really makes your imagination run wild as you run around through it, and when a game does that for me, thats when I truely love it.

[pichubro]

Oh, I was under the assumption that you had to hold it. I guess it's just natural to do so.

They actually added horns to Ico so that players could see him from a distance and tell him apart from things in the background. Hahaha
But the ending to SotC kinda elaborates on the whole horn thing.

Imagination is what games should be about! I remember playing Legend of Zelda games and wondering how the triforce worked and how deeply enthralled I was with the general mythology of the series. What are Skull Kids and where do they come from? How does the Lost Woods work? And so on...

Anyway, The Last Guardian switches up the horn formula; the horns are on Toriko instead of the main character boy.

[Mario the black knight]

Yeah, I do it by nature as well

Wow, it feels so deep into the story, it feels like the whole point of the game was the horns, wow. I couldn't imagine Ico without horns

Yeah, exactly! I hate it when a game spoon feeds you everything, somethings should be left to the mind of the player, otherwise everyone just has the same experence, you have to leave something to the player to wonder about, small things, like those Skull kids, I wondered about it too. I love the Legend of Zelda mythology, because theres just so much to wonder about, I love it. There was another game I wondered about like that about, I wish I remembered it.

Toriko? I thought his name was Trico. The character does remind me a little bit of Ico though, I mean physically, but without the horns. The graphics are similar in a way though compared to ICO.

[pichubro]

Toriko... Trico... Same thing. I was actually just using the romaji instead of the official English translation. Hahaha
The boy is unnamed at the moment, and probably will stay unnamed like Wanderer from SotC. Toriko is the man-eating eagle that I just want to go on adventures with right now... But I can't because release dates suck.

Trico seems to be the official English name, but I prefer the name Toriko, and I might just stick with it. And, as Wikipedia can explain, Toriko fits better:
"The name of the creature, Trico (トリコ, Toriko?), can be taken to mean "prisoner" (虜, toriko?), "baby bird" (鳥の子供, tori no kodomo?), or a portmanteau of "bird" (鳥, tori?) and "cat" (猫, neko?)."

Hahahaha, Japanese puns. Like how ICO means "Let's go!"

[Mario the black knight]

Wow, thats pretty amazing, I kinda hope they keep the Japanese name now, Ha ha ha ha ha

Also, I hope they name him too, he needs a name

God you know a lot about Japanese, it's so great, when I meet Fumito Udea, I'm bringing you to translate, and so you can meet Fumito Udea

And wow, thats facinating, although I don't see how that directly applies to ICO though so far

[pichubro]

Yeah, you can learn a lot about something you love. I'm gonna miss Japanese class next year.

I suck at translating though. I can't think on my feet... Gah. Hopefully I'll get better. I'm the worst at speaking Japanese. Reading Japanese I'm perfectly fine with.

Isn't the point of ICO to get out of the castle? I think that would apply somewhat. I dunno. I just like puns. Hahaha

[Mario the black knight]

Yeah, aint it the truth, just look at how much I know about team ICO now, ha ha a ha

Yeah, I think you'll get that in no time, I wish I had the pacience for foreign languages, I always give up on trying to learn them within a few minutes. Reading it is still massively impressive.

Well, I guess that makes some sense. Yeah, I love puns, and it's interesting to see puns in other languages.

[pichubro]

Reading is easy though, with kanji and all. I can guess the meaning if I don't know it... Like the kanji for "troublesome" is a tree in a box, which would be quite troublesome, since the tree can't grow right. And the kanji "car" actually looks like a cart.
Though some kanji don't make much sense, like Western kanji (as in America) has the symbols for water and sheep together... I guess we are watersheep? >_>

[Mario the black knight]

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA H HA HA HAA HA

I love your explaination for why the troublesome symbol makes sense, it's hilarious

And we are, sheep across a body of water from Japan, I see it making sense, Hah a ha ha ha

Kanji rule

[pichubro]

Hahaha, look at it:
困

And the meaning can also be translated as "distressed" ... so look at the poor tree in distress at being in a box!

I also find it hilarious that the kanji meaning "babysitter" is also the same kanji for "feudal lord." Hahaha

[Mario the black knight]

HA HA HA HA HA H HA HA, That really is hilarious, poor tree in a box

Wow, I guess the word just lost use and they replaced the meaning with something meaningful to the present day or something, that or you need to be a samurai to watch children, Ha ha ha ha

[pichubro]

I would believe that. hahaha