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[FantasticMrSnake]

Ok, I just finished.. such a masterpiece, I think is my favourite of team ico, and my GOTY for sure.

So, some questions about the ending and stuff:

Spoiler

Did they eat processed children? At the last moment, the tricos star bringing some kind of food into that thing, and I though it was stolen children.

What happened with all the other tricos? I mean, at the end, he is clearly alive, so he must be able to eat another thing apart from barrels full of death children, but where is the rest?

and.. why didn't the boy went and look back for him =(?

 

[Theslammer]

Ok, I just finished.. such a masterpiece, I think is my favourite of team ico, and my GOTY for sure.

So, some questions about the ending and stuff:

Spoiler

Did they eat processed children? At the last moment, the tricos star bringing some kind of food into that thing, and I though it was stolen children.

What happened with all the other tricos? I mean, at the end, he is clearly alive, so he must be able to eat another thing apart from barrels full of death children, but where is the rest?

and.. why didn't the boy went and look back for him =(?

Spoiler

1) I think some people hare theorized that the barrels are a reward for bringing children since it seems like they would be processed pretty quickly and put into a barrel. But maybe they did. Eek.

2) I think the rest died when they fell off the tower, besides that one Trico that was seen alive that you knocked the helmet off of (who I'm assuming your Trico mated with at the end).

3) The boy was never conscious going to or from that place, so I doubt he knows where it is.

 

[ScOULaris]

Ok, I just finished.. such a masterpiece, I think is my favourite of team ico, and my GOTY for sure.

So, some questions about the ending and stuff:

Spoiler

Did they eat processed children? At the last moment, the tricos star bringing some kind of food into that thing, and I though it was stolen children.

What happened with all the other tricos? I mean, at the end, he is clearly alive, so he must be able to eat another thing apart from barrels full of death children, but where is the rest?

and.. why didn't the boy went and look back for him =(?

• Spoiler

  The Tricos don't eat the children. They just kind of partially digest them (which etches those glowing circuitry-esque marks into them in the process), and then they are fed into the Master of the Valley's tower setup to power it. It then rewards them with barrels of glowing butterfly soup. Those symbols etched into the digested boys (or partially digested in the main character's case) are also seen in the mist that the Sentinels use to stupefy you (the stuff you mash buttons to clear away), further linking the boy corpses to the power that the Master of the Valley uses to control things.
• Spoiler

  All of the other Tricos kind of got short-circuited, so to speak, when the Master of the Valley was destroyed while mind-controlling them. They all just fell to their deaths when that happened. As for your Trico and the other one that remained alive at the end, they both had had their horns damaged and were thusly somewhat immune to the Master's control. You notice whenever the Master's radio tower is emitting its mind-control waves they are resonating with the tricos' glowing horns.
  
  In the end, it is implied that Trico is still alive and has somehow produced offspring judging by the smaller set of eyes that appear to the left of his/hers and the faint squeak that you can hear coming from the darkness.
• Spoiler

  The boy can't feasibly go back there. It's incredibly far away from their village and there's no way in or out other than by flight, hence the name The Nest.

Hopefully that clears stuff up for you. Feel free to come by the spoiler thread to discuss more.

 

[bosseye]

Amazing game.

So many little details, I'm tying to remember them all; one for now - when Trico huffs air out of his nose, the boy's clothes ruffle in the sudden wind.

 

[lukeskymac]

There are so many problems with comparing metacritic scores across periods of time like this that I don't know where to start.

In general I don't decide which games to buy based upon review scores and I don't put much value in them. My most played game this generation is Destiny, and it got panned by the critics when it came out. I don't decide which movies to watch based upon the critics either. And I don't agree with the Witcher 3's ridiculously high review scores. I don't agree with The Game Awards show giving a Witcher 3 expansion the best RPG of the year award. Ridiculous.

But I will explain when I think metacritic scores are too high or too low.

Honestly I think Ocarina of Time was a fantastic game for the N64 era. A lot of games had horrible frame rates back then and it was more widely tolerated because of limitations of the hardware. But I don't think that OoT has aged well even after you fix the frame rates etc. Also Skyward Sword and TP are not my favorite Zelda games. My favorite 3D Zelda game is actually Wind Waker which I know a lot of people have different opinions about. My user name was actually created while I was playing Wind Waker on Gamecube.

I agree with most of what you said, but I don't think you can give N64 games slack for low framerates. N64, just like SNES and NES, had nothing stopping games from reaching 60fps. It was, as has always been, a developer design decision.

 

[Anko]

Spoiler

and.. why didn't the boy went and look back for him =(?

Spoiler

3) The boy was never conscious going to or from that place, so I doubt he knows where it is.

Spoiler

Not to mention, because of the walls, the only way in and out is by flight. I don't think they have the means to fly there.

 

[Ratrat]

Some post game thougts:

Spoiler

Is the boy the leader of the village at the end? It would mean, if Trico and co were to come visit he could protect them.
On the other hand, how do we even know thats Trico? Its presumably been decades. That seems like a long time for an animal to live and suddenly start hatching chicks.

 

[CitizenCope]

Was watching a completely different game on Twitch when a spoiler filled ad came on for this game. Jesus! Beware!

 

[FantasticMrSnake]

• Spoiler

  The Tricos don't eat the children. They just kind of partially digest them (which etches those glowing circuitry-esque marks into them in the process), and then they are fed into the Master of the Valley's tower setup to power it. It then rewards them with barrels of glowing butterfly soup. Those symbols etched into the digested boys (or partially digested in the main character's case) are also seen in the mist that the Sentinels use to stupefy you (the stuff you mash buttons to clear away), further linking the boy corpses to the power that the Master of the Valley uses to control things.
• Spoiler

  All of the other Tricos kind of got short-circuited, so to speak, when the Master of the Valley was destroyed while mind-controlling them. They all just fell to their deaths when that happened. As for your Trico and the other one that remained alive at the end, they both had had their horns damaged and were thusly somewhat immune to the Master's control. You notice whenever the Master's radio tower is emitting its mind-control waves they are resonating with the tricos' glowing horns.
  
  In the end, it is implied that Trico is still alive and has somehow produced offspring judging by the smaller set of eyes that appear to the left of his/hers and the faint squeak that you can hear coming from the darkness.
• Spoiler

  The boy can't feasibly go back there. It's incredibly far away from their village and there's no way in or out other than by flight, hence the name The Nest.

Hopefully that clears stuff up for you. Feel free to come by the spoiler thread to discuss more.

Interesting..

Spoiler

I didn't notice any other sound, or pair of eyes in that scene, I'll re-watch it.

edit: no idea how I miss that: https://youtu.be/4STxbnXrerg?t=211 , I'm glad =)

But yeah, I though the same, that is really far and there is no way in other than flying, really sad that they come apart at the end.

 

[B-B-Bomba!]

HStallion made a interesting post a while back about how it would be nice to have a little sandbox type mode when you finish, just a little play area you can go and do stuff with Trico.

I was thinking, this guy needs a ball! I'm sure he would love it.

And then I thought, Rocket League needs Trico DLC.

 

[Appollowexx]

Ok so finally got my copy and played about 2hrs before work. After all these years finally another Ueda game and there really is nothing else like it, pure magic.

The little details are amazing and Trico seems so alive for a game character. Animation is spectacular and the music is sooo good. I can't wait to get home and play more tonight.

The bad though is pretty rough - controls are finicky, framerate on my launch PS4 is the poorest I have encountered on the platform in a AAA game and that camera is atrocious. So far though it hasn't spoilt he experience for me, but I really wish they could have worked these issues out after all this time.

 

[HStallion]

Ok so finally got my copy and played about 2hrs before work. After all these years finally another Ueda game and there really is nothing else like it, pure magic.

The little details are amazing and Trico seems so alive for a game character. Animation is spectacular and the music is sooo good. I can't wait to get home and play more tonight.

The bad though is pretty rough - controls are finicky, framerate on my launch PS4 is the poorest I have encountered on the platform in a AAA game and that camera is atrocious. So far though it hasn't spoilt he experience for me, but I really wish they could have worked these issues out after all this time.

Don't use rest mode, turn the console/game off when you're done playing as it seems there is an issue where FPS is worse when using suspend/resume.

 

[More_Badass]

There's something so majestic in the way Trico makes his leaps. The build-up - getting into position, the wings opening up, the body tensing up - to the action itself, this graceful arc that feels both heavy and ethereal, followed by the landing and maintaining of balance. It never gets old

 

[HStallion]

HStallion made a interesting post a while back about how it would be nice to have a little sandbox type mode when you finish, just a little play area you can go and do stuff with Trico.

I was thinking, this guy needs a ball! I'm sure he would love it.

And then I thought, Rocket League needs Trico DLC.

That would be a cool idea. Give Trico a big ball that it can bat around, chase after and do other things with. Maybe even include some puzzles revolving around it like getting the ball from one area to another with a bunch of obstacles and such in the way.

 

[Appollowexx]

Don't use rest mode, turn the console/game off when you're done playing as it seems there is an issue where FPS is worse when using suspend/resume.

Ah thanks for the tip. Pretty sure it was turned off before I installed the game as I rarely use the rest function but maybe that explains things. It seriously felt like it was hitting 15-20fps for extended periods in the big outside area near the start. Also anytime lots of physics based stuff was on screen.

 

[Conezays]

Don't use rest mode, turn the console/game off when you're done playing as it seems there is an issue where FPS is worse when using suspend/resume.

I never once used rest mode during my playthrough of the game and the framerate was incredibly supbar.

 

[Dave_6]

There's something so majestic in the way Trico makes his leaps. The build-up - getting into position, the wings opening up, the body tensing up - to the action itself, this graceful arc that feels both heavy and ethereal, followed by the landing and maintaining of balance. It never gets old

Agreed. Some of the way high up jumps made me hold my breath too.

 

[ScOULaris]

Ah thanks for the tip. Pretty sure it was turned off before I installed the game as I rarely use the rest function but maybe that explains things. It seriously felt like it was hitting 15-20fps for extended periods in the big outside area near the start. Also anytime lots of physics based stuff was on screen.

I never once used rest mode during my playthrough of the game and the framerate was incredibly supbar.

I think the issue is a memory leak, so performance seems to worsen the longer you play the game without closing the application. So even after a fresh boot or reboot the game might start to perform worse after a few hours of play. The difference is immediately noticeable if you play a choppy segment, reboot your PS4, and then play it again. It performs noticeably better after a reboot.

 

[HStallion]

I never once used rest mode during my playthrough of the game and the framerate was incredibly supbar.

Didn't bother me all that much outside of a couple of the crazier set pieces. I was actually surprised it was as stable as it was.

 

[Primethius]

There's something so majestic in the way Trico makes his leaps. The build-up - getting into position, the wings opening up, the body tensing up - to the action itself, this graceful arc that feels both heavy and ethereal, followed by the landing and maintaining of balance. It never gets old

YES!

Honestly, the more I think of TLG, the more impressed I am with it (and it's already by GOTG soooo..).

I was raving about it to some friends and I said something to the effect of: there's so many games these days that just add in sub-system after sub-system of gameplay mechanics to add depth in hopes of giving the player a sense of satisfaction when they do something or accomplish a task or truly learn the ins and outs of the game.

And here you have TLG, which makes the mere act of jumping with Trico more satisfying then what other games hope to accomplish with all their "complex" innerworkings and subsystems.

 

[Human Trashcan]

I am not playing it again right away.

But it's not because I didn't love the game; it's because it was actually more intense to me than SOTC. The battles were pretty intense in SOTC, yes, but the emotional moments in TLG were grand. I'm sure I'll play it again, but not for a while. And that's to the game's credit.

I'm the same way. I started NG+ but it just didn't feel right. I wanted to let my first memories of this game have some time to settle, first. I just can't do it all again right away.

 

[Kaako]

There's something so majestic in the way Trico makes his leaps. The build-up - getting into position, the wings opening up, the body tensing up - to the action itself, this graceful arc that feels both heavy and ethereal, followed by the landing and maintaining of balance. It never gets old

I fully agree with this 100%. I rarely replay games, ever. But I immediately restarted my second playthrough after my first and am currently on my third lol. And I can't stop thinking about the damn game still even though I've beat it almost 3 times now. What they accomplished with Trico and their interactions is timeless I feel. I don't ever get tired of watching Trico getting into position and make those jumps. Feels fucking fantastic and still puts a big ass smile on my face.

 

[Conezays]

I think the issue is a memory leak, so performance seems to worsen the longer you play the game without closing the application. So even after a fresh boot or reboot the game might start to perform worse after a few hours of play. The difference is immediately noticeable if you play a choppy segment, reboot your PS4, and then play it again. It performs noticeably better after a reboot.

Hmm, I may try to experiment with that a little later but need some time to wait after having just beaten the whole game, etc. I would say the framerate was generally better indoors (which make sense), barring some exceptions. Regardless, the issue shouldn't really be occurring for users, at least to this degree.

 

[Cubed]

YES!

Honestly, the more I think of TLG, the more impressed I am with it (and it's already by GOTG soooo..).

I was raving about it to some friends and I said something to the effect of: there's so many games these days that just add in sub-system after sub-system of gameplay mechanics to add depth in hopes of giving the player a sense of satisfaction when they do something or accomplish a task or truly learn the ins and outs of the game.

And here you have TLG, which makes the mere act of jumping with Trico more satisfying then what other games hope to accomplish with all their "complex" innerworkings and subsystems.

Yeah, because both you (the player) and the characters have earned it. It's an amazing feeling to feel like you gave Trico a command and he listened to you and trusts you, and then to have Trico even attempt some of the jumps after some of the stuff he'd been through... it's all so earned. It's helped by the animations a good bit, too. Such a finely crafted game outside of some frame rate issues and the wonky camera.

I have to say, though: I played on the Pro in "4K" mode and only saw three moments that seemed to tank the frame rate. These moments were literally only 5-10 seconds blips, though.

 

[PjotrStroganov]

Before going to sleep yesterday my eyes caught the cover of the steel edition and got a bit of a knot in my stomach. It really encapsulates what this game is about.

 

[More_Badass]

I fully agree with this 100%. I rarely replay games, ever. But I immediately restarted my second playthrough after my first and am currently on my third lol. And I can't stop thinking about the damn game still even though I've beat it almost 3 times now. What they accomplished with Trico and their interactions is timeless I feel. I don't ever get tired of watching Trico getting into position and make those jumps. Feels fucking fantastic and still puts a big ass smile on my face.

Extra Credits did a series on Shadow of the Colossus' animations and one way the game makes the Colossi feel so huge and...majestic is the speed and timing of their movements. Single steps take seconds. There's a huge windup in a club swing where the Colossus needs to step back to maintain balance. Even Wander's jumps have a certain hang time to them

You see that here with Trico. Those leaps are fast and heavy enough to feel like an animal that size would make them, but also have this floatiness like Trico is gracefully gliding

 

[Despera]

I'm trying to find words adequate enough to express how much I hate playing through the part I'm at right now... but can't.

 

[wapplew]

Exactly how high can Trico jump? Sometimes he make unbelievable jump, like really? That high?

 

[More_Badass]

Exactly how high can Trico jump? Sometimes he make unbelievable jump, like really? That high?

Wings + leg day

 

[HStallion]

I'm trying to find words adequate enough to express how much I hate playing through the part I'm at right now... but can't.

What part are you on? What are you having issues with?

 

[Despera]

What part are you on? What are you having issues with?

Spoiler

I'm at the part where I'm jumping between different towers after regaining the shield thing. Trico's close to regaining his ability to fly which is cute. Time of day seems to be right before dusk.

I was struggling with a combination of trying to do some platforming with an uncooperative camera and Trico just taking forever to do anything.

Things are going more smoothly now, but for a while it was beyond frustrating.

 

[Pejo]

Finally had a chance to play this yesterday, after finishing the main story of FFXV. So far, impressions are very positive.

Trico still remains pretty unnerving for me, like there's this giant creature that could eat me watching everything I do. Controls are classic Ueda, and I love them for that.

Animations are on another level, just like I expected. I keep going "awww" when Trico does any number of things.

I find it funny that when getting stuck in an area and can't figure out how to move forward, the answer so far just seems to be "jump on his back and he jumps somewhere". It took me way too long to realize that a few times.

Should I be trying to get all the barrels for an achievement or something, or doesn't that matter? I can't seem to notice any real advantage to getting them other than feeding my bud.

Also, I anxiously await the creepypasta that this game will undeniably deliver.

 

[Mupod]

Exactly how high can Trico jump? Sometimes he make unbelievable jump, like really? That high?

A few times I've moved forward thinking I need to explore for a switch or something to activate a mechanism to help him up. Then I turn around and he's just sitting there staring at me.

Had one of these moments with one of those one-way grates, I was legit baffled at how he got through there until I saw him go through one later.

 

[HueyFreeman]

Completed it this weekend. My game of the generation. And probably of last generation too. I am simply staggered that it managed to live up to my expectations.

Going to try to wait for a patch that removes button prompts before revisiting, but realistically I won't be able to wait that long

Exactly how high can Trico jump? Sometimes he make unbelievable jump, like really? That high?

Wings + leg day

lol

But honestly - this is a mythical giant flying cat-bird-dog that fires lighting from its tail, but we've got issues with the physics of its jump height

(Seriously though, you must have never had a cat - they can jump 6 times their height)

 

[GIANKRATOS]

Exactly how high can Trico jump? Sometimes he make unbelievable jump, like really? That high?

Cats can jump really high with little effort, Trico is inspired in part by cats so it's not really surprising he can make jumps like that when you consider his size.

 

[mattiewheels]

I hit a pretty unbelievable point, it's right after this frustrating moment where you have to raise a gate for Trico while you're chased by three guards up and down a bridge. So I figured that was a tedious little thing that didn't work well, since you basically have to get caught at least once and do that ridiculous button mashing. But in the next room.....it's the exact same situation, but with SIX guards? Talk about doubling down on a poorly done part.

 

[L95]

I hit a pretty unbelievable point, it's right after this frustrating moment where you have to raise a gate for Trico while you're chased by three guards up and down a bridge. So I figured that was a tedious little thing that didn't work well, since you basically have to get caught at least once and do that ridiculous button mashing. But in the next room.....it's the exact same situation, but with SIX guards? Talk about doubling down on a poorly done part.

You don't need to get caught,

Spoiler

bait them to the far end of the room then go back to the gate with the path under the .... path. There's a lower ledge they won't see you on and then they'll just chill at the far end of the room, and you can open the door, because they lost you

 

[ScOULaris]

I hit a pretty unbelievable point, it's right after this frustrating moment where you have to raise a gate for Trico while you're chased by three guards up and down a bridge. So I figured that was a tedious little thing that didn't work well, since you basically have to get caught at least once and do that ridiculous button mashing. But in the next room.....it's the exact same situation, but with SIX guards? Talk about doubling down on a poorly done part.

You can do both of those parts without getting caught at all.

Spoiler

Stay out of their spotlights and they won't activate. In the second room, pull the chain halfway, stop and then wait for the spotlight to go around again, and then pull the chain the rest of the way to let Trico through.

 

[Kazer]

I am not playing it again right away.

But it's not because I didn't love the game; it's because it was actually more intense to me than SOTC. The battles were pretty intense in SOTC, yes, but the emotional moments in TLG were grand. I'm sure I'll play it again, but not for a while. And that's to the game's credit.

Same. And I might wait till I get a Pro so I can play through it again with a stable frame rate.

 

[Muffdraul]

I was stuck there too, and the reason is actually really annoying. I would honestly recommend clicking one of the two spoilers below to avoid frustration, delay, looking online and finding out too much, all of which I did:

Hint:

Spoiler

You are not supposed to be trying to turn the cage off. Nor do you need to explore further.

Answer:

Spoiler

Call him down! I know right? FFS, not at all something I wanted to do.

Thanks, I ended up needing this. At that point in the game I thought one of the few things they'd made very clear was that Trico wasn't going to respond to anything as long as his eyes were lit up red and he was growling. So it never once occurred to me to even bother trying something so obvious. Made me feel dumb.

 

[hemo memo]

Guys, Trico

Spoiler

is crying :/ I found 1 spear but he's stil crying am I missing another spear? this in the area wjere his tail is stuck.

 

[Dreez]

I hit a pretty unbelievable point, it's right after this frustrating moment where you have to raise a gate for Trico while you're chased by three guards up and down a bridge. So I figured that was a tedious little thing that didn't work well, since you basically have to get caught at least once and do that ridiculous button mashing. But in the next room.....it's the exact same situation, but with SIX guards? Talk about doubling down on a poorly done part.

Easy method:

Spoiler

Kite them to the far end of the bridge. Climb down to the lower level; run all the way to the front to where you can climb up and open the gate.

 

[bananafactory]

I am not playing it again right away.

But it's not because I didn't love the game; it's because it was actually more intense to me than SOTC. The battles were pretty intense in SOTC, yes, but the emotional moments in TLG were grand. I'm sure I'll play it again, but not for a while. And that's to the game's credit.

Same. I actually deleted it from my HDD. it wrecked me in a good way.

I need time to recover, process, and digest it. I'll return some day for sure.

 

[mattiewheels]

Well, past that frustrating bridge section I really don't understand why the button prompts won't go away after the first part of the game. I know how to jump now, leave me alone. I can't remember Ico doing this.

 

[ced]

Well, past that frustrating bridge section I really don't understand why the button prompts won't go away after the first part of the game. I know how to jump now, leave me alone. I can't remember Ico doing this.

It's ridiculous, just add it to the list of fixable frustrating things.

 

[B-B-Bomba!]

Thanks, I ended up needing this. At that point in the game I thought one of the few things they'd made very clear was that Trico wasn't going to respond to anything as long as his eyes were lit up red and he was growling. So it never once occurred to me to even bother trying something so obvious. Made me feel dumb.

Silly, isn't it?

Many have complained about technical issues, which I do sympathise with to a degree. But for me things that have done most to drag the experience down have been occasionally really daft progression gates. Some requirements are needlessly picky imo, and have too little in the way of supportive context or safety netting. It's too easy in some instances to try the right solution in the slightly wrong way, assume it wasn't the answer, and spend a long time scratching in the dirt. I don't want it to be a breeze or hold my hand, but I really think it ought to be more careful about punishing success.

But OMG guys!

Wow. I don't know if this is a result of having played so far on a creaking 37" 720p set at 6 feet distance, which then makes the contrasting experience something special. So YMMV, but ... I just tried playing via the PSVR headset and it's really great! Suddenly the sense of scale really comes out. The boy, Trico, the ruins ... All suddenly seem life-size. And all the animations, even the camera angles, seem to make more sense as a result.

The one thing this suddenly made me want to do was use my neck to pan around a bit, and of course the big screen just comes with me. I know VR was never in this game's DNA, and requires high framerates to deliver a comfortable environment. But still, there's a case here for some kind of hybrid. Not a VR game, but a game able to use head tracking input for extra camera control. I mean basically the gyro aiming perfected in the Steam controller, just transplanted from the hands to the neck.

You'd need to anchor the screen, but I've been wishing Sony would do that with their VR media since getting the headset. Anyway just a thought. It feels like it would really suit the 'soft' camera controls in the game.

 

[HStallion]

Silly, isn't it?

Many have complained about technical issues, which I do sympathise with to a degree. But for me things that have done most to drag the experience down have been occasionally really daft progression gates. Some requirements are needlessly picky imo, and have too little in the way of supportive context or safety netting. It's too easy in some instances to try the right solution in the slightly wrong way, assume it wasn't the answer, and spend a long time scratching in the dirt. I don't want it to be a breeze or hold my hand, but I really think it ought to be more careful about punishing success.

But OMG guys!

Wow. I don't know if this is a result of having played so far on a creaking 37" 720p set at 6 feet distance, which then makes the contrasting experience something special. So YMMV, but ... I just tried playing via the PSVR headset and it's really great! Suddenly the sense of scale really comes out. The boy, Trico, the ruins ... All suddenly seem life-size. And all the animations, even the camera angles, seem to make more sense as a result.

The one thing this suddenly made me want to do was use my neck to pan around a bit, and of course the big screen just comes with me. I know VR was never in this game's DNA, and requires high framerates to deliver a comfortable environment. But still, there's a case here for some kind of hybrid. Not a VR game, but a game able to use head tracking input for extra camera control. I mean basically the gyro aiming perfected in the Steam controller, just transplanted from the hands to the neck.

You'd need to anchor the screen, but I've been wishing Sony would do that with their VR media since getting the headset. Anyway just a thought. It feels like it would really suit the 'soft' camera controls in the game.

At the frame rates TLG runs at? I think people would have a horrible time using this for VR but to each their own.

 

[Astral]

What does feeding Trico do?

 

[HStallion]

What does feeding Trico do?

Its a progression gate in certain parts of the game but many of them are optional and related to a trophy.

Spoiler

There are also other effects on Trico but those I'll leave you to figure out

 

[Despera]

Just finished the game. Currently sitting through the credits.

That ending was something alright.