Let me start off by saying being sick stinks. It's nearly impossible to come up with a good post while sitting on your couch, coughing and sleeping. Luckily, I'm back up and running and I hope to be able to keep up with the "Post a Day" promise. I'll start off by announcing the next series will be about my favorite RPG series, Persona. I haven't nailed down the format for those yet, but I've got 3+ posts left in this series before I move on. Now onto the next game I'd like to talk about, Shadow of the Colossus.   
 
What drew me to SotC at first was the premise. The idea of a game made up of only boss fights was fascinating. The game fulfilled the premise in every single way. The visuals, the sound design, and the just the world were amazing, and still are. The games stylized visuals have ensured that the game still holds up far longer than other games of its time. Each individual colossus is original and different and the game is very much more of a puzzle game than a standard third person action adventure zelda-type game.  
 
What makes SotC so special? It's actually the same thing I loved about Persona 3, the world. Both games manage to accomplish the same thing, but in very different ways. While Persona concentrates on it's characters to fill out the world, SotC uses it's environment The world is a character in itself and is what is supposed to drive the player forward. The world is mostly barren and empty, but still has so much personality. I'd say the world has so much personality because it's so empty. There are no characters to distract the player, no complicated story to confuse, and no minor enemies to plow through.  
 
The other part of the equation is the colossi themselves. Each one is original and different. No two are the same. The game uses them as enemies you want to conquer, puzzles to solve, and majestic creatures you don't want to see die. You feel almost bad about killing them, and this feeling gets progressively stronger as time goes on. You feel less and less good about what your doing. Your character's clothing and body start to decay. Everything the game is showing you is telling you that you are not doing the right thing, yet you keep doing it. The game does the exact same thing with the horse.  
 
Now onto the few problems the game has. The first problem I had wasn't really that big a problem, it's on the short side. It doesn't have any filler to make it longer, so I guess it's a plus in the long time. The only real problems I had were with the controls and how it points you toward the next colossus. The game has a bit of a learning curve to it with the controls. The horse doesn't control exactly as you'd expect and the jump is really floaty. This didn't hamper my enjoyment , but it was a bit of an annoyance at first. The way you find the colossus, on the other hand, was a way bigger annoyance. It would constantly point me toward a wall I'd have to find my way around instead of just pointing me to where I needed to go. The fact that none of these hampered my overall enjoyment really speaks to the quality of the other parts of the game.