15 Years On, The Lonely Legacy Of 'Shadow Of The Colossus'

The first time the player is given control of Wander, the young and androgynous-looking protagonist of Shadow of the Colossus, they are confronted with a vast and unfamiliar landscape bathed in a cold yellow sun. Towering cliffs lie in the distance, while a rocky ridge cuts through the scrubby middle-ground. New players won't know it yet, but this place, referred to as the Forbidden Lands, is empty — except for 16 towering giants and a smattering of wildlife. Over the course of the next ten hours, they will empty it further, slowly felling each of the colossi as part of a mystical pact to revive a lifeless young woman. Death becomes life, but the world here is left a little quieter.

Shadow of the Colossus is the second of three melancholic video games directed by acclaimed Japanese game maker Fumito Ueda. It's rare to find such quiet sadness in a video game, even rarer in a trio. Ueda's first, 2001's Ico, told the story of a young boy trying to help a child princess called Yorda escape from a magical ruinous castle. His third, 2016's The Last Guardian, focused on the relationship between another pre-pubescent protagonist and a giant creature called Trico. Sandwiched between these two games is the notably darker Shadow of the Colossus, what Ueda described as his "own take on cruelty," a rumination on the violent actions many games ask players to perpetuate.