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I don't remember this game being so frustrating (Bitching thread)


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Man. I used to be a big fan of this game when it came out -- heck, never mind big fan. Huge fan.

 

But goddamn if this isn't a hell of a frustrating game, or at least it is to me now. I don't remember Wander being so incompetent. I can barely get any stabs in -- it takes me forever to down any Colossi (I'm currently on the fourth). Seems like the time attack is there just to anger me -- if I'm having trouble now, I don't see how beating even the easiest Colossus is going to be even possible. This really pisses me off because I consider myself to be a skilled gamer, and I've got a tricky plat or two under my belt, but for this game? I think I might just try and enjoy the main campaign and just forget about the rest.

 

I mean, come on. The Colossi never seem to stop thrashing, and when they do, it's for like 0.0001 seconds. I have to tick away at their live for a long time. I tried the time attack back in the day and I remember it was pretty unforgiving -- if you made any mistakes at all, like falling off, you may as well start over.

 

Seems I'm not the only one here who's been angered by this game, but I think I might be one of the few who used to truly love it. Now? I can't help but think it's aged really, really badly, and the port doesn't help. Why go with the hardest version? To me this is nothing short of idiotic. This is a game people play for the story and atmosphere, not for balls-shriveling challenge. Leave that shit to games like Dark Souls. This one shouldn't be a huge challenge -- just a moderate one at best.

 

I mean, look at its counterpart, ICO. That game is downright easy, but I don't think that takes anything away from it. I think it's fine the way it is. Some games should be hard, but not this.

 

Phew. I'm rambling so I'll give it a rest. I hope at least some of you sympathize, though.

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On top of the controls being out dated I do think something else happened. Its almost like they changed some the grab-able ledges/hair parts for the colossi. I just beat the third colossi again, and it seems like the only thing I could grab on his stomach was the hair above the weak point and I COULD NOT climb down. I wonder what they really changed, outside of the resolution.

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I've been playing it some more and I'd be hard pressed to name a more joyless experience than the concept of playing this on any kind of time attack mode, hard or otherwise.

 

This game is still pretty wonderful. Most games these days don't worry too much about setting tone and atmosphere, and when they do, few do it as well.

 

The problem is this game is based a lot on trial and error and yes, luck. The idea of doing every Colossus perfectly is utter anathema to me, and even though I'm still pretty frustrated by it, I remain a huge fan.

 

I'm a huge fan of trophies too (I wouldn't frequent this site if I weren't), but I absolutely will not go for the platinum here. I'm not even going to go for most of the silvers. To do so would just be an exercise in pure frustration and anger, and it would do little more than ruin a great game for myself.

 

Hats off to those of you that had the patience for it. But me? No chance.

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  • 1 month later...

Not gonna lie, this is one of the few games I said screw it and didn't go for the platinum. Never in my life have I played such a joyless(shout out to heartlessninny) experience playing a ps3 game. I've suffered through some miserable platinums, CoD world at war being one of the more brutal, but this is beyond ridiculous.

 

For those who are thinking about getting this game and going for the platinum, here's why I chose to say 'fuck it':

 

1) First, I'll say that this game is more than worth playing through on Normal and Hard mode for the experience. The fights are pretty good and the graphics are nice keeping in mind it is an old game. Enjoy it.

 

2) Time Attack is awful, especially Hard Time Attack. Some colossi are harder than others and require many, many attempts. You will miss the time many times and wonder what you can do to improve.

 

3) The biggest thing that is INFURIATING in this game is that you constantly and often without any visible reason, lose control of your character.. They each have their obvious visible shaking actions depending on the body part, but often your character will shake on every little adjustment, sometimes putting you out of line to properly hit the colossus on its weak points . This is a change made from the PS2 version where the colossi only really "shook" at obvious times when they're actively looking to shake you off, ala Castlevania Lords of Shadow's colossi. You will headbutt your controller as you miss time attacks while the colossus shakes for 30 seconds straight.

 

4) The controls are pretty downright awful. You are constantly climbing around on the colossi's exposed areas and often your will clip areas you can't hold onto and jitter or get stuck. Or your character will fail to make leaps it obviously should. This is frustrating when you are running out of stamina and trying to find a safe point to regain it and you instead fall off. The camera in the game is absolutely wretched as well and will often zoom right into the colossi's body parts or occlude your screen while you're trying to line up a jump. Combine the two and you have a terrible experience. Also, while it's a small part of the platinum experience, controlling your horse is the worst horse control ever in a video game.

 

5) Combine points 3 and 4 and BAM, you have an experience that is just NOT FUN. I repeat, there is no joy in getting this platinum.

 

tldr: Horrible controls, horrible camera, constant loss of control of your character, awful time trials = poor platinum experience.

 

You've been warned. I have 54 platinums, my only non-plat up until this point was a game that can't be platinumed due to servers being offline. I made the call to say Fuck it! It's not even really challenging. It's like playing a game that is hard because it's buggy as shit.

Edited by dirtydozen
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It was a breeze until you got to the hard TO the 3rd one is I think what did me in, I just could not make it happen in time. Got this game to like 87% too and couldn't go through with it. I might pick it back up again though at some point.

Edited by ICPosse8
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  • 1 month later...

I already played this back on the PS2 and plated this some time ago. I have to say, back on the PS2 this was maybe a little easier. I did normal and hard and their respective time trials on PS2 and i remember they gave me a hell of a time back then (especially #3, #4, #6 and #15).

 

When i plated this game on PS3 only the HTA (surprise!) gave me trouble, HUGE trouble though. The problematic Colossi were the same as back then, but #3 nearly made me break my controller. Only with a lot of patience, luck and skill i was able to fell this sucker.

 

But also, i think the crappy camera, controls and what not are only part of the problem. The real problem is: They must have been drunk, when they set the times for HTA. Some are very generous, some are unforgiving and you even have to resort to artistic tricks to have any hope of beating them (i´m looking at you #3 and #4).

 

#3 especially is bonecrushingly hard. Even on normal it was a close call for me. Now add one additional weak spot and less damage and, as if that weren´t enough already, distract 30 seconds.

 

In summary: I plated this once, i could do it again given enough time, but i never will. What a frustration...

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I manned up, put on my big boy pants and got the platinum for this fucking game. Took about 2hrs on Gaius and surprisingly more time on colossus 4 than 15 or 6. Maddening, but holy shit this platinum is satisfying. Grinding the stamina and finding lizards/fruits is boring as hell, but damn you feel pro after beating all the HTAs.

 

Seriously though, fuck you Shadow of the Colossus, but you have my respect as a tough platinum.

Edited by dirtydozen
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  • 1 month later...

I've been told by someone on YouTube that the PS3 version is actually the same, in difficulty, as the Japanese PS2 version. And that the American / European versions of the PS2 game were more or less dumbed down in the past.

 

This was based on the fact that he had a video of a Time Attack on Gaius up where he basically wasted three full minutes before even climbing onto him and starting to attack his weak spots. And without wasting any time, I could not, for the life of me, get past him. Hm.. That was on Normal though. I'm not at Hard. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be tearing out my hair by the time I get to him.

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  • 11 months later...

I wouldn't say they dumbed it down. Not even close. More like they removed the randomized bulls*** that is now back in the HD version. If you jump onto a colossus and get stuck before you can even move until your grip runs out because you lose control of Wander and can't crawl or jump at all, that f***ing sucks. But you can do the same exact thing with wildly different results: jump on it at the same place and you'll make it to the top with 90% of your grip left. That screams randomized bulls***, and it doesn't make the game harder. It just makes the game more frustrating. Taking control away from the player isn't making the game more challenging, it's just making it take longer. It's like if I grabbed the controller out of your hands randomly while you were playing. You'd be pretty pissed off. Would letting you keep the controller be "dumbing down" the experience for you?

 

Playing this game now, I feel like getting to the top of a colossus is determined by the flip of a coin. It's not harder, it's just more luck-based. I also don't remember Wander warping around in the PS2 version, at least not as much. And I don't mean being shaken from one place to the other. I mean he literally was in one place, then instantly was in another place. It wasn't a quick fall or anything like that, he was teleported horizontally for no reason.

 

People complain about the controls and the camera, but both are fine. They worked for me in the PS2 version and they seem unchanged since then. It's just the gripping system is totally f***ed now.

Edited by Sylvester191
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  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

Wow! This is certainly a polarizing game. I never played it on PS2, but I can see what many are saying about the uneven difficulty. I'm at the 3rd Colossus on normal and feel like I'm playing an unreleased build of the game. It's simply not fun due to many of the things already stated in this thread. Damn shame; I absolutely love Ico despite it's rough edges and just got Plat on it yesterday. Hard to believe it's the same guys making this one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I remember playing through this in my childhood, around age five. And I agree, the HD port doesn't do the original any justice. But that's not to say that it's a bad overall game. Sure, there were times where hard time attack made me sick (just a few hours ago, actually), and I went through a phase of being really disappointed and hating the game. But today, I managed to buckle down and beat all of hard time attack in one sitting. Now all I have left is shrine climbing and gathering lizards / fruit for the platinum. Believe it or not, it'll be one of my first.

 

Gaius, Argus and Phaedra are the three that will give you nightmares. There are certain rhythms and "sweet spots" that you fall into over time. Sometimes, you can even use a colossuses shaking to propel you to your destination (though risky). Then you'll find a lapse in Wanders quiver to capitalize on at some point. You just have to be willing to give it your time.

Don't give up!

Edited by somnybronson
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  • 6 months later...

yeah, i'm coming back to this and it's really pissing me off with the shitty fucking camera that just does whatever the fuck it wants to because the game director director thought it would look cool. "FUCK YOU! GIVE ME BACK THE FUCKING CAMERA. I'M TRYING TO PLAY THIS FUCKING GAME!!!" i HATE games that do this, and there are a LOT of them. that and the random-ass way that climbing DOESN'T work. he's not shaking, i'm on fur, but i spas like a fucking retard and then just fall off. i really don't remember having such a hard time with the basic elements of this game but when i come back to it it feels like a real piece of shit that i DON'T want to come back to... :mad:

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  • 1 month later...

I have just completed Colossi 3 and 15 HTA. I surprisingly succeeded with 15 at my 5th attempt (don't ask me how I did cos I really don't know, I was just lucky), but with 3 I struggled for many hours. I think it's horrendous. Just awful. It's completely luck based, I think that if I'd try it a second time I'd need play as much as the first time or even more and this means that it's completely random. These kind of challenges are completely and utterly useless. Sometimes I could stab a spot effortless till its destroyed while for the next 50 times I couldn't even stab it once. Absolutely appalling.

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Well shit, grabbed this on the flash sale after hearing so much praise but reading this thread makes me not even want to play it. I'll give it a go on normal, hope I can at least finish it (already decided not going for the plat). Is it at least somewhat enjoyable if only playing through the game not concerned too much with trophies?

 

I just played Last Guardian and haven't picked it up since completing the story once, no plans to unfortunately. The controls and camera were so frustrating on that one I just can't start it up again, as much as I love the visuals and the story. I am glad I played through it once, though I was yelling at Trico for a good portion of it.

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Well shit, grabbed this on the flash sale after hearing so much praise but reading this thread makes me not even want to play it. I'll give it a go on normal, hope I can at least finish it (already decided not going for the plat). Is it at least somewhat enjoyable if only playing through the game not concerned too much with trophies?

 

I just played Last Guardian and haven't picked it up since completing the story once, no plans to unfortunately. The controls and camera were so frustrating on that one I just can't start it up again, as much as I love the visuals and the story. I am glad I played through it once, though I was yelling at Trico for a good portion of it.

 

I just started playing this I played it on ps2 and plan to plat it and at the start I spent a good 10-20 minutes setting up the controls and the camera settings because something just felt off at first and I am so glad I did, I'm not having any of the control frustrations other ppl seem to be having. Made the camera faster, made the bow inverted, changed jump to X, Horse to O and use to triangle it works for me. Though maybe once I get a little farther I'll get frustrated lol.

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I just started playing this I played it on ps2 and plan to plat it and at the start I spent a good 10-20 minutes setting up the controls and the camera settings because something just felt off at first and I am so glad I did, I'm not having any of the control frustrations other ppl seem to be having. Made the camera faster, made the bow inverted, changed jump to X, Horse to O and use to triangle it works for me. Though maybe once I get a little farther I'll get frustrated lol.

 

I set up the controls the same as you, with faster camera, X for jumping ect. and it gets better but when you reach some HTA it all falls apart....

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Just got the plat. Had never played the game before and while HTA 3 and 15 were considerably harder than everything else, I thought the game was great.

 

My biggest complaint honestly would be how hard it was to find all the damn fruit in the area on top of the Shrine of Worship.

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I just started playing this I played it on ps2 and plan to plat it and at the start I spent a good 10-20 minutes setting up the controls and the camera settings because something just felt off at first and I am so glad I did, I'm not having any of the control frustrations other ppl seem to be having. Made the camera faster, made the bow inverted, changed jump to X, Horse to O and use to triangle it works for me. Though maybe once I get a little farther I'll get frustrated lol.

Thanks a lot for the tips, I will definitely try this if/when I play this and report back here.

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Just beat #15 on hard time trial and it took me almost as long as it took to do every single time trial on normal... 4:15 compared to 4:35.

 

This guy was just a fucking bitch chainstabbing the head was easy enough half the time the one on his chest was a pain it took me a few tries to realize I had to climb up and recover and do it atleast 2 maybe 3 times but then climbing up and recovering became almost impossible I was spending minutes just trying to catch my breath. I finally found the sweet spot on the shoulder and then things went okay but that hand... getting him to use the attack was hard enough but grabbing on is an entirely different story I finished twice 5 seconds too late just because I took too long to get on it...

 

If anyone wants tips for doing it, find the shoulder sweet spot to recover, chainstab the head first in your run because if you screw up on that your run is screwed anyways and practice getting on the hand before you start a real run trust me the last thing you want is to lose because it took 3 minutes to get on the bitches hand.

 

Anyways now that the hardest part is done it's only a matter of time until I plat it.

Edited by Stalemate666
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