Undeterred, the young man forges ahead, regardless of the unspecified toll Dormin ominously mentions…. And so, the slaughter—not the battle, not the journey, the slaughter —begins.
Indeed, despite the size differential between Wander and his foes, he manages to slay them quite handily. Some are more aggressive than others, but many of the colossi are peaceful. Does it have anything to do with why the disembodied voices are so eager to guide Wander from colossus to colossus? Most importantly, are you, the player, willing to complicitly tag along? And complete it he does. The last bastion of the colossi cut down to size, the camera then cuts to the bridge leading to the Shrine—the same bridge Wander crossed 16 colossi ago—where we see the mysterious men following Wander and Mono have finally arrived.
But for what? What has Wander unknowingly triggered? Like clockwork, the young man returns to the Shrine just then—and we finally get to see how.
The shadowy beings that appeared the first time Wander came to the temple now stand with him. In spite of the new look, Emon easily recognizes Wander. Remarking on how the young man was used and is now possessed by the dead, Emon has his guards move in to put the husk out of its misery. Their assault does more harm than good, however. Wander simply removes the sword plunged into his chest by one of the guards, reaching out towards Mono as he himself transforms into one of the shadow people.
The controls have been refined somewhat, but not enough to render Wander or his horse fully tamed. This was an essential element of the original myth: that the characters on screen never reacted perfectly to your commands as a player. Wander's quest to tame the wild nature of the colossi, to scale and conquer them, is echoed by the player's struggle to guide Wander, to get his frail young body to grip when it's supposed to, to swing the sword at just the right angle, to run without tripping over his own feet.
Bluepoint's telling captures that. It also captures the sheer power of the colossi themselves, massive creatures that are as much architecture as they are wildlife. In high definition, their fur ripples as you climb it. You can see the terror and frustration in their limbs as they flail to remove you from their bodies. You can see their disquieting vulnerability as they die.
Other elements evade capture. The lighting is less washed out than the original, which removes something from the atmosphere. The PlayStation 2 version used light as an oppressive, almost tangible force; light solidified into a miasma, following you, blinding you, reminding player and Wander both of the cost of this quest. This new version lets a bit too much realism into a world of myth. This is unfortunate, and some adherents of the original will loathe this version for its liberties.
This is to be expected, though. That's how stories work; new tellings always lose some details along the way. But they gain details, too, and new versions of stories don't have to overwrite the old.
The beauty of the new Shadow of the Colossus is not as replacement. One cloudy night, a lone kite flies by two longtime companions - Wander and his horse Agro - navigating an unforgiving cliffside path on the edge of a canyon.
The two have been traveling for a long time on this offbeat path, through murky forests and wet grasslands alike. They arrive at last at their destination: a tall stone gate with a narrow passage.
On the other side lies an enormous bridge of near-otherworldly construction. The bridge spans over the Forbidden Lands, a dramatic landscape of plains and canyons with enclosed and cut-off environments ranging from arid deserts to clefts with tall geysers to dark forests and murky crevasses. The bridge finally comes to an end at the Shrine of Worship , a gigantic structure in the middle of the Lands.
Wander and Agro make their way to the ground floor and the temple's main hall, which is lined with sixteen stone idols. At the end of the empty hall is an altar. Here it is shown that Wander is carrying something with him: a body wrapped in a cloth sheet. He places the body on the altar and removes the sheet, revealing Mono, a young woman clothed in a white dress. The game suddenly cuts to a picture of an owl mask amidst a cloudy sky.
From here, Lord Emon , a spiritual leader in Wander's society, speaks an esoteric monologue:. Agro is suddenly frightened by a noise from behind the trio. Several shadowy apparitions are emerging from the temple floor, and Wander sees this and draws a mysterious sword from its sheath, pointing it towards the shadows.
The blade emits an otherworldly energy, and the creatures immediately dissolve into thin air. Immediately, a booming pair of voices fill the halls from a great aperture above, surprised that Wander possesses the "Ancient Sword". Wander correctly identifies the voices as belonging to Dormin and asks that Mono be revived. Initially, Dormin expresses an indifference towards the matter, but ultimately cannot hide the interest in the sword Wander carries.
Remarking that it "may not be impossible" to bring Mono back to life, Dormin makes a deal: destroy the sixteen idols that line the walls of the Shrine and Mono will be revived. The idols can only be destroyed by killing their living incarnations: the sixteen colossi. Dormin warns Wander that in doing this, the price he pays "may be heavy indeed". Wander's reply is simple: "It doesn't matter". With that, Dormin instructs Wander to be on his way, telling him to raise the Ancient Sword up in a sunlit area, and when he does, eight soft beams of light emit from the blade's tip in the eight compass directions; the beams converge and become brighter when they are pointed in the direction of a colossus.
Quadratus , the second colossus, advances towards Wander. The Shrine of Worship and the massive bridge leading to it can be seen in the background. The colossi prove to be intimidating creatures, but Wander is able to exploit their behavior, hidden weaknesses, and the environment to bring them down. He kills each one by stabbing glowing sigils in their fur , often located on their heads or torsos.
After each colossus dies, its corpse is covered in a layer of shadow, and several black tendrils emerge from the colossus' body and embed themselves in Wander, rendering him unconscious. He is returned to the Shrine through unknown means, with a number of shadow creatures equal to the number of defeated colossi standing around his body.
The camera pans to the colossus' idol, which implodes in a flash of light. The camera pans back to Wander - the shadow creatures have since vanished - who looks up to the aperture to receive a hint about his next target from Dormin.
As Wander kills more colossi, his physical appearance deteriorates. His skin becomes darker, with dark lines becoming visible on his face and neck later on. His hair, initially an auburn shade of red, becomes darker. His clothes become torn and dirtier, blackened in streaks with the blood of the slain giants.
His overall health, stamina, and physical strength, however, all increase with the mysterious dark force collecting inside him. When only four colossi remain, it is revealed that Wander is being followed: a cutscene plays showing several horsemen stopping in a clearing. They are led by Lord Emon, who sees the entrance to the Forbidden Lands and the top of the Shrine of Worship on the horizon and tells his men that they only have a short distance to go.
With just one colossus left, Dormin tells Wander to make haste, for the arrival of Emon's company is imminent. Wander heads towards the final colossus, opening a seal in the far southern area of the Lands with the sword's light to gain access to the final area.
A fragile bridge spans an enormous canyon between Wander and the lair of the colossus; as he rides across on Agro, the bridge quickly collapses. At the last second, Agro bucks Wander off of her to the other side, sacrificing herself. Wander cries out and watches helplessly as Agro plunges into the canyon river far below. A storm gathers as Wander makes his way up a sheer cliff to the final colossus.
Emon's company make their way across the big bridge spanning the Lands in full gallop. They open the door to the shrine and quickly make their way to the main hall. There is one idol left lining the walls; as they gather around it, Emon watches in horror as it shatters, breaking the seal that contained Dormin's power.
They quickly run to the altar, where Emon says a prayer at the side of Mono's body, when they hear a sound behind them. Wander has reappeared at the shrine; horns are visibly protruding from his head, and his skin has turned a lifeless shade of purple. The Ancient Sword falls to the ground soon after, lodging itself in the ground. Emon orders his men to kill Wander.
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