Dying Giants: The Poetry of “Shadow of the Colossus”

Reading poetry is quite a different experience from reading a novel or biography, each word carrying a burden of imagery and impact that might not be as sharply felt in prose. Poems are more bare-bones, descriptive words at a minimum in exchange for a basic and immutable structure that sets the reader’s imagination on a set course.

I talked a couple months ago about Red Dead Redemption and how I feel it’s a superb example of the video-games-as-art concept … Art does not necessarily equal poetry, though: A Rembrandt portrait is not the same as a collection of lines by Robert Frost. Both are beautiful in their own way, but it’s typically easier to see poetry in the curves of letters as opposed to the strokes of a brush.

A studio called Team ICO, an offshoot from Sony Computer Entertainment, developed and released Shadow of the Colossus in 2005 for the Playstation 2. Since then it has widely come to be viewed as one of the greatest video games ever made, praised for its gameplay and challenge as well as its minimalist style and sweeping musical score.

But is it poetry?

Like the Rembrandt portrait, it might be hard at first glance to see the poetry in a collection of sprites and polygons. It is undeniably there, though.

Skeletal Storytelling — The story of Shadow of the Colossus is ambiguous, to say the least. Most games, at the start, have some form of exposition to set the stage and place the player’s imagination into this fictional new universe. Books do the same thing, and to different extents, depending on what sort of universe the story is set in. A book like The Stand, which borrows most of its elements from the same world we ourselves live in, requires much less exposition for the reader than entering Middle Earth or Westeros.

Colossus stands apart from its peers in the way its story is presented. At the beginning, all we know is that a hero by the name of Wander has embarked on a quest to revive the woman he loves. Presented with a singular task, he sets out with nothing but a sword, bow and arrows, and his loyal horse to aid him. The player is given little more information than this.

With no villages to explore, no townspeople to converse with, and no smaller monsters against which to practice combat, Wander fits perfectly with the name he’s been given. At first lost and unsure, the game’s hero puts players in the same mindset as they struggle to find their next objective. Just as a poem can sometimes leave us wondering (and wandering) at its purpose, Shadow of the Colossus does the same. A disembodied and mysterious voice informs Wander that this maiden he loves will be revived, but only if Wander succeeds in defeating sixteen massive beings known as “colossi”.

Guided by a heavenly light shining from his sword, Wander is able to track down the colossi through a landscape empty of life … but locating them is only a part of the challenge, as each colossus has its own pattern of behavior and weaknesses. Again, though, these patterns and weaknesses are not revealed to the player through tutorials or on-screen hints: trial and error is the only way forward. It’s up to each player to discover a path that will work best for them, just as the reader is often tasked with finding his/her own meaning in the poet’s words.

The Beauty (and Focus) of Solitude — As mentioned before, the landscape of Shadow of the Colossus is shockingly lifeless compared to other titles. No sidequest will be given by a farmer whose crops were blighted by goblins. No random group of bandits will attack as you ride your horse through the hills. No magical elven ore can by mined to craft a stronger sword or better arrows. The equipment you have at the beginning of the game will be the same as what you have when you defeat the final colossus.

There is a strange beauty to this emptiness. As Wander rides his horse from one corner of the realm to the other, the player is given an opportunity to observe and meditate on the nature of his quest in a way other games may not. Skyrim may have been set in a kingdom on the brink of civil war and the return of mythological creatures rumored to bring about the end of the world, but when the “quest log” is packed to the brim with requests to rescue a woman’s son, find a mammoth horn for a shopkeeper, and bounties on club-wielding giants, the player can easily lose track of the grander scheme. Not so in Colossus. Wander never strays from his objective, and the player is constantly being reminded of what he/she is trying to accomplish.

The Tragedy of Death (or Murder) — Psychologists and veterans of armed combat often say that taking a life does something to one’s soul … Not only is another life ended, but your own is forever changed, too.

Shadow of the Colossus is one of the rare games that highlights this phenomenon and binds it into the greater story. Most games funnel the player through a hail of bullets and dead bodies without so much as a backward glance. (The bodies of enemies will often even disappear, fading into nothingness within a few seconds of death.) As Wander manages to track and find the first colossus, climb onto its massive bulk, and drive his glowing sword into its body to bring it crashing down, the player experiences an intense feeling of sorrow and regret. This huge beast did nothing to provoke your wrath. It seemed terrifying, true … but was this due to actual aggression from the colossus itself, or simply because it’s different from any other beast we may recognize?

Some of the colossi are predatory, carrying gigantic weapons or flying through the air with horned wings splayed and attacking as soon as they spot Wander in the distance. But is this different from any other territorial animal? A lion may pounce on you as you venture through the bushlands, but it’s highly doubtful that lion sought you out in order to attack you. In all reality it was likely threatened because you stepped too close to some newborn cubs, or you’ve entered a parcel of land where it and its kin have been undisputed champions for generations. And just because an animal attacks when threatened does not mean it has some grudge against us, nor does it mean we should hunt them down and slaughter all their kind.

(But humans always have a reason, don’t we? …)

Wander’s sole obsession is to bring back the woman he loves, and everything he knows has told him this is the only way. As the colossi fall, the ground quaking at their collapse, dark magic is released from their bodies. For hours, until Wander’s lonely quest is over half-completed, we don’t know what this magic is or what its hidden purpose may be. The bodies of these beasts begin to litter and dot the landscape, lying forever where they died as a constant reminder of Wander’s past deeds. It’s hard not to feel like Edward Norton in Fight Club when he says, “I just wanted to destroy something beautiful.” The player continues on, a mysterious sense of impending doom only growing. By the end of the game, we realize that Wander may have saved his lady-love, but at the cost of everything else he’s held dear, including his own soul.

Poems are not straightforward. They don’t hand the reader feelings or even story, instead relying on the mysteries of language to convey the author’s intent. Shadow of the Colossus remains a true poem of a game, challenging the individual not only in terms of gameplay and coordination but in emotionality and intensity.

Enter this beautiful and desolate world at your own risk. It will forever change the way you view digital art and storytelling.