Shadow of the Colossus videos

Here I will be posting links to all my older videos that were recorded from around July 2009 to November 2010, after which I started uploading HD quality videos. At the beginning I used a screen recorder and my emulator ran the game at about 40% speed so I had to speed up the videos using Quicktime before posting them on Youtube. I also was clueless about video sizes that Youtube used so most were recorded below 640 x 360p and resulted in black bars above and below the viewing screen. 

Unlike the emulator's built-in recording function a screen recorder will record the game's speed as it slows down or speeds up when the emulator was struggling to keep up with the action, so in some videos you will hear the music speed up then slow down again. But I have resized all the videos to 640 x 360 to fill the screen and added my Nomad watermark which was missing from most of my earlier videos.

I've compiled them into categories for each colossus, the forbidden lands, beta dam and mountains, cut scenes etc. Each one has a caption where the new video starts and can be from 15 minutes to over an hour in length. Some I have had to split into two or more parts as the file sizes exceed Youtube's 2 gig limit but they show all of my early explorations of the game and my growing experience in hacking (largely due to WWWArea's help ; )

Colossus #1 - Valus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtjZo4eAcyU (Duration - 1:02:54)

Features: Valus cut scene, Ledges at 1's gate, Hidden ledge at 1's gate, Moon jump at 1's gate, Tree at 1's arena, Valus before activation, Agro in 1's arena, Double sized Wander, Freezing Valus, Modding Valus, Valus parts, I Valus, Valus in stand-by mode, Valus in the forbidden lands, Valus in mist, Valus death scene and Valus temple. 

Note: I was using version 0.9.6 (r1888) of the PCSX2 emulator which couldn't render Wander's shadow properly at the time, so you will see a triangle of shadow next to Wander at all times. I did find the code to turn it off but you can really notice it when I am playing around with the mist code for instance.

Colossus #2 - Quadratus

http://youtu.be/NNQsZL2I770 (Duration - 1:07:33)

Features: Quadratus cut scene, Modding Quadratus, Freezing Quadratus, Quadratus at night & in mist, Quadratus music on/off, Quadratus semi-active state, Quadratus before activation, Exploring 2's area, Death camera at 2's area (PSU demo), PSU demo, Underwater at 2's lake, Back of Qaudratus' lake & Culvert at 2's lake

Colossus #3 - Gaius

http://youtu.be/dv4QEwuoL6o (Duration - 45:27)

Features: Gaius cut scene, Gaius before activation, Modding Gaius, Freezing Gaius, Gaius at night, Gaius in the distance, Moving Gaius, Gaius in stand-by state, I Gaius, Gaius kill, Agro on 3's platform, Exploring 3's area & Fire stick at 3's area


Colossus #4 - Phaedra

 http://youtu.be/QWw-DaOAzxY (Duration - 43:01)

Features: Modding Phaedra, I Phaedra, Phaedra & Agro, Phaedra at night, Exploring 4's area, Exploring 4's area (PSU demo) & Hidden room at 4's area

Colossus #5 - Avion

http://youtu.be/L_mDrMaUlgk (Part 1 duration - 47:26)

http://youtu.be/rIKmbeooqYI (Part 2 duration - 42:28)

Part 1 features: Teleporting to Avion's area, Avion cut scene, Avion before activation, Landing on Avion, Avion up close, Modding Avion, Avion underwater (Preview version), Freezing Avion, Controlling Avion, Resizing Avion & I Avion.

Part 2 features: Avion camera mod, Majestic Avion, Avion POV, Exploring 5's area, Avion's temple, High ledges at Avion's area, Avion's area (PSU demo), Avion's area at night, Underwater at Avion's area & Eye of the Colossus (Preview version)

Colossus #6 - Barba

http://youtu.be/GvO8OdwaDXg (Duration - 38:26)

Features: Barba before activation, Barba awakes, Freezing Barba, Barba in stand-by state, Barba's tower, Modding Barba, Agro in Barba's prison, Moonjumping at Barba's area, Barba's door, Exploring Barba's area & Turtle in Barba's prison


Colossus #7 - Hydrus

http://youtu.be/pqkcD3RY-fM (Duration - 51:26)

Features: Hydrus before activation, Hydrus without bloom effect, Swimming with Hydrus, Modding Hydrus, Hydrus above land, Underwater at Hydrus' lake, Bottom of Hydrus' lake, Hydrus flavours, Hydrus after death, Exploring 7's area & Hydrus ledge


Colossus #8 - Kuromori

http://youtu.be/KACnUCfcfN0 (Duration - 31:21)

Features: Kuromori before activation, Modding Kuromori, Modding Kuromori - Preview version, I, Kuromori, Mini speed lizard, Agro in 8's arena, 8's area at night, Bottom of 8's waterfall, Exploring 8's area, Birds outside 8's area & Top of temple glitches


Colossus #9 - Basaran

http://youtu.be/JzWG0hf6tm4 (Duration - 42:57)

Features: Basaran before activation, Modding the HUD, Modding Basaran, Modding Basaran - Preview version, Basaran's lake - Preview version, Basaran kill code, Falling rocks at 9's area, Exploring 9's area (top of cave), Behind 9's cave, Bottom of 9's chasm - Preview version & Weird effects at 9's area

Colossus #10 - Dirge

http://youtu.be/NaGGukpjFNI (Duration - 35:38)

Features: Dirge before activation, Dirge under the sand, Modding Dirge, Freezing Dirge, I Dirge, Flying Dirge, Dirge games, Dirge rock & Rock towers

Colossus #11 - Celosia

http://youtu.be/92vOVxj4x9A (Duration - 37:24)

Features: Celosia's cage, Glimpses of Celosia, Celosia before activation, Modding Celosia, Freezing Celosia, Celosia in stand-by state, Celosia's pond, Getting the stick, Fire stick & Celosia, Celosia's stick at 8's area, 4 sticks, Torch range & Camera at Celosia's area

Colossus #12 - Pelagia

http://youtu.be/vZqp7ylNQJ4 (Duration - 39:24)

Features: Modding Pelagia, Freezing Pelagia, Pelagia statue, Mini Pelagia, Pelagia & the waterfall, Pelagia death scene, Gazebo islands destruction, Save stone platform at 12's area, Pelagia's tower, Exploring 12's area, Underwater at 12's lake & Hawk cut scene at 12's area

Colossus #13 - Phalanx

http://youtu.be/O0zs3WWtyzA (Duration - 1:03:09)

Features: Phalanx before activation, Phalanx without bloom, Phalanx suspended in time, Modding Phalanx, Freezing Phalanx, Controlling Phalanx, Phalanx under the sand, Riding Phalanx up front, Agro on Phalanx, Flying with Phalanx, Phalanx after death, Phalanx over land, 13's desert at night, Desert bloom & 13's ruins (01:02:18)

OPM Demo

The 'Official Playstation Magazine' demo disc was released with issue 97 in October 2005. It contained several demos along with Shadow of the Colossus, but this is the earliest version of the game released to the public and features many differences from the later demos and final releases. In fact the NICO data file was created on the 22nd June 2005 (the NTSC date is 14th September 2005).

The first thing you notice about the OPM demo is the barren landscape. It's devoid of the grass that exists in the final version and looks more like a blasted landscape that you might see at a nuclear test site. Much of the the land between the Shrine of Worship and the first colossi's lair is like this and seems much more 'forbidden' than the later version.

There are also some differences to the final version which I will go into, unfinished areas that were finalised later in development. You can only fight the first colossus after which a trailer is featured before the game restarts, you can't save the game at save shrines and when you bring up the map there's no zoom function. If you wait long enough without doing anything the game will restart automatically.

The demo only uses the nine centre squares of the world map, beyond this are low res textures of the surrounding lands and when you approach the edge of the map the game crashes (black screen) or restarts.

Most areas are blocked by large boulders or broken bridges, on the map above the black squares denote the broken bridges, the black circles the large boulders. The boulders block access to colossi areas 4, 5, 8 and the Autumn forest (E5) but one bridge remains open in G4 (shown by the arrow). In the PSU demo this bridge is also broken but here for some reason they left it intact.

I've also shown the save shrines, most of which are low res models that melt away as you approach them, but others (E4 and E5) remain solid. The Half Moon Canyon save shrine (at G3) melts away but strangely the save stone itself remains solid. There's also an extra save shrine in the OPM demo which appears in no other version (red save shrine on the map). It seems as if they put this here so there would be a save shrine near 4's area as the save stone at the Shrine of Worship is missing in the demo so they were probably were going to use this but decided to move it to the Shrine of Worship instead. I have called it the 'Temple Plain' save shrine but whether it ever had a name is unknown. The Cliff Path save shrine at G4 is solid but can't be accessed as it's beyond a boulder.

Broken bridge at F3 - you can Agro launch from here and make it to the beach below

Other broken bridge at F3 - below is the culvert waterfall structure

Massive boulder blocking the way to the Autumn forest at E5

Boulder blocking way to 8's area and beyond

Boulder blocking way to 4's area - each is covered with moss, plants and even small trees

Boulder blocking way to 5's area - I tried Agro launching but couldn't get past it (legitmately)

The only intact bridge at G4

Comparisons to the Final Version

Shrine of Worship decoration & pillar is missing

No. 1's gate - you can see they added a lot more detail here

The fallen pillar you roll under is missing

The ledge you climb to get to 1's area is higher in the final version

You can see the difference in the lighting effects here

The pool area looks like a crude rock cut chamber compared to the final version

Above cave at E5 (when you leave the forest and head west towards 13's area)

You can get here legitimately in both the OPM and NTSC versions by Agro launching from the west side cliffs but only the OPM demo has this green topped cave with bushes, no other versions have this including the PSU and PAL demos, the others are just barren rock.

Above pools of water at E5 - these thorny black bushes only appear in the OPM demo

Save Shrines

Extra save shrine at F4 - this is as close as you can get before it melts away

I used a code to get much closer to it and even made a video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSdtvGnHao

Stone Bridge Cliff save shrine at E4 - is floating above the ground!

Half Moon Canyon save shrine is low res but has a solid save stone

When you get closer only the save stone is visible

Ravine Entrance save shrine at E3 has a fruit tree next to it, unlike other versions

Inaccessible Cliff Path save shrine at G4 - is also floating above the ground slightly

Missing Fruit trees

Fruit trees at F4 are low res only and melt away when you approach

Fruit tree at E5 (north side) is missing

Both fruit trees at E5 (south side) missing - although the white tailed lizard is still there

 Missing fruit trees at G4 - although you can't get here legitimately

Lizards

All lizard tails in the OPM demo give you health and grip points. In the final version you start with 100 health and 100 grip points and receive only 1 grip point per white tail harvested but no health, this is gained by eating fruit, but in the OPM demo you get 5 health and 5 grip points for white 'and' black tails. The lizards also respawn continuously so all you need do is leave the area and return and the lizards will be there to harvest over again. On this bridge (above image) that leads to the Autumn forest is a lounge of lizards that are easy to kill as the lizards move a lot more slowly in the demo. I increased my health and grip to 600 in just 15 minutes or so, but since you can't save the game there's no real point to it beyond the novelty.

White tailed lizard at E5 Autumn Forest save shrine

Edge of the Map

 Map ends at F5, just north of 13's ruins - you can see 6's temple in the distance

Edge of the map at F3 - another step and you fall into the void!

 Edge of the map at E3 - ugly low res pieces of 3's platform can be seen

 Edge of the map at G4 - Avion's temple is visible but just out of reach

Bridge leading to 12's area is cut off at the north edge of G3

Doves at G3 bridge

4th Colossus Area - Phaedra

Although you can't legitimately get to Phaedra's area in the demo it does exist and is virtually identical to the final version apart from some slight design differences. 

Top of boulder at G4 - Temple Plain save shrine is clearly visible from this vantage point

Tunnel entrance design differences between the demo and final version

Early design of Phaedra's platform

The only other difference I noticed was the sound of the waterfall you can hear in the final version is absent, but apart from these few changes it's basically the same area.

Secret Garden & Unfinished Shrine of Worship

You can climb all the way to the secret garden in the demos using the 'diagonal jump glitch' which was discovered early on by some unknown player. Even though you only have a small amount of grip, when you jump diagonally it only uses a tiny fraction of what it does when you jump vertically so if you are careful you can make it all the way up the side of the temple. Of course in this version you could also increase your grip level by harvesting lizard tails. 

The most famous feature of the OPM demo is the headless statue of Mono in the secret garden. The most likely explanation for why this is here is that the developers were still working on the end cut scene where Mono and Agro arrive at the garden and by some oversight this was left here. It's clear they didn't expect anyone to reach this area so they must not have been aware of the diagonal jump glitch which allows players to scale the temple, but why her head is missing is a mystery.

The garden is pretty much identical to the final version except the waterfalls are missing and there is no forbidden fruit on the trees. The blocks at the back of the garden are stacked right up to the higher (inaccessible) platform but there's no way to grab onto them,  which suggests they were planning at one stage to give access to this enigmatic area.

Inaccessible platform above the garden leads nowhere

Unfinished temple showing areas that remained to be textured

WWWArea first discovered that the temple in the PSU demo was solid by using the jump hack and later Pikol tested the OPM demo and found these strange blank areas. But this gave us hope that the temple in the final version was also solid, but sadly for some unknown reason it wasn't, only a few small areas were left that you could walk on. Of course it's all academic as there's no legitimate way to scale the higher parts of the temple in the first place, but fans were still curious and wanted to know if Team Ico had ever planned for a way to get up there. 

When the Preview version was revealed it proved you could climb up to the higher platform in the secret garden, but there was still no way to reach the higher parts of the temple, even though in this version it was completely solid with every ledge grippable.

Top of the temple - the ultimate goal of every Shadow of the Colossus fan!