Comments on: Snake eyes http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/snake-eyes/ words & music Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:58:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Alex Denham http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/snake-eyes/#comment-1679 Alex Denham Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:20:33 +0000 http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/snake-eyes/#comment-1679 As you pointed out yourself, Colossus explains this later on in the game by suggesting the Collossi are 'vessels' for the seperated soul of 'Dormin' (or so I surmised), so essentially I guess they are 'dumb' in that sense - just lifeless maquettes. It's been much discussed the parralels between this and the story of the tower of Babel so I won't bother recounting it here; but I will say one thing that I consider more relevant than all of this: I stopped feeling sorry for them as soon as they started shooting freaky lasers out of their eyes! As you pointed out yourself, Colossus explains this later on in the game by suggesting the Collossi are ‘vessels’ for the seperated soul of ‘Dormin’ (or so I surmised), so essentially I guess they are ‘dumb’ in that sense - just lifeless maquettes. It’s been much discussed the parralels between this and the story of the tower of Babel so I won’t bother recounting it here; but I will say one thing that I consider more relevant than all of this:

I stopped feeling sorry for them as soon as they started shooting freaky lasers out of their eyes!

]]> By: Tom Camfield http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/snake-eyes/#comment-1652 Tom Camfield Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:35:09 +0000 http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/snake-eyes/#comment-1652 Re: Shadow of the Colossus. I assumed the creatures were less than saintly because their black souls attacked me after I killed them. I imagine these beasts were possessed by a darkness I was freeing them from. Their souls to heaven, the demons following me back to the temple. -- I mean, you are using light to find their weaknesses, and the darkness does flow from them, but even if they aren't demons, they're at least dragons, whose purpose in life seems to be to stand in the way of you rescuing your princess, and die by the heroes sword. Re: Shadow of the Colossus. I assumed the creatures were less than saintly because their black souls attacked me after I killed them. I imagine these beasts were possessed by a darkness I was freeing them from. Their souls to heaven, the demons following me back to the temple. — I mean, you are using light to find their weaknesses, and the darkness does flow from them, but even if they aren’t demons, they’re at least dragons, whose purpose in life seems to be to stand in the way of you rescuing your princess, and die by the heroes sword.

]]> By: Jesse http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/snake-eyes/#comment-1509 Jesse Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:16:29 +0000 http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/snake-eyes/#comment-1509 I really like the way you've made your point about Shadow of the Colossus. The sense of guilt it creates makes it, in effect, not fun. The battle against the desert boss, the flying wyrm-thing, was beautiful, and once or twice I've turned the game on again to ride over and see it fly around a bit, but fighting and killing it is about as satisfying as killing a dog. It's just a dumb animal. It seems like it's kind of enjoying itself up there. In short, this is a success in that it makes me feel an emotion I don't usually feel in a game. It has that 'artsy' feeling. It's a technical success. If the aim of the developer is to make me sad, he has succeeded. It's a great feat, and a beautiful game, and I'm sorry that this wonderful artistic talent was not used to make something uplifting, fun, and replayable. $60 is a high price to pay to be saddened. In actuality, the game is a success if people buy it and buy the sequel, and they will, and I will too. But I wish it had been different. Anyway, thanks for the article! I haven't seen the issue stated better than this. I really like the way you’ve made your point about Shadow of the Colossus. The sense of guilt it creates makes it, in effect, not fun. The battle against the desert boss, the flying wyrm-thing, was beautiful, and once or twice I’ve turned the game on again to ride over and see it fly around a bit, but fighting and killing it is about as satisfying as killing a dog. It’s just a dumb animal. It seems like it’s kind of enjoying itself up there.

In short, this is a success in that it makes me feel an emotion I don’t usually feel in a game. It has that ‘artsy’ feeling. It’s a technical success. If the aim of the developer is to make me sad, he has succeeded.

It’s a great feat, and a beautiful game, and I’m sorry that this wonderful artistic talent was not used to make something uplifting, fun, and replayable. $60 is a high price to pay to be saddened. In actuality, the game is a success if people buy it and buy the sequel, and they will, and I will too. But I wish it had been different. Anyway, thanks for the article! I haven’t seen the issue stated better than this.

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