Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
Shadow of the Colossus is a 2005 platform video game made by Team Ico and Sony Computer Entertainment.
There are no towns here, no other people, just a boy, a horse, and sixteen giants. A young man rides into a forbidden, empty land carrying a girl's body and strikes a bargain with a disembodied voice: bring down sixteen colossi and she may live again. There are no lesser enemies to fight, only wind, ruins and long stretches of quiet riding on his horse Agro. Each colossus is a puzzle the size of a building, and you climb its fur and stone to find the one weak place. Team Ico built a spare, sad, beautiful game that asks what you are willing to do.
Quick answers
What is Shadow of the Colossus about?
There are no towns here, no other people, just a boy, a horse, and sixteen giants. A young man rides into a forbidden, empty land carrying a girl's body and strikes a bargain with a disembodied voice: bring down sixteen colossi and she may live again. There are no lesser enemies to fight, only wind, ruins and long stretches of quiet riding on his horse Agro. Each colossus is a puzzle the size of a building, and you climb its fur and stone to find the one weak place. Team Ico built a spare, sad, beautiful game that asks what you are willing to do.
When was Shadow of the Colossus released?
Shadow of the Colossus was released on 18 October 2005.
Who made Shadow of the Colossus?
Shadow of the Colossus was made by Team Ico and Sony Computer Entertainment.
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Explore Shadow of the Colossus guides
Shadow of the Colossus in our writing
- Companion guide: Kaiju & Giant Monsters
A few thoughts on Shadow of the Colossus
For a similar sense of vast open distance and ancient wonder, The Wayfinders traces real human journeys across the ocean with the same quiet awe. Come to the game for the loneliness and scale as much as the fights.
Games about riding through vast, near-empty landscapes
Shadow of the Colossus is mostly quiet: a boy, his horse Agro, and long stretches of forbidden country between giants. These games share that pull of open, lonely terrain you cross on horseback, where the world itself sets the mood. Bring a sense of scale and a willingness to just ride and look around.
Story-driven games that leave you quietly sad
Team Ico made Shadow of the Colossus spare and melancholy, a bargain whose cost sits with you afterward. These games chase the same feeling, ending somewhere human and unresolved rather than triumphant. Each earns its emotion through restraint, so the story lands harder than the action that carried you there.
Games where figuring out the approach is the whole fight
Every colossus in Shadow of the Colossus is a puzzle the size of a building, and climbing it to find the weak point is the battle. These games work the same way, turning each obstacle into a problem to read and solve rather than a wall to shoot through. Patience and observation do the heavy lifting.
Movie adventures into ancient ruins and forgotten lands
Shadow of the Colossus sends you into a forbidden land of temples, cliffs, and giants with a myth-heavy hush over it. These films chase a similar thrill of stepping into old, abandoned places where something ancient still waits. They lean on scale, wonder, and the danger of disturbing what was left sealed for a reason.