I choose to blame Ning for my being AWOL since July 16. Er… not actually, but I feel guilty. God that’s more than a week with no good excuse, other than I like Guild Wars. I drew a little GW-inspired art… but I don’t like it nearly enough to write fanfiction, even if there was any material to work with. Prince Rurik’s not exactly inspirational. So why do I play it so much? Well… Ning’s on 24/7 and we run missions and quests together, and as silly as it sounds, it’s been really great being close to him in this new medium every day. Despite the character he plays to level up with me being female, which is kinda weird sometimes. Plus this is my first online RPG so I’m excited for that, even if it isn’t the best MMORPG in existence.

I am actually posting because of ICO and Closer, which I just watched. I should have slept, and be sleeping, shame on me — I didn’t sleep last night and the two hours I got this evening just made me feel more tired — but the movie’s due back before 10am tomorrow, on Ning’s account.

Closer first. It left me sad, but I like sad things so that didn’t detract from its goodness. It’s a rather complex movie; I don’t mean necessarily in terms of plot, as it wasn’t hard to follow, but a lot happens between the four characters and — to me — a lot is left unanswered. For example, why does Natalie Portman change her hair so much? But seriously, in the end I wasn’t sure who had lied about what, and whether it really mattered. I think it’s worth watching.

Now ICO. In short, it’s very, very nice. I think I mentioned this to Mav: ICO is like the sequel to The Sands of Time I wanted. Or rather, prequel is a better choice, since it contains many of the same elements that made SoT amazing, but to a slightly lesser extent. Apropos, it was made first.

Brief story, no spoilers: The story is very straightforward, without the grandeur of SoT’s, but it’s far more appropriate for the game. Ico is a young boy banished from his village because he had the misfortune, as others had before him, to be born with horns. (Poor mother too, eh?) When he is of age, the villagers seal him in an ancient castle as a sacrifice to keep evil away from their town. During his escape attempt, he meets the fragile princess Yorda, and decides to help her escape the castle too, her from her evil mother, the Queen. (Who I feel the need to mention, is portrayed in such a way as to prevent her from seeming an irrationally bad person… in a word, not just a random evil presence. I’m not saying any more, other than that because of the story and the ending, one could find it nigh impossible to judge who’s right and who’s wrong. I’m the kind of person who likes that sort of thing; it adds depth and realism.)

Graphics are one thing the two games have in common in completely different ways: both beautiful and high-quality, but whereas SoT was vibrant, richly ornamented and detailed, ICO is amazingly immersive in a lesser-seen way: at once incredibly detailed and believable, elegant, and simple in a way that never ever feels lacking. I for one adore the desaturated palette. As a rule, I’m not fond of bright colours, but more importantly, this helps gives the game its wonderful soft, ethereal quality. It’s also a contrast to the harsh crackling black of the demons and the Queen.

I was unexpectedly very impressed with the animation, which we all know is saying something when it’s in the same breath as Prince of Persia. In particular, whenever something falls — pillars, bridges, characters– the physics and aftereffects are literally breathtaking, especially for its time. I found that that aspect surpassed equivalent events in SoT (bridges crumbling, pillars falling). Movement of characters and objects is remarkably fluid; in contrast, the slight initial awkwardness of tugging the princess around was actually enjoyable because of the realistic effect on the player. My favourite example of the game’s superb animation is when Ico catches Yorda whenever she jumps across a gap. I wish I could show it here.

Gameplay is fun. Similar puzzle/platforming fare to SoT, but on the plus side, it feels less linear. Rooms are expansive and it can be not immediately clear what to do, but the puzzles are logical and rarely frustrating. You will have to do a bit of exploring, but the small amounts of backtracking are not tedious. Controls are simple and sensible, and gameplay is overall quite satisfying.

It’s technically hard to die — the only ways to fail are if Yorda gets captured, or Ico falls extremely far, which generally only happens if you jump off the edge of a cliff. There is no health meter, and in fact absolutely nothing on the screen to distract from the game. This may sound outrageously easy, but the lack of HP is made up for in part by, Ico’s weakness in comparison to the demons he fights — thus he must fight longer and harder, and when they knock him down it takes a (realistically) long time to get up again.

If there was one thing I didn’t like, it would be the same as SoT. Length. It took me only a few days to finish the game. Granted, it is understandable, because as sprawling as the castle is, it’s only one castle and there’s only so much escaping you can do from it, even with all the meandering necessary to find a route for Yorda. But the better a game is, the more of it I want to play.

A few last words on the story and its impact: Possibly due to her weakness (for which there are reasons — calm down, feminists!), I found myself really caring about what happened to Yorda especially. The story is surprisingly emotionally involving given its simplicity. There are twists that I would have cried at if I’d been alone — I know that the next time I play it, I will. (It was the same thing with Farah’s death: the first time, I was too shocked to be sad.) Lastly, I know I shouldn’t say this but I’ll burst if I don’t: YOU MUST WATCH THE CREDITS THROUGH. I can’t explain any more without spoiling… I hope my meaning is understood just well enough.

So you should all play ICO! All of you! Just like SoT, it’s a fantasy world that’s so immersive you can forget its impossibility.

Wow that took me two hours to write…

Back to real life. Going to my nephew’s 13th birthday party tomorrow. He’s a teenager now, which is a very scary thought.
It depresses me to think that I’m only halfway through my teenage years… it feels as if I’m growing increasingly slowly.

Must sleep now so that I can yell at Ning to do the same without being hypocritical. His sleeping habits, if you can call never sleeping a habit, are worse than mine.