Ico is lesser known/underrated because it’s the spitirual “prequel” to shadow of the colossus. The game first released on PS2, but you can play it on PS3 from The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection which is a HD version of both games on a single disc.
I played the PS3 version on RPSC3 and it worked flawlessly except for a few crashes.
The game is an experience unlike any other. Sometimes we say about some games “they don’t hold your hand”, like the Souls game. Well, this game will never give you a single hint, it’s that mantra pushed to the extreme. It’s best described as Portal without the portals. It makes the experience very immersive since there are no HUD elements, no voice telling you to do anything. It’s essentially a puzzle game, but it won’t feel like a puzzle game, it will feel like an adventure you are solely responsible for and for which the end result will be 100% your achievement; It’s not a multiple endings game, but it’s such a well designed game that the player will feel proud of the journey.
I can’t say much more without spoiling, all I can say is please give this game a shot, it will change your perspective on games as a whole.
My rating, 10/10. There are 0 flaws with this game, not a single con I can nitpick about. There’s barely any dialogue but it can easily make you quite emotional.
I played this on the PS2 and it’s s fantastic experience.
Interestingly, the PAL version (and probably the Japanese version, too) has content that wasn’t in the NA version. There’s an extra puzzle, a semi-hidden alternative “funny/happy” coda after the main ending if you play through a second time, and some extra in-game options that are unlocked after you finish the game for the first time, including understandable subtitles for ALL characters, even ones that are normally speaking an unknown language. I’m not sure if the hidden weapon you can get in the middle of the game becomes a light saber on the second playthrough in the NA version as it does in the PAL version, but it may.
This was before video streaming sites, so there were many arguments on forums about how these things are in the game, no they aren’t you trolls, yes they are here’s a picture, that’s obviously fake… and so on. It was interesting that once people figured out that the NA and PAL versions were different, there was a vocal core of NA players still insisting that it was all fake for quite a long time afterward.