Ico/YMMV

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • "Well, basically the story is about a horny kid trying to escape from prison with a curvy white chick while beating up black guys with a stick."
  • Is Ico simply using Yorda for selfish reasons, not really caring about her until the Queen turned her into stone? Throughout the whole game, he has to periodically yank her to get her to move, and he always opts to do that rather than waiting for her patiently or reasurring her in any way.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: The recent announcement of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus: The Collection. Which not only brings both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus to the Play Station 3, with HD graphics, 3D Enable, and fixed framerates, but also, finally, will allow American audiences to enjoy the complete (PAL and Japanese) version of Ico. Took you long enough, Sony.
  • It looks like the until now Japanese exclusive novelization may be getting an English release.
    • Confirmed. It's due out on August 16th, 2011.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Castle in the Mist" and "Beginning" are incredibly beautiful pieces of music, both fitting for a game like Ico.
  • And the ending song "You Were There".
• Complete Monster: The Queen. She has been emotionally abusing her own daughter Yorda for her entire life, imprisoning her in a small cage hanging from a ceiling (which was actually considered a form of torture in medieval times) as well as manipulating her into thinking that she'll die if she ever leaves the castle, effectively breaking her spirit. It's implied that this is the reason why Yorda is so passive during the game: it's not because she's weak, it's because she's broken. Then, there's the fact that she's been manipulating a village into sacrificing their children and that said sacrifice involves sealing those children inside of coffins until they die. And it's also implied that she controls their spirits after death as her shadow-monster servants.
• Disappointing Last Level: Inverted. At the end of the last level, Ico and Yorda get separated. Some players will find themselves breathing a sigh of relief, as it means an end to the annoying and frustrating Escort Mission so the game can instead focus entirely on being a free-flowing Cinematic Platformer.
• Game Breaker: The lightsaber will clearly save you a lot of trouble, considering how tedious the shadows can be to fight with a normal weapon.
• Goddamn Bats: All the shadows are this. They won't do any significant damage (except if they push you off a ledge…), but will get in your way, and you spend much time waving your stick in the air while trying to hit them.
• Good Bad Bugs: In the original PAL version, setting the framerate to a certain setting allowed you to jump amazingly high with carefully-timed button presses. This made it possible to finish the game in less than an hour.
• Iron Woobie: Ico and Yorda.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Queen crosses this with the ritual at the end of the game. At first it could be argued that she was just a worried, if arrogant, mother who just wanted her daughter back. But once it's revealed that she plans to kill Yorda and use her body to extend her own life. Any sympathy goes straight out the window.
• Player Punch: Returning to the hall of sarcophagi where you started the game from after you're separated from Yorda -- only to find her surrounded by shadows of horned boys like yourself and turned to stone. Then, killing all those shadows who mean Ico no harm at all.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Some players think that the Escort Mission aspect of the game is no better implemented and just as annoying as in any other title, significantly damaging a potentially quite effective platforming game.
  • The camera system can be outright nauseating and frustrating for players, and most of the time it doesn't really help you, either. It also makes looking at something distant a total pain, since you can't hold the camera steady with a joystick, and releasing the joystick will only cause it to jerk back towards its predetermined angle. At times, it also doesn't account for obstacles blocking you from the camera angle's line of sight.
• That One Achievement: There's a trophy in the PS3 version that requires clearing the game in under 2 hours. It can be done with practice, but the annoying part comes from the fact that the timer does not stop until the events on the beach after the credits and the timer continues to run during the credits. Meaning you have to beat the final boss in about 1:45-1:50 in order to make it.
• Uncanny Valley:
  • Ico in the game's concept video looks weirdly human.
  • The Queen's lips don't seem to match her words.
• What an Idiot!: There is no doubt at all, that Ico is one resourceful little kid. But during the scene with the chandelier, he demonstrates intelligence that is truly astounding

"Hey! While i'm standing precariously on this chandelier suspended over this insanely long drop, I'm just going to break the chain holding it up and send it plummeting down into the abyss...

With me on it...

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!!??"

• • • After he breaks the chain and the whole thing starts to wobble, I can just imagine him thinking:

"You know, in hindsight. I probably should have thought this through"

• • • Then again, there is always the possibility that he didn't actually know that was going to happen when he broke the chain. This would actually serve to make the whole thing even worse

"Hey! While i'm standing precariously on this chandelier suspended over this rediculously long drop, I'm just going to wack the chain holding me up with a stick as hard as I can, for no apparent reason at all...

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG??!!"

• • • I dunno. Maybe really, really small chains are against his religion or something, so when he was hitting it he was thinking:

"Die heretic!! DIE!!!!!!!"

• • For that matter. Who in the (BEEP!) designed that (BEEP!)ing castle?! Seriously! What kind of retarded (BEEP!)ing moron designs a castle where you have to swing on a chain hanging precariously over a five hundred (BEEP!)ing metre drop, just so you can open the FRONT (BEEP!)ING DOOR!!!! Now I know that sometimes you have to scale sheer walls because the bridge you would normally use has crumbled away. But there are other times when you realise that the castle has actually been designed that way. 'WHAT THE HELL!!!!
    • To be fair, if you could open the front door with a button, it wouldn't be a jail, wouldn't it. I mean, you're not supposed to get out of there.
    • And the person who runs said prison seems to have no need to obey gravity, same for much of her servants. They can do as they please, so making the doors near impossible to open seems logical.