ICO (2001, PlayStation 2)
05/31/2009. When I first played ICO many years ago, I remembered I cared so much for the mysterious girl in white. I imagined her as my girl friend, and I worked so hard to take her out of the castle, fighting bravely with the black demons along the way.
Today I started playing it for the second time, and I still cared about the girl. I was so worried at the moment she was taken by the demon; and I became so relieved when I got to her in time and dragged her out of the black hole.
It's amazing that ICO achieves such dramatic emotional connection between the player and the game characters by very a simple and elegant game design. The objective is simple: the player need to find ways out of the castle, and in the mean time, protect and take care of the girl. To achieve this objective, the player needs to solve puzzles and fight with the demons. Many gameplay elements are minimized or simplified so that the player can pay all of their attention to exploring the castle, finding the right way, and most importantly, protecting the girl. For example, there is no level-up, no new ability gain, even no health point for the character; there is no treasure box, and there is no need to break pots to get money; there are only three weapons in the game, and there is no weapon updating or complicated equipment system; fighting is one button only since no fancy martial arts is need considering the character is just a little boy.
Simplifying gameplay elements enhances the importance of other elements that the designers want the player to pay attention to. One of these elements is the environment – the castle. Without distraction, the player becomes more immersed in the environment. The design of the castle on one hand enables excellent puzzle solving, and on the other hand makes the castle feel so real and believable. It's hard to put into words, but the castle design in ICO is so different from castles in other video games. It's not a fancy design, but you can feel its solidness, spaciousness, isolation, and mystery.
Besides finding ways and solving puzzles, the player has almost all of his attention on the girl. That's where the emotional connection is established. The player has to constantly lead the girl. And emotion is greatly intensified by the holding hands between the boy and girl. (The boy actually drags the girl running the in castle.) This makes the player think that the girl does need the help and the player is helping her. Think about what if the girl can automatically follow the boy... Besides leading the way, the player needs frequently help her getting on high platforms, jumping across big gaps, and saving her from the demons. Without these inputs, the emotion connection will be weakened.
(To be continued.)