(PS2) ICO [NTSC & PAL - MULTi]

..Game Name: ICO
..Platform: SONY Playstation 2
..Release Date: 08/24/2001

Format: DVD Pal 50hz & Ntsc 60hz selector (Game will flicker select language then pal(50hz)or ntsc(60hz) and flickering will stop.)

For english just press x on the first startup screen, then choose pal-left or
ntsc-right for your pal or ntsc ps2 console. You'll know when you choose the right
one cause the screen will stop rolling.

Lang: Multi - English included
Discs: 1
Image: ISO
Requirements: Modded/Chipped PS2, Swap Magic disc method or PCSX2 Emulator to run.
PCSX2 Emulator v1.0.0 for download: http://pcsx2.net/download.html

[GAMEPLAY]
Ico is primarily a three-dimensional platform game. The player controls Ico from a third-person perspective as he explores the castle and attempts to escape it with Yorda. The camera is fixed in each room or area but swivels to follow Ico or Yorda as they move; the player can also pan the view a small degree in other directions to observe more of the surroundings. The game includes many elements of platform games; for example, the player must have Ico jump, climb, push and pull objects, and perform other tasks such as solving puzzles, to progress within the castle. These actions are complicated by the fact that only Ico is able to carry out these actions; Yorda can only jump short distances and cannot climb over tall barriers. The player must use Ico so that he helps Yorda cross obstacles, such as by lifting her to a higher ledge, or by arranging the environment to allow Yorda to cross a larger gap herself. The player is able to tell Yorda to follow Ico, or to wait at a spot. The player can also have Ico take Yorda's hand and pull her along at a faster pace across the environment. Players are unable to progress in the game until they move Yorda to certain doors that only she is able to open.
Escaping the castle is made difficult by shadow creatures sent by the Queen. These creatures attempt to drag Yorda into black vortexes if Ico leaves her for any length of time, or if she is in certain areas of the castle. Ico can dispel these shadows using a stick or sword and pull Yorda free if she is drawn into a vortex. While the shadow creatures cannot harm Ico, the game is over if Yorda becomes fully engulfed by a vortex; the player restarts from a save point. The player will also restart from a save point if Ico falls from a large height. Save points in the game are represented by stone benches which Ico and Yorda rest on as the player saves the game. In European and Japanese releases of the game, upon completion of the game, the player has the opportunity to restart the game in a local co-operative two-player mode, where the second player plays as Yorda, still under the same limitations as the computer-controller version of the character.


[STORY]
The game's protagonist, Ico, is a young boy with a pair of horns growing on his head—considered a bad omen by his village. As part of the village's tradition, he is taken by a group of warriors to a castle surrounded by water, and locked inside one of the stone coffins in a crypt. As the warriors depart, a tremor runs through the castle, collapsing the ceiling of the room where Ico is imprisoned; Ico takes advantage of this to escape his sarcophagus. As he searches the castle, he comes across Yorda, a captive girl who speaks in a language different from his. Ico helps Yorda escape, but finds she is hunted by shadow-like creatures (the souls of other horned children sacrificed to the fortress) that attempt to drag her into the portals from which they emerge. Although Ico cannot be harmed by the shadows and is able to drive them away from Yorda, he finds he cannot defeat the enemies with his simple weapons and can only temporarily drive them away. The pair make their way through the abandoned castle, eventually arriving at the bridge leading to land. As they cross, the Queen, ruler of the fortress and Yorda's mother, appears and tells Yorda that as her daughter she cannot leave the castle. Ico and Yorda attempt to reopen the path, but the Queen destroys part of the bridge; although Yorda tries to save him, Ico falls off the bridge and loses consciousness.
Ico awakens below the castle and travels back to the upper levels, finding a magic sword able to dispel the shadow creatures. After discovering that Yorda has been turned to stone by the Queen, he seeks out the Queen in her throne room. The Queen reveals that she is preventing Yorda from leaving so that she may extend her own life, which she had previously done by draining the life of those placed in the sarcophagi; now, she plans to restart her life anew by taking possession of Yorda's body. Ico and the Queen fight, Ico breaking both of his horns in the process. Ico is able to slay the Queen with the magic sword, but with her death the castle begins to collapse around him, and he loses consciousness again from falling debris. The Queen's spell on Yorda is broken, and a shadow version of Yorda carries Ico safely out of the castle and onto a boat, sending him to drift to the nearby shore and choosing not to accompany him. Ico awakens to find the distant castle in ruins, and Yorda, in her human form, washed up nearby him. She awakens just before the game ends.