I recently discovered ICO for the PS2, and now I wish there was a site that would tell me what else I might like if I like ICO. Kind of what Amazon sales correlations do for books…
Suggestions? And, more generally, does anything like this exist?
answer unclear, try again later
You might enjoy Disaster Report, the translation of Zettai Zetsumei Toshi, also called SOS The Final Escape. Other some lack of polish in certain areas and a frame rate that’s actually oddly helpful, its a great game that feels different from other adventure games. Like ICO, it focuses on traverses on the puzzles tangible from large physical environments and puts you together with a partner you’ll have to work together to get through the city disintegrating together around you. Its got multiple endings, a nicely detailed city and its all sorts of fun. There’s a sequel coming very soon too!
Another one you might like is the more PC adventure game style Shadow of Destiny about a man given a chance by a homunculus to change fate and prevent death, but fate has it out for him and keeps trying to kill him through multiple time periods. A twisting plot with six or so endings that all connect together to lead up to a really stunning final plot twist that makes the whole of the lukewarm puzzles and graphic style quite worth it. Its a game that makes you say “nice.”
And its totally different focus from ICO, but worth checking out in that people tend to appreciate what its doing with atmosphere in the same way they did in ICO, and that’s the Fatal Frame games (again a third is coming out soon).
And obviously, you’d probably want to keep a watch out for the next game from the ICO team and Shadow of the Colossus releases this September! :D
I always thought it was funny how ICO is clearly descended from the types of games started with Prince of Persia and it turns out the newest Prince of Persia ended up looking like it minked a bit off ICO.
BTW, since this is an ICO thread, I might as well repeat this so the myth stops: ICO did not sell poorly. The game’s at 700,000 copies right now worldwide and while that isn’t multimillions, that’s not certainly not bad either.
-Kitsune
The only game I can think of right now is Okami, and it hasn’t been
released yet :(
If we can include games that aren’t out yet, Shadow of the Colossus seems the obvious pick.
But Amazon does do these even for video games. Looking at the Ico listing we find…
[color=darkblue]Customers who bought this item also bought these items:
* Katamari Damacy by SVG Distribution (We recommend this item for you. Click to see why.Why?)
* Beyond Good & Evil by SVG Distribution (Rate it)
* Devil May Cry by Capcom (We recommend this item for you. Click to see why.Why?)
* Prince of Persia: Sands of Time by UBI Soft (We recommend this item for you. Click to see why.Why?)
Explore Similar Items: 20 in Computer & Video Games, 8 in Books, and 20 in DVD
What similar items do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?
* 92% buy this item (Ico by Sony Computer Entertainment (We recommend this item for you. Click to see why.Why?))
* 1% buy Drakan: the Ancients' Gates by Sony Computer Entertainment (Rate it)
* 1% buy Rez by Sega of America, Inc. (Rate it)
* 1% buy Primal by Sony Computer Entertainment (Rate it)
* 1% buy Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment (We recommend this item for you. Click to see why.Why?)
Explore Similar Items: 9 in Computer & Video Games, 9 in Books, and 6 in DVD[/color]
Not extremely helpful as none of those games is really like Ico, but Rez and Katamari are cult faves as well. For similar titles, I’d just as the group here. You’d get a much better selection than anything auotmated by genre.
I’m seconding the recommendation of Disaster Report. It’s pretty good, if a pain in the ass in certain parts.
The English localization is odd as hell, though. It’s one of those localizations where they gave everyone really American-sounding names and blonde hair despite the fact they’re all visibly Japanese.
May want to look through the “Also Consider”
That’s a bit of a stretch, I think (though I love the Fatal Frame games and would eagerly recommend them to anyone). But they aren’t much like ICO.
Still, third Fatal Frame game… whoo-hoo!
And obviously, you’d probably want to keep a watch out for the next game from the ICO team and Shadow of the Colossus releases this September! :D
That’s the ticket. I’m really looking forward to that game.
BTW, since this is an ICO thread, I might as well repeat this so the myth stops: ICO did not sell poorly. The game’s at 700,000 copies right now worldwide and while that isn’t multimillions, that’s not certainly not bad either.
Good to hear. ICO is an awesome game. It deserves to sell well.
That’s a bit of a stretch, I think (though I love the Fatal Frame games and would eagerly recommend them to anyone). But they aren’t much like ICO.
Still, third Fatal Frame game… whoo-hoo![/quote]
What I mean by that is that despite doing completely different things, I’ve seen people who like ICO like Fatal Frame because they tend to like games that pay a good amount of attention to atmosphere and are dripping with style, just like ICO.
-Kitsune
Ah, I see. That’s definitely true–both games have great atmosphere.
Thanks, Kitsune. That’s actually how I found ICO; Cheapassgamer had a link to Amazon selling Shadow of the Colossus for $29.99. (Turned out that Amazon wouldn’t honor that offer.) Am definitely looking forward to it.
Ico really did have nice atmosphere, still a beautiful game.
As a recent buyer of this superbly atmospheric game, I wonder where this myth came from. Do you have a source for those figures?
For what it’s worth I thought ICO, while beautiful, was a middling game.
It’s not worth much.
I haven’t really gone back to ICO – I fell in love with Romance of the Three Kingdoms X – but I what I liked about it was the fantastic atmosphere, and the fact that it was different from most other PS2 games I’ve played. The puzzles aren’t very hard (so far, at least), but they are fun.
And it doesn’t have ridiculous levels of violence (a la God of War), so I can play it with my 5 year-old daughter keeping me company.
Ico is very pretty, very stylish, and very dull. Sort of like Myst except with 3D puzzles. If you like pretty and stylish with absolutely nothing happening you’ll love it.