'Agro!'

Dec 16, 2009 21:30

Today, a small package arrived in the post. I unwrapped it to find a box labelled 'Whack-a-Zombie' (tagline: You Can't Keep A Good Zombie Down), containing a miniature inflatable zombie punching bag, and a note saying 'IT MAY BE DANGEROUS. TAKE THIS.'

There was no name.

Thank you very much, mysterious gift-giver! When the zombies attack, I shall have had practice.

In other news, I have completed Shadow of the Colossus!


I had been spoiled for Agro's fall. Not only that, but I had been spoiled for the fact that she didn't actually die.

Despite the latter piece of knowledge, I did not want to cross that bridge. I ran all the way along the sides, looking for another way across. I tried to cross it on foot (that didn't end well). Eventually, I resigned myself, gave Agro a pat, and kicked her towards the bridge.

Wander's reaction broke my heart. I don't know how the relationship between Wander and Agro touches me as much as it does (he is a man who barely speaks; she is a horse who, obviously, doesn't speak at all), but, oh, they are so wonderful. After she fell, I couldn't keep myself from standing at the edge and whistling a few times, in a ridiculous expression of videogame sentimentality. Some part of me was crying at the fact that Wander no longer said Agro's name, but I have no doubt that I would actually have cried had he continued to call it even after the fall.

I love that horse.

Making the player actually control Wander when he was struggling hopelessly to reach Mono was so cruel. I hit X in the midst of my ineffectual straining, and he whistled, and my heart shattered. I've only just realised that it's probably because I was associating it with Final Fantasy X.

Speaking of heartbreak: when Agro limped into the temple and Mono reached up to pat his nose, I just started sobbing. Because Wander had fallen into the light not even knowing that the resurrection had succeeded, that it hadn't all been for nothing, but mostly because Agro had fallen off a cliff and survived and limped all the way back here for her master, and her master wasn't there to meet her. The two things Wander had loved, together and alive, and he had died (so I thought) thinking that they were both dead.

I'm not sure how I feel about the baby Wander. Whilst it would have been horrible had it just been Mono and Agro, trapped in the deserted land and left to eternally wonder what happened to him, I think it would have worked beautifully. On the other hand, do I really want to flood the house with my tears? He deserves a second chance. I'm glad that at least he has that.

Here are some awesome things that I have discovered about this game since my last entry:

- If you call Agro in a cave or tunnel, your voice will echo.
- If you shoot a Colossus with an arrow, the arrow will stick in its flesh. You can come across your arrows later whilst clambering about on its body.
- If you pray in front of a fallen Colossus, you'll get to fight it again in a flashback (it's called 'Reminiscence Mode'). The flashback is sepia-toned and grainy, like an old film. It's really pretty.
- It is gorgeous. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Yes, I knew this before my last entry, but I made that before I tackled the thirteenth Colossus. The entire fight has to be one of the most ridiculously beautiful things ever programmed into a videogame.

Even though Shadow of the Colossus scares me silly, it is a wonderful, beautiful game. Thank you so much for letting me play it, firefly99!

send me things!, shadow of the colossus, final fantasy x, final fantasy

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