Ico

Ico is an action-adventure video 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 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. The player must also perform other tasks such as solving puzzles in order to progress within the castle.

Only Ico can carry out these actions; Yorda can only jump short distances and cannot climb over tall barriers. The player must use Ico to help 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 can tell Yorda to follow Ico, or to wait at a particular spot. The player can have Ico take Yorda's hand and pull her along at a faster pace across the environment. The player cannot progress until they move Yorda to certain doors that only she can open.

Ico is a young boy born with horns. Seen as a bad omen, he is taken by a group of warriors to an abandoned castle and locked inside a stone coffin to be sacrificed. A tremor topples the coffin and Ico escapes. As he searches the castle, he meets Yorda, a captive girl who speaks a different language.

Yorda is magically linked to the castle and has the ability to open various gates using white energy that emanates from her body. However, she is physically incapable of defending herself. Ico helps Yorda escape and defends her from shadow-like creatures.

Lead designer Fumito Ueda came up with the concept for Ico in 1997, envisioning a "boy meets girl" story where the two main characters would hold hands during their adventure, forming a bond between them without communication. Ueda's original inspiration for Ico was a TV commercial he saw, which depicted a woman holding the hand of a child while walking through the woods. He was also inspired by the manga series Galaxy Express 999, where a woman protects a young boy as they travel through the galaxy, which he considered adapting into a new idea for video games. He also cited his work as an animator on Kenji Eno's Sega Saturn game Enemy Zero, which influenced Ico's animation, cutscenes, lighting effects, sound design, and mature appeal.

Ueda was also inspired by the video game Another World (Outer World in Japan), which used cinematic cutscenes, lacked any head-up display elements as to play like a movie, and also featured an emotional connection between two characters despite the use of minimal dialog. He also cited Sega Mega Drive games, Virtua Fighter, Lemmings, Flashback, and the original Prince of Persia games as influences, specifically regarding animation and gameplay style. With the help of an assistant, Ueda created an animation in Lightwave to better convey his vision. In the three-minute demonstration reel, Yorda had the horns instead of Ico, and flying robotic creatures were seen firing weapons at the castle.

Ico received acclaim from players and critics, with an aggregated review score of 90 out of 100 at Metacritic. The game has gained a cult following, and is considered by some to be one of the greatest games of all time; Edge ranked Ico as the 13th top game in a 2007 listing, while IGN ranked the game at number 18 in 2005, and at number 57 in 2007. Ico has been used as an example of a game that is a work of art.

Some reviewers have likened Ico to older, simpler adventure games such as Prince of Persia or Tomb Raider, that seek to evoke an emotional experience from the player; IGN's David Smith commented that while simple, as an experience the game was "near indescribable". Critics praised the game's graphics and sound design; Smith continues that "The visuals, sound, and original puzzle design come together to make something that is almost, if not quite, completely unlike anything else on the market, and feels wonderful because of it." Many reviewers were impressed with the expansiveness and the details given to the environments, the animation used for the main characters despite their low polygon count, and the use of lighting effects. The game's art direction was also praised, for giving the game an "ethereal timelessness steeped in the metaphysical" according to Alan Wen writing in NME. Additionally, Ico's ambiance, created by the simple music and the small attention to detail in the voice work of the main characters, were also called out as strong points for the game.

Several game designers, such as Eiji Aonuma, Hideo Kojima, and Jordan Mechner, have cited Ico as having influenced the visual appearance of their games, including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, respectively. Other games inspired by Ico include Papo & Yo, Uncharted 3, Fez, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and Rime. Marc Laidlaw, scriptwriter for the Half-Life series, describes a scene where Yorda attempts to save Ico from falling off a bridge as "a significant event not only for that game, but for the art of game design". Hidetaka Miyazaki, creator and director of the Dark Souls series, cited Ico as a key influence to him becoming involved in game development, stating that Ico "awoke [him] to the possibilities of the medium". Goichi Suda said that Ico's saving method, where the player has Ico and Yorda sit on a bench to save the game, inspired the saving method in No More Heroes where the player sits on a toilet to save the game.

Ico was one of the first video games to use a bloom lighting effect, which later became a popular effect in video games. Patrice Désilets, director of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, cited Ico as an influence on its game design. Jenova Chen, creator of art games such as Flower and Journey, cited Ico as one of his biggest influences. Ico was also cited as an influence by Halo 4 creative director Josh Holmes. Naughty Dog said The Last of Us was influenced by Ico, particularly in terms of character building and interaction; additionally, Neil Druckmann credited Ico's gameplay as a key inspiration when developing the game's story.