You actually hit the nail on the head there. Here in the States, I had never even heard of the game. Neither did anyone else I knew. I came upon completely by chance, because I ended up with a roommate (for one month) who had been given a PS2 as a gift, mostly for DVDs, and he had ICO because someone else bought it for him. I don't think he ever played it. Otherwise, I would only have heard of it recently, around when Shadow of the Colossus came out and the media actually talked about it.
And you're right on another count. The cover art does suck, if you mean the same art as on the original release in the US. In fact, that was the only release, we never even got a rerelease, so it's hard to find it over here. I had to score a used copy some years after its release, and now it hardly turns up at all.
There really was no marketing for the game here, though, so unless you read gaming magazines, which I did not at the time (didn't even own a PS2), you had no idea the game even existed, let alone what it was like. At least Shadow of the Colossus got the right attention, and hit Greatest Hits status, too.
"...and everything under the Sun is in tune, but the Sun is Eclipsed by the Moon...." -DSotM.
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ace_erath
17 years ago
yeah, i actually read about Ico in GameInformer [an EXCELLENT gaming magazine, honestly.] when they did a feature of shadow of the colossus, years before it came out. actually, at the time, it was being called Wanda and the Colossus.
in the feature, one side caption displayed a small bit about the game's predecessor, Ico. it showed the cover art for both the US and Japan. japan's unfortunately kicked our ass in the cover art for the game [i have no idea why they changed it to something so utterly awful.] but the editor who wrote it did so very fondly of Ico.
so, while i was running a fever one time, my mom took me to blockbuster, and i found a used copy for pretty cheap. so i bought it. once i started, i honestly did not finish, except to sleep and such, until i beat the game.
i agree, it's very fortunate that the developers decided to come out with a sequel and actually market it in the US.
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JayKlook
16 years ago
they didn't change it to something utterly awful, they changed it from something utterly awful. it was released in the US first. Ueda drew the Japan cover himself and it wasn't ready in time for the US release, so we got a bs cover that was just thrown together. we also missed out on extra content that is unlocked after beating the game, such as a light saber type weapon that would get larger while ICO held Yorda's hand. and two co-op.
the japanese cover is actually based on a painting by Giorgio de Chirico.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/TheNostalgiaoftheInfinite.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ico#Development
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I don't say no to alcohol, I say yes to not peeing in my hamper.
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