Shadow of the Colossus |OT| On the Shoulders of Giants

While SotC is my favorite game of all time and I feel this remake is gorgeous, I AM noticing quite a bit of bugs.

I can't believe some of the things that keep happening to me on Hard Time Attack which gets infuriating because of the time limit.

For example, there are the times when I'm holding L1 (classic controls) to auto-focus my aimed bow at a colossus and I'm stuck looking up in the opposite direction. Or when the game just decides I'm no longer holding the grab button. Or the time colossus 8 was at the top of the arena and its body herky jerkying around after one hit as the camera and Wander spaz while aiming the bow trying to look up higher. To name a few that may or may not have made me talk to my tv...

played the past versions a lot, so it's not taken me long to get to the last colossi but it's been amazing re-exploring this world with better details. not experiences any bugs or glitches personally. not found a single coin either which i find insane...like, where the fuck are those things? lol

still an absolutely perfect game in my eyes. agro still the best horse EVER in a game and honestly games like kingom come : deliverance look hilarious next to it, as do most games really. even just the way the camera frames the scenes are just beautiful.

yes, wanders face is a little poofy, but you honestly barely ever see it up close so i never felt it made much of a difference.

i'm so glad they made this remake. now i just hope they've been hired to remake ICO.

I recorded a funny animation glitch.
He wanted to do that spinning sword attack from Attack On Titan.

I wish I could play this on Switch

Am I missing something, or is there no way to switch between the Pro's performance and cinematic modes on the fly when taking photographs? I just want access to the display menu when I've got photo mode up.

I usually keep the game in performance mode for 60fps, but once in a while I'll tap down when I see a photo opportunity, only to remember that the image would look better if I switched to cinematic but it would mean exiting out and missing the moment / losing the composition. Pretty frustrating.

Peradam said:

Am I missing something, or is there no way to switch between the Pro's performance and cinematic modes on the fly when taking photographs? I just want access to the display menu when I've got photo mode up.

I usually keep the game in performance mode for 60fps, but once in a while I'll tap down when I see a photo opportunity, only to remember that the image would look better if I switched to cinematic but it would mean exiting out and missing the moment / losing the composition. Pretty frustrating.

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Slightly related, I'm annoyed that recording video in HDR makes for shitty footage.

The shore in this game...







My jaw dropped. D:

Crazy, to think they put this much effort into something many won't even look at when playing the game. I've seen two complete let's play of the game, none came even close to this beach. What a shame..

Tyaren said:

The shore in this game...

My jaw dropped. D:

Crazy, to think they put this much effort into something many won't even look at when playing the game. I've seen two complete let's play of the game, none came even close to this beach. What a shame..

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The coast is lovely, and it includes my favourite aspect of any shoreline: watermelons

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Peradam said:

Spoiler

Damn it, imagine how delicious it'd look in cinematic mode...

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Looks like you're playing with the texture-loading glitch in that watermelon pic. You'll need to close the application and relaunch the game to get rid of it. Surprised more people haven't noticed this yet. It seems to be triggered by going into the Display settings menu, even if you don't change anything.

Maybe people just aren't noticing it, but I'd wager that it affects everyone. The issue is with ground textures only loading in their very low-resolution versions rather than their more detailed ones. I was constantly needing to restart my game to get rid of this problem when I was experimenting with different visual filters to approximate the original's hazy look.

ScOULaris said:

Looks like you're playing with the texture-loading glitch in that watermelon pic.

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Yeah, it unfortunately happens a lot, but I didn't want to return to the spot for the pic because it's quite out of the way. It's definitely annoying.

ScOULaris said:

Looks like you're playing with the texture-loading glitch in that watermelon pic. You'll need to close the application and relaunch the game to get rid of it. Surprised more people haven't noticed this yet. It seems to be triggered by going into the Display settings menu, even if you don't change anything.

Maybe people just aren't noticing it, but I'd wager that it affects everyone. The issue is with ground textures only loading in their very low-resolution versions rather than their more detailed ones. I was constantly needing to restart my game to get rid of this problem when I was experimenting with different visual filters to approximate the original's hazy look.

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I know, it's been driving me crazy to see some people point out how lowres some of the textures are, not knowing they are experiencing this bug. So it's a display settings thing, huh? Thought it had to do with using restmode.

ScOULaris said:

Maybe people just aren't noticing it, but I'd wager that it affects everyone. The issue is with ground textures only loading in their very low-resolution versions rather than their more detailed ones. I was constantly needing to restart my game to get rid of this problem when I was experimenting with different visual filters to approximate the original's hazy look.

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Again, it never happened to me in 14h hours of play time and believe me, I'm a stickler for graphics/visuals. I always look around, I inspect everything and I took like 300 photos. I would have noticed.
I noticed it in a video of the guy who was hunting for the glowy coins though. I mentioned it in this thread too, but no one else noticed or bothered. As far as I know the guy was playing on a standard PS4.
Maybe cinematic mode, which I was using like 99% of the time, is just the most polished experience. I for example also noticed that in performance mode Agro's tail and mane physics, while being in full gallop, aren't fully working compared to cinematic mode, where tail and mane quickly flutter in the wind as they did in the PS2/PS3 original game.

Man, some of these colossi just flatout suck. I remember not loving a couple, but holy shit the 9th one sucks. You have to claw grip to keep aggro running with triangle while moving the camera, make sure he's EXACTLY on top of the geyser, and hope you don't run the horse into a wall while trying to lure the boss. After flipping him the first few times I kept falling off his shell too, which really really really sucks.

This game is a masterpiece in art, sound and atmosphere, but as a game it just isn't very fun sometimes.

I am also disappointed by the bugs and general I dunno what the right word is... inconsistency I guess of this version. For reference I am playing on a PS4. One time (well most of the time TBH) it can be great, riding Agro across beautiful landscapes or tussling with one of the best colossus encounters and yeah that's all well and amazing. But then there's also the disappointing pop-in that is still present, the controls and camera that despite improvements make some of the more difficult colossus fights quite irritating as well as a generally poor control system for Agro and the bow aiming in general. Then there are the times when certain Colossi will not do what you need them to do to proceed with the fight (getting 7 to resurface, I think it is either 11 or 12 that you need to lead towards a geyser that I had a hell of a time with and most recently for me 14 to crash into the pillars was very inconsistent) and the aggravating text & voice pop ups giving very vague and annoying 'advice' if you do not do the fights perfectly. Also there are a few 'fights' that are just bad or boring, the one where you need to hit its 'teeth' on its head as well as the first of the smaller duo. It is 'only' 2/3 that are actually bad but when there are only 16 total it is a prominent issue. Oh yeah and add to the litany of problems I have was when I fell through the map in no 14, I just got him to knock down the final pillar and I found myself falling through after the cutscene. Welp. And the overall change in art direction is something I'm not entirely won over by, the shadows looming over the Wanderer after each fight look kinda pathetic and of course the face of the MC being the 2 most notable problems here.

So yeah I adored the game on PS3 a few years back despite some of these issues and I still think similarly about this version, but it hasn't improved as much as I would've liked whilst it also introduced new problems. Still a great game to play through and at its best there are few games that can compare but I have a difficult time calling this a definitive edition really, considering the problems mentioned above.

Oh and I'm closing in on the penultimate colossus at less than 5 hours total playtime which is... interesting to say the least.

Tyaren said:

Again, it never happened to me in 14h hours of play time and believe me, I'm a stickler for graphics/visuals. I always look around, I inspect everything and I took like 300 photos. I would have noticed.
I noticed it in a video of the guy who was hunting for the glowy coins though. I mentioned it in this thread too, but no one else noticed or bothered. As far as I know the guy was playing on a standard PS4.
Maybe cinematic mode, which I was using like 99% of the time, is just the most polished experience. I for example also noticed that in performance mode Agro's tail and mane physics, while being in full gallop, aren't fully working compared to cinematic mode, where tail and mane quickly flutter in the wind as they did in the PS2/PS3 original game.

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I'm playing in Cinematic mode as well. Have been the entire time. Go into the Display settings and select a filter or something and then return to gameplay. Then position the camera above Wander looking down on him and note how low-res the ground textures are. That's the glitch.

I'm pretty sure it occurs after accessing the Display settings, but PS4 rest mode might also play a role. Not sure since I do both.

ScOULaris said:

I'm playing in Cinematic mode as well. Have been the entire time. Go into the Display settings and select a filter or something and then return to gameplay. Then position the camera above Wander looking down on him and note how low-res the ground textures are. That's the glitch.

I'm pretty sure it occurs after accessing the Display settings, but PS4 rest mode might also play a role. Not sure since I do both.

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I tried out different filters lots of times, no such glitch. I never use the PS4's rest mode though. So, maybe it is that?

Tyaren said:

I tried out different filters lots of times, no such glitch. I never use the PS4's rest mode though. So, maybe it is that?

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Hm, could be caused by rest mode. Wouldn't be the first time a game has had issues with rest mode on PS4. I've seen the issue in people's screenshots and on their streams, so it's definitely widespread and needs to be patched.

12 Collosi down. This game has MOMENTS. So many MOMENTS. Omg.

I played through the entire game in Cinematic mode over the course of a week - on a Pro with a 1080p TV - using rest mode every time I finished for the evening, and looking through the 180 pictures I took (I thought I really went to town with Photo Mode in Uncharted: Lost Legacy and Horizon: Zero Dawn, but this game is something else) I don't see that I ever had a problem with low-res ground textures. Or with any other bugs, for that matter.

I've seen videos of bugs other people had, so I know they're there, but given the age of YouTube, this version's flaws become instantly known literally from the moment of release. And of course many of the things people are listing as flaws - animations, lack of bloom lighting, controls, etc. - are choices, not bugs. I'm not really convinced the release version of this game, which hasn't yet received any meaningful patches, is much more buggy than, say, the PS3 version, or any other modern game. Bug-wise, of course, it can't be compared to the PS2 original, which came out at a time when games couldn't be patched post-release.

Just starting, what's the best filter?

I don't want it to look like the ps2 game, looking for something to make the colours pop.

IceDoesntHelp said:

Just starting, what's the best filter?

I don't want it to look like the ps2 game, looking for something to make the colours pop.

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There is already a lot more color and contrast in the remake without using filters, but if you want them to pop even more then I guess try the Vivid filter at less than 50% intensity.

I only used the filters in Photo Mode, not during gameplay, but no one filter worked best for the entire game. For photos I stuck primarily with Vibrant, Bright, Bold, and Faded, with occasional uses of Night, Emerald, Radiant, and Woodland, but every filter obscured details for some combination of lighting and effects; for each shot I cycled through filters to find the one or two that I thought worked best for that particular moment/angle.

ScOULaris said:

There is already a lot more color and contrast in the remake without using filters, but if you want them to pop even more then I guess try the Vivid filter at less than 50% intensity.

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Evane E said:

I only used the filters in Photo Mode, not during gameplay, but no one filter worked best for the entire game. For photos I stuck primarily with Vibrant, Bright, Bold, and Faded, with occasional uses of Night, Emerald, Radiant, and Woodland, but every filter obscured details for some combination of lighting and effects; for each shot I cycled through filters to find the one or two that I thought worked best for that particular moment/angle.

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Thanks guys. I thought I heard that a filter was the best option to go with for the game.

IceDoesntHelp said:

Thanks guys. I thought I heard that a filter was the best option to go with for the game.

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Oh, maybe Vivid wasn't one of them. I was thinking of either Vibrant or Bold. One or both of those increases the color saturation.

What was the shiny thing I picked up at the last guardian Easter egg location.


Sorry if that's considered spoilers.

ScOULaris said:

I'm pretty sure it occurs after accessing the Display settings, but PS4 rest mode might also play a role. Not sure since I do both.

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Thanks for mentioning this. I use rest mode occasionally but never made the connection with the display bug, I'll try to pay more attention to when it happens. I'd wondered if it had anything to do with length of play - which admittedly sounds dumb - but I've noticed a framerate issue after playing for extended periods. When I return to the tower after defeating a colossus, having played for a couple of hours, I find the framerate has dropped and is no longer a smooth 60fps, and it remains like that for a minute or so (I think; I usually take it as a sign to turn the PS4 off and do something more productive). This has happened a few times now but I've no idea what causes it.

Also, I went back and took a couple of shots of the watermelon for comparison.

Cinematic:

Performance:

Poop:

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IceDoesntHelp said:

What was the shiny thing I picked up at the

Spoiler

last guardian Easter egg location.

Sorry if that's considered spoilers.

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Spoiler tagged just in case.

Anyway, it's a gold coin or relic, and there are 79 of them to find. On the map there'll be a number in the bottom-left to indicate how many you've found. The reward is

so what's the official verdict on the filters? like what are the settings to make it look most like the original?

Rookhelm said:

On the PS2 original, I know I definitely ran into issues where I could never get stable footing on a colossus. He'd either shake over and over again, or just the slightest movement would cause me to slip. And eventually, lose the grip meter.

I remember the charging bull one, the one with the torch. Would ram me over and over again. And since Wander's recovery animation was so long, the colossi would ram me again before I could move.

Didn't happen to me on this version (anecdotal, and it's not to say the same thing couldn't happen, but it's my personal experience)

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This was not only the worst fight for me, but the buggiest.

The torch fell through the ground and I didn't know it (never played the game before), so I spent an hour trying to figure out how to beat the damn thing. Then I kept getting hit by the bull, wait 5 seconds for him to start getting back up, and then get rammed again. So, yeah you just got a better run than I did. It still happens lol. Also the camera kept wigging out and I couldn't focus on the action as it mindlessly spun around me at times.

Fahzzy said:

This was not only the worst fight for me, but the buggiest.

The torch fell through the ground and I didn't know it (never played the game before), so I spent an hour trying to figure out how to beat the damn thing. Then I kept getting hit by the bull, wait 5 seconds for him to start getting back up, and then get rammed again. So, yeah you just got a better run than I did. It still happens lol. Also the camera kept wigging out and I couldn't focus on the action as it mindlessly spun around me at times.

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Yep, the torch fell through the ground for me too. Another thing that never happened in the PS2/PS3 versions.

Hmmmmmm. Not sure if I'm getting bored of this. There is a lot to love but I've found the last couple of collossi to be a bit boring. And I've only done 7 I think. Last one I did was the water one and I got bored waiting for it to get into position and then slowly whittle it's health off and then it diving deep and having to let go and do it all over again.

Is lovely and majestic and looks glorious and its all very mysterious and intriguing but it's slowly losing me I fear. I'll keep playing though, maybe I just wasn't in the mood last night.

BarryFishFinger said:

Hmmmmmm. Not sure if I'm getting bored of this. There is a lot to love but I've found the last couple of collossi to be a bit boring. And I've only done 7 I think. Last one I did was the water one and I got bored waiting for it to get into position and then slowly whittle it's health off and then it diving deep and having to let go and do it all over again.

Is lovely and majestic and looks glorious and its all very mysterious and intriguing but it's slowly losing me I fear. I'll keep playing though, maybe I just wasn't in the mood last night.

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The PS3 version I felt the same. Took a week or two break and found it much less boring.

It can be a chore to tackle all at once, so I'd just take a week or so to get back into it
As much as I love the game it is rather repetitive.

Kind of weird that we're stuck to colossi now post kill. Weird change.

Did people know about Colossi 2 huge skip by triggering the cutscene from above his cave ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6EGoMCaa_A
4:30 into the vid lol

I have not had such trouble jumping than I have with Colossus 3.

Like I don't even recall it being as annoying in the ps3 remaster. I want to die.

MazeHaze said:

Man, some of these colossi just flatout suck. I remember not loving a couple, but holy shit the 9th one sucks. You have to claw grip to keep aggro running with triangle while moving the camera, make sure he's EXACTLY on top of the geyser, and hope you don't run the horse into a wall while trying to lure the boss. After flipping him the first few times I kept falling off his shell too, which really really really sucks.

This game is a masterpiece in art, sound and atmosphere, but as a game it just isn't very fun sometimes.

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Just don't ride the horse. All you have to do is run on the other side of the closest geyser, shoot an arrow to make sure it's following you, dodge fireballs, flip it.

IceDoesntHelp said:

I have not had such trouble jumping than I have with Colossus 3.

Like I don't even recall it being as annoying in the ps3 remaster. I want to die.

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It's so annoying. I keep rolling off while running up the sword which never happened. And they seem to have added a buffer to when the grab button works, disabling it after a roll so you're less likely to grab a ledge or tuft of hair until after several frames. I mean, we have a grip meter, we don't need another handicap. Something like that would be great for auto-hold games maybe.

MoonsaultSlayer said:

Kind of weird that we're stuck to colossi now post kill. Weird change.

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Well I was just proven wrong on #5... wtf?

MoonsaultSlayer said:

Kind of weird that we're stuck to colossi now post kill. Weird change.

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Yup it looks horrible. For a game with such a nice look, this pulls me out of the experience quite a bit lol

I hate hate hate that the camera keeps wanting to auto center. Drives me fucking crazy.

UnluckyKate said:

Did people know about Colossi 2 huge skip by triggering the cutscene from above his cave ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6EGoMCaa_A
4:30 into the vid lol

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Holy shit. The new geometry in that area allows to active the Colossus trigger from above. I wonder if Bluepoint will patch this?

Um, what the FUCK. I played through Normal, completed Normal Time Attack. Then I played through Hard and am now playing through Hard Time Attack, but none of my items unlocked in Normal Time Attack are accessible in this New Game+. Am I going to have to start a New Game+ from my Normal save, play all the way through Hard again, and then do hard time attack just to have all of my unlocked items together?!

What the FUUUCK?

guys quick question. In your honest opinion, is the Special Edition worth it?

krg said:

guys quick question. In your honest opinion, is the Special Edition worth it?

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Honestly, not really. On one hand it's not much more expensive than standard, but it doesn't add all that much. The manual is just whatever, and the physical world map is small and printed on glossy paper. The steelbook is pretty nice, though, so if you're into that then an extra $10 might be justified.

ScOULaris said:

Um, what the FUCK. I played through Normal, completed Normal Time Attack. Then I played through Hard and am now playing through Hard Time Attack, but none of my items unlocked in Normal Time Attack are accessible in this New Game+. Am I going to have to start a New Game+ from my Normal save, play all the way through Hard again, and then do hard time attack just to have all of my unlocked items together?!

What the FUUUCK?

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You only need to complete the game once on any difficulty to unlock time attack on all difficulties in new game +.

I finished the game on easy (for image unlocks), started new game + using the easy complete save & chose normal difficulty. Then I completed all normal time attacks, picked up the items as they were earned & manually saved after each one. I did not complete any of the game outside time attacks.

I then quit to main menu & started new game + using my normal + save & chose hard difficulty. Completed all time attacks on hard, picked up the items as they were earned & manually saved after each one & the trophy popped when I claimed the last item.

So I've only completed 1 full playthrough on easy but I've completed all normal & hard time attacks on 1 save file.


So in your case I'd start new game + using your normal time attack completed save, choose hard difficulty and go straight for the hard time attacks, you'll have all the standard time attack items unlocked immediately.

Got bored after the 5th collosus, might get back into it one day.

Mob said:

You only need to complete the game once on any difficulty to unlock time attack on all difficulties in new game +.

I finished the game on easy (for image unlocks), started new game + using the easy complete save & chose normal difficulty. Then I completed all normal time attacks, picked up the items as they were earned & manually saved after each one. I did not complete any of the game outside time attacks.

I then quit to main menu & started new game + using my normal + save & chose hard difficulty. Completed all time attacks on hard, picked up the items as they were earned & manually saved after each one & the trophy popped when I claimed the last item.

So I've only completed 1 full playthrough on easy but I've completed all normal & hard time attacks on 1 save file.


So in your case I'd start new game + using your normal time attack completed save, choose hard difficulty and go straight for the hard time attacks, you'll have all the standard time attack items unlocked immediately.

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Yeah, that's what I ended up doing. I guess I played through Hard Mode on a completely new game for no reason, but oh well. Wish I would've known that before.

Upon further examination I've determined that the low-res texture glitch is in fact caused by resuming from Rest Mode. Every single time I wake my PS4 from rest mode and resume playing SotC the textures remain low-res until I fully close and relaunch the game. This is very annoying and needs to be patched.

Hi, I just started and I have a very very important question.

How do I pet Agro with the modern controls? It should be unequip sword and square, but Wander just keeps hitting Agro with his sword :(

This is very important—I used to spend like, 10 minutes at a time just riding Agro and petting her in the original game :(

Edit: oh thank god, I figured it out. Petting Agro for the next ten minutes! <3

really quick question