Shadow of the Colossus: Frictional Movement
Condensed Crit 08: Shadow of the Colossus
It wasn’t until I started playing Shadow of the Colossus that I really gave thought to the function of movement in video games. Implausible speed and impossible jumps are part and parcel of the video game experience. Movements are executed with an inhuman grace and stamina whether the player character is human or not.
But movement in Shadow of the Colossus isn’t graceful or effortless, even in the 2018 version of the game. The player character, a human named Wander, is prone to stumbling and inelegantly flings his body into the air every time he jumps. He teeters at the edge of a precipice and takes a moment or two to stand again when a colossus knocks him down. And unlike The Witcher 3 or Breath of the Wild, where horses will naturally follow a road, Wander’s horse Agro requires some finesse and attention to avoid running headlong into obstacles.
In short: the player navigates Wander through the world in a way that feels particularly human. Finding and defeating all sixteen colossi is a difficult and at times frustrating objective that’s often worsened by the clumsy controls. It’s both interesting and telling, I think, that the controls weren’t fine-tuned to the glossy, ethereal standard of most open world games, because this style of movement introduces friction as a central mechanic and theme.
Even before the player — and Wander — understand that the colossi exist to keep an ancient entity named Dormin at bay and destroying them will resurrect it, the world resists Wander’s presence. He has to fight, and fight hard for each victory, clinging to each colossus and patiently attacking its weak points. That resistance makes traversing the Forbidden Lands truly feel like a transgression, and even early on it made me question both Wander and Dormin’s motives.
Would Shadow of the Colossus be the same game if it gave players fluidity and flashy combos? I don’t think it would. The mechanics and storytelling are so minimal that each design choice lends itself to narrative interpretation. It matters that Wander stumbles. The innate humanness of his actions emphasizes a sense of scale in the world that only underscores the magnitude of Wander’s task.
Although the clumsy controls add a layer of frustration to the game, what they add to the narrative contributes to an even more meaningful gameplay experience. Shadow of the Colossus could be another epic story about a fated hero, but it isn’t. Instead, it’s a story about an ordinary human struggling to do extraordinary things. The movement in the game reinforces the struggle at a mechanical level to highlight the inevitable and tragic cost Wander pays to save his friend.
