[TtTackler]

Originally Posted by merylsilverburg

I just finished the game...I love the game, I love the graphics, the battles, the strategy, the music, and the story...but may I say that the ending is one of the worst I've seen in a long time while, at the same time, somewhat pretty good. Let me explain:

Spoiler: show

What the hell was that ending?! Okay, the good part about the end was that the game explained ICO and why ICO has horns (because the boy in "Colossus" is actually ICO because of the rebirth-with-horns thing) and all that. But oh my God. How tragic was this ending? The guy busts his butt to bring his lover back to life, treks through and battles 16 pretty tough colossuses, then woohoo, dies, and gets reborn. Wow, what a life. You'd think that devil guy, whatever his name was, would allow the boy to live, after all, he did live up to the end of the bargain (kill the colossuses). The ending I would've preferred would've been that the boy comes back to life but has horns on his head (part of the evil stuff he can't get rid of). He and his lover and Agro goes away, then the boy and his lover have a kid who has horns...thus being the ICO we know. NOT the boy becoming ICO, geez.

There you have it. That's my gripe...which is a pretty serious considering how much I loved the game. Such a shame.

That's what makes the ending so GREAT. First off...

Spoiler: show

The developer's say that ICO and SotC are no way related. But they put subtle things that allows the player to make assumptions of how the two games can be connected. I've read interesting theories of how the Queen in ICO is actually Mono [the girl in SotC], how the Wanderer is the first in a line of horn children. A great ending is one that makes people discuss and think of all the possibilities, in my opinion. Which is another reason why I love the Metal Gear Solid series so damn much..

Secondly, the tragic ending is great, I can not recall any other video game with an ending so tragic. It's like straight out of Shakespear, pure genius. And even after all that happens, it ends on such a peaceful note when they find the deer in the secret garden and the birds begin to gather.

They did a magnificant job with the ending, whereas in the beginning of the game it just seemed like an easy excuse to give the player a reason to kill giant things, they make the story much more epic and meaningful in the end to match the grand scale of the battles you just fought.