Shadow of the Colossus

In this artsy PS2 adventure, a young man bargains with a mysterious entity to return a girl from the dead.

Unused Areas
The world map in Shadow of the Colossus is divided up into 81 squares, categorized into an alphabetic grid. The map is bigger than it needs to be, however, as the developers initially planned to include 24 Colossi (pared down from a conceptual 48) and their respective arenas. As such, not every square is legitimately accessible to Wander in the final game, and some of these inaccessible areas are covered up by clouds on the map display. A few of the squares still contain early collision data, textures, and models that were never completed.

The Invisible Lands


A number of the inaccessible squares are empty, save for collision data. One example is quadrant H8. Almost all of this square is solid and walkable. Wander can run around the entire area, but will freeze when he ventures too far south. The elevation is much lower than the ground level (-121 metres) of the used quadrants, sitting at the surface of the ocean. In the northeast corner of the quadrant, a large blue triangle and a floating mountain can still be seen.



J8 - another blue square this time with 16 odd blue triangles at its far east side. These blue squares have no collision detection (unlike D8 and H8) and are surrounded by freeze barriers, that is if Wander ventures too close he will freeze but the camera is still moveable.

Unfinished Mountains


The blue squares on the map indicate quadrants which contain unfinished mountains.



Untextured terrain at A3.



These mountains are found at I8.



The unfinished mountains at J6 - J7.

The Dam


The most notable piece of unused architecture in Shadow of the Colossus. This impressive structure is situated at I2 on the world map, a leftover from the larger world map that was originally planned to house 24 Colossi. It lacks collision data.



Standing on the bridge of the dam, to give a sense of scale.



A wider shot depicting the architecture connected to the dam area, including the cave (on the left) and brick ruins (on the right) mentioned below.

The Cave


Nearby the dam floats a rocky mountain with a hole that resembles a cave entrance.

Brick Ruins


Just north of the dam is a small strip of grass that ends with some unique orange brick structures perched on a cliff. Their architecture is similar to the Gondola level in Ico. The grass strip ends at the boundary of I2 but would have continued west into H2 if it had been finished. It may have been possible to travel to this area from Colossus 15's lair, which is located just one map square away at H3. The cloudless world map in the Preview version of the game even appears to depict a path leading from the back of 15's lair to this area.

Hidden File Names
The map files associated with each Colossus arena, never seen by the player, indicate the developers' nicknames for these areas.

Ico Leftovers
A number of textures from Ico, the predecessor to Shadow of the Colossus, exist within the game.



Texture Name: Arms_icon_ico_sword_s



Texture Name: Windmill



Texture Name: Icob_toothD01



Texture Name: Icob_eye02



Texture Name: Icog_fuku22

"Fuku" translates to "clothing".



Texture Name: Icog_facft05_36



Object Name: Water melon

Worm


A texture named "Boss_worm" is one of the only remnants of the Colossus known as Worm, one of the 24 original Colossi.



The left side of this texture, used for Colossus 13's Shrine of Worship idol, is never seen. It depicts the unused Colossus Worm.

Sirius


A texture known as "sz hn sirius hifu07 f" is all that remains of the Colossus known as Sirius, one of 24 original Colossi. "Hifu" translates to "skin".

Colossus 3 (Knight)
The colossus’s sword shall be thy path…

Colossus 5 (Bird)
Use thy sword to find its vitals…

Colossus 7 (Eel)
Grab on to the colossus’s tail…

Sever the power of the radiating horn at its root…

Colossus 8 (Gecko)
Draw it out to higher ground…

Colossus 10 (Snake)
Aim for its eyes…

Colossus 12 (Poseidon)
Cross to higher ground…

Colossus 14 (Cerberus)
Climb from where the colossus and the earth are connected…

It cannot pursue thee at the top of the tower. Proceed forward…

Colossus 16 (Evis)
Climb higher from that place…

The Ending
All is normal.

This line appears nowhere in the final game. While the tone of the Japanese line indicates that it is spoken by one of the soldiers, none of Emon’s men have any voice acting other than an occasional “Ho!”, presumably translating to “Yes!”, in response to his commands. The only exception is one soldier saying “Lord Emon!”, as seen further down in this article. However, in the ending cutscene of an unfinished preview version of Shadow of the Colossus, a demo of the game released in an incomplete form, one of the soldiers speaks when Emon and his men arrive at the Shrine of Worship. This voice clip does not appear in the final game, and, as you can see, the line has no subtitles even in the Preview version. It’s possible that the voice clip corresponds to this unused line. Perhaps the soldier did not detect anything unusual upon first arriving at the shrine and thus reported “All is normal.”

The idols have been destroyed!

Emon originally exclaimed this in despair upon entering the temple.

You used a forbidden spell!

Emon accuses wander of treachery.

Look…

This line was originally supposed to precede a line that does appear in the game, when Emon instructs his solders to behold Wander: "Look… He’s possessed by the dead."

Pitiful mortals…

Dormin addresses the humans.

and encased Us in stone monuments

Original text from the retail versions

Lord Emon!

No...

The idols have been destroyed!

I don't believe this...

So it was you after all.

Have you any idea what you've done?!

Not only did you steal the sword and trespass upon this cursed land, you destroyed the idols as well...

To be reduced to such a sight...

You were only being used.

He's no longer human...

Eradicate the source of the evil.

Look... He's possessed by the dead.

Hurry up and do it!

It's better to put him out of his misery than to exist, cursed as he is

Pitiful mortals...

Thou severed Our body into sixteen segments and encased Us in stone monuments

for an eternity in order to seal away Our power...

We have borrowed the body of this warrior...

We, Dormin, have arisen anew...

He's been resurrected...!

Place a seal over the entire shrine before it's too late!

Ready my horse.

Be gone foul beast!

Poor ungodly soul...

Now, no man shall ever- trespass upon this place again.

Should you be alive...

If it's even possible to continue to exist in these sealed lands...

one day, perhaps you will make atonement for what you've done.

Unseen Models
The giant colossal tree that can be seen above the south entrance of colossus #10's cave is devoid of leaves and looks like something from a horror movie. This large imposing tree dominates the landscape right above the 'Lair on the Mesa' save shrine at B2 on the world map. One of the larger hawks can be found in this area as well.

But it seems that it once had leaves and was planned to be a 'living' tree rather than a dead tree. In the opening cut scene model the tree appears as a low res model covered with green leaves. In the demo versions of the game it's possible (via hacking) to reach the tree which again is a low res model with leaves.

In the Preview version there is some extra land behind the west side cliffs next to the tree that feature what look like vines that lead up to the giant dead tree. Perhaps at one time it was planned for Wander to climb these vines to reach the dead tree?

Unused Items
Two unused items can still be found within the game's code.

Mask of the Titans


The Mask of the Titans is a fourth mask item that would have been used to enhance the damage Wander dealt to Colossi. Unused text related to this item is also present.

That is the “Mask of the Titans”…

By wearing it, thou shalt gain the power to inflict deeper wounds upon a colossus…

Eye of the Colossus


The Eye of the Colossus is an item that, while semi-functional in the Preview version, was removed from the final game. It allows players to witness battles through the eyes of the Colossus they are fighting. It is, however, buggy and unfinished. Two pieces of unused text describing the item also remain within the game.

That is the “Eye of the Colossus”…

By using it near a colossus, thou shalt be able to see what the colossus sees…

This item is activated by pressing R3 on the controller. Pikol discovered this by accident in March 2010. It works well for some of the colossi such as colossus #1, #4, #5, #6, #13 and #15 but for others it is clearly unfinished as when the colossi move the camera sinks down into their bodies then back out again. You have to be near the colossus to activate it and when the colossus moves out of range you will hear a low 'beep' sound when you press R3 indicating the colossus is out of range. It has no function at all with colossus #3 but why is a mystery.

You can even activate the Eye of the Colossus before the colossus is activated (again if you can get close enough). You see a single stationary frame of what the colossus sees and then watch it come to life from its point of view. There is no camera control while using the item but you can zoom in and out with R2.

Another cool feature is you can activate the Eye of the Colossus when the colossus is dying, so you can watch it fall to its death from its point of view. By pressing R3 again you can watch the death scene from Wander's point of view to get a unique perspective instead of the usual in game death scenes. You have full control of Wander as the colossus is dying unlike in the normal death scenes where Wander is locked.

Leo's Stick
This is the only extra item you receive in the game. Wander starts with a bow and arrow and his magical sword but can pick up no other items in the game that he can use, apart from the stick. The stick is obtained in the battle with colossus #11, the bull type colossus that fears the flames found in the underground temple at F1 on the world map.

You use the stick to frighten the colossus off a cliff after lighting it at one of the fire pedestals (or braziers). The fall from the cliff will break off the colossi's back armour allowing you to jump on and stab its weak spot to defeat it. There are actually four sticks in the game that can be found floating under the temple until activated (when the colossus rams one of the fire pedestals). You can take the stick and leave the arena and can keep it indefinitely until you drop it, at which point it will disappear (unload).When you return to the temple another stick can be obtained in the same way. In fact you need only leave the temple and drop the stick then return to obtain another stick.

In Normal mode you can produce the stick by shooting an exploding arrow at one of the fire pedestals. You can even do this from far away, standing on the cliffs surrounding the canyon. By doing this, you can retrieve the stick and light it before you start the battle with the colossus, making things much easier for Wander. Getting the stick in normal play can be difficult as you only have a few seconds to pick it up while the colossus is dazed after ramming the fire pedestal.

There is also a unique glitch associated with the stick. If you are holding the stick and save the game, Wander will still be holding it when you restart the game but you will see Wander's sword icon in your inventory. You can only light the stick during the battle with colossus #11, at any other time the stick will not light.

There are also columns topped with fire at the 8th colossus arena, but these fires will not light the stick.

Unused Music
An unused music track exists within the game. It seems to be an alternate theme for Violent Encounter but unlike the rest of the game's music, it is not orchestrated.

Unused Battle Track