![]() Although some can be intimidatingly large, the sixteen colossi you come across take up a surprisingly low percentage of the vast expanses within the Forbidden Lands. There’s not a single place within the Forbidden Lands that is inaccessible for exploration. In a game where you’re tasked with killing sixteen primordial beings harboring the essence of an imprisoned entity, some of which are ridiculously large, it can seem easy to consider its main objective as gratuitous to some degree, but it’s in the moments between the player’s encounters with the colossi that negate all manner of gratuity. Ueda’s masterful understanding of this concept shines not only through the game’s narrative but also through the manner in which the player plays. Be it enjoying the steady coalescence of rain pouring into the ocean or the cackle of a fire, it’s these moments of negative space that lend power to the story’s greater developments, something “Colossus” absolutely thrives upon. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.” In Miyazaki’s films, we’re often treated to moments where characters are doing nothing. But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness. After clapping his hands several times, Miyazaki said, “The time in between my clapping is ma. In an interview with Roger Ebert, co-founder of Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki discussed the superlative nature of allowing concepts to breathe. Ma is not just mastery of what little there is to see and hear, it’s also a mastery of negative spaces. The narrative components are weaved not by what is said, but rather by what isn’t. What little we’re told becomes a form within a sprawling formless canvas, the emptiness of which only highlights what little there is to know. When told that killing sixteen colossi is the only way for Mono to regain her life and that it will exact upon Wander a deathly price, he simply states that “it doesn’t matter.” It’s these narrative beats that lend credence to the implementation of ma. When Wander places Mono on a stone slab within the mammoth structural improbability known as the Shrine of Worship, he bargains with the entity Dormin for the girl’s life. It’s also never explained why her fate was considered cursed. The player is not told why the lands they enter are forbidden, nor why Wander is willing to go to such great lengths to reclaim the life of the woman he carries. And, as its name suggests, Lord Emon concludes his brief monologue by stating that entering the Forbidden Lands is strictly prohibited. He quickly explains that the Forbidden Lands are an archaic place not fully understood by human beings, where legend suggests that the dead can be brought back to life. ![]() ![]() ![]() There is nothing spoken as the game’s main character Wander makes his great journey to the Forbidden Lands to resurrect a girl by the name of Mono, who had previously been sacrificed because of her “cursed fate.” After showing Wander travel beyond treacherous cliffside passages, lavish forests and other murky terrains, we hear the voice of Lord Emon, a spiritual leader from Wander’s home. From the game’s opening, “ Colossus” refuses to bombard the player with exposition, and continuously withholds itself from convoluting the narrative with unnecessary dialogue.
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