quote Gyrobic

Heres some info courtesy of IGN.

quote IGN

The story of Wanda to Kyozou centers on a young main character in an ancient land. The story begins with the young hero placing the lifeless body of a young girl who's lost her soul onto his horse. The trio continues to travel for many nights. Upon clearing a great wall, they come to a giant bridge and, crossing the bridge, they come to a large shrine.

Heading down a flight of stairs into the shrine, the main character sees before him a great field that seems to have no bounds. He places the girl's body on the shrine's altar and hears, along with the surrounding thunder, a voice from above revealing the way to revive the girl. He learns that he must defeat the giant beasts who reside in the land. Once they've been defeated, the girl will awaken.

As with Ico, the world across which the hero will adventure is a lonely one. There is no one in the world but he and his horse. The two have one thing tying them together, though -- thoughts of the girl. The main character has a special place in his heart for the girl, although the relationship isn't clear from the start of the game.

So what exactly are those giant creatures that the main character has to defeat? One can translate their Japanese name, "Kyozou," as "Colossus," which is the source for our hasty English translation of the game's Japanese title. The Colossus creatures are living creatures who were sealed away in the ancient land. They take many forms, examples being humanoid and bird. Their abilities change depending on form, with some creatures being smart and others being fast. Players will have to change their strategy in order to deal with the creature at hand.

The Colossus creatures come to life once the player has touched them. By pushing the R1 button, the player can cling to the giant. The player must climb the creature in order to find a weak point and attack it using the attack button.

One example, shown in a video demonstration of the game, has the main character facing off against a sword-bearing colossus. The creature thrusts its sword down into the ground, giving the main character a chance to climb up the sword, make his way to the creature's head and strike. This isn't as simple as it sounds, as once the character has latched onto the creature, the ride becomes a bit bumpy.

Finding the weak spots on the giants and getting into a position to attack them seems to be the focus of the Wanda and Colossus, with the sword-wielding giant being one of the more simple examples. Figuring out how to climb up the creatures will involve some puzzle solving, as climbing the creatures is somewhat like working your way through a maze, with some areas allowing for progression and others blocking you off. On some creatures, attacking a certain area will change the layout of the maze, allowing players to progress to the creature's weak point.


The choice of pairing the player with a horse for Wanda to Kyozou was an intentional one, according to Ueda. "The horse is like Ico's Yorda," comments Ueda, referring to the girl character who accompanies the main character on his adventures in Ico. "In addition to being the main character's companion, he has a supporting role in battle." Faster creatures will require that you chase them down and attack on horseback.

As a further example of the horse's role, Ueda states that the horse is a wise creature and will help players by following paths and avoiding obstacles. "In this way," says Uedo, "it's a good, semi-automatic ride. Players can focus all their power on the battle." Plus, according to Uedo, the image of the main character on a horse is just more impressive than that of the main character by himself.

Obviously, this game is, regardless of how far you stretch your imagination, not a sequel Ico. Kaido justified his team's decision to not make a sequel to the much loved game, stating, "When we finished Ico (the Japanese version), we of course had to think about our next production. Normally, there would be talk of a sequel, but here, there was some opposition to that, along the lines of Ico being more than complete both in terms of gameplay and story, thus making production of a sequel very difficult, and also questions about whether users actually wanted a sequel. After much consideration, we decided to try a new game."

Ueda himself made some comments, offering "We spent a long time -- four years -- making Ico, and we think that it was a very quiet game where the main character experienced an adventure while communicating with a girl in a closed environment. This wasn't as a reaction or anything, but we wanted to make something a bit more flashy [with Wanda to Kyozou]." Uedo also explains that he wanted to try something that has an element of players putting themselves in the game.

Production on Wanda to Kyozou began immediately after the Japanese version of Ico was released. Touching on the initial stage of development, Kaido explains, "As a first step in making a game, just as we did with Ico, we made a movie which captured what kind of game it would be, what kind of world and outlook on the world it would have." Apparently, this sort of practice is to give the game's development team an image of the game at hand as they work, but, explains Kaido, "Our goal was to make the movie with an extremely final form, and because the video is very complete, we were able to use it as a guide to our final target while making the game."

Kaido goes on to explain that the pilot movie was made using the Ico game engine, running in real time on the PS2, allowing the team to get an idea of what they could do on the PS2. As development progressed, the visuals changed, but the core areas of "fighting a giant enemy" and "giant field" didn't change what so ever.

Judging by the few images of Wanda to Kozou that have been revealed so far, it's clear that Uedo, Kaido and their team have gotten the giant enemy and giant field parts of the game down perfectly. Add to that the subtle visual presentation that reminds one of Ico, and you have a game that's making the whole IGN staff want to be at the Tokyo Game Show later this month to see more. Stay tuned to IGNPS2 on 9/24.

I personally would of loved a direct sequel, maybe if it were a direct sequel instead of the queen you'd be going up against the king. I guess I'm just talking crazy. Well at least it looks like they made a good choice by not making a direct sequel. I apologize if this was already posted.

Link-------> Wanda to Kyokzou Info