Shadow of the Colossusis about a wanderer who has entered an ancient land in a desperate attempt to resurrect someone close to him. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to hunt down and defeat 16 ancient, massive colossi that are scattered throughout the land. The Wanderer accomplishes this through a clever mix of platforming and action, although the task is certainly anything but easy. Each colossus is unique, with its own mannerisms, techniques, environment, and more that must be considered, but Gaius the Knight takes marks the first real challenge players will face in the game and sets the tone for the rest of the fights better than either of the first two colossi.
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Gaius The Knight
Gaius the Knight is a massive, bipedal colossus and the third one faced in the game. While he isn’t necessarily more challenging than the other colossi, he is certainly the first major roadblock that many new players hit. The first two colossi, Valus the Minotaur and the Mammoth, are relatively easy compared to the rest of the game and serve more as tutorials or introductions to the systems and enemies of the world. By contrast, Gaius seems toscale the difficulty from 1 to 10 incredibly fastdue to a number of things.
The first step inkilling any of the colossi inShadow of the Colossusis finding them. Luckily for the Wanderer (and the player), he has a magic sword which reflects light in the direction of the next colossus. Getting to the arena on which the player faces Gaius is a challenge of its own, but with practice the platforming is definitely achievable. Then there is the actual fight. Gaius is one of the few colossus that carries a weapon, and he uses his giant stone sword (which is really more like a club) to try and crush the player.
To make matters worse, Gaius can’t be scaled as easily as the previous two beasts either, as there are protective pieces of armor blockingthe Wandererfrom going up his arms. to get past these cuffs, the Wanderer must find a way to break the cuffs by coercing the colossus to slam the sword into the middle of the field onto a massive stone platform. This task, while not impossible, proves difficult as Gaius is not very cooperative. All of this must be done before even getting on the beast and attempting to find its weak points.
Once on board the colossus, Gaius flails violently, forcing the Wanderer to spend almost as much time bracing as he does traversing. Finding the weak points isn’t a particularly challenging task, but getting to them requires much more skill and precision than any challenge faced up until this point. This is a battle which can’t be won without thinking and taking time to analyze the situation. So while Gaius the Knight may not bethe hardest colossus inShadow of the Colossus, he is certainly the first real challenge that players face relative to the rest of the game’s difficulty.
