Overcoming Challenging Game Narrative through Cinematic Language – Shadow of the Colossus

One of the greatest challenges when it comes to the narrative is figuring out on how to impress the audience effectively as early as possible – these can be the first paragraph of a book or the first cut of a film, and video games are no exception. Throughout the history of video games, we have witnessed all kinds of approaches in intro sequences and cinematics, but out there are only a few intro sequences that have been able to translate its theme through cinematic language, and one of them is the opening cinematics of Shadow of the Colossus.

Hi, my name is eddy, welcome to Angkasa Studio, and this is Critical Breakdown.

Compared to other forms of entertainment, the challenge to video games when it comes to making an intro is presenting both the core themes of its narrative and showcasing the gameplay mechanics at the same time. The usual approach is often to just give the players control to the character as soon as possible. We see this done repeatedly in most modern videogames – the players will often be transported into the climax of a story and placed in the middle of a battle. The same approach is also been done in cinema, a narrative approach that is called In Medias Res. But such an approach doesn’t necessarily become the optimal solution for most video games either, and it certainly won’t easily fit in with the themes of Shadow. But why?

Why In Medias Res won’t work

If you haven’t experienced Shadow of the Colossus before, Shadow tells a story of a young man who traveled to the edge of the world, in order to look for a being that could resurrect a young woman who has been sacrificed for having a cursed fate. The gameplay revolves in the player traveling back and forth within the edge of the world - to search and slay 16 extraordinary colossi.

While the game is classified as an action-adventure, it features a very isolated tone as the only thing that explores the forbidden land is you and your trusted steed agro. There are no lesser enemies, no additional quests to keep you busy; there is only you and the colossus. So, starting the game in the midst of the battle sequence would defeat the mechanics of the game as it heavily relies on the thrill of discovery, exploration, and puzzle solving during boss fights. So now the whole theme, mechanic, and tone of the game is set in stone, what are the best approach when it comes to introducing new players to the game

Translating Gameplay Themes into Cinema Language

Most of you might have heard praises about the opening sequence of Shadow, often described as “The game intro that you should never skip” as it was able to capture the feeling of solitude through the use of music, environmental design, and most specifically the one where we are going to talk about here which is cinematic language.

Cinematic language is a method for which motion pictures communicate with the viewer. It’s the tone of color in the overall movie that gives the feeling of dread or excitement or even artificial such as the Matrix. The use of lighting to either guide the eyes of the viewer or illuminates a scene to evoke certain emotions. Camera angles would translate to the viewers to either empower, weakened, intimidate, it puts the viewers to the shoes of the characters in the scene. An intricate mixture of all these compositions would work together to create what most filmmakers called Mies En Scene, pardon my French.

But there is one particular cinematic language that is being expertly used in the opening sequence of shadow, and that is the Lateral Movement of both the character and the camera. In motion pictures, characters in the frame will often be directed to either move to the left or to the right. But do not misunderstand this for something that is being done consciously by the character. A director will decide the lateral movement of a character based on a multitude of reasons. But why do lateral movements matter?

Mostly it is psychological. In most cultures, especially in the west moving from left to right is often considered as a form of progression. This originates from literature. Although this effect is in reverse considering some cultures in the east read letters in a different order. Overall, it is inherently used to convey either a positive or negative effect. Characters moving from left to right would convey that he is developing positively, he is heading to the right direction, or he is going to do something that is good for him and everyone around him – overall it’ll lead to generally something good.

The intro sequence of Shadow, however, has chosen to fully feature a lateral movement from right to left. These movements are made consistent from the beginning and until he reached the gates to the Forbidden Land. What does this lateral movement convey in the context of Shadow?

In this context, the main character is inherently heading to his own downfall. As discussed in my previous video, the game features an epic tragedy in its themes. By heading to the forbidden land he is about to conduct a ritual that is prohibited in nature, which is resurrecting the young woman who was sacrificed by killing 16 majestic creatures, which will also release an ancient entity from imprisonment.

By the end of the journey, he was condemned by his people and presumably forever trapped in the forbidden land.

While it can be argued that this lateral movement may be due to Team Ico being Japanese developer was influenced by their right to left style of writing and reading, note that Shadow of the Colossus was developed first and foremost for an international release. It even features an artificial language just to disassociate it from any existing culture.

On top of that, the main character is heading to a location where no one was supposed to, the location of the Forbidden Land itself, which was located “at the edge of the world” is further solidified through the use of correct lateral movement.

The map features a geographical landscape located at a southern region of a continent, conveying its isolation and being the edge of the world. Just like right and left, north and south or top and bottom also affected us psychologically through the means of progress and regress. Let us experiment by mirroring both the intro sequence and map design to convey the feeling of progression and positivity.

From here you can see that it is notable how the feeling and tone have switched. It feels like a totally different sequence altogether. The intro sequence now feels like the character is on a progressive, honorable journey, and the look of the map coveys goals that are desirable. It is now comparable to many other maps in video games- especially action adventures and RPG’s, most of them would feature characters starting out from south towards the north, or having the final location be discovered or explored located due north.

In addition to the lateral movement, the use of color is also cleverly used during the opening and throughout the duration of the game. As colors communicate themes, the blue-tinted night-time of the intro and the overall washed out colors solidifies the world building of being in fantasy from an ancient time.

The camera placement is also commendable, as early on it flew and slowly hover, placing the viewer as a passive observant to these characters. While I am unsure of the type of game engine that is being used in this game, most engines would be able to simulate camera lenses of the real world. Here we can see the game made good use of wide angle lenses, keeping both the characters and the environment in focus, these shots showcase the complete isolation of the character as the character traveled further towards the Forbidden Land. In a brief moment when the character stops for a rest, the camera went static and this particular scene is shot with a long lens, keeping the character and his destination much closer in the frame.

Once the character has finally reached his destination, the camera slowly disconnects from the subject and the Forbidden Land slowly dwarfs and enveloped the character with its massive landscape. These are just a short summary of a topic in cinematography that I have made in a previous video, if you are interested you can find the link to the video down below.

Overall, we have witnessed how the proper use of cinema language would be able to not only convey the motivations of your character, but it can also be used to solidify the tone and overall theme of your story.