Topic: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus collection

Has anyone played these games? I heard that Ico, and not, as I previously thought, SOTC was Miyazaki's influence for becoming a Game Designer. What do you reckon of these games, if you've played and/or beaten them? Is there any storytelling similarity between Dark Souls and Ico? I hear they both use a sparse form of storytelling.

Ico is one of my favourite ever.
No HUD, no map, just your character, a magic landscape with ambient puzzles, enemies who want to kidnapp your beloved Yorda; all having just a wooden stick in one hand while with the other you hold Yorda's hand.
And she speaks a language you don't even understand!
That collection is worthy even for ICO alone, but SOTC is great too with its impressive bosses.
Mix the 2 games, add Miyazaky, shake and you get Dark Souls.

EDIT: love how ICO is my first memory of a modern game that made the "no hand holding" a precious feature of the gameplay while you actually have to hold someone else's hand!

Shadow of the Colossus is excellent. It does use a sparse form of storytelling, and gives you all the information you need to know in a minimalist way. The gameplay involves heading to the locations of each of the colossi, and then engaging in epic battles between those humongous bosses. The battles also have a puzzle-like feel to them, as you need to figure out how to reach the colossi's weak points.

Ico is also great. Andreoni79 has covered that one perfectly in their description.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Two of my very favorite classic games. If you play them, then I would recommend the Shadow of the Colossus Ramake by Bluepoint Studios on PS4 due to the drastically superior graphics and a few quality of life improvements in mechanics, but it’s basically the exact same game as the original PS2 version in all major aspects. Ico, of course isn’t on PS4, so you’ll have to play the original PS2 or the PS3 remaster. The PS3 remasters are just up-res versions, and actually minimal improvement over the PS2 versions which were already stunning in their original state for the dated PS2.

The next piece of Ueda’s game development is The Last Guardian on PS4, so pick that up if you like these others, although my personal opinion is that it’s the weakest of the trilogy. Others feel differently though.

Don’t be expecting Dark Souls combat. I didn’t know that Miyazaki was inspired by Ueda’s work, but now that you say that, I can see the dark fantasy and understated storytelling style is similar. That, and in the case of SotC, the epic boss battles. But like @crimsontadpoles mentioned, the battle with each Colossi are more like giant puzzles to figure out how to take them down, rather than a lot of skill based timing and dodging like a Soulsborne. I just want to make sure you’re not expecting a real heavy action type game. Quite the opposite, Ueda games are quite slow paced and introspective with a lot of exploration.