Towering

The huge tower at the centre of the landscape in SOTC houses, at the midpoint a secret garden. If you’ve ever completed the game itself and watched the closing credits you will have seen the girl and Agro transcending the stairs to the garden. This garden is reachable by Wander but to access it is a challenge of patience, skill and persistence.

When you start the game afresh your stamina is too low to hang onto any surface for more than 30 seconds, indeed to climb the walls of the tower to reach the garden requires more stamina than you start with. The only way to do this is to collect the white tails of certain lizards which increase your stamina marginally.

The instinct to climb this tower was so strong in me after conquering all the colossi that it seemed the next logical step and one which was going to take plenty of time to execute. It took me 3 months to find enough lizard tails until my stamina was literally occupying the right quarter of the game screen. There is another method utilising diagonal jumping but you will still need a lot of stamina to reach the path to the secret garden.

When I finally reached the top I was so overjoyed my hands were shaking. I cried out “Yes!” as Wander dragged himself over the last edge and stood up on the path leading up to the secret garden. Upon reaching the garden my expectations were fulfilled as the garden itself was quite lovely, full of animals and birds, trees and big blocks of granite carved into the walls. As I explored I speculated that one could climb higher into the clouds and possibly reach the very top of the tower. This unfortunately is not possible. I have since tried everything to reach the summit of the tower but my efforts have been in vain. I only wish that this was possible and if you’ve ever heard of anyone reaching this summit I would very much like to hear from you.

There are many reasons why Team ICO may not allow players to reach the top.

1. There wasn’t enough time to program all the ledges for Wander to cling onto.
2. There isn’t enough space above the garden to allow the geometry for such a tall platform.
3. It wasn’t meant to be reached adding to the air of mystery surrounding the tower.

I for one wish that it was possible, I believe the view to be wondrous but I suppose it wasn’t meant to be. So the summit remains unconquered but at least I know I did everything I could to reach it.