Forums > Submission Feedback > holdthephone's ICO review

I've approved this review and I'm leaving feedback here where you can see it, rather than rejecting the piece (which in general is well written), but I hope you'll go back to it and make some adjustments. For one thing, the site uses HTML in its reviews, not php-bb tags, so you'll want to change that. For another, there's no reason to include the score again in your review because it is provided automatically at the end of your review. Finally, you seem to have reviewed the HD version of the game included in the recent PS3 pack, rather than the PS2 original. You might want to tailor your text more to the PS2 version if you're going to leave it posted there (early on, the references were fine, but notes about how good it looks in HD felt out of place). I hope that you'll keep writing and that you'll feel comfortable submitting future reviews here.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto

Thanks, sorry about the sloppy formatting. It's my first time and, no offense to the site, but I didn't have a preview option or much of an interface for formatting. I'll keep this in mind for next time though, and I appreciate the review being accepted.

And yeah, wasn't sure how to work around the fact that I'm reviewing the HD remaster of ICO and advertise it as such -- as I'm not going over the entire HD collection, and just one game.

Thanks a lot!

Mobius 1, engage...

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but speaking as someone who's submitted over a hundred reviews to this site, I'm pretty sure it's literally impossible to contribute a review without previewing it.

You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

It used to be. The new form (implemented 2 days ago) has changed some things and that's one of them. Still some kinks to work out, I think, though there are other things that are improvements from a backend perspective.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto

I suppose I could just view the html and all in another window, true. Wasn't thinking.

Mobius 1, engage...

Neat review :) Like the structure of the review, it fits well for doing a "retrospective". But I hope you continue to use that way to approach other games too..

The natural breaks work really well, imo. I don't think you need the "conclusion" headline either, because of the way the review is put together. Specially since it ties back to the money-shot earlier.

This here was a good opportunity to use a different word, though:
<em>"guiding a rather useless A.I. through puzzles, defending her from enemies in between, and yet somehow at the end of it all isn’t reflected upon negatively. In fact, it’s the fragile nature of Yorda, her uselessness,"</em>

If you used "frailty" or "vulnerability", or some adjective you would use to describe a person rather than a mechanism, that would go really well with the rest, imo. Describe the transformation, that kind of thing. Would do great as a quote, imo.

Also, sure it's not a 9? :p It looks like a nine from the review-text.

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Thanks that's a good point about the word usage there.

As for the score, I just think the game design at work here is impressive enough that a few minor annoyances aren't going to be enough to dock it a whole level. Every game has flaws, but few games manage to turn out so well regardless.

Mobius 1, engage...