Man Versus Shadow of the Colossus, Part 5
How I Killed 16 Colossi in 16 Days (Well, 17 Days. OK, 18 Days)
1/30/2009 9:50 PM | 10 Comments | Page 1 of 5
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
Read Parts One, Two, Three and Four of Man Versus Shadow of the Colossus
.
Colossus Fourteen (Thursday, 12/25)
Christmas morning. My back is sore from three straight nights on my Jennifer Convertibles pull-out. My dad fixes bacon and eggs for me. They're leaving this morning, making the five-hour drive upstate to my brother's house. I help them haul all their junk back down to their van -- the annual Reloading of the Van. Then they depart, honking as they drive in the direction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. They honk again. Then the van disappears.
There used to be a good deli here. They made the best Cuban sandwich in all of Colossus Land. It's gone now. I hear they're putting in one of those KFC/Pizza Hut combination places now, which upsets me. How things change...
I feel, as I always do, like I've survived something, endured a Herculean trial of some sort. I'm supposed to join them the next day upstate to see my brother, his wife and my niece, but for now, I'm grateful for the quiet, grateful to have my apartment back. I've got three more Colossi to contend with, and if memory serves me, these final three are all stubborn bastards.
The fourteenth Colossus, unfortunately, is the most redundant Colossus in the game. He's basically Colossus No. 11 (aka the rock-bull) in a more open environment. And, unfortunately, he's more of an annoyance than anything. I scale a very tall pillar. He rams into the pillar. The pillar falls, creating a bridge/path to the next pillar that I must climb. He rams this one, too; the pillar falls, etc. This Colossus is the most rote Colossus in the game; this battle simply requires you to do all the right things at all the right times.
Once I reach the final pillar, rock-bull No. 2 topples it over, causing it to open a hole into another previously walled-off part of the level. I scale a nearby platform in this section, then pepper rock-bull No. 2 with arrows to get him nice and angry. He rams the platform's support, causing the entire thing to collapse on top of the dopey creature. The creature's soft spot is revealed. I quickly climb on top of him while he's still dazed. Stab, stab, stab, and it's so long, redundant Colossus.
Colossus Fifteen (Friday, 12/26)
I pack my PS2 into my overnight bag. For the second time in two weeks, I head to Penn Station. My goal is to beat 16 Colossi in 16 days, and in order to complete this plan, I'll need to bring my PS2 along with me.
Penn Station between Christmas and New Year's is a madhouse. I've seen animals running free in there (not wild; someone's beagle had gotten off its leash). I've seen homeless people sleeping in their own pee.
I board my train, and we begin to chug north. Five hours later, my parents pick me up at the Rome train station -- "Long time, no see," Dad says -- and they drive me over the snow-covered roads to my brother's house.
