Shadow of the Colossus Devs Talk Nostalgia and Making Everyone Happy

Shadow of the Colossus may look like a brand new game on the PlayStation 4 Pro, but it’s still a remake, one that the developers were careful to keep faithful to the original in order to keep everyone happy.

But when it comes to a gaming classic like the original Shadow of the Colossus, keeping everyone happy is easier said than done. Speaking during a PlayStation Experience interview, Peter Dalton, the technical director for the remake, and Marco Thrush, president of developer Bluepoint Games, discussed some of the challenges that they encountered when trying to keep the game true to the original.

“There’s no way you can attempt a project of this scope and not make somebody unhappy,” said Dalton. “We’re trying to do our best to minimize the people we do make unhappy by providing choices like, for example, the classic mode for the controls.”

The control scheme Dalton referenced is an example of an original player vs. newcomer change where two different control mappings are offered. The creators struck a balance between the new and old by providing different control schemes that players can choose from, one mimicking the original and another that’ll feel more comfortable for newcomers.

When considering changing other parts of the original, some mechanics were left in place. Moving while aiming your bow is still a no-go, and other features that would change the way you played like removing a grip meter and letting you free climb with fewer consequences were toyed around with, but not implemented.

“Our intent was never to change the way the game played. We didn’t want to affect the difficulty of the game,” said Dalton. “Ideas such as removing a grip meter or allowing you to move while aiming the bow, to us, would’ve been … those were actually items specifically that we discussed. But they were items that we discounted because they would change the way you play the game too much. We didn’t want to affect original players of the game to that degree.”

The remake of Shadow of the Colossus comes to the PlayStation 4 on Feb. 6, but look for more interviews with the creators and additional gameplay trailers leading up to its release.