Taking a Gamble on a Helpless Waif

As far as video games go, dungeon crawlers and fairy tales are as alike as chalk and cheese. One is about true grit; the other is about true love.

That, however, is the strange combination Sony is going after with “Ico,” a game that takes place in a musty castle infested with the requisite evildoers. Players control Ico, a boy born with horns and abandoned in the castle tomb.

The fairy tale comes in when Ico meets up with Yorda, a skittish princess whom he must protect by beating away baddies with a stick. He must lead her to safety by solving a series of puzzles.

The key to making this game work is the girl. Created by a Japanese team of developers, she is designed to be protected, not to blaze her own way out of the castle. Players who don’t mind this premise will enjoy the game. But those who don’t care about Yorda will lose patience.

Designers of “Ico,” led by Fumito Ueda, understood this and devoted a good chunk of their resources to making Yorda likable.

They rolled the dice on a passive, childlike character who is easily distracted, a stock Japanese dramatis personae. Ueda and his team are betting this will also work with Western gamers.

Question: What did you count on to draw players into the game?

Answer: The hook is the girl. The player plays the part of the boy, and the main objective of the game is to be with the girl and to make sure that he protects her, and also to conquer his task of escaping the castle, not only by himself but also with the girl. We tried to get players to feel responsible for her and to care for her.

Q: To what extent is the success of the game based on how the player feels about the girl?

A: It’s significant. We wanted to concentrate on the girl and on the fact that she is an independent, living being. In our planning, the team concentrated on mimicking natural human behavior. If you leave her alone in the garden, she will be curious about the birds and try to approach them. She’ll look at her environment. If something drops, she’ll be surprised and jump. We didn’t want her to be just a mascot that follows you around. We understand that some players might find that frustrating, but by conquering that and protecting her, the player hopefully will get a sense of reward.

Q: Did you program her to wander off?

A: The original plan was to have her evolve. At first, there is fear, and she doesn’t know the boy. So early on, she wouldn’t respond well to him. Then as they build trust, she responds better. At a certain point, they develop a friendship. But when we tried playing the game this way, the team felt it was a little frustrating for the girl to just be wandering off. It was a little out of control. So while it was interesting, we decided against it.

Q: What’s the significance of the boy’s horns?

A: There were two reasons. The first is the design aspect. It’s easier for players to recognize Ico on the screen if he has horns. This game uses lots of camera angles, some from high positions. It can be difficult for players to recognize the boy’s orientation unless he has horns.

The second consideration is the story. The plot is that the boy is born in a small village. The horns are considered bad or evil, so the boy is taken to the castle to be sacrificed. So rather than start the game with the player equal to everyone else, we put the main character at a symbolic disadvantage so players feel they must work their way up.

Q: “Ico” has received kudos for its graphical quality. What was your aim in creating these environments?

A: The main target for the team in terms of visual detail was for players to experience the world of “Ico” and be immersed in it. One thing we didn’t want users to do is be distracted by any single item. Every item should seem natural, as if it were part of a natural world. We just wanted to create a realistic world.

Q: Some say the game is visually accomplished but that the game play is sparse.

A: Our goal was to balance the environments with the game play. But I understand that some might consider the game play to be sparse, especially when compared to action games that rely on points, items and weapons. In this game, you will notice it has no gauges, no points and no weapons except a stick and, later in the game, a sword. We tried to make it very simple. This was intended to allow the players to enjoy the story line and the experience of being the character immersed in an environment, and not to focus on items and points.

Q: So how do you reward players?

A: As I mentioned, there are no specific items in the game and only two weapons. In those terms, there are no specific rewards. The player is responsible for the story. Their reward is the feeling of fulfillment upon completing each task by solving the puzzles, exploring the environments and, ultimately, escaping the castle.

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Translated by Tsubasa Inaba of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Alex Pham covers the video game industry. She can be reached at alex.pham@latimes.com.