Ueda's first, 2001's Ico, told the story of a young boy trying to help a child princess called Yorda escape from a magical ruinous castle.

It's rare to find such quiet sadness in a video game, even rarer in a trio. Shadow of the Colossus is the second of three melancholic video games directed by acclaimed Japanese game maker Fumito Ueda.

Death becomes life, but the world here is left a little quieter. Over the course of the next ten hours, they will empty it further, slowly felling each of the colossi as part of a mystical pact to revive a lifeless young woman. New players won't know it yet, but this place, referred to as the Forbidden Lands, is empty - except for 16 towering giants and a smattering of wildlife. Towering cliffs lie in the distance, while a rocky ridge cuts through the scrubby middle-ground. The first time the player is given control of Wander, the young and androgynous-looking protagonist of Shadow of the Colossus, they are confronted with a vast and unfamiliar landscape bathed in a cold yellow sun. This image from the 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus emphasizes the lonely nature of its landscape.

In the lonely hour shadow edition