While Shadow of the Colossus managed to pack so much content in, especially relative to its contemporaries at the time, over the years details have emerged that show that the game was supposed to have much more. Now, leaked content from 4Chan proves that Shadow of the Colossus could’ve even been a more transcendent game.
Is a director’s cut of Shadow of the Colossus coming?
There are several reasons why developers leave surprisingly useful content on the cutting room floor. Sometimes, it’s the lack of time. Other times, it’s the lack of money. In some cases, it’s even both. However, regardless of whatever reason Japan Studio and Team Ico had, we know that it must have been valid. After all, the cut content from Shadow of the Colossus could have made the game so much bigger than it was. Then again, bigger isn’t exactly better, and the developers must have thought that adding too much content to Shadow of the Colossus would have made the game worse. What is surprising is that we’ve heard very little about this Shadow of the Colossus content from official sources. If this interview is to be believed, it’s because of the game’s director, Fumito Ueda. The unnamed developer the subject of the interview claims that Ueda was against revealing details about the development process. He added that he himself still wants to be cautious even though Ueda is no longer part of Sony Interactive Entertainment. With that said, another interesting discussion is why 2018’s Shadow of the Colossus remake didn’t implement at least some of the cut content. Although the remake’s developers, Bluepoint Games, is known for not messing too much with the original source, we’re pretty sure that Sony could have incentivized the studio. Maybe if there’s enough demand, Sony can try to see if there’s enough content to use as a foundation for a director’s cut of Shadow of the Colossus? It’s not like this isn’t happening right now, so why not do it with one of the best games in history? Unfortunately, this will probably never happen. As we’ve already mentioned, Ueda is no longer with SIE. He has since founded his own studio genDESIGN. His last game, 2016’s The Last Guardian, was considered a beautiful game that fell short of expectations as it immediately drew comparisons with Shadow of the Colossus. Ueda and genDESIGN have been working on an untitled Epic-funded video game since March 2020.
