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YORDA
If the player is to
care about Yorda, she
must be convincing as
an individual entity but
must also do exactly
what the player
wants.
games comes down largely to the
central relationship between the
player and a consistent, significant
companion. In ICO, you control a
boy trying to escape a large castle
prison. The gameplay is relatively
straightforward platforming and puzzlesolving
with one unique addition.
Almost immediately after the game
starts, you encounter Yorda, a girl also
imprisoned in the castle. You soon
discover that Yorda is in danger and
needs your help. On the flipside, you
cannot hope to escape without Yorda’s
mysterious door-opening powers. The
relationship between player and Yorda
is one of co-dependence. As the skills
of the player and Yorda do not overlap,
neither steps on the other’s toes. Yorda
will not rush off and do something
the player doesn’t want her to do, but
neither will she rush forward and do
something the player was about to do.
The relationship between Ico and
Yorda is pivotal to the entire game.
This is a ballsy gamble by Ueda. If she
glitches up and gets the player killed
even once, the player will be furious.
There is nothing players hate more
than feeling cheated by the game. If
the player is to care about Yorda, she
must be convincing as an individual
entity but must also do exactly what
the player wants.
For Yorda specifically and all gaming
companions generally, she can’t be
god-like and invincible, but neither
can she be stupid and placid. Instead,
she must be humanly flawed and
humanly intelligent; she must be smart
enough to make mistakes; she must
be imperfect and ‘real’. Yet, she also
has to do exactly what the player wants
her to do. If she shows too much free
will, the player will get frustrated that
the game is not doing what they want it
to do. But if she just follows the player
mindlessly, the player won’t be able to
care about her as a human being and,
by extension, won’t be able to care
about the game’s fiction.
So many conflicting conditions! So
how did Ueda manage to balance them
all With one very simple addition to
the controls: press R1 to hold Yorda’s
hand when she is close enough or to
call her when she is far away. When
left to her own devices, Yorda will
wander around the map, run after
birds, look over edges, and sometimes,
if you watch her for long enough,
maybe even discover a solution to a
puzzle. Yet the moment you press R1
and call her, she will come back to you
and hold your hand.
Instead of mindlessly following
you, then, Ico pulls Yorda along in
a charming, enthusiastic run, like a
younger brother eager to show his
older sister the fortress he built in
the lounge room. By tweaking her
animations and behaviours just right,
Ueda has managed to balance Yorda
perfectly between free-minded and
obedient. It’s hard not to care about
her and her plight as you play ICO.
After not too long, you find yourself not
being concerned about Ico or Yorda,
but about Ico and Yorda.
Later in the game, when the two of
you are separated, it is akin to having
all your weapons removed halfway
through a first-person shooter: you feel
naked, exposed, vulnerable, and most
crucially, alone. So many emotions
evoked just by the absence of a NPC!
This is how you know a companion has
been done well: you don’t just notice
Australia’s best gaming
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