Bluepoint’s Shadow of the Colossus PlayStation 4 remake is, for the most part, a faithful recreation of the original PlayStation 2 game, with beautiful environments and colossi. But a new collectible unique to the remake was also included for curious players, and we now know its purpose was to unlock a secret weapon.
YouTube user PS4Trophies collected 79 “Gold Relics” scattered throughout Shadow of the Colossus, but they didn’t increase protagonist Wander’s stamina or health like the fruit trees and lizard tails did in the original game. Instead, he traveled back to the game’s starting temple and searched its base until he discovered a sparkling door. Praying at the door opened a passage to the basement, where the Sword of Dormin was resting in a giant rock.
The Sword of Dormin increases Wander’s damage, but it also hinders his ability to regenerate health. The sword appears to be corrupted, with a black mist trailing off of it.
The Dormin is a dark creature that sets the events of Shadow of the Colossus in motion, providing Wander with his quest to defeat the 16 colossi at the very beginning of the game. As with most things in the game — and much of director Fumito Ueda’s work — not everything with the Dormin is as it initially appears.
Shadow of the Colossus is often called a landmark in video game development and has been cited as an example of games as art. Its barren structure and depressing narrative still hold up in 2017, and we were quite fond of the remake. We praised the emotional impact of killing the colossi, as well as the strategy and puzzle-solving necessary to take each one down.
The level of detail on nearly everything has also been increased dramatically, and the inclusion of a photo mode lets you take beautiful images that you can show off to your friends. It isn’t all modernized for the console, with a camera that still feels like it was lifted from the PlayStation 2 game, but Bluepoint has shown once again that it is the best remaster developer in the business.
Shadow of the Colossus is available now on PlayStation 4.