iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 16h

Stone Pillar is the Worm of ICO. No, I will not elaborate.

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 17h

Maybe a crazy idea but I wonder if this actually isn't the Drawbridge Stage (st47a) as we know it. This may actually be the mysterious stage 12 (ICO bridge) that was removed from the game. It would make sense to reuse the concept of a removed stage when they needed to connect stages 4 and 7. #ICO

141

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 19h

Various symbols used on the flash website that counted down to the 2004 SCEJ New Work Presentation, meant to be the ICO/Wanda side of the countdown while the sakura petals represented Genji.

150

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Every early version of SOTC has this in the directFiles directory boy_blk.ico

071

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Thinking of hosting a sotc/team ico fan forum. Discord is nice but it makes information really inaccessible

070

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

game from 2005 featuring a young man taking up arms and invading a place loosely based on Iraq, killing the inhabitants in order to secure a precious black liquid on behalf of a greater power

173

Reposted by ASapphicKitsune

Mystic_Ode @icoshrine.neocities.org · 24/09/2026

I sometimes worry that when people speak of "Design by Subtraction", they simplify it too much. It is a form of minimalist design, but its goal is not to remove *everything* except the core concept. The goal is to push the depth of each element included so it can achieve a sense of reality.

A slide from Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido's GDC 2004 presentation. It shows a graph claiming the average game has a wide spread of elements at 'average quality', it then compares this to ICO's approach, where the elements stack atop each other to push well beyond the average quality, and past the boundary of 'reality'.

The slide reads: "Same cost (area), but more protruding design"
"Higher detail and quality within limited volume ~"
"Maverick (or, "behind the eight ball" type) approach"

1195

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Here's all the NICO boys horns I'm not sure if any of them are using cut designs from ICO (Black-shirted boy I've used the hiring poster since there's no good shot of him)

193

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I imagine the graves in the graveyard stage are for Queen’s previous bodies.

110

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Grim thought but I wonder if the various idols around the castle are where the horned children who were ‘used up’ get interred.

120

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

You get to the Cerberus boss and you have to sit in for a recreation of the 12 hour meeting the developers had about fixing the boss.

020

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Somewhat scuffed first attempt at making nigirizushi

030

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

12 TB is crazy. Awesome to finally see 2009-era Portal 2

040

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

if shadow of the colossus was a good game it was have like 2 more minotaur bosses

140

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Fun SOTC fact: Early in development the game was actually unfinished.

190

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I am actually losing my mind. I finally decided to get a good rice cooker and ended up going with Zojirushi's Neuro Fuzzy. I just looked at the first image on the website and I feel I'm going crazy. That color reduction looks so similar to OPTPiX iMageStudio's algorithm.

110

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I just realized one of the odd things about being Australian compared to the rest of the world is I've never seen a white swan in real life, only black ones.

140

Reposted by ASapphicKitsune

Bruka Jones @brukajones.com · 09/08/2026

I love Shadow of the Colossus so much.

5615

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Managed to find some aburaage. I’ll be making kitsune udon soon

040

Reposted by ASapphicKitsune

Mystic_Ode @icoshrine.neocities.org · 06/08/2026

The kinds of conversations I have with @asapphickitsune.bsky.social

An edit of xkcd comic #2501.
A stick figure with a ponytail says to another stick figure without hair,
"Cut content is second nature to us Team ICO researchers, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows ICO's unused dialogue and SOTC's PS3 data sheets."

The other stick figure speaks.
"And Ukaiya, of course."

"Of course," reasserts the ponytailed figure.

The caption below them reads:
"Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field."

3133

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

source criticism but the sources are a bunch of 128x128 images with 16 colors each 😭

030

Reposted by ASapphicKitsune

Mystic_Ode @icoshrine.neocities.org · 02/08/2026

This page is a treasure trove of exclusive game trivia. 13,000+ words dedicated to uncovering 24 year old cut content from the cult-classic #PS2 game, #ICO (including those huge enemies below). And most of it was hidden in plain sight! If you're interested, please bookmark it and give it a read.

icoshrine.neocities.org

ICO Shrine

1168

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Send me to the castle in the mist, i'll come back a statue

130

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

you really think someone would do that, go on the internet and tell lies?

230

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I was looking at #SOTC files and I thought I spotted a typo but it's actually a small glimpse of one of the developers entertaining themselves at work. It's so cute and a pretty funny joke!

170

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I've been playing FFXIV and my goodness these little friends look so much like Trico

250

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I do wonder if if the Wander and the Colossus title was kept for international releases, analysis of the game's story would more so focus on it being a fairy tale for the 21st century.

150

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Just learned that Sam Neill passed away. I don't generally get sentimental about actors but Jurassic Park is a formative movie for me and still my favorite of all time. I write this as I wear a shirt with the logo on it. Tragic, a great actor and a great human being. He will be missed greatly.

070

Reposted by ASapphicKitsune

Mystic_Ode @icoshrine.neocities.org · 13/07/2026

It's public! icoshrine.neocities.org/theory/engli...

icoshrine.neocities.org

ICO Shrine

1286

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Bahahaha so this disc is the where the images of Kaido and Ueda with their names swapped are from. That's so funny

150

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Am I teaching myself LaTeX to make a SOTC document? Yes

040

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I think the funniest thing about Meccha Chameleon is everyone in the English-speaking world is pronouncing it meka chamelon as if its mecha.

130

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I just realized this picture (left) shows an early version of the PS3 limited edition cover, compared to the release one (right) "High Difinition Edition" [sic] Some art differences, notably Trico's eye is not yet added above the と

071

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Extremely small difference I noticed between retail Knight and its early design. The early design is missing this vertically oriented ruin.

180

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

🧵Shadow of the Colossus pre-release images that have an unsettling aura. (ill add my estimations for when these pics are from in alt text)

Wander and Agro running on Badland's rim as Roc observes from its tower
circa. mid 2004, probably around June

2153

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

This matches the answer he gave in the art book, neat to see his opinion hasn't changed decades later.

070

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Narga can now visit your profile. Press 🔄️ to invite them.

0136

Reposted by ASapphicKitsune

Mystic_Ode @icoshrine.neocities.org · 24/03/2026

Yorda can now visit your profile. Press 🔄 to invite her.

04331

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Helpful reminder for people: It's ワンダと巨像, Not ワンダと巨象. They might be both pronounced the same but one means 'Wander and the Colossus'🗿 and the other means 'Wander and the Giant Elephant' 🐘

080

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Finally bought a wok and it's so fun to cook in! I just made a very basic egg fried rice and it was very fun and satisfying to make, and yummy too!

2240

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Koshihikari is so easy to pick up with chopsticks it's wonderful

030

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Does anyone recognize these two kanji I've underlined? I've been using my friend's transcription of the E3 demo boss hints but unfortunately she was not able to identify these two.

130

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Did you know the setting of The Last Guardian actually has an official name? Its name is Ukaiya (ウカイヤ) It comes from the term 鵜飼い (ukai), which refers to a type of fishing where a trained cormorant is used to catch fish and 谷 (ya) meaning valley, coming together to form 鵜飼谷 (ukaiya).

1153

ASapphicKitsune @asapphickitsune.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

People are speculating about gen ATLAS’ story and are already throwing around the word ‘Dormin’ When will it end.

140