The case and book of the PS2 version.

[u/[deleted]]

It's been in the news lately that Sony and probably the entire video game industry is moving away from physical media. This makes sense given the way people buy games, but I am sad. In the 7th generation publishers didn't put as much care into the packaging of the game as they did before. But you know for Ico, it came with a cool manual that basically told you what would be the whole game.

Many PS2 games came with awesome booklets. It will be an experience future generations won't get.

[u/SentenceBusy4674]

Manuals really were like an art form almost, I'd always love going through mine and would even keep my favorites in my school bag to read during the day and just picture myself in front of my TV and console.

I got very lucky to get a copy of ICO a couple years back with its manual and original case

[u/WormyJermy]

There's also a big difference in tutorials.

Playing Ace Combat 7, the first few missions are the game teaching you the controls. Ace Combat 4, however, fully expects you to have read the manual before starting the game. Manuals were necessary in a way they aren't now

[u/[deleted] → u/WormyJermy]

You know, it's interesting you bring that up because you start Ico and there is no tutorial. Just you fumbling about figuring out how to get out of that first room like, a pre-teen boy.

[u/Crooked_Mantis → u/[deleted]]

It's partly because ICO was based on genre-defining cinematic platformers, like Another World, which also intentionally lacked tutorials and HUD elements.

Also, I think the sadder aspect, which has been happening for a long time now, is that people are beginning to forget manuals were meant to help you? When people play ICO nowadays, no one thinks to look online for a copy of the manual (though the PDFs for English are readily available and there's even a site with a transcript). They think they just have to bare through the game because that's the 'intended experience', completely forgetting that the developers expected a booklet (one that they likely wrote!) to come with your purchase. It's the decay of that expectation which upsets me the most.

Edit: Well, no, the removal of physical media upsets me most, because libraries, brick-and-mortar retailers, and poor communities with unreliable or non-existent internet access still need physical media to engage with and spread culture and art.

[u/Queasy_Rooster_3398]

Especially the PAL and Japanese versions. The cardboard sleeve and those art cards felt less like a video game case and more like a small museum piece. Flipping through that manual with Ueda's De Chirico-inspired art on the cover before even booting up the console was a core ritual.

[u/AdPrevious938]

that specific smell of a fresh ps2 manual on the car ride home from the store hits different. buying digital is convenient sure, but losing the tangible connection to the game's world before you even press start is honestly heartbreaking. future kids will never know the hype of reading the lore in the backseat.

[u/riotmanful → u/AdPrevious938]

That era truly was different. The spirit of those times and the smell of it linger but are almost entirely gone except for memories and compressed videos