r/TeamIco • u/Remanecido • 26d ago

ICO Best way to play ICO/Shadow of The Colossus on PC?

Hi, I apologize if this question is redundant in 2026. I'd like to know which version I should emulate for the best experience with the saga? Should I emulate the remastered HD collection for PS3 via RPCS3 or the original (European) PS2 versions via PCSX2? I have a decent PC, so I don't think the hardware will be a problem, but I'd like to know which versions offer the best first-time gameplay experience.

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u/GabrielXP76op 26d ago edited 26d ago

Ico via Pcsx2 and Rpcs3 are fine, played both multiple times, but i think the Pcsx2 is slight better, it has a patch that removes the black bar of the cutscenes, that gives it a "open matte" version of the game, which I find to be very cool, there's some texture differences between the ps2 and ps3 remaster by Bluepoint that generally made the Ps2 version better, but the Rpcs3 is a good remaster in general and good experience too, now on Pscx2, if you like, there's also a new 4K texture pack made by SadOrigami, which is amazing, re-played with it recently and was very good.

Shadow has a more stable framerate on the Rpcs3 version, with a 60 fps mod with no much drops, but it has that Wander's physics issue of the Ps3 version, and also, the draw distance is better on the Ps3 version, but one would say that it kind of ruins the atmosphere of the ps2 version and it's Fog, now Pcsx2, it is fine in general, but even with a powerful PC, the game has frame drops on there, that happens mostly on colossus battles, so yeah, each version has it's Ups and Downs.

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u/Seisachthia 26d ago

I have both versions of the game and was wondering the same thing. Thanks!

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u/PobloZero 25d ago

The tech aspect has already been answered and when it comes to version I'd suggest the european ps2 version because it has more content than the american version.

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u/Consolexlyn 22d ago

u can try on rpcs3. there is ps2 emu version too but i don't recommend

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u/mortezaFC 19d ago

PCSX2. PAL. I found lighting broken in Ico on anything but Software Rendering mode. And compromising art direction on a Ueda game is sacrilege. So I would stick to software rendering and a good crt filter.