*******************************************************************************
Shadow of the Colossus Demo FAQ/Walkthorugh
by Bahakitty
Version 1.2
********************************************************************************
Table of Contents
I. Intro
II. Version History
III. Basics
    i. Controls
    ii.Weapons
    iii. Riding the horse
    iv. Health and Stamina
IV.Walkthrough
V. Extra Stuff
    i. Side-tracking
    ii. Glitches
VI. Credits
VII. Copyright
*********************************************
I. Introduction
Welcome to my Shadow of the Colossus demo FAQ. I made this after playing the
demo that came with this month's Official Playstation Magazine (*FIXED* Wrong
magazine so sorry about that). It will get you from start to finish. For any
questions and stuff, feel free to send me an e-mail at bahakitty666@yahoo.com
with colossus somewhere in the title. No spam, it will be deleted. Also, this
is my first guide so I don't want no flame mails saying how bad it is, they
will be tossed as well.

Update note: I'm adding a few new sections because people on the GameFAQ forums
think it would be a good idea. I also did more exploring myself to see what I
found so I will add that stuff in as well.
********************************************
II. Version History

     Version 1.0 - 9/13/05: Decided to write a guide on the demo that has been
recently released.
     Version 1.1 - 9/14/05: Updating the guide to include extra stuff including
"side-quests", glitches, and more control info that I came across (with help).
     Version 1.2 - 9/15/05: Adding a few more details thanks to jonsushi from
GameFAQs message boards.
********************************************
III. Basics
These are the things you need to know in order to beat this demo.

    i. Controls
These are the controls that will be used. Taken from the how-to-play screen on
the demo disc:

Left Analog stick: Used for movement. Tilt it in the direction you wish to walk
or run.

Right Analog Stick: Moves the camera about freely. Use it to view your
surroundings.

Directional Pad: Use the left and right arrows to change your weapons. In the
demo you are only given a sword and the bow.

X-button: It's only used to summon your horse and make him go faster. This is
the only way he will go faster. You can also hold the button down to make him
run without having to hit the button all the time. (<-- info provided by
Rurouni KJS from GameFAQs message boards)

Square-button: Attack button. Use it to slash your sword or fire your arrows.

Triangle-button: The jump button. Also used to mount your horse when you are
standing next to him.

Circle-button: Used to reflect the sunlight off your sword. Can only be used
when your sword is equipped. The light beam becomes thinner as you get closer to
the object of importance.

R1-button: Used to grab climbable surfaces, walls, ledges, etc.

R2-button: Zooms in.

L1-button: This is not listed but it is used to look about at your surroundings.

L2-button: Re-positions the camera behind you.START-button: Displays your map.
The arrow is your current position and the direction you are facing.

    ii. Weapons
Only two weapons are given to you in this demo, the sword and the bow. Your
sword is more useful than just a melee weapon. You can use the Circle button to
show you the way when you need help. The beam will focus in on the spot you need
to go. The bow is for ranged attacks. Use the square button to load an arrow and
use the Left Analog stick to aim.

     iii. Riding the Horse
When I first played this, the horse gave me the most trouble. Use the
triangle-button to mount. It's hard to get him to cooperate sometimes but you
need to use the left analog stick to ease him in the direction you want him to
face. It's helpful to get used to the horse by just using the analog stick,
seeing as he'll only walk. If you want to go faster, use the X-button to give
him a kick and he'll go somewhat faster. Kick him a few times to get him up to
max speed. Changing his direction will show him down as well. Use can use
weapons while riding.

Extra commands: You can do a few tricks like rearing up, standing, and hanging 
off the side of him. To rear up you have to be stopped. Hold down the R1 button,
pull back on the analog stick and hit the X button. He will rear up and run like
the wind in whatever direction you are facing. To stand on him, hold down the R1
button and push the left analog stick forward (that's final, no more arguing!).
You have to hold the R1 down to remain standing and you cannot change direction
while standing. Now for the trickiest part, hanging off the side. While stopped,
hold R1 and press Triangle and the analog stick in the direction you want to
lean and he'll hang off the horse's side. Can't do anything else, but it's
pretty cool anyway. Holding the X-button will keep him at a steady pace even
if you change direction while running.

    iv. Health and Stamina
Like Ico (for those of you that played), this game is lenient on health issues.
Your health bar is in the lower right-hand corner. If you fall off a cliff or
get smushed by the colossus, it goes down. Lucky for you that your health
recovers itself after a short period of time. You stamina is displayed in a
purple circle in the same corner next to your equipped weapon. This goes down
whenever you are reflecting sunlight, climbing, or using or bow. When it runs
out, you will stop whatever you are doing and your stamina will recover itself.

Info from jonsushi: When you go to the forest (see Extra Stuff on how to get
there) you may notice the lizards running around. If you kill these, you can
take their tails and they increase your health/stamina bars infinitely many
times. The easiest way is to take your bow out and shoot them (using the sword
takes to long since they run away from you) then walk over their bodies and push
the circle button to claim the spoils. This is useful if you want to do more
exploring and not worry about falling off from running out of energy.
****************************************

IV. Walkthrough
The main reason you're here (I think). This won't be split into separate parts
but I'll try to make it easy to read. After the opening title and stuff you
start out in the shrine room with your girlfriend on the alter and you on the
floor. When you wake up, a tutorial begins as you play. It first tells you that
the triangle button is used to jump. It then tells you to reflect light off your
sword using the circle button to find a place of importance. If you walk out to
past the alter you can shine your sword and clearly see that you need to be on
the other side of the valley. Obviously it would be dumb to walk across the
field on foot so the tutorial says to use triangle to board your horse, then to
use the X-button to make him go faster. Ride your horse out to the destination
that the sunlight pointed you to earlier. A little ways out it says to use the
start button to view your map. Not very useful so continue on. As you get closer
to the end, you can see the canyon with the steps. That is where you need to go
so head on in.

A short cutscene shows you that you need to head upwards. Use traingle to get
off your horse. Walk over to the green grassy wall on the right side of the
canyon and a box with appear saying to jump use the R1 button to grab on. Do so
and climb up to the top of the ledge, where it will say to use the triangle
button to jump about from side to side or to launch yourself up onto the ledge.
You'll need to remember this because this is the only way you'll be able to get
up, he can't do it automatically. Once you climb up, head to the left side of
your screen until you reach the edge where the white rock (broken pillar) is.
Jump across the gap (ignoring the box on camera adjustment) and jump and grab
the ledge at the end of the path. Head back over the wooden planks, over another
gap, and follow the path to the right until you get to another ledge to pull
yourself up onto. Continue to the right and pull yourself up again. Okay you're
almost there. Just head to the left and a cutscene will show you the gigantic
beast you will need to take down.

~~~~THE MINOTAUR~~~
After the cutscene, the tutorial tells you to switch weapons using the
directional pad. The bow can do some damage to him but the only thing it really
does is get his attention. They tell you to use the L1-button to focus on the
colossus but you're better off just aiming manually and pelting him with a few
arrows. You'll get his attention real quick. Cue boss music! My strategy for
beating him is to wait until he gives up and goes back to stomping about. At
some point the tutorial will tell you to use your sword to find his weakpoints,
which are the head and his left foot(you can ignore the tutorial since I just
told you). What you wanna do is get behind him and quickly grab hold of his left
leg on the furry part. You have to be quick or else he'll squash you like a bug,
leaving you out cold for a few minutes and taking out almost 3 quarters of your
health bar. Once you grab his leg, he'll try to shake you off so wait for him to
stop shaking you. When he stops, you can spot the green dot on the back of his
foot. Climb up to it and stab it with your sword, causing him to lose his
balance. With him keeling, you have a short gap to jump/grab his armor pad and
climb up his back to the lower platform. You will grab the armor attachment so
shimmy over to the right and pull yourself up.

By now the minotaur has regained his balance and will be trying to shake you
off. Stand in the center of the platform so that when you stumble you don't fall
off. This way you can recharge your stamina and continue climbing up to his
head. Don't take too much time or he will eventually knock you off. Anyway, grab
onto his back and climb up to his head, where the insignia is glowing. When you
get there, hold down the square button to charge your sword and stab him with
much more damage to his health. Of course, he won't like that very much so he'll
try to throw you off. If you run out of stamina he'll send you flying, with will
take a good chunk out of your health. Just get back up and try again. After you
finish him off, the final cutscene will play. Enjoy the ending.

Note: If ya wanna try out a challenge, you can beat the minotaur in a different
way. First you stab him in the leg until he completely falls over (2 or 3 times)
and you immediately jump off his leg and run to his face. Jump/grab his jaw and
you can climb up to his head and stab him. It may take a few tries to get the
timing right but it saves a lot of time.
***************************************
V. Extra Stuff

For those of you that decided you didn't wanna go from start-to-finish and
wanted to explore your surroundings, this is the section to look at. You don't
earn anything from it, but it's fun exploring the beautiful environments and
seeing what you can and cannot do. *NOTE* The glitches you encounter are NOT
damaging, they just black out your screen. When this happens, just hit the
start button to reset the demo from the beginning (this means back to the
progressive scan question).

    i. Side-Tracking
There are a couple of areas you can go to that are not part of the main
mission. So far the only real place you can go is the forest area. In order to
get to the forest, the first thing you do is take your horse, head out from the
starting point and turn to your left. You should see two pillars in the
distance (if you turn too much you may see two sets so you'll want to go to the
set on the right. It's also the only bridge you can cross if you aren't sure).
Ride out (ignoring the graphic shifts) and cross the twisty bridge. Once you
cross, turn left again and follow the cliff's edge as close as possible and
keep following it past the bridge you see in the opening credits. The path does
get a bit not-so-straight-forward but you will want to skip the first bridge
you see (the one that is broken and has a path leading downwards) and keep
following the cliff edge around and around. Eventually you will see a bridge
that isn't broken. Cross it and into the forest area. While here you can also
check out the garden below (either climbing down the moss outside or taking
your horse down the path between the entrance and the forest)

The other area you can look at is the beach. To get there, follow the same
directions on getting to the forest except that when you reach the broken
bridge with the path leading down, take the path. You can also climb the tower
where you start at (inside and out) but it's not as interesting.

    ii. Glitches
Not everything works in this because it is only a demo and they don't want to
reveal everything to you just yet, so view these at your own risk of starting
over. I'll just list them out.
-The green structures you see out on the field and in the forest have a glowing
gravestone. Apparently these are save stones (the ghetto version of the save
couch), but they may have other uses. Use circle to kneel and you game with
black out.
-Wandering too far out of the range of the main mission will also kill your
game.
-Attempting to attack the turtles will cause you to fall into an abyss for a
while before the game kicks you out.
-Something funny I found was that when you are heading to the forest and you
come across the bridge that's got a gap in the middle. If you run at it while
riding, you both fall but the horse lives, you die.
-Because the forest area isn't part of the main mission, sometimes going in or
out too fast will black out your game.

Feel free to e-mail me any other glitches that you come across. 
***************************************
VI.Credits

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc: For adding another wonderful game to the
family. 

Fumito Ueda: The director behind the "critically acclaimed Ico". Good job for
another game well done.

Gamefaqs: For putting my faq up on their website ^_^anyone that e-mails me some
useful info can get put here as well. This also includes the posters from the
SotC boards that provided the information listed in "Extra Stuff".
****************************************
VII. Copyright

Game, music, rights, and other things related to this game are copyright
reserved by SCEI. This guide however, is copyrighted to me, because I typed it.
Feel free to use it for your own personal use but don't take any of it without
asking me first. My e-mail is bahakitty666@yahoo.com.