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Description
Introducing my general videogame fanwork folder with a piece related to one of my absolute favourite games ever feels right.
This huge fanart is my entry for a Shadow of the Colossus promotional contest announced by Sony in early 2006. For the European+Australian launch of the game, they asked the denizens of those continents to design their own colossus... and so we, laughingpinecone and I, did. She was a huge fan of team Ueda since the release of ICO and had recently converted me by letting me play ICO on her PS2. I had always been interested in the game but I had only played a demo with friends years before... when I played it from beginning to end I loved it as much as I expected. A lot! But it was only while playing Eva's american copy of Shadow of the Colossus during the 2005 Xmas holidays that my sheer love for Fumito Ueda & co.'s games bursted out. So when the contest came up I was eager to join Eva and make an entry of my own.

And here it is: my colossus, the frog-like Viridis. While here is Pristinus, her dinosaurian colossus . And you know what? She won the contest with her entry... and thanks to that we had a free trip to Patagonia more or less a year later. One day I'm going to post some other pieces related to those marvelous two weeks in South America.
She was amazing and we were so happy!

As you can see, this work is composed of various parts: on the left is the main drawing of the colossus itself (alongside Wander to show its size: it's a medium colossus, I'd say) with its triple name and the phrase used by Dormin to preannounce him, as with the original sixteen creatures.

Gargantuan Amphibian - Viridis – Paluster Saliens

Its slumber is deep under the earth's womb...
On stone and water thou shalt pursue...
A secret well hidden...

Below are an upper and a frontal view to give a better idea of its design. To their right are a small drawing of the setting in which it waits (to be slain by the player... :/ ) and its totemic statue in Dormin's temple (the game's hub).
At the far right is a 15-panel comic illustrating the strategy to kill it.

A colossus resembling a toad was one of the first images which came to my mind and immediately seemed a good idea. As an addition to the original collection of leviathans it allowed me to came up with both an original design and an original gameplay pattern.
It's inspired by an amphibious animal, so I could use an earthly and a watery setting at the same time: I decided that the arena would be an inactive volcano, now turned into a lake. It seemed suggestive enough for the grand standards of the game.
Viridis perennially sleeps underwater, he's supine and only its abdomen and the tips of its legs emerge. If you watch the drawing closely you can see it near the center of the volcanic lake: a small green spot closely surrounded by four pointy rocks.

Down here I'll drescribe in detail the killing strategy, which is probably too complex to be fully understandable from the very simplified short comic in the deviation:
From the surface of the lake Viridis' belly seems just a small mossy isle, so Wander has to point the Ancient Sword and follow the beam of light to find him. There he discovers its first weak spot, and has to pierce it to awaken and reveal the colossus. Viridis completely emerges from the water and basically jumps from an isle to another.
Wander has to avoid being crushed and needs to take advantage of its pauses to hit with an arrow its only visible weak spots: the phosphorescent antennaes. On water he's safe from the colossus' jumps, but has to be on dry land to throw his arrows when the colossus is briefly still.
When both antennaes are hit Viridis collapses, momentarily stunned, and Wander can finally climb its back. He has to reach its head, where he can grab its fur more steadily. Better make haste in this process, because meanwhile the colossus has surely recuperated and is jumping around again. Only when the colossus touches the ground can Wander advance, whereas during the jumps he can do nothing but hold firmly to the beast's coat.
On Viridis' forehead is a phosphorescent scar: when pierced, the colossus momentarily collapses again. Exhausted, it opens its mouth, from which its long tongue oozes out: that's Wander new objective. Our anti-hero has to jump down and grab it, hopefully having regained a little stamina during the colossus' daze. He has to climb the tongue and reach the inside of the mouth, where the final effort awaits him. The last weak spot, the glowing symbol, is on Viridis' slightly furry palate. Now Wander has to clamber over it and stab the tattoo, gravely injuring Viridis... which spits him out, forcing him to repeat the last part of the process. Hitting the antennae one more time causes the colossus to collapse and release its tongue, allowing the reckless boy to reach the mouth without having to get across its back again.
Anf! The poor marsh giant is dead... another step of this cursed taboo-breaking hunt of doom is over.

Description
Introducing my general videogame fanwork folder with a piece related to one of my absolute favourite games ever feels right.
This huge fanart is my entry for a Shadow of the Colossus promotional contest announced by Sony in early 2006. For the European+Australian launch of the game, they asked the denizens of those continents to design their own colossus... and so we, laughingpinecone and I, did. She was a huge fan of team Ueda since the release of ICO and had recently converted me by letting me play ICO on her PS2. I had always been interested in the game but I had only played a demo with friends years before... when I played it from beginning to end I loved it as much as I expected. A lot! But it was only while playing Eva's american copy of Shadow of the Colossus during the 2005 Xmas holidays that my sheer love for Fumito Ueda & co.'s games bursted out. So when the contest came up I was eager to join Eva and make an entry of my own.

And here it is: my colossus, the frog-like Viridis. While here is Pristinus, her dinosaurian colossus . And you know what? She won the contest with her entry... and thanks to that we had a free trip to Patagonia more or less a year later. One day I'm going to post some other pieces related to those marvelous two weeks in South America.
She was amazing and we were so happy!

As you can see, this work is composed of various parts: on the left is the main drawing of the colossus itself (alongside Wander to show its size: it's a medium colossus, I'd say) with its triple name and the phrase used by Dormin to preannounce him, as with the original sixteen creatures.

Gargantuan Amphibian - Viridis – Paluster Saliens

Its slumber is deep under the earth's womb...
On stone and water thou shalt pursue...
A secret well hidden...

Below are an upper and a frontal view to give a better idea of its design. To their right are a small drawing of the setting in which it waits (to be slain by the player... :/ ) and its totemic statue in Dormin's temple (the game's hub).
At the far right is a 15-panel comic illustrating the strategy to kill it.

A colossus resembling a toad was one of the first images which came to my mind and immediately seemed a good idea. As an addition to the original collection of leviathans it allowed me to came up with both an original design and an original gameplay pattern.
It's inspired by an amphibious animal, so I could use an earthly and a watery setting at the same time: I decided that the arena would be an inactive volcano, now turned into a lake. It seemed suggestive enough for the grand standards of the game.
Viridis perennially sleeps underwater, he's supine and only its abdomen and the tips of its legs emerge. If you watch the drawing closely you can see it near the center of the volcanic lake: a small green spot closely surrounded by four pointy rocks.

Down here I'll drescribe in detail the killing strategy, which is probably too complex to be fully understandable from the very simplified short comic in the deviation:
From the surface of the lake Viridis' belly seems just a small mossy isle, so Wander has to point the Ancient Sword and follow the beam of light to find him. There he discovers its first weak spot, and has to pierce it to awaken and reveal the colossus. Viridis completely emerges from the water and basically jumps from an isle to another.
Wander has to avoid being crushed and needs to take advantage of its pauses to hit with an arrow its only visible weak spots: the phosphorescent antennaes. On water he's safe from the colossus' jumps, but has to be on dry land to throw his arrows when the colossus is briefly still.
When both antennaes are hit Viridis collapses, momentarily stunned, and Wander can finally climb its back. He has to reach its head, where he can grab its fur more steadily. Better make haste in this process, because meanwhile the colossus has surely recuperated and is jumping around again. Only when the colossus touches the ground can Wander advance, whereas during the jumps he can do nothing but hold firmly to the beast's coat.
On Viridis' forehead is a phosphorescent scar: when pierced, the colossus momentarily collapses again. Exhausted, it opens its mouth, from which its long tongue oozes out: that's Wander new objective. Our anti-hero has to jump down and grab it, hopefully having regained a little stamina during the colossus' daze. He has to climb the tongue and reach the inside of the mouth, where the final effort awaits him. The last weak spot, the glowing symbol, is on Viridis' slightly furry palate. Now Wander has to clamber over it and stab the tattoo, gravely injuring Viridis... which spits him out, forcing him to repeat the last part of the process. Hitting the antennae one more time causes the colossus to collapse and release its tongue, allowing the reckless boy to reach the mouth without having to get across its back again.
Anf! The poor marsh giant is dead... another step of this cursed taboo-breaking hunt of doom is over.