So I finally beat Shadow of the Colossus.  Not a very long game at 10 hours but longer than ICO was.  The ending was very cool and I've already been scheming on how it might have been connected to ICO.  In the end of the game the hero is possessed by the fractured spirits of Dormin, who was a demon who had his spirit fractured into the sixten Colossi and uses the Wanderer to reform himself.  A preistly guy by the name of Emon manages to use the Ancient Sword to seal away Dormin and that takes the Wanderer with him.  The gist of this all is that after the sealing is done, the Wanderer has become a baby again - a child with horns.  If we look at ICO it makes sense now why boys with horns are sacrificed.  If the games are truly related, then the horns would signify the mark of the demon Dormin.  Though if that is true, there are still unanswered questions like where the Shadow Queen fits into all this since her castle seems to be as old as the ruins of whatever civilization lived in the sealed lands.  The search for Colossi covers pretty much the entirety of the land and nothing even remotely resembling the Queen's castle is around.  Could be that Mono and the baby Wanderer crossed from the sealed lands across the sea to whatever land the castle is in... but then I don't really like that explanation too much.  I mean, it could be it, but then that it is almost like saying it was a magic portal or "a wizard did it".  Seems almost a cop out to say "oh well they are related but they are in totally different lands.  yeah."  I know that probably isn't coherent but it makes sense enough to me.  :P

I don't know if I'm gonna persue any of the extras though.  There is a Time Attack Mode and Hard Mode after the game and you can unlock certain items through them.  You can unlock up to eight items in Time Attack Normal Mode and another eight items in Time Attack Hard Mode.  I've been perusing GameFAQs and I've found out the last item in Time Attack Hard Mode is the Queen's Sword, which is the rune sword from ICO.  Right on.  I also found out about fruit trees and white lizard tails which increase life and strength respectively and were in no way mentioned in the manual or game, which was kind of crappy to find out.  Not sure if I'm gonna try the two other modes right yet, but maybe later.

All in all a very cool game which will probably be on my mind in the oncoming weeks trying to complete my ICO/SotC Connection Theory. :P