Shadows

Quote: "These creatures of darkness will rise up from the castle foundations and try to recapture Yorda."yoruda. -ICOe-koʊ game PAL Manual (English), Under "The Spirits"

Also referred to as Spirits (English manuals) or SmokeMen (credits), the Shadows act as servants of the castle, recieving direct orders from The Queen. They are the most frequent obstacle to Icoe-koʊ and Yorda'syorudas escape.

The Shadows are beings of concentrated black smoke that take shape to attack Icoe-koʊ and carry away Yorda.yoruda They have numerous forms, but nearly all of them take on animalistic traits and bear horns atop their heads. Their bright white and blue-rimmed glowing eyes stare unblinkingly ahead. All abrupt motion causes the glow of their eyes to linger and streak across the air.

The Shadows are only ever seen in the context of combat, due to this fact, they express themselves mostly through their movements on the battlefield and strategy in stealing Yordayoruda away. Yordayoruda is, first and foremost, their primary target and main concern. Should Icoe-koʊ stand idly by or avoid them, they will rarely see a need to so much as swat at him.

After picking up their escort, they always move towards a black portal (sometimes called a Shadow's Nest) that lies at the farthest point from their current location. This choice is made to lose Icoe-koʊ by putting distance and often some structural obstacles between him and his goal. If they always targeted nearby portals, then chances are that Icoe-koʊ would always be right behind them.

(Note: The opposite of this is true in the NTSC-U copy. Meaning they always target the nearest portal and often fail to effectively carry her away unless Icoe-koʊ is incapacitated.)

Additionally, a group of Shadows will often try to aggressively goad Icoe-koʊ into focusing all his attacks onto them, diverting attention from a Shadow that is actually working to carry Yordayoruda away. To last as long as possible in this scenario, Shadows may dodge attacks to the best of their ability, either flying overhead or ducking underfoot.

A little known fact is that Icoe-koʊ can block attacks that come at him from the front, so long as he isn't running. The Shadows however, are all too aware of this mechanic, and so they all prefer to attack Icoe-koʊ from the side or back.

This bleeds into another strategy. When Ico'se-koʊs focus is directed towards cornering a Shadow (which points his back to all other opponents), every other Shadow in the vicinity will take it as a prime oppritunity to strike, and thus protect their cornered ally.

Shadow ambushes happen at seemingly random points throughout the adventure, but a few of them are tactically motivated. Some fights are only triggered once Icoe-koʊ has climbed to a high area by himself. Obviously, he can drop back down to help his companion, but the ambushes occur in these moments so the Shadows can take advantage of the player's distance to Yorda.yoruda. It's their way of giving themselves a head start.

The fight at the West Area Stairs is notable for a different tactic, catching Icoe-koʊ off guard in a moment where he wields an inferior weapon. The Shadows arrive just as Icoe-koʊ has used a stick as a torch to open a door. In order to progress, Icoe-koʊ had to set down whatever prior weapon he held to exchange it for the weakest weapon in the game. And the Shadows strike while he is far from that dropped weapon.

When Icoe-koʊ faces the Shadows directly and Yordayoruda is behind him, their behavior switches, and they often change their approach to combat. How the defensive behavior manifests depends on the version you play and potentially where you're fighting them.

In the JP/PAL copies of ICOe-koʊ, some Shadows placed in this position will prioritize backing away and trying to manuever around Icoe-koʊ to once again initiate an attack on him or a grab on Yorda.yoruda. Shadows may sometimes take on the more aggressive approach of letting their attack be blocked by Icoe-koʊ and, while he's locked into the animation, they move through him and grab Yorda.yoruda.

More commonly seen in the NTSC-U version, the Shadows are also capable of 'posturing'. When cornered and unable to manuever around Ico,e-koʊ, they will sometimes bounce on the tips of their feet, drag their hands across the ground, or perform a set of poses that make them seem bigger or more unnatural in appearance. These animations are present (though often cut short) in the JP/PAL versions as well.

The Shadows can be seen performing a motion that resembles wiping tears away from their face with their arms/wings. Though it hasn't been confirmed that this is the intent, it is difficult to interpret the motion as anything else once you see it through this lens. They can be seen wiping their faces in-between several actions, implying they are crying frequently as they try to carry out their task.

They cry the most when surrounding Yorda's statue, seemingly devastated at their own success (Note: In the Japanese and PAL releases, you can only see them performing the crying animation in the sacrifice room before Icoe-koʊ gets close to them). Under this reading, there's a strong implication that The Queen's magic forces them to do her bidding, even as they are aware of themselves and their own feelings.

By the end of the game, it becomes clear that these Shadows are actually what remains of the sacrificed children.

Just before facing The Queen, Icoe-koʊ finds a group of Shadows in disinctly humanoid forms, surrounding Yorda'syorudas frozen stone statue. When he approaches, they stop wiping their eyes and turn to face his direction. When he moves even closer with his blade at the ready, they back away, fly, and scurry about, but no longer attack. They still employ all the usual combat tactics, but this time without any objective in mind.

They are aimless, curious, and afraid.

Icoe-koʊ slashes through each new Shadow that appears. None of the new arrivals take on a monstrous form. They all appear as horned children with the same large metal cuffs that once locked Icoe-koʊ into the stocks of his coffin. Each time they are destroyed by the magic sword, their smoke flies into one of those coffins, and remains there while the runes glow. Trapped once again, they cannot respawn.

In total, there are 53 Shadows destroyed, and 53 coffins filled. Icoe-koʊ was meant to be the 54th, and was the very last sacrifice needed to fill the hall, and presumably complete The Queen's ritual.

• Shadows are vulnerable to tall bodies of water (typically knee-height). As soon as they step into it, their smoke-like bodies instantly dissipate.

• Some of the Shadows' physical traits and movement, especially their hunched posture, resemble The Count's Assassins from the animated film, "Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro". In 2011, Fumito Ueda was quoted saying the film was his favorite among Hayao Miyazaki's works. It's not difficult to imagine this admiration for the film may have prompted a visual inspiration.

  Credit to tropicalwave on Tumblr for these GIFs illustrating the movement.