The lack of story anywhere up to the ending stopped this game from being a great game for me into being just a good one. Maybe i'd have got more from it if i'd played ICO before, I don't know. I do know there were still many questions I had unanswered that could have been broken up and added inbetween every colossi just to add a little more to the game. By the time I got to the 8th Colossi or so the wonder of fighting huge things had worn off and I was looking for a little substance, but it wasn't there. And yes the large map can be a little annoying, but like Kishi said the games world is amazing, and it's really something to behold.