'SOME BIRDS AREN'T MEANT TO BE KEPT'

essay on the value of Freedom in ICO by Bruno de Figueiredo

One of the genuine virtues of ICO lies in the fact that the game can be interpreted in so
many different ways that one can only complain about not having the time or the
intellectual resources to debate them all. Where a whole community of gamers displays
an aggravated concern for the number of hours a videogame experience provides,
Fumito Ueda’s game stands as substantiation that the truly important games exceed the
threshold of their playing time. The characters, places and distinct emotions remain in
our minds as constantly renewed memories, in the light of each new moment lived or
lesson learned.

Freedom is not without its cost, and so also seems to be quite true within this
videogame’s universe. The character we control here is, by definition, a victim of
ostracism in a society that excommunicates those of his unique kind. The cold, solitary
space of the cocoon in which our character is enclosed isn’t but an exaggerated
perception of the modern day prisons, hospices and sanatoriums. All these represent
real confinement spaces that can commonly be found throughout the present world.

- The Carceri d'Invenzione (Imaginary Prisons) are a series of prints designed by Italian artist Giovanni Battista
Piranesi, often mentioned as a precursor to surrealism due to the distorted nature of these drawings. They were a
great influence in the creation of the Castle in ICO, as seen in the large rooms and tall arches, as well as many
other architectural solutions -
Yet even in these tight spaces, rooms, cells; the imagination of Man reaches out far
beyond the walls that delimit the space. The desire for liberty turns captives into
dreamers, individuals who are forced to dissolve the constant feeling of loneliness by
means of imagination and distraction - which is to say there is no prison for the
emancipated mind.

- The pursuit of Freedom in videogames -

- The arcade game flyer for BREAKOUT -

Videogames do have an awkward relationship with the concept of imprisonment. The

first videogame to have a story was 1976’s BREAKOUT, designed by Steve Wozniak and
Steve Jobs in just four days. Although that little description and artwork seem to have
become lost in time, the original arcade cabinet for the game offered a full description
of what the on-screen symbols meant: while drawn in elemental shapes such as squares
and rectangles, the block-hitting action represented a convict breaking a wall with a
hammer. Somehow that main theme was lost and forgotten in time, especially because
of its successive remakes that reinterpreted the symbolic nature of the original version.
 - The first screen of Prince of Persia, where the character is thrown into a dungeon while hearing the
sound of metal bars closing -

A little more than ten years after this game’s release, Jordan Mechner authored his
magnum opus: Prince of Persia. Set in the ancient lands of the orient, this exotic-
themed game delved into the tragedy of a kingdom lost due to the tyranny of one evil
vizier. Our character begins his solitary quest when thrown into the pits, a complex
maze of corridors and closed rooms from which he must evade. The main goal, however,
is not only to preserve our own physical integrity, but to save the princess from the
ruthless villain.

The ticking clock is a permanent reminder that a greater, altruistic mission is yet to be
completed. At this point we may once again return to the early 80’s, where Shigeru
Miyamoto inaugurated the videogame concept of hero to the rescue: the year was 1981
and DONKEY KONG was the hit arcade game of the season. Ironically, Nintendo’s game
was also a pioneer, as it was the first arcade title to present a story within the very
game environment. The gameplay itself was essentially an entr’acte between the
kidnapping of the fragile plot element, the girl, and the rescue performed by the heroic
icon, by then known as Jumpman.
 - Arrested by an evil alien force, Lester, the main character in Another World, is thrown into a hanging cage where he
meets another captive, a sympathetic native alien who will become our friend and companion through the process of
escaping. -

Following Mechner’s footsteps, a young French visual artist and programmer ventured
into a single-handed project which would originate on of history’s greatest videogames:
Another World is a 1991 game by Eric Chahi that narrates the story of Lester, a physicist
who mysteriously vanishes into another planet while performing an experiment with a
particle accelerator. Apart from an introspective exercise on the very condition of the
lone videogame player, being sucked through the computer screen into a whole new
world, the game is also known for being a solitary adventure of a stranger in a strange
land.

After being captured by a hostile alien species, we must escape their domain. For that
we can count on the help of an inmate, also an extra-terrestrial who helps us escape.
The lack of a shared language between the two effectively indicates the desire to
create a coherent ambience where the player felt out of place, though not at all alone.
 - Abe's outlandish odyssey begins after he learned that the factory where he works is using his brethen as raw material for
canned meat. While escaping, he must also provide safe conduct to his fellow workers who are scattered around the
vicinities -

From then on, several examples of freeing experiences in videogames arose. Oddworld
Abe’s Odyssey is a distinct example of comradeship in a hostile environment. The hero,
Abe, is to save all of the employees belonging to his species who work at Rupture Farms,
a meat plant who’s turning them into canned food. Cooperation and communication,
apart from a massive amount of platforming, are the key elements to this outlandish
adventure.

- Foretaste -

Incorporating some elements from these previous games, ICO focused on the
confinement of two characters, strangers to each other, and the monumental barrier
placed in their way: an oppressive castle, isolated in a remote island. Yet the depth in
which the inner dimension of the characters was explored surpassed all which was seen
so far in the videogame medium, to a point where we may discriminate different kinds
of motivations behind each character’s subjective quest for liberty.
In 1958, philosopher Isaac Berlin suggested two different types of that one, same word:
Freedom. In his essay, presented in Oxford in 1958, he discerned between positive and
negative freedom, two sides of a well-known and debated concept whose full meaning is
still ambiguous and elusive. Negative freedom is that which is based on the lack of
constraints, for instance when one is freed from an oppressive agent: hence known as
freedom from, implying a past restrictive force of an individual over another. The
positive kind, however, often mentioned as freedom to, consists of the liberty to realize
one’s will, as opposed to the thought of a pre-ordained scheme or, as it is most
commonly known, Destiny.

- Ico gazing the vicinity of the castle before freeing Yorda -

It is indeed interesting to apply Berlin’s model of dichotomist freedoms to the

interpretation of this virtual model, in an attempt to better understand the character’s
motivations. Kept in a hanging cage of conformism, much like some domestic bird, Yorda
follows Ico with noticeable trust, to a point where she dares to defy the imposed order
of a castle she seems to know. There is a very intimate relationship between this
character and the spatial dimension of the castle, as indicated by her tendency to point
the way when the player feels lost.

Despite the great ambiguity concerning the true stimulus that drives Yorda – free will or
maybe plain conformity with a new situation she is also unable to control - there is
certainty in the fact that from the occasion she holds hands with Ico and roams the
castle, she is indeed eloping from the natural order imposed by a third character, the
Queen: the fear of stepping over the line is clearly seen in the slow, hesitant manner
she gives her first step out of the open cage.

Also entrapped, Ico’s escape from the dark-stoned cocoon is the origin of all the
commotion. Even if one is reluctant to accept that there is a larger force at work when
the capsule falls from the wall for no evident reason, the very fact that it was loose
defies any presumption that it was a plain accident. From this moment on the player
can roam freely about the castle, visiting locations as he wishes, unlocking the way to
new ones as he progresses. He has distanced himself from the first confining element –
the very first example of freedom from seen in ICO.

Even for the most distracted player, the creators sought to provide constant reminders
of the importance that the concept of being free has in this narrative. Every obstacle is
a setback and in this game, every closed door bears significant weight and is meant to
dissuade or discourage the player. There is a slight notion of guilt arising, for we know
the act of fleeing is so evidently forbidden.

Not knowing the precise background for each of the characters, there is no plausible
reason to assume they didn’t earn their status as captives. We hold them as innocent,
fragile children. We control them, so, by tradition, we hastily infer they are good
characters. We cheer for their safe conduct to the realm of random possibilities: in
other words, the outside world, seen in the distant background. Those lands, those
forests we see at a distance from the open vicinities of the castle are the unreachable
object of our desire.

There is a specific moment in the game when the children find the gates to the exterior
of the castle widely open. This is the first moment where the player is led to believe he
has the chance to leave the island behind. But due to Yorda’s lack of strength or
unwillingness to leave, Ico feels compelled to remain with her instead of exiting by
himself. In his 1960 film, Le Trou, Jacques Becker offered a splendorous example which
can easily be compared with this specific case.

The film tells the story of five inmates who have a plan to escape prison by digging a
hole through the cemented wall on the sewer network which is preventing them from
reaching the streets. In a naturalist and obsessive fashion, Becker’s work depicts the
prisoner’s daily routine of digging a hole through a thick wall. In the last night of the
digging, two of the characters that exited the cell in order to access the digging spot
manage to finish the escaping tunnel and escalate the stairs in order to see if their path
was indeed clear. As they lift the cover for a manhole in the sewers of some back alley,
they observe a night scene of a street with a passing car.

That precise shot can easily be considered the climax of the movie: the scent of fresh
air, the absence of walls, and the sheer possibility of running away to any place in the
world creates a feeling which words cannot describe. It is a dirty back-alley of some
sort, covered in the late-night mist. But the fact that it is an open road makes it the
most memorable of landscapes.
 - An assortment of various moments from one of the final scenes in Jacques Becker's movie "Le Trou" (The Hole) -

At this precise point of the game, the player also has a chance to meet a personification
of all evil in the context of this space, the so-called third agent or Queen, which mocks
at our attempt to run away. Despite her tyrannical power display and her harsh words,
this scene marks the beginning of a new stage of liberty seeking in the game. After
activating the proper mechanisms, the player finds the gates open once more to, what
déjà vu, presence a similar situation.

As Yorda is taken away, Ico is left powerless in some crude, hanging cages outside the
castle’s vicinity. Instead of looking for his way out, now that he is no longer inside the
castle, his intention is to go back to the castle, at the risk of losing his own life. If one is
to infer anything from this unselfish act is that at a certain point, Ico is less concerned
about freeing himself from the Castle which moments ago encircled him, but to realize
his own power: we now enter the phase where the character expresses his freedom to
realize his will or, in this case, rescue his friend.
 - Go the distance -

Many reasons can be suggested as to why the young boy feels challenged to perform
such a task, compromising his well-being for the sake of another character which he met
so recently. In effect, this story bears an exceptional amount of ambiguity, so the player
is comfortable to suggest his own point of view over various, unanswered questions and
unexplained issues. However, it would seem appropriate to underline the almost evident
Destiny theme implied here, where a force, larger than the characters themselves, is
constantly providing a way so that events can occur in a predetermined fashion. We may
interpret this Destiny force as the very design of the game or the player’s actions
following it.

Whereas the game allows the player to control the characters as he wishes, there is no
method of avoiding the regular progression of the game: there is only one possible path
and not a great amount of variety when it comes to cross it. And this path dictates that
Ico, somewhere along the way, somehow, envisions his true freedom not as a single
being, but only when in the company of that other girl whose awkward manners and
charms have blown him away. Whatever the possibility the player comes up with, it is
sure to involve reciprocal feelings between both characters.

Another motive for Ico’s final quest may be the shocking sight of comprehending, in
loco, the reason why his species was being sacrificed, as well as the pitiable state of
apathy he finds Yorda in. That may be accounted as an additional reason behind the
brave act of confronting the authoritative Queen in a final battle. As an uncanny twist of
fate, when all seems to be lost for Ico, the role of saviour switches to Yorda, throwing
him on a boat that reaches shore. After waking up, as if from a long slumber, Ico and
Yorda meet once again on that oneiric setting in the form of a beach. Much like the
space itself or the view of the open sea that swallowed the overwhelming island as it
cracked, the fates of these characters are now in their own hands. Ico and Yorda have
attained the freedom to realize their own will.

Though Destiny has played an exceptional part in this episode of their lives, the game
ends here and so does the player’s ability to control the characters. Notwithstanding,
the open nature of this narrative leaves the strong impression that the character’s story
will go on, even after the player switches the console off: he has breathed life into
them. Hence the long-lasting impression ICO has had in so many players around the
world, as a lesson of the true value of being able to decide our course, even if at times,
so many aspects of our lives seem to place themselves beyond our grasp.

"I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged.
Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of
you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice."
Shawshank Redemption