Colossus VIII

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Colossus VIII
Thy next foe is... A tail trapped within a pail deep within the forest... A shadow that crawls on the walls.
Profile
Developer Nickname	Yamori B (ヤモリB)
Fan-given Nickname	Kuromori
Height	6 m / 19 ft (Real World) 4 m / 13 ft (In-game)
Length	19.3 m / 63.3 ft (Real World) 14 m / 45 ft (In-game)
Location	Underground (G6)
Designer	Hitoshi Niwa (hn)
Gameplay
Time Attack goals (Normal/ Hard)	8:00/7:30 (Original, PS3) 6:00/7:00 (PS4)
Agro	No
Sigils	Normal: 2 major Hard: 2 major

The 8th Colossus, resembling a gigantic gecko, is one of sixteen bosses fought in Shadow of the Colossus. This wall-climbing colossus can be found in a tall, narrow arena located in quadrant G6.

Path to the colossus

See also: Map for this path

Shadow of the Colossus - 8th Colossus 1 2

Video - Path to the 8th Colossus

The sword will direct the player southeast to a ravine. When the path branches, head left and look for a cave entrance. This passage leads to an area inside the cliffs filled with greenery and a waterfall. Be cautious to not jump here and fall; Wander won't walk off one of the ledges, but will leap. Head east from here along the path to find a temple surrounded by a ring of water. Wander will have to part ways with Agro here. Inside the temple, there will be a ridged pillar to climb up to get to the other side of the room. The hallway beyond leads to the arena.

Walkthrough

Shadow of the Colossus - 8th Colossus 2 2

Video - Battle with the 8th Colossus

The colossus is initially unaware of the player; use this time to become familiar with the arena. There are many staircases connecting its many tiers; go to the highest one. Once there, equip the bow and whistle to get the colossus' attention. Once done, quickly run to the other side of the arena while the colossus climbs up the walls. Its legs look suspicious, like the bottom of the 2nd colossus' hooves. Shoot any of them with an arrow and the colossus will recoil that leg from the wall. Shoot any other leg and the colossus will fall to the bottom of the arena, exposing its two weakspots on its ventral side. The higher the colossus was when it fell, the longer it will take to right itself. If any part of this does not go according to plan, watch out, as this colossus carries a particularly vicious attack: It can launch electric projectiles that will leave a cloud of poison gas on impact, rapidly draining Wander's health as long as he remains in the impact radius. Get out of sight and recover, and when ready, go back up to the top of the arena and get its attention again.

Time Attack times in Original and PS3 versions (Normal, Hard): 8:00, 7:30

Time Attack times in PS4 Remake (Normal, Hard): 6:00, 7:00

Weakspots

Location	Percentage of health
	Normal	Hard
On its belly, between its front legs	50%	50%
On its belly, between its back legs	50%	50%
On each ankle (4)	Makes it lose its grip

Tips and tricks

• If one has difficulty aiming for the legs to make the colossus fall, then aiming for the belly is an alternative to consider. Three shots are required to make this work instead of the usual two.
• It is also possible for Wander to climb to the topmost layer, get its attention, and then go down a few layers and shoot at its legs. That way, it gets stunned for a long time and the player loses little health.
• After shooting the colossus down and it's lying on its back, one can jump from any layer and hold the grab button to latch onto its belly. If done correctly, it allows Wander to get to it quickly with no damage taken.
• Another way to save health is to shoot its legs and while jumping down, grab onto the lowest ridge sticking out of the wall. Letting go from here slows Wander enough so that he takes almost no damage.
• While the colossus is "charging" its attack, Wander can use his bow to hit its head. This makes the colossus temporarily shake it around, apparently disoriented, which causes it to shoot its projectiles randomly and not directly towards Wander. If timed correctly, this can be very useful if running away is not an option. Using the Harpoon of Thunder on Hard Mode will increase the time the colossus shakes its head, thus making it more effective than using the bow.

Attacks

• General
• Unused

General

Attack	Damage (Normal)	Damage (Hard)	Description	Demonstration
Charged Breath	0.8+ (Gas) 3 (Direct hit)	1.6+ (Gas) 10 (Direct hit)	The colossus will take a few moments to charge its breath attack, then launch its blasts wildly in various directions. Avoid the toxic clouds at all cost.
Pulse Breath	0.8+ (Gas) 3 (Direct hit)	1.6+ (Gas) 10 (Direct hit)	Whenever it is at a window, it will spit singular blasts of toxic breath with barely any charge time. Do not stand next to the windows when the colossus is near.
Tail Swipe	40	100	If Wander stands near its tail, it will perform a swipe attack that will launch him flying. Avoid fighting it on the ground.

Unused

Attack	Version	Damage	Description	Demonstration
Quick Breath	E3 Demo	0.5+ (Gas) 30 (Direct hit)	In the E3 Demo, if Wander is next to the colossus' face, it will spit at the ground quickly with no charge time - spreading gas and making it extremely dangerous to be close to it.

Music

Phase	Plays in	Music
Pre-Battle	Plays once the battle starts.	Black Blood
Phase 1	Plays once the colossus becomes aware of Wander's presence.	Liberated Guardian
Phase 2	Plays after the colossus falls on its back.	A Despair-filled Farewell

Trivia

• General
• E3 Demo
• Earlier versions

General

• This is the first of four colossi that uses a ranged attack. Its attack amongst these four, however, is unique in that it is the only long-range attacker whose projectiles leave a cloud of damaging gas that lingers for quite some time. This gas covers a fairly large area and can drain Wander's health quickly if he remains in it for long.
• This is the only colossus capable of scaling walls during its fight.
• This is the third-smallest colossus after the 11th and 14th colossi. The two same pieces of music, "Liberated Guardian" and "A Despair-filled Farewell", play whilst fighting all three colossi.
• Many people have found a way to jump onto the 8th colossus' belly while it's climbing up. This is not recommended, however, as it is not only difficult to perform but very glitchy if Wander holds on too long (such as being launched miles into the air or being turned invisible with clipping).
• The 8th colossus shares some similarities with the colossus that immediately follows it: the 9th. Both the 8th and 9th colossi, while being two of the seven quadrupedal colossi, are the only two whose legs extend out to the sides of the their bodies rather than directly downwards, as is the case with all the other quadrupeds. This gives them both a distinctly lizard-like gait and makes them appear more reptilian. Both have to be attacked around the legs in order to tip them over to gain access to their weakpoint sigils, both use long range projectile attacks, and each are viewed as being highly aggressive. Finally, both have heavily-armored and ridged backs.
• The 8th colossus makes a lot of hissing and seething bellows while it's fighting.
• Out of all 16 colossi, the 8th colossus has the shortest death sequence of all, roughly only seven seconds long.
• From the location in which it is fought, this is one of three battles that the player is unable to see the pillars of light that the fallen bodies of other colossi emit, with the other two being the 6th and 10th colossi.
• The fight with the 8th colossus is the only battle wherein Wander will cover his face. When Wander is in the poisonous gas that the colossus fires, he puts his arm over his mouth.
• The trees outside of the 8th colossus' lair have the same texture as some colossi's skin, especially the 6th's; both are bluish with dark spots.
• When the 8th colossus walks, it leaves burn-like marks into the ground.
• In the PS4 Remaster, there is a trophy that can be obtained for killing the 8th colossus before it can flip back on its feet for the first time.
• Dormin's introduction line for the 8th colossus reads as "A tail trapped within a pail deep within a forest". Yet its lair in the final game is not actually located near any forests, making Dormin's line curious.

E3 Demo

• The 8th colossus' model was somewhat different in the E3 Demo. Its textures were brighter and its tail was similar in shape to the artbook screenshot of Yamori A's early design.
• The colossus was much faster, and its breath attack had the ability to blast Wander away dealing damage, in addition to leaving poisonous gas. The effect of the breath attack was also different, being colored blue and leaving no electricity on the gas cloud. The animation of Wander covering his face wasn't implemented by this point yet, making it harder to tell which spots are dangerous if the player is not attentive enough of their health bar. It also had an extra attack if Wander stood in front of it: the Colossus will launch a single breath ball with no charging time at the ground, causing Wander to stumble backwards and leaving gas.

The drip texture.

• The colossus also has a unused effect tied to the footmarks that was left in the files from the E3 Demo. The effect was called "ymr_footmark_drip.npe", and its texture was that of a dripping black liquid. The effect used to stretch the texture slowly and then dissolve it, but was removed from the animation which sets the footmark to be left by its paws while it walks, as well as the effect itself being changed so it no longer appears, as it was mapped to the transparent parts of the texture.
  

Earlier versions

• A Famitsu interview details the 8th colossus' development: "I had the idea of making it go up the wall from the beginning, but initially I placed more importance on its angle when it was stuck to the wall. I called it Yamori, but there was actually another Colossus of a similar type. It was a Colossus that would chase you while you were climbing up the wall, and the strategy was to defeat it by clinging to its back with a back jump. We figured it would be pointless to show the same thing twice, so we finally narrowed it down to one."
• A particular page from the artbook showing three designs for gecko colossi states that three types of 8th colossus existed at one point, that all of them are shown in it, and that all three had different strategies and weakpoint locations. This may possibly suggest that these aren't just different designs for just one colossus, but actually three different gecko colossi; such as Yamori A, another colossus similar to the 8th that existed in the past.
• A couple different models of the 8th colossus existed in the past. They are all listed below:
  • Yamori: Not to be confused with the unused colossus Yamori A. This was the differently-patterned design shown in the artbook, originally as big as the 9th colossus, since the size of the later model is reduced in-game by 80%. Ueda mentions in a famitsu interview that the angle when it was stuck to the wall mattered, and the skeleton of the 8th colossus reveals that it used to have four weakpoints throughout its body.
  • Yamori B Ver. 1: Sometimes called Yamori2 or Yamori Revision, this version is not seen in any public footage or screenshots, but one can get an idea by looking at the crude placeholder model of Yamori A shown in the artbook, where it looks very similar to the final design of the 8th colossus. The overall size of the boss was likely changed at this point, being reduced by 80%.
  • Yamori B Ver. 2: The final model. It's unknown what precisely changed besides the stone eyes being replaced with swirly eyes and the tail no longer being separated.
• The 8th colossus' skeleton includes some bones that do not serve any purpose and don't fit its current body, such as having a bone for a fourth toe behind each paw and several bones on top of its back named "UROKO (scale)", resembling the parts on top of its earliest design from the artbook.
• The PS3 sheet data lists a HUD icon for "Yamori_A", however, it likely is referring to the first model of the 8th colossus and not the unused colossus. HUD icons are an icon in the shape of the colossus that used to show the weakpoint locations in early builds.

Gallery

• Original
• Remake
• Earlier versions

Original

Image of the 8th colossus taken from the official artbook.

The 8th colossus sees Wander.

The 8th colossus about to shoot Wander.

Same as the previous screenshot.

The 8th colossus attacking from a window.

The 8th colossus climbing on the walls.

The 8th colossus viewed from above.

The 8th colossus incapacitated.

The 8th colossus' corpse.

Idol statue of the 8th colossus.

Game over screen of the 8th colossus.

Size chart of the 8th colossus (Credits: Nomad Colossus).

Remake

Full model of the 8th colossus in the remake.

Wander facing off agaisnt the 8th colossus in the remake.

The 8th colossus in the remake.

The 8th colossus ready to shoot.

Earlier versions

The 8th colossus in the E3 Demo.

Top view of the E3 Demo version.

E3 Demo version of the 8th colossus charging its breath attack.

Breath attack of the E3 Demo version.

A very early development model of the 8th colossus. The HUD suggests that it is around the same time of development as the screenshots of Saru and Griffin.

8th colossus' skeleton with the "UROKO (scale)" bones highlighted. They seem to resemble the protrusions coming out of the sides of the old Yamori model from the previous image.

An early design sketch for the 8th colossus. Its design resembles the early screenshot from the artbook. The lower part of its neck is covered in fur and its top part seems to be covered in some type of grass or moss.

Another early design sketch for the 8th colossus. Its stomach is covered in fur and its mouth resembles that of its final version.

Side view of the previous sketch.

Another design sketch for a gecko colossus resembling an axolotl. The only apparent fur on it seems to be on its head and neck, possibly also on its back. Its mouth doesn't appear to be able to launch projectiles. There is a possibility that this is a sketch for Yamori A.

Sketch of the 8th colossus' idol found in the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus PS3 Booklet flier.

References