Sluice (Shadow of the Colossus)

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Sluice (Shadow of the Colossus)
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Inhabitant	Yamori A
Quadrant	B3
Stage Number	11
Designer	New: Takeshi Ochiai (ot) Old: Mitsuhiro Shimooki (sk)

For the stage from ICO, see Sluice (ICO).

Sluice is the developer name given to the unused arena of Yamori A, one of the unused colossi. The picture shows the area near the entrance to the arena.

Description

It's unknown what the inside of the Sluice looked like, as the only pictures available of its location are of its entrance and the low resolution texture of B3. It featured unique-looking pillars along a pathway leading to a cave entrance.

The arena itself likely took place inside an underground cave, as it had textures similar to the light that comes out of the hole in the 10th colossus' cave in the final version, and the texture segment named "sluice_sky_blind" suggests it had such a feature as well. It's also likely that it had a man-made structure inside it, as indicated by the texture segment named "sluice_inner", which lists a number of 'steel' and 'block' textures. The shape and size of the arena in the early B3 quadrant texture seems to match with the 8th colossus' oasis-like area before entering the temple leading to its Underground arena; whether this means that the Sluice was reused later to be part of the 8th colossus' arena or not is unknown.

The texture segment 'sluice_water' in the PS3 data sheets proves that the arena contained water, something that can also be inferred from its developer name, which references a water-sliding gate mechanism usually installed on water barrages and/or dams.

Location

The location of Sluice in a mockup version of the early map.

The arena was located on the west side of the Forbidden Lands, next to Lair to the West, at quadrant B3.

The retail and preview versions of the game feature a pathway to the northern side of B4 leading up to a dead-end at B3, which might be a leftover of what used to be the path that led to the Sluice when it was still in the game.

Trivia

• This area was wrongly assumed to have been the name of the Beta Dam, but that was debunked when nothing between the two matched.
• The chip data of Sluice and B3 match perfectly.
• An object belonging to the Sluice named "sluice_rock" has the same textures as an object relating to Yamori A, named "izu_yamoriA_hill". Both of them only contain two textures, named "lb_iwahada" and "sz_tree_skin_buna02_mip".
• The pillars from this area do not exist anymore in the final game. The ones next to the Lakeside and E5 are similar, but aren't the exact same.
• The edge of a light beam can be seen on the image, it is likely pointing to the 10th colossus' arena.
• A piece of an area that used to connect to the outside of Sluice was left in the game, located in quadrant A3. It's untextured, and it has land underneath, which is a feature of reflection models (for water). A3's model only has one material which is also used in B3's cliff walls.

Gallery

The super low resolution texture of B3 found in the OPM Demo.

Near the entrance to the Sluice in B3.

Summary of most of the evidence found regarding B3 being Sluice, and the location that the image with the pillars was taken.

The "izu_yamoriA_hill" and "sluice_rock" connection.

Textures of "sluice_inner".

Textures of Stage 11.

Untextured piece of the Sluice in A3.