I2

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I2
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Quadrant	I2
Connecting Quadrants	H2 I3
Seamless Designer	Mitsuhiro Shimooki (sk)

I2 (also known as Beta Dam by fans) is a unused location present in every release of Shadow of the Colossus, except for the PS4 version.

Description

The unfinished quadrant is well renowned for its distinct architecture, with many elements of its design reminding players of the stylistic construction of The Castle seen in ICO.

There's a winding pathway emerging from a cave, trailing along a mountain ridge before wrapping around to a two-leveled walkway.

The upper level prominently features a partially smashed causeway, highly reminiscent of the ones found leading to the 7th colossus' lake. Below, a narrow bridge overlooks the surrounding void, being identical in places to the one found in the Waterfall stage from ICO.

At the end of the bridge, the path opens up to a sprawling green field lined by cliffs to the south before being jarringly cut off at the quadrant's western edge. To the north of the range, a ruined arch can be found, scattered about with rubble and ruins. Three steps are within the ground just before the archway, suggesting there might have once been more to the structure in the distance past.

Location

Located at quadrant I2, this area is distinct in that it is the only prominently complete structure to be found. The majority of adjacent quadrant zones are largely empty, leaving the stranded model floating largely alone in the void.

The adjacent I3 quadrant was speculated for many years to have once housed Saru; but was debunked since if it was discovered to be a flat plain, and the early location of the 9th colossus as there's various pieces of evidence pointing to it being the case.

History

The I2 quadrant was first discovered by Games F&Q forums user Pikol on February 9th, 2009, while searching for the lands seen in the opening intro cutscene. Sadly, his original channel no longer exists, but a copy of his video has been archived and re-uploaded by Nomad Colossus.

Originally believed to be a leftover model from either the 6th colossus' arena or a rejected concept for the waterfall at the 12th colossus' lake, it would be later discovered by Nomad Colossus that the I2 quadrant was its proper location. It, along with the rest of the beta mountains, were in fact remnants of a much earlier version of the game that included a larger, more complete landscape.

Purpose

The purpose of the I2 quadrant was to be a path connecting the southeast to the northeast.

The cave at the southern side of I2 appears to have once led further south into the I3 quadrant, where an early permeation of the 9th colossus was located, thanks to various pieces of evidence such as a lack of a "slow_i3" texture in the sheets, with an unused "slow_geyser" texture listed; various test areas from the east of the map matching the 9th colossus' arena; the old texture segment of the arena having textures that match both I2 and I4 (Crater) and more.

Another reason for its existence was likely for the player to be able to glimpse the final battleground before it happens, as the rejected final boss' unused arena was just on the other side of the ravine at quadrant I1.

Restoration

• On September 28th, 2018 Nomad Colossus unveiled a video titled Shadow of the Colossus - The Beta Dam with collisions. In this, I2 was showcased with the addition of collision detection manually added back to the quadrant with the assistance of "Wisi".
• A short while later, a follow-up video was uploaded, titled Shadow of the Colossus - Beta Dam playable ISO. The video was much the same as the first: showcasing the now-solid I2 - but with the new addition of patching several small voids in the incomplete structure. Additionally; a playable version of the preview version demo of the game was included in the video's description, with the game modified to include the solid dam.
• On April 27th, 2021 Intrepid Explorer (also known as 'Aith') released a video titled Shadow of the Colossus: Project Beta Dam!. The video is an exploration of quadrants not found in the original game, that being H2 and H1. The models for those quadrants were made by "Intrepid Explorer" himself, while the act of adding them to the game's ISO itself was done by "Wander's Factory" and "Wisi". The new quadrants feature more orange brick structures spread throughout, which can be climbed providing nice views; an early model of the oasis found in the E3 Demo textured to match the environment; a Save Shrine modelled after its earlier incarnation, made by "FantaSkink", and much more.

Trivia

• While known to have been in the PS3 version's files, it was not known if it was still placed into the game world until Nomad Colossus had successfully reached it in 2020.
• It is likely that the broken archways near the cliff edge were the last objects to be added to the model; as a texture segment for a Shimooki test (developer responsible mostly for the eastern side of the map) includes all textures from I2, minus the archway's. Further evidence of this is that the archway texture is the last one listed in I2's texture segment.
• The mountain textures of I2 are named: "sk_rwl_canyon_yelw_a001_mip", with "canyon" being the name of the arena of the 5th colossus. It's possible that an earlier version of Canyon had those textures, or another version of them, as similar looking textures can be glimpsed in a short clip of the earlier version of the 5th colossus. The reason I2 has them is likely because Canyon used to be closer to I2, at quadrant H3.
• In the PS3 data sheets two textures can be found listed relating to I2. "slow_i2_mip" and "slow_i2_wall_mip". This suggests the quadrant had a SLOW model generated for it but it was nulled out at some point.
• An old theory proposed that the dam was a backdrop to the Devil colossus' battle, due to in one of the early Devil screenshots, somewhat similar structures and steps could be observed in the background, which were said to be the ruined archway that stands a close distance to the dam structure. The models, however, don't match, and this was since debunked when evidence that Devil lived at D2 was found. Alternative theories proposed that the feature observed at I3 may have been the lake the Phoenix would be driven into to extinguish its flames given the feature's close presence to I2. It's very unlikely for it to be the case however, since the area is way out of bounds from Phoenix's quadrant.

Gallery

The dam structure.

Close-up on the dam.

The crude bridge from the dam structure, taken from the Waterfall stage in ICO.

The big bridge next to the dam, reminiscent of the bridge found in the 7th colossus' arena.

The cave at the southern side of the quadrant that led to I3.

The top of the cave.

Inside the cave.

Orange brick archway on the path to the north of the quadrant, with I1 in the background.

Steps near the brick archway.

The Beta Dam seen from the grass plain.

The Ancient Lands World Era 3 World Era 2 Retail Map Beta Map (fan recreation)