Saru's shape seems to be based around a orangutan, with long arms which it used to swing around the stalactices of its cave. Its legs were tiny and probably wouldn't be enough to support its whole weight. Its small head sat at the top of its torso, surrounded by crown-like spikes.
Strategy[]
The artbook says, "It hung from the ceiling, and you'd defeat it by dropping it to the floor."
That, coupled with early sketch designs, indicate that Saru was fought in a cave-like area where it would hang onto stalactites. It is unknown how Saru would attack. One idea is that it would've thrown stalactites at the player. However, no separate stalactite objects were found in the PS3 Data Sheets. The idea of a colossus throwing objects was mentioned in an interview by the character designer Shunpei Suzuki, but it is unknown if it was in relation to Saru.[1]
Wander would also likely had to either shoot the stalactites Saru was hanging onto or its arms to make it drop. Sheet data also reveals that Saru was able to jump 75 meters (246.06 feet). Possibly explaining how it got back to the roof after being dropped to the floor, suggesting the player had to drop Saru to the floor more than once.
Location[]
The image of Wander climbing Saru's back shows part of the debug menu. Translating it reveals that it lived in an arena named 'Cave'. The coordinates seen in the screenshot are Agro's local coordinates, being limited to its test stage and not the world map. Saru was never placed in the seamless map, as no texture or stage segments of Cave were found in the PS3 data sheets.
Development History[]
This colossus was created at the start of the game's development in May 2003, and it used to be tested in Stage 4.
The design of Saru seen in-game was that of a round body with long arms that grabbed onto the stalactites. However, it also had various other designs made which are seen in sketches, including a more humanoid one, and one that used all four limbs to move around. It's unknown if those designs were ever tested, or if they were rejected outright.
Saru was one of the first colossi to be cut from the game, not lasting more than a few months in development. Besides its arena never having a seamless model (meaning it never left 2003), the sheet data also reveals that it and Griffin did not have idol statues; nor their own entries in the sound effects parameters (sePARAM) like the other unused colossi. Unlike Griffin however, Saru never even had a unique HUD icon, which was an icon in the shape of the colossus that used to show the weakpoint locations in early builds, introduced sometime near the end of 2003.
It is possible another colossus was created by using the archetype of Saru at some point in development, as the name 'Saru_2' was found in the 'se-frame-table' data sheet and nowhere else. Other examples of this naming scheme include 'Knight_2', which was Buddha, and 'Snake_2', which was Quetzalcoatl.
Trivia[]
Saru's texture segment.
There seems to be some kind of error with Saru's texture segment, as a sprite texture likely for controls display (r1_alert_e) is listed on it.
It's possible it replaced the fur texture originally on it for some unknown reason, as the texture list from the sheets has a texture named "mi2_saru_fur" that isn't in any texture segment.
At one point, it was widely believed that quadrant I3 must have been where Saru's lair was located, since B4's cave already had the 10th colossus in it, and the map from Preview versions seemed to point to the existence of a cavernous structure in the I3 quadrant. However, further analysis revealed that I3 was actually a flat plain and most likely the 9th colossus' early arena location.[2]
Due to the low quality image that was chosen for Saru, a surprising amount of people incorrectly saw its chest as its face. However, a sketch of Saru shows the face clearly, which was small and on top of the chest.
Gallery[]
A picture of Saru.
A test shot of Wander holding onto Saru's back.
Sketch of Saru with an appearance that was more humanoid in shape.
Sketch of Saru with it using its four limbs to grab the stalactites.
Sketch of Saru with an appearance closer to its in-game one.
↑"Suzuki: At first, we were making it without knowing how far we could go. We had specifications for colossi that threw things, or to climb up by grabbing a rope, and we made those as well, but a lot of problems arose and we couldn't make them happen. We were busy refining those parts until just before the software was completed." - Official artbook and guidebook, page 200.
Walkthrough