The game focuses on a young man named Wander who must travel across a vast expanse on horseback and defeat sixteen beings, simply known as colossi, to restore the life of a girl. The game is unusual within the action-adventure genre in that there are no towns or dungeons to explore, no characters with which to interact, and no enemies to defeat other than the colossi. Shadow of the Colossus has been described as a puzzle game, as each colossus’ weakness must be identified and exploited before it can be defeated.