The artbook says, "Its head detail resembled that of a frilled lizard", which can be clearly seen in the screenshots. Its wings seemed thin and leathery, like those of a bat. Its neck was very long, because "I actually wanted to do a long-necked bird-type."[1]
Strategy
Fumito Ueda stated in an interview to the French cultural magazine Chronic'art that Roc would need to be pursued with Agro, similar to the battle with the 13th colossus; "The player was supposed to chase this flying colossus on horseback and shoot it down with the bow."[2]
Roc's frills glowed, like other colossi with bow weakpoints (examples being the bottom of the 2nd colossus' hooves and the 9th colossus' ankles) suggesting that it may have been such a weakness. Further evidence of this is in one of the 13th colossus' sketches, which described the colossus' hatches as well as its early muscle-like tendon, and how they are like Roc's: "Opens and closes. Muscular. Luminous. (like Roc's weakness)"[3] This also appears to suggest that Roc's frills opened and closed, protecting its sigil in a similar way to the 13th colossus.
In the brief footage of Roc, Wander is seen holding his bow when the colossus dives down at him. It can be presumed that shooting Roc in the frills would make it fall, allowing the player access to its body and sigil.
Location
Roc was fought in a massive impact crater in an earlier version of the quadrant 'D6', called the Badlands, before the 6th colossus was moved there.
A glimpse of Roc's pillar and crater in 'D6' were found in an old picture of the 13th colossus; the discovery of which led to multiple other pieces of evidence being unearthed to confirm its location as 'D6', with the 6th colossus being originally absent from the area.[4]
An uncut version of the NICO trailer featured in the Tokyo Game Show on September 25, 2004 shows the Roc's tower and the surrounding crater-style hole in D6, proving its location once and for all.[5]
Development History
This colossus was created near the start of the game's development in 2003, but was also one of the last ones to be added, as it used to be tested in Stage 23 out of 26.
Before Roc was created, there existed an archetypical boss in the early days named 'Kubinaga'. This boss was originally created using the archetype of 'Bird' (the 5th colossus), being referred to as 'Bird III' in its concept art. This boss used to be tested on Stage 11, but later on that stage was replaced with Yamori A and the Sluice for unknown reasons.
Roc
Later in 2003, Roc was created and placed on Stage 23 - Badlands, a grassy crater with a broken tower in the middle. Meteorites likely existed in the area due to the texture named 'hw_grd_moon'.
At some point in early 2004, Badlands was placed in quadrant D6, next to the 13th colossus' desert, where it stayed in until it was cut.
A Shadow of the Colossus trailer originating from a rare promo dvd titled 'WANDA.Title 1' shows a short clip of the battle with Roc, in which Wander is seen riding Agro while the colossus attacks from above.[6] The trailer date is 24th August 2004.
Roc most likely survived production until near the end of 2004, together with Sirius, Devil, Phoenix, and Yamori A, as all of them had AdpcmVolControl sheets, as indicated by the data sheets. Roc's texture segment also had a fair amount of textures, including textures for the electricity seen in the sigils from late beta screenshots of Snake and Knight; Badlands' texseg also seems to imply the arena was very detailed. Another evidence that Roc survived such a long time is that it had a unique idol statue in the Shrine of Worship, also indicated by the data sheets.
After the world map was reduced at the end of 2004, Roc was cut from the game. Fumito Ueda stated Roc was removed because of issues with collision detection.[2] Evidence for this can be seen in the Roc footage, since Roc clips through the ground when it dives down to attack Wander.
After it was removed, Minotaur B's Canossa was moved from F6 to D6, replacing the Badlands' crater with a mountain very similar to the one in F6. The quadrants to the west of it (B6/C6) were also replaced with mountains. The full tail of Roc was also added to Dormin's model. However, most of it was cut after the E3 Demo, with only a small piece of it remained.
Trivia
To date, Roc is the only unused colossus to be seen in video footage as opposed to development screenshots.
An old clip taken from an early trailer of the game, which depicted Wander walking through the E5 forest passage to the desert, revealed that the 6th colossus' mountain was mysteriously absent from the area at the time, and in its place was the big rock seen in the screenshot of Roc sitting on the pillar.[7]
An extended version of the same trailer from TGS 2004 shows Roc's tower and its crater in D6, as discovered by the fan known as Aith.[5]
Roc was originally speculated to have been located at 'B3' due to a comparison between the Roc screenshots and the low-resolution image of the 'B3' quadrant as seen from above revealing supposed similarities in their geometry. It was found out years later to have been nothing but a coincidence when it was discovered that Yamori A lived in that quadrant.[8]
A page from the issue #285 of the Dengeki Playstation magazine shows an edit of Roc seemingly at D6, its former location.[9]
Gallery
Roc swooping down towards Wander in D6.
Chronic'art French magazine version of the previous image. Some details are seen better on it.
Roc in flight.
A close-up of Roc's face.
Another shot of Roc in flight.
Roc perched on its tower, resembling the 5th colossus at the start of its battle.
Chronic'art French interview with Fumito Ueda (translated).
Walkthrough