The creator already said it was on purpose . I don ' t know how or why it ' s doubtful . These are people who make games . They know how to create controls . What ' s more doubtful is the notion that they can come up with puzzles in Ico or the gameplay mechanics of SOTC and don ' t know how to make responsive controls . Of course they know how to make the controls responsive , they just choose not to by design . I don ' t even think Wander was skilled enough , certainly not to the standards of an action hero . In that era it was what , Kratos , Dante , etc . who do amazing feats at the press of a button . Wander can ' t hold on for too long , he needs to recharge his stamina , he can barely make jumps , he needs to gather his strength before making a strike . I compare that to action heroes where a press of a button and it ' s one whole swing without fanfare and enemies get stabbed through the body and get knocked back . The mechanics spoke for the inability of Wander to do it as an action hero . It ' s a struggle to take one down , frustrating even . He has to do a lot of stuff to take one down . Compare that to other action hero characters where all they have to do is hit the giant enemy until its HP goes down and goes on for the spectacular finish . Also , those aren ' t excuses to defend the game . It ' s to educate people who look at the game and immediately form an opinion without looking beneath the surface .