The Shrine of Worship is a massive structure located near the center of the Forbidden Lands. It serves as the hub of the game, as Wander is returned to the Shrine after defeating a colossus. Even though the Shrine is in the center of the Lands, it is the first area that Wander actually sets foot in; the only entrance to the Lands is an enormous bridge, spanning halfway across the entire lands, that leads directly to the Shrine.

There are two "rooms" in the Shrine. The first room Wander enters is a cylindrical room with a spiral ramp winding around its edge, which Wander walks down to get to ground level. This room also contains a shallow basin of water. In addition to being important to the plot, the basin is where all Time Attack rewards will show up once unlocked.

The second room is the main hall of the shrine, containing the altar where Mono is placed, the idols representing the sixteen colossi, and a great sunlit aperture in the ceiling of the main hall where Dormin gives orders.

Contents 1 The Secret Garden 2 Climbing up the Shrine 2.1 Video walkthrough 2.2 Image walkthrough 3 Notes

The Secret GardenEdit

At the end of the game, Agro and Mono try to exit the shrine, only to find that the giant bridge has collapsed. They notice, however, a path to their right, which leads them to a beautiful courtyard filled with fruit and various animals (including some not previously seen in the Lands). This location has been referred to as the "garden" or "secret garden" by fans.

It is possible for Wander to climb up the temple (see below) and explore this area. However, none of the animals mentioned above are present, and consuming the fruit will actually lower both Wander's maximum health and stamina considerably. Fumito Ueda, the game's director, puts this in a positive light, however: "The fruit in the ancient land was set to get you closer to non-human existence. The (secret garden's) fruit was set to return you to a human one.

The Garden is, unfortunately, the highest the Shrine can be climbed. The Shrine was not meant to be climbed any higher in the final game; those who have tried to climb higher through various glitches, cheats,

or other exploits found that much of the ground had no collision detection, and that still higher geometry had no texture mapping (beyond, obviously, what is visible from the distant LOD model of the Shrine).

This was not always the case, however. Early builds of the game had a fully-textured top-half of the Shrine; apparently, it was originally planned for Wander to be able to climb all the way up to the top. Since something of that large a scale and so low a development priority was not worth the time required to implement it, however, the idea was scrapped.

Climbing up the ShrineEdit

It is possible to climb up the Shrine all the way to the other side of its northern (back) entrance. From there, you can go to the garden or run all the way across the bridge to the Lands' main entrance. You cannot exit the Lands, however; a mysterious gust of wind will force you back. In the original release, leaping diagonally up the path conserves stamina, as it takes almost no stamina to leap diagonally, and a small ledge could be utilized to rest on. As of the 2011 HD release, leaping diagonally now drains as much stamina as any other directional vertical leap, and it is no longer possible to rest anywhere on the climb up.

Note: the following video walkthrough is relevant only to the original version of the game (attempting the following in the 2011 HD release will not work).

Video walkthroughEdit

Climbing the Shrine(07:09)
537 views

Image walkthroughEdit

NotesEdit

• It takes approximately 8 and a half minutes to run the entire length of the bridge.
• There are 37 fruits to shoot down in the garden. If your health and stamina are maxed out, however, not even this will be enough to return them to the way they first were (it is thus advisable to attempt the 'Cornucopia' trophy at the beginning of a playthrough- when health and stamina are maxed- as one can eat all the fruits of the garden and regain a portion of lost health and stamina by then eating the Forbidden Lands' other fruits, lizards and by defeating colossi).
  

  The cylindrical room with the basin; Wander and Agro can be seen in the picture

  

  The Shrine's main hall

  
  Add a photo to this galleryAdd a photo to this gallery

Shrines and locations in the Forbidden Lands

The Shrine of Worship
Umbral Glade • Stone Arch Gorge • Dried Marsh • Northern Span • Desert Fortress • Misty Falls • Ravine Entrance • Half-moon Canyon •
Western Plain • Round Stone Hill • Lair to the West • Stone Bridge Cliff • Cliff Path • Lair on the Mesa • Western Cape • Arch Bridge Plain •
Blasted Lands • Autumn Forest • Eastern Bluff • Valley Plain • Southwestern Cape • Southern Plain • Green Cape • The Broken Seal

v • d • e
Characters	Wander (Kenji Nojima) • Agro • Mono (Hitomi Nabatame) • Dormin (Kazuhiro Nakata, Kyōko Hikami) • Emon (Naoki Bandō)
The Colossi	( I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • XV • XVI ) • Magic Sigil • Time Attack • Unused Colossi • Hard Mode
The Forbidden Lands	Shrine of Worship • Shadow creatures • Save shrines • Fruit trees • White-tailed lizards and other animals
Production & Staff	Fumito Ueda • Kenji Kaido • Kō Ōtani (Roar of the Earth) • Sony Computer Entertainment • [Full Credits...]
Giantology campaign	(Fake discoveries of Phalanx, Valus, Hydrus, Quadratus, Gaius) • Eric Belson (podcasts 1, 2, 3, 4) • IPICP memo
Other media	Demo • "Nico" bonus DVD • Official artbook/guidebook • Collectible figurines • Upcoming film adaptation by Sony Pictures