I absolutely loved this game, while at the same time I encountered everything you did. Sort of...
I didn't encounter the issues with controls as much as you obviously did, certainly not to the point of frustration. Argo was only good for long distance travel, so I didn't use him for much of anything else. Getting on him happend about as often as I'd need to travel out and kill a colossus, give or take however many times a colossus knocked me off my horse. Again, I absolutely loved this game, aside from the beautiful atmosphere I wholefully enjoyed the horse mechanic. It was like riding a real beast instead of the typical fantasy motorcycle often depicted in fictional works like dungeons and dragons games that ride endlessly with no stop for rest food water shelter or sleep. He fights with you, he refuses to jump off cliffs, shit knocks him down but he gets right back up, and he's always a whistle away. That horse was friggen DEPENDABLE man.
Yeah it gets kind of annoying when he whines instead of walks, but I found I could more easily alleviate my own frustration by altering my route a few feet to the left or right instead of insisting he climb the bloody rock.
As for difficulty climbing the colossi, I found this more to be because it was SUPPOSED to be difficult. Too many games make shit easy for us, then we complain when there is no challenge, then when we are given a proper challenge we complain that it's too hard. There are some issues with climbing and more than once Wander simply wouldn't do what I wanted him to, but how easy could it have been to program a game where you cling to a mobile and frequently jostling beast some 50 feet tall so you can stab it in the head?
What the game developers were able to give me definitly outweighed the few issues I found in this game. I was also entirely engrossed in the world while I played and there wasn't a lot of your typical game mechanics nonsense to break the flow for me so maybe I didn't notice the faults as hard as someone else would. When a game REALLY works at getting me immersed (aside from pulling cheap tricks like letting me name my character and keeping the protagonist mute...) I get immersed. Shadow of Colossus to me is that one good book you have on your shelf that you can grab and sit down with and completely forget where you are.
As for hype, I'm not sure what you mean, the only people I know who know about Shadow of Colossus are because I told them about it, and the only reason I know about it is because I saw the impressive cover art on the game guide. "What's this? A small man with a sword staring down a titan?" I flipped through the book and immediately fell in love with the concept. I was unaware the game was related to Ico, a game I did not get to play and didn't purchase mostly because I thought a game about a kid with goofy viking horns leading around a helpless nit was beneath my interests (Woops). This was around the time I finished playing Resident Evil 4, so I was really turned off to the whole 'escort female npc' mechanic.
In the movie Legendary, everyone said the 'dog scene' was sad. I thought this was absolutely retarded. I felt no pity for this scene because the director barely lifted a finger in getting me acquanted with the character or his furry companion. It's like hearing about a relative you never met just kicked the bucket.
That scene with Argo though? I didn't exactly cry but, I had to turn off the game for a while. I screwed up something though and had to replay through that part twice. >_<
I was absolutely NOT HAPPY about losing my faithful companion. That horse put up with so much and he stuck it out with you through thick and thin. The ending was wierd but I appreciate wierd, more games need wierd, but Argo came back and I was stoked.
