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Prince of Persia appreciation [spoilers in dis topic]
tofu
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A brief history (borrowed from wikipedia):
The seven main games can be broken down into 3 series as follows:
These games are fucking awesome; especially the Sands of Time, which may be one of the best games ever made.
Let's talk about these sweet games, and discuss any news on the upcoming movie!
Prince of Persia is an action-adventure video game franchise that was created by Jordan Mechner. Through the various titles, the series has been developed and published by many different companies: the first two games in the series, Prince of Persia (1989 video game) and Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1994), were developed by Brøderbund; in recent years Ubisoft have been the developing the games, with start in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003). Although originally primarily comprising side-scrolling platform video games, the franchise has evolved to three-dimensional action-adventure games, and even spawning a film.
The seven main games can be broken down into 3 series as follows:
The Original trilogyOne day, the Sultan of Persia went to wage war in a foreign land and his vizier, Jaffar, is left to rule in his stead. Jaffar locks the nameless protagonist up because the Princess, Jaffar's love interest, has taken an interest in him. Jaffar then locks up the Princess herself, giving her an ultimatum; marry Jaffar, or die within an hour. The nameless protagonist escapes his prison, and climbs to the top of the tower, to where the Princess is imprisoned, facing a variety of resistance along the way. The Princess' room is guarded by Jaffar, whom the Prince defeats, saving Persia and rescuing the Princess.
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame takes place eleven days after the events of the previous game. During this period, the Prince was hailed as the hero who defeated the evil Jaffar. He turns down all rewards, instead asking for the Princess' hand in marriage which the Sultan of Persia reluctantly agrees to. He then becomes the Prince of Persia, hence the title of the series. As the Prince enters the royal courts of the palace one day, his appearance turns into that of a beggar. Nobody recognizes him, and when he attempts to speak with the Princess, a man who shares his appearance emerges from the shadows, ordering him to be thrown out. With guards pursuing him, the Prince jumps through a window and flees the city by way of merchant ship. The ship is struck by lightning, cast by the man the Prince saw in the royal courts, just after a mysterious woman appears in the barge and asks the Prince to find her. The Prince regains consciousness, and finds himself on the shore of a foreign island. As the Prince finds his way back to Persia, he finds many useful tools in his quest against Jaffar. At one point the Prince's mother, revealed to be the mysterious woman on the ship, shows herself, and explains about her husband's death, and her plight to abandon the Prince so that he might live. In a temple, the Prince finds that he can separate from his body, transforming into the shadow that Jaffar's magic mirror created in the events of Prince of Persia. The Prince uses this motive to steal the sacred flame of the temple, and then travels back to Persia. Here he immediately encounters Jaffar, who flees. The Prince transforms into the shadow bearing the blue flame once again, and pursues Jaffar, whom he catches and casts a blue flame at, defeating him. The Princess awakens from a spell Jaffar set upon her, and the Prince orders Jaffar's ashes be scattered. As the Prince and Princess ride into the distance, however, it is revealed that a witch is watching them through a crystal ball.
Prince of Persia 3D begins with the Prince and Sultan of Persia visiting the Sultan's brother, Assan. Soon enough, the Prince's personal body guards are killed, himself locked in the dungeon, and the Sultan taken by Assan. The Prince escapes the dungeon, and it is revealed that the Sultan of Persia promised Assan many years ago that his daughter would marry his son, Rugnor, not the Prince. The Prince finds the two, but Assan kills the Sultan by mistake, while trying to kill the Prince. Assan runs, but the Prince decides to pursue Rugnor instead, who has taken the Princess of Persia captive. The Prince and Rugnor have many standoffs, but when it becomes clear to Rugnor that the Prince won't give up, and the Princess won't submit to him, he decides to kill her. He ties her to a large gear machine, attempting to crush her. The Prince, however, arrives before this happens, kills Rugnor, and deactivates the machine. The Prince then escapes with the Princess, via a flying beast, but the Prince takes the Princess in the opposite direction of Persia, rather than towards it.
The Sands of Time trilogyPassing through India en route to Azad, King Shahraman and his son, the Prince, conquer the Maharajah of India for honor and glory. After looting the city, they continue to Azad. In Azad, the Vizier of the Maharajah tricks the Prince into releasing the Sands of Time, using the Dagger of Time. The Sands infect everyone in the kingdom, turning them into monsters. The Prince, Farah, and the Vizier remain unchanged due to their possessions; a dagger, a medallion, and a staff, respectively. On a journey to repair the damage he has caused, the Prince teams with Farah to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass, using the Dagger of Time. As they make their way to the Hourglass of Time, the Prince hesitates, and the Vizier uses magic to throw him and Farah into a tomb. The Prince awakens, and the Dagger and his weapon have been stolen by Farah, who left him with her medallion so that he would not be affected by the Sands of Time. The Prince pursues and catches her, but she falls to her death. Driven by grief, the Prince stabs the top of the hourglass with the Dagger of Time, locking the Sands of Time back into the hourglass, reversing the events of the game. The Prince awakens prior to the invasion of the Maharaja's kingdom, and makes his way to Farah's bedroom. He tells her a story about the events of the game, as she does not remember, but the Vizier shows up, and fights the Prince. The Prince emerges victorious and gives the Dagger of Time back to Farah, then leaves India.
Seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Prince finds himself hunted by the Dahaka, the guardian of the time line. Because the Prince escaped his fate, the Dahaka tries to ensure that the Prince dies as he was meant to. Seeking counsel from an old wise man, the Prince learns of the existence of the Island of Time, where the Sands of Time were created, which was ruled by an Empress of Time. The Prince sets sail for the Island of Time to attempt to prevent the Sands of Time from being created, by traveling backwards through time. He believes that if there are no Sands of Time, the Dahaka will cease to exist as well. Exploring the island, the Prince saves a woman named Kaileena, from a woman named Shahdee, in the process traveling back through time using a portal. Unable to grant the Prince and audience with the Empress of Time, Kaileena reveals that activating two towers will unlock the throne room where the Empress hides. The Prince ultimately activates both towers, and returns to the throne room, only to learn that Kaileena is actually the Empress of Time. The Prince kills Kaileena, and returns to the present, believing that he has cheated fate, but soon discovers that when he killed Kaileena, the Sands of Time were created from her remains so, in essence, he created them. The Prince then discovers an artifact called the Mask of the Wraith, which is said to have the power to allow its wearer coexist in the same time line with his former self, as a Sand Wraith. The Prince wastes no time finding and donning the mask, transforming into a Sand Wraith. The Prince then makes his way back to the throne room, having an encounter with his other self, who is shortly thereafter killed by the Dahaka, allowing the Prince to remove the Mask of the Wraith. The Prince decides that killing Kaileena in the present, rather than the past, will cause the Sands of Time to be created, but they will not be found by the Maharajah, and thus, he will never have released them in Azad. The Prince forces Kaileena into the present, but plans change when the Dahaka appears. The Prince and Kaileena eventually defeat the Dahaka, who was attempting to kill Kaileena. They both then set sail for Babylon together.
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones follows Prince of Persia: Warrior Within by a few weeks. Upon returning to Babylon, he is horrified to find the city is ravaged by war. His ship is attacked and he and Kaileena are thrown overboard, with Kaileena taken prisoner after drifting ashore. After fighting his way through the city, the Prince discovers that as a result of his efforts on the Island of Time to prevent the Sands of Time from being created, the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time never happened, thus, the Vizier was never killed. The Vizier now possesses the Dagger of Time, and his magical staff, as well. The Vizier is in search of the Empress of Time, Kaileena, and so has captured her. Just as the Prince finds Kaileena, the Vizier kills her and unleashes the Sands of Time. Then the Vizier transforms into an immortal being by impaling himself with the Dagger of Time, which now contains the Sands of Time. The released Sands of Time also strike the Prince, infecting an open wound on his arm and embedding the daggertail. The Prince breaks free of bondage, and escapes, grabbing the Dagger of Time in the process. As the Prince travels through the city once again to kill the Vizier, he encounters Farah, and the two decide to travel together. As the game progresses, the Prince finds that the Sands of Time have affected his mind. He has essentially been split into two personalities; one which, for the most part, strives to do good, although is fueled by vengeance; and the cruel Dark Prince, who is manifested by an internal voice that attempts to convince the Prince that they are the same person, and that the Prince should strive to serve only himself, using his vengeance as a catalyst for the Prince's emotions. As the game progresses, the Prince learns more about the nature of the Dark Prince, who is in fact, not a part of the Prince, just the manifestation of the Sands of Time trying to overcome him. When the Prince finally finds the Vizier, he is cast into a dried well, where the indwelling Dark Prince vies more aggressively for control. The Prince eventually finds the dead body of his father, who he had hoped to reconcile with, and faces his wrong actions. By accepting the consequences of what he has done, he silences the Dark Prince, seemingly in permanence. The Prince escapes the well, and once again confronts the Vizier, who he kills by impaling him with the Dagger of Time. Kaileena appears to the Prince and cleanses him of his infection by the Sands of Time, and all his wounds. As the Prince leans down to reach for his father's crown, he is confronted by the Dark Prince, who draws the Prince into his mind, where the two struggle for control. The Prince eventually realizes that fighting the Dark Prince will only intensify his anger, thus feeding the Dark Prince, so he decides to simply ignore the Dark Prince, who is eventually silenced, starved of anger and aggression. The Prince then awakens in Farah's embrace.
Prince of PersiaThe adventure begins as the Prince is caught in a fierce sandstorm while traveling, causing him to lose his donkey and to stumble into a canyon. He then unexpectedly meets Elika, who immediately runs from some armed men, urging the Prince not to follow. The Prince does, though, and defeats them when he catches up with Elika. She then requests that he follow her to a temple at the center of the kingdom. When they arrive inside the temple, Elika's father, who commanded Elika's pursuers, destroys the tree of life, which begins to free the dark god Ahriman. With the tree of life destroyed, Ahriman begins plaguing the land with his darkness, or Corruption. Elika explains that there are multiple fertile grounds found throughout the land that she has to reach and heal in order to let the tree of life regain power to stop Ahriman from escaping.
As the Prince and Elika travel to and heal each fertile ground, Elika reveals her past; first her mother died, and then Elika did as well. Her father, the Mourning King, could not handle his grief, and made a deal with Ahriman, Elika's life in return for his freedom. Ahriman first resurrected Elika, and did so as long as Elika's father could keep his part of the deal. After the lands have been cleansed of Corruption, the duo returns to the temple to cleanse it as well; a necessary and final step in stopping Ahriman. Inside the temple, the Prince and Elika are confronted by the Mourning King. After being defeated by the duo, he jumps into the Corruption below. Ahriman then rises to oppose the duo, but is unable to defeat them before Elika heals the tree of life. To seal Ahriman again, Elika transfers her own life into the tree, causing her to die again. The Prince, driven by grief, destroys the tree of life, and gives its life force to Elika to resurrect her, but in doing so also fully releases Ahriman. The Prince then carries Elika into the desert while the temple is destroyed and Ahriman escapes.
Then, in the downloadable Epilogue content, the Prince brings Elika to an Underground Palace, seeking refuge from Ahriman. The duo makes their way through the dungeon, confronting Ahriman's minions many times. Elika expresses disdain for the Prince's decision to free Ahriman many times along the way. In a final confrontation with the Mourning King, the Prince pushes him into some spikes, impaling him. The Prince and Elika then flee, as Ahriman then tries to kill them himself. They get away, but Elika leaves the Prince in search of the Ahura.
These games are fucking awesome; especially the Sands of Time, which may be one of the best games ever made.
Let's talk about these sweet games, and discuss any news on the upcoming movie!
tofu on
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The game is great, though. And I actually really enjoyed the new one, warts and all.
I got Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time as a Christmas gift. Twice. When I brought one back to a very busy post-Christmas EB Games, the clerk looked at me like I was crazy until I explained why. He was talking about how great of a game it was, which got the interest of the people behind me who I think ended up buying my copy after I returned it. As it turns out, it was the only copy available in the store.
I beat Sands of Time without learning how to do one of the special moves. I don't even remember which one it was, but apparently it would have been helpful near the end. I never played the two sequels and I'm not sure if it'd be worth it to give them a shot these days. The demo for The Warrior Within turned me off.
I got the new Prince of Persia on the 360 for about $26 and was surprised how much I enjoyed the game. A lot of people complained about how easy it is, and yeah, it is pretty easy. That's actually one of the things I liked about it. I also really liked the characters and would keep interacting with Elika just to listen to the banter. I haven't tried getting the DLC, and I'm not sure if I will.
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You should definitely check out The Two Thrones if you had any love for Sands of Time. I still think SoT is a better game overall, but TT captured a lot of the original spirit that a lot of people say was missing from SoT. Plus, Yuri Lowenthal.
I love the new PoP for the same reasons. It has such an Indiana Jones-ish adventure movie quality to it. I got a lot of the same feelings that I got from Beyond Good & Evil, which was also a game that wasn't all that difficult. Enjoying the ride overrode any qualms I had with the game's lack of challenge. I'm waiting to see if the DLC will go on sale at any point in the near future; if so, it's the perfect chance to start up a second playthrough.
Sands of Time is up there as one of my favorite games of all time (despite the complaints about the repetitive, easy combat - it never bothered me personally).
It's supposed to be a lot harder then the original and drive the plot forward a fair bit. I'm pissed that it's not coming out for PC.
Also the movie is going to suck because there's simply no way to pull off the insane parkour that the Prince could do. Unless they cast that dude from Casino Royale during the opening chase scene, that was as close to PoP as any movie has ever got.
For gameplay purposes? I loved it. I think it was worth the $10 bucks. If you rush, it'll only take you 1h30 or so. It took 3 hours or so during my first run. Don't go in expecting the ending to tie up the plot.
The Two Thrones is pretty good, but I've never played Warrior Within. The speed kills in TT are a lot of fun, it's the only gameplay feature I wish SoT had.
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
Warrior Within is actually pretty good. The combat is better than in SoT, and the Dahaka sequences are awesome. Yes, it's loldark, but there's a good game in there. Being the weakest part of the SoT trilogy is like being the smallest gold nugget.
The newest one is awesome to get into. Just have a few beers, kick back, and relax as the prince dances across the scenic landscape. Even the fighting is like a dance. Everything flows. Some people didn't like it, but whatever. I loved it.
Yes this, they tried to shit on a gold nugget, but in the end there was still some gold under that shit.
They removed the awesome sand powers and simply said you can't die lol. And made combat a matter of just memorising the longest combo sequence (yes, there was only one), and busting that out every single fight. Most boringful game I've ever played, couldn't handle more than 3 hours before I uninstalled.
Whereas the preceding three were some of the best 3rd person action games I've ever played, with the first one being superior for atmosphere and the next two being superior for combat and platforming. Loved the combat in warrior within and two thrones.
Agree to disagree but don't say that it's bad, say that you don't like it. When a game carries a metacritic rating over 80 and you think it's the worst thing ever, you should acknowledge that you're in the minority.
In what modern platformer can you die? It doesn't seem quite right to rag on a game for exhibiting a trait that similar games embody. Games aren't about losing all your lives and putting anothe quarter in the machine anymore. Hell, even looking at the platformers of last generation I can't think of a single game where I got a game over screen that actually meant game over. Every single one of them started me back at a checkpoint if I died. PoP2K8 is no exception.
I think player death, even if it is effectively Elika dragging you back to where you just jumped off, is just an expected part of games for some people. If you've grown up with GAME OVER screens for when you screw up, well, if they suddenly dissapear that can take some getting used to.
Yes, some people like it, some people don't.
Its flaw is not that it is too easy. Even if that were the case, its lack of difficulty would not be because of the way they handled death; the problem is that the gameplay is far too simple, independent from its difficulty. It's a series of loosely-timed QTEs without the button prompts. The animation is so brilliant that it's easy to forget how little you're actually involved in what's happening on the screen, but the second you think about it, you realize that for a game that appears to be so focused on motion, you get to control very little of it.
And yet, if you let yourself get caught up in it and enjoy the ride, you can forget about your lack of control and the game remains fun despite its essential simplicity. But I would never call anything about its gameplay 'great'.
For once, it's a game that carries mediocre mechanics with an incredible story, great art, and fantastic sound, instead of vice versa. The result is something much more memorable, with more substance and more profound effects than most games.
I'm pretty sure PoP3D never actually happened.
Yeah, I definitely want to try it - I like the idea that the gameplay is streamlined.
Is there a good portable version? I know at least a couple games came out for the GBA/DS, but I don't know if they ever re-released the original or if the new ones are comparable at all.
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
SWEAR AND BIND MY LIFE TO THE SANDS!
Best game ever. Top five for sure.
OK, here's the beef.
They took a game with a truly brilliant "here's how to avoid death" system - the rewinding time system - and removed it. In favour of tiny tiny checkpoints. I personally find conventional game over death extremely boring - and to take the game which had produced the most innovative system for not dying that I've ever played and then strip it out and replace it with microcheckpoints?
Just wat.
The combat was equally bizarre. Two thrones and warrior within had a perfectly calibrated set of controls that had sequences ideal for fighting against individuals, against groups, against low-health individuals, near walls etc. If you chose to spend the time you could go through the entire game without losing any health practically, and entirely by dint of playing well. The game had a cornucopia of satisfying combat options.
Switch to new PoP where most of the combo options are quite literally pointless. Apart from a few gimmicky enemies who will bounce the One True Combo (tm) you just use the same combo over and over. You don't even fight multiple opponents or get to flip off people like a ninja.
It is telling that although it has a good score on metacritic, it is lower than warrior within, normally regarded as a low point in the preceding trilogy. And this is a game which has had no preceding games to get people bored of its mechanisms!
I don't think many would take the new pop over the old trilogy :<
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
That's unfair, though. There's been at least one amazingly horrible Prince of Persia game that ruined the "pedigree" long ago.
But I still maintain that there hasn't been a great Prince of Persia since Jordan Mechner left during Warrior Within's development. Ubisoft needs him back.
I really enjoyed the combat in the newest game, had the story and script been as good as SoT I might have liked it more.
Yeah, reading the manual really killed it for me :<
I read the manual, too. I'm just bad at chaining combos together so eventually I quit looking for the 20 hit combo and approached combat in a way that made sense to me: find an opening, land a couple hits, doge attack, counter, land a few more hits. It actually made the combat really enjoyable.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
It was made by Ubisoft Montreal. It's also the game that made Jordan Mechner decide to leave the franchise behind.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.