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Prince of Persia IV: PoP+Okami+SOTC?

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Posts

  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Lave II wrote: »
    No more time rewind and such.

    Well shit. That doesn't bode well for the platforming.

    That and I want a sequal to PoP:SoT as we haven't had one yet. With a belligerent sexists gentleman - who I would totally be gay for.

    But I very much approve of people trying new things, and the art style is very interesting and pretty. Though the prince looks to emo. So I'm interested.

    I frowned at my desk when I read that too, but I'm still overall immensely optimistic about this. The basic structure and theme sounds really awesome, and while I get more of a Zeldokami vibe than a puzzle-platformer vibe from the article translation having a beautiful action-adventure title with platforming goodness on the 360 is nothing to sneeze at. I wanted to love Assassin's Creed but the open-world nature just killed it for me, so hearing murmurings of a more focused approach is music to my ears.

    And it's coming this year! I guess we'll get a big blowout at E3. This and Tomb Raider Underworld may turn out to be my most anticipated titles of this year.
    EggyToast wrote:
    If the bosses are more dynamic and utilize the environment, that makes it sound like the acrobatic moveset will come into play for combat, as well. Perhaps less "run up to a guy, press a button for a combo" and more "giant boss throws you across the room, you grab a rope mid-air, shimmy up to the ceiling, and quickly move over to land on his head and stab him."

    I was thinking the same thing, which reminded me of a very Zelda-ish way of handling bosses.

    Lunker on
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  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Lave II wrote: »
    Glal wrote: »
    It just means that level designers won't have "well, he can just rewind time" as an excuse for putting in unfair sections you can't possibly beat first try.
    Not at all. The rewind time is about letting you quickly undo your mistakes rather than have to repeat things. It is the saviour of the platforming method, and should be in every platforming game. It's no more ridiculous and unexplained as 'extra lives' but yet it's so much better.
    Yeah, no, I can't agree with that. I do agree that it's a wonderful new paint on the checkpoint system (as depleting a life and restarting from a checkpoint is exactly the same thing, as long as it has sensible checkpoints), but not all platform games were designed to be played like that. It would simply ruin something like Heart of Darkness (you wouldn't even know how far to rewind, you could have fucked something up 3 screens ago and not know), or Klonoa (all tricky sections had checkpoints before them, and being able to brute-force them on a per-jump basis would take all the challenge out of what is a simple game with only a handful of challenging but very rewarding sections) or even Sly Cooper.

    tl;dr: I don't object to it being a clever mechanic, but it's far from some sort of global solution to a broken genre. It's not broken. Platforming sections in first person shooters are what's broken.

    Glal on
  • ChanceChance Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Also: it's sure nice to see next-gen titles going the rout of 'pretty' rather than just 'photorealistic'. We've gotten to the point where it'll take a huge step to make graphics look any better - time to start making them look cooler. The art style in those pics = win.

    And speaking of Okami,
    sequel please. On PS3. Please.

    I know they'll never do a 'true' SOTC sequel but we can all agree it would be sweet.

    Chance on
    'Chance, you are the best kind of whore.' -Henroid
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    It would have to be made by a completely different team though. :(

    Glal on
  • OtsegoOtsego Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    The prince is boring looking.

    Well in that last scan he certainly looks bored.

    I'm not so sure about how well the art style translates in-game. The prince and the baddies look fine but the enviroments look really bland except for that outdoors shot of the prince leaping.

    Otsego on
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  • SithDrummerSithDrummer Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Lave II wrote: »
    Glal wrote: »
    It just means that level designers won't have "well, he can just rewind time" as an excuse for putting in unfair sections you can't possibly beat first try.

    Not at all. The rewind time is about letting you quickly undo your mistakes rather than have to repeat things. It is the saviour of the platforming method, and should be in every platforming game. It's no more ridiculous and unexplained as 'extra lives' but yet it's so much better.
    I have to agree strongly. Still, I'm intrigued about the idea of unleashing "light wells" all around the countryside.

    SithDrummer on
  • RandomEngyRandomEngy Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Ubisoft + PC = Steam = :D

    RandomEngy on
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  • MiserableMirthMiserableMirth Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    darleysam wrote: »
    So those are actual screenshots? Wasn't sure if that was concept art at first. Blimey does that look good.
    Yeah, I'm not sure either. If so, color me impressed.

    MiserableMirth on
  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    darleysam wrote: »
    So those are actual screenshots? Wasn't sure if that was concept art at first. Blimey does that look good.
    Yeah, I'm not sure either. If so, color me impressed.

    From the looks of it, the one in the bottom left that's just the Prince is concept art, the action stuff looks like it's in-game.
    Can't wait to see it in motion.

    darleysam on
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  • ClevingerClevinger Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    darleysam wrote: »
    So those are actual screenshots? Wasn't sure if that was concept art at first. Blimey does that look good.
    Yeah, I'm not sure either. If so, color me impressed.

    The first page is just a render/art piece, and the 5th page is concept art, but the rest are in-game screens.

    Clevinger on
  • ProspicienceProspicience The Raven King DenvemoloradoRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Yeah I haven't been very interested in any of the PoP's since Sands of Time. This one however really has me interested with the art style and the ideas behind the gameplay. Wooo!

    The original PoP is still my favorite though. That game was rad, first game I had for my old apple after Lunar Lander!

    Prospicience on
  • psycojesterpsycojester Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I have to agree strongly. Still, I'm intrigued about the idea of unleashing "light wells" all around the countryside.

    It goes like this.

    You've completed the level, you unlock the light well, the level becomes pretty and you move onto the next level.

    light well= arbitrary level ending device after you kill the boss.

    psycojester on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • EggyToastEggyToast Jersey CityRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Glal wrote: »
    Lave II wrote: »
    Glal wrote: »
    It just means that level designers won't have "well, he can just rewind time" as an excuse for putting in unfair sections you can't possibly beat first try.
    Not at all. The rewind time is about letting you quickly undo your mistakes rather than have to repeat things. It is the saviour of the platforming method, and should be in every platforming game. It's no more ridiculous and unexplained as 'extra lives' but yet it's so much better.
    Yeah, no, I can't agree with that. I do agree that it's a wonderful new paint on the checkpoint system (as depleting a life and restarting from a checkpoint is exactly the same thing, as long as it has sensible checkpoints), but not all platform games were designed to be played like that. It would simply ruin something like Heart of Darkness (you wouldn't even know how far to rewind, you could have fucked something up 3 screens ago and not know), or Klonoa (all tricky sections had checkpoints before them, and being able to brute-force them on a per-jump basis would take all the challenge out of what is a simple game with only a handful of challenging but very rewarding sections) or even Sly Cooper.

    tl;dr: I don't object to it being a clever mechanic, but it's far from some sort of global solution to a broken genre. It's not broken. Platforming sections in first person shooters are what's broken.

    I've been pleasantly surprised by the platforming/shimmying in Uncharted, and it doesn't need to use a rewind time element in order to be non-frustrating. For those who haven't played, the platforming elements usually fix the camera angle and give you some pointers for where you have to go. But it's not a giant arrow -- sometimes you're not really sure, so you jump towards a platform only to realize that it's too far away, falling to your death down a giant waterfall.

    You then restart basically at that platform, or the one a few jumps back.

    So if there's a section that involves 4 "large platforms" and some cliffs to shimmy around, some small, crumbling islands to hop over to, and a bad guy to kill, it separates the checkpoints into each of those large platforms. So you don't have to redo large chunks over again -- you usually only lose like 30 seconds.

    Now, the game isn't as acrobatic or puzzley as PoP, so a similar system would probably have larger "gaps" between sections, but it was very refreshing to die and only go back a tiny bit, and not to some arbitrary 'save point' in the middle of the level. And honestly, I would be surprised if they did a "save point" system like was more common last-gen, simply due to the fact that, at least on the PS3, most games cache and regularly save on their own, forgoing any sort of "save point" system.


    But yes, while I liked the rewind time system, and it's a neat visual effect, it did in many cases boil down to "whoops, I don't want to replay that whole section, rewind please!" and then just doing it right the next time.

    EggyToast on
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  • psycojesterpsycojester Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    But yes, while I liked the rewind time system, and it's a neat visual effect, it did in many cases boil down to "whoops, I don't want to replay that whole section, rewind please!" and then just doing it right the next time.

    Then what the bloody hell was wrong with it?

    psycojester on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Lave IILave II Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    EggyToast wrote: »
    Glal wrote: »
    Lave II wrote: »
    Glal wrote: »
    It just means that level designers won't have "well, he can just rewind time" as an excuse for putting in unfair sections you can't possibly beat first try.
    Not at all. The rewind time is about letting you quickly undo your mistakes rather than have to repeat things. It is the saviour of the platforming method, and should be in every platforming game. It's no more ridiculous and unexplained as 'extra lives' but yet it's so much better.
    Yeah, no, I can't agree with that. I do agree that it's a wonderful new paint on the checkpoint system (as depleting a life and restarting from a checkpoint is exactly the same thing, as long as it has sensible checkpoints), but not all platform games were designed to be played like that. It would simply ruin something like Heart of Darkness (you wouldn't even know how far to rewind, you could have fucked something up 3 screens ago and not know), or Klonoa (all tricky sections had checkpoints before them, and being able to brute-force them on a per-jump basis would take all the challenge out of what is a simple game with only a handful of challenging but very rewarding sections) or even Sly Cooper.

    tl;dr: I don't object to it being a clever mechanic, but it's far from some sort of global solution to a broken genre. It's not broken. Platforming sections in first person shooters are what's broken.

    I've been pleasantly surprised by the platforming/shimmying in Uncharted, and it doesn't need to use a rewind time element in order to be non-frustrating. For those who haven't played, the platforming elements usually fix the camera angle and give you some pointers for where you have to go. But it's not a giant arrow -- sometimes you're not really sure, so you jump towards a platform only to realize that it's too far away, falling to your death down a giant waterfall.

    You then restart basically at that platform, or the one a few jumps back.

    So if there's a section that involves 4 "large platforms" and some cliffs to shimmy around, some small, crumbling islands to hop over to, and a bad guy to kill, it separates the checkpoints into each of those large platforms. So you don't have to redo large chunks over again -- you usually only lose like 30 seconds.

    Now, the game isn't as acrobatic or puzzley as PoP, so a similar system would probably have larger "gaps" between sections, but it was very refreshing to die and only go back a tiny bit, and not to some arbitrary 'save point' in the middle of the level. And honestly, I would be surprised if they did a "save point" system like was more common last-gen, simply due to the fact that, at least on the PS3, most games cache and regularly save on their own, forgoing any sort of "save point" system.


    But yes, while I liked the rewind time system, and it's a neat visual effect, it did in many cases boil down to "whoops, I don't want to replay that whole section, rewind please!" and then just doing it right the next time.

    I think it boils down to flow. The rewind time facility doesn't break your flow, it just allows it to fork a little. But it goes further - it encourages you to play fast and fluid. To not stop and carefully line up the next jump. It makes you want to link all your moves together in a beautiful route through the level.

    I think there is a genre waiting to be created that focus's on flow through levels rather than progress through levels. Some hi-score game with rewind time.

    It would be glorious.

    Lave II on
  • MiserableMirthMiserableMirth Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    The claim of climbing vertically as much as climbing horizontally feels me with school girlish giggles and joy.

    MiserableMirth on
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    All of you people who gave up on the PoP series because of Warrior Within are doing themselves a great disservice. Two Thrones really brings back the strong narrative and emotion of the first game. It also brings the series back in line and ties it all up very nicely. The ending definitely put a smile on my face.

    Honestly, if you haven't played Two Thrones, but really like Sands of Time, you should really give it a chance.

    That being said; I'm extremely excited about this game. The PoP is one of my favourite series of all time, I'm glad to see that they decided to continue with the IP rather than move on after the end of the last trilogy. I'll definitely be buying this.

    Ragnar Dragonfyre on
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  • EggyToastEggyToast Jersey CityRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Lave II wrote: »

    I think it boils down to flow.

    That is a good point, that I hadn't thought of. If the game encourages you to start moving at the beginning of a puzzle and not stop until the end, the rewind functionality is great -- because you can attack a puzzle without knowing about how it works beforehand.

    Arguably, it does affect level design, though. If you have the rewind functionality, setting up traps to kill the player and "unfair jumps/tricks" to catch them off guard are easy to throw in, without worrying about frustrating the player. They can just rewind past the spring trap or out of the pit and avoid it. Without rewinding, though, the penalties should be less harsh -- you catch more ledges, you roll when you hit flat ground, or perhaps you open up different branches.

    Now that I'm writing this, it seems like the "fewer penalties and more branching routes" is what they're going for in the game, from that brief write-up. If a level isn't linear, figuring out "the way" through a jumping puzzle isn't as big of a deal -- rather, moving through the level and your ability to move and recognize elements in the environment affects how you navigate through the world.

    This is conjecture, but it would make sense to me if you liked the fluid and acrobatic jumping puzzles of SoT, you'd take more "upper" routes in this game, figuring out how to achieve a goal without having to hit the ground. Rooftops & chimneys and so on could make this work. If you were more methodical, you end up going "to earth" more and figuring out where you have to go, and you encounter more combat since you're on the ground and going more slowly.

    I could see it working pretty well. It's the kind of non-linear style I prefer (which is why I made it up, most likely), and since they state they're not doing an open world but rather more "branching" levels, I'm optimistic.

    EggyToast on
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  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Yeah, it's a mechanic I'll be sad to see go because it was cool, but I've learned now to trust the better judgement of the designers, rather than my own expectations. If it comes out and is no fun to play, then fair enough, they've failed. It could also be an awesome game where I don't care about the lack of a rewind feature.

    darleysam on
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  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    All of you people who gave up on the PoP series because of Warrior Within are doing themselves a great disservice. Two Thrones really brings back the strong narrative and emotion of the first game. It also brings the series back in line and ties it all up very nicely. The ending definitely put a smile on my face.

    Honestly, if you haven't played Two Thrones, but really like Sands of Time, you should really give it a chance.

    That being said; I'm extremely excited about this game. The PoP is one of my favourite series of all time, I'm glad to see that they decided to continue with the IP rather than move on after the end of the last trilogy. I'll definitely be buying this.

    Echoed; I was going to say the exact same thing earlier but was sidetracked. I avoided WW based solely on the harsh waves of backlash, but I grabbed Two Thrones on a whim some time after its release and it was one of those games that kind of brought me back into gaming after I weathered a fairly long period of not being interested by anything new. I still found the battle mechanics and combos far too complex to be worthwhile, but the whole stealth-kill system meant that you could bypass a majority of the fighting with clever platforming and timing. Plus, it brought Yuri Lowenthal back and he spends most of the game talking about how irritating the Dark Prince is, so the game is worth fishing out of a bargain bin for this part alone.
    Lave II wrote:
    I think it boils down to flow. The rewind time facility doesn't break your flow, it just allows it to fork a little. But it goes further - it encourages you to play fast and fluid. To not stop and carefully line up the next jump. It makes you want to link all your moves together in a beautiful route through the level.

    I think there is a genre waiting to be created that focus's on flow through levels rather than progress through levels. Some hi-score game with rewind time.

    It would be glorious.

    Lave, I know we end up agreeing on pretty much everything :), but have you played the sublime DK Jungle Beat? It was the first thing I thought of when you talked about this, since it's a platformer devoted solely to keeping your flow and combo throughout fairly short levels prone to replaying.

    Lunker on
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  • DirtyDirty Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I really dug the Two Thrones, ... except the combat was still terrible and too frequent. Even using stealth kills to avoid the vast majority of it, what was left over was still enough to turn me off the game. I kinda feel bad about not finishing it.

    If this new game has platforming on par with SOT and TTT, but they either drastically reduce the amount of combat, or, I dunno, make it fun, this game is a day one purchase.

    Sure, the main character design is nothing special, but its not offensive, so I can live with it.

    Dirty on
  • NightslyrNightslyr Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    At first blush, the visuals didn't impress me much. I didn't really look at the backgrounds, so it looked like a mish-mash of beautiful cell-shaded characters on top of generic 3D backgrounds. Upon a closer look, it appears that the environments share the same animated feel, which makes the entire thing work.

    I like the style I'm seeing in these scans. It looks sorta like an Arabian inspired FFT or Vagrant Story, art-wise. I hope that the style can convey the weight and kinetics the other PoP games and Assassin's Creed have.

    Anyone know what the deal is with his left glove/gauntlet? Is that what gives him his Arabian ninja abilities?

    Nightslyr on
  • SithDrummerSithDrummer Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I have to agree strongly. Still, I'm intrigued about the idea of unleashing "light wells" all around the countryside.

    It goes like this.

    You've completed the level, you unlock the light well, the level becomes pretty and you move onto the next level.

    light well= arbitrary level ending device after you kill the boss.
    Yes, and if it looks sufficiently epic, I'll enjoy it.

    SithDrummer on
  • MundaneSoulMundaneSoul fight fighter Daehan MingukRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    The thread title is a bit misleading. I was expecting gameplay features resembling Okami and SotC (which could be epic indeed) but instead the only mention of similarity to those two games is the light wells.

    Meh.

    MundaneSoul on
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  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Holy fuck yes. I played Sands of Time three times in a row the week I got it. This is very excellent.

    Edit: Awwww the prince isn't going to be scaling 20 story tall monsters? Dammit. That would have been even cooler.

    Edit2: If you say something is "Similar to SotC" I think "You climb giant monsters and stab their weakpoints to kill them". I don't think "Oh! It has HDR!"

    Though I have to say, if those are in-game screens, I'm incredibly impressed. Very interesting art style.

    durandal4532 on
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  • ClevingerClevinger Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    The thread title is a bit misleading. I was expecting gameplay features resembling Okami and SotC (which could be epic indeed) but instead the only mention of similarity to those two games is the light wells.

    Meh.

    Except the art direction is also similar to SOTC.

    Clevinger on
  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Graphics look nice.

    Is the gameplay going to be 1/2 awesome platforming and 1/2 shitty broken combat system? If so, I might have to pass. Since they can't seem to get the combat right, I kindof wish they'd just remove it all together.

    AbsoluteZero on
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  • Unco-ordinatedUnco-ordinated NZRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Clevinger wrote: »
    - They are no making a second Assassin's Creed, they are making a new PoP.

    Is that something the developers themselves said or did the journo just make it up? Because there's no way in hell Ubisoft are going to let the Assassin's Creed franchise gather dust, it's probably the most successful game they've ever had. Ubisoft Montreal is a pretty damn big studio, just because they're developing SC5 and PoP doesn't mean they're not working on other games.

    Anyway, sounds nice and I'm glad they're trying to differentiate it from AC. Now, please implement a good fighting system...

    Chance: There's no need for a SotC 2, the game ends perfectly as it is. The ever-rumoured SotC HD should be enough until they release ICO 3.

    Unco-ordinated on
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  • NightslyrNightslyr Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Clevinger wrote: »
    - They are no making a second Assassin's Creed, they are making a new PoP.

    Is that something the developers themselves said or did the journo just make it up? Because there's no way in hell Ubisoft are going to let the Assassin's Creed franchise gather dust, it's probably the most successful game they've ever had. Ubisoft Montreal is a pretty damn big studio, just because they're developing SC5 and PoP doesn't mean they're not working on other games.

    I have a feeling it's a mistranslation from the original article. They probably said that the new PoP won't be another Assassin's Creed in terms of gameplay, not that they won't actually make a sequel to it.

    Nightslyr on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Eurogamer has a writeup on the Joypad article with a massaged translation, which I think flows a lot better than the GAF bullet-point list.
    Eurogamer wrote:
    The game will be coming to PC, PS3 and 360 this year and is being developed by the original Prince of Persia: Sands of Time team at Ubisoft Montreal. It features cel-shaded graphics, and scraps the Sands of Time rewind powers. The gameplay centres on healing a corrupted world in the style of Okami, Shadow of the Colossus or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

    Joypad's preview shows striking images of the game's "illustrative" visual style - a subtle and highly detailed take on cel-shading - and the new Prince, a colourful vagabond swathed in scarves. He wouldn't look out of place in a Final Fantasy game, the article's author points out.

    Creative director Jean-Christophe Guyot told Joypad that the aim was to create a more fantastical game and "more poetic vision" than the Sands of Time trilogy, with which it shares no connection. "The previous trilogy mixed the Arabian Nights in with historical Persia," he said (in French, so please excuse our rough translation). "We decided we'd prefer to return to the tales of the Thousand and One Nights for something more colourful."

    The move caused some consternation with Ubisoft management, he explained, although they never opposed it. "They knew we weren't going to make a second Assassin's Creed," he said. "However, they did raise their eyebrows a bit at the new, stylised artistic direction. They were worried the Americans wouldn't like it. There were many discussions, but they never said no to us."

    Guyot said the style was "Zelda-esque, old school, with very contrasting levels". The settings will be more open and organic than in previous games.

    The game's plot draws on a Zoroastrian myth: the war between good and evil gods (and twins) Ohrmazd and Ahriman. Ohrmazd wins and imprisons his brother in a box hidden in an oasis. But Ahriman is freed by an unwitting thief centuries later, and remakes the world in his image, corrupting all living beings. It falls to the thief to undo his actions and return colour to the world, and in so doing he turns from robber into the titular Prince.

    He heals the land by killing boss guardians, in the style of Shadow of the Colossus or Twilight Princess, and unleashing the power of the light-wells they guard. The land is then transformed in real-time - unlike Okami's cut-scenes - with grass growing and lighting and colour changing dynamically as the Prince moves through the world.

    Although combat is still an important part of the game, enemies will be much less numerous and more vicious. The emphasis is on one-on-one swordfighting duels, with a very dynamic camera. It's described as being more Soul Calibur than God of War.

    Platforming has been less drastically altered, with the major addition being a spiked glove that the Prince can use to slide along, and jump from, vertical surfaces. The sands of time powers have been removed due to overuse - "the concept has been so used and copied, we had to move on to something else, put it to one side" - although a still-secret "something" will take their place and fulfil some of the same functions.

    Structurally, the game will be a mix of open-ended and linear. The Prince is free to explore the world map and take on challenges in whatever order he wants - dynamic settings taking care of the difficulty curve - but each challenge will be a fairly linear assault course, maximising fluidity and acrobatics, and ending in a boss confrontation. The developers are hoping the bosses will have some of the strong personality of Metal Gear Solid's.

    As a fresh start for the Prince of Persia series, it all sounds very promising. Look out for more details from the UbiDays event on the 28th and 29th of May.

    The next to last paragraph reminds me of the classic Mega Man approach: Choose stages in whatever order you want, play beginning to end, but playing certain stages/getting certain weapons earlier makes other stages easier. The notes about combat also intrigue me, since fewer enemies means hopefully battles won't be as prevalent and the bulk of the game will be platforming goodness. My favorite enemies in Prince of Persia are spikes, pits and ledges.

    And the Assassin's Creed quote makes more sense in this manner: I take it to mean "Our bosses knew that this Prince of Persia wasn't going to be 'Assassin's Creed 2', but they were also taken aback at how far from the formula we were straying. We still got the okay, though."

    Lunker on
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  • SomestickguySomestickguy Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I knew it was a different prince.

    Although, it is pretty obvious.

    Somestickguy on
  • LegbaLegba He did. Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    God, taking cues from Okami AND SoTC? Shit sign me up, those are like 2 of my favorite games of all time.

    Legba on
  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Oooh, I love the note about combat. Making the little battles more of a duel might make them more interesting than the previous games. Also, I like that they took the SoT powers out due to overuse, rather than just 'cause. Hopefully that means they're trying to do something equally cool and integral that people will copy later.

    durandal4532 on
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  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    This looks awesome.

    I'm sad to see the Rewind Time thing go though. It made platforming ALOT less frustrating and it really encouraged that feeling of beautiful, acrobatic flow that made the games so awesome.

    shryke on
  • UnbreakableVowUnbreakableVow Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Time rewind is cool, but it's more fun when you get good enough at the games to make a run through without using time rewind at all.

    UnbreakableVow on
  • LarsLars Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Time rewind was a safety net for me that allowed the game to flow much better.
    For example, if I reach a room and see what appears to be an impossible jump, I'll go ahead and try it because I know if it turns out to actually be impossible, I can just rewind time. Without that ability, I'd probably waste a lot of time searching the area to ensure that attempting this jump was the only way to go.

    Granted, with this game apparently being more open and with multiple paths and what not, that may not be an issue.

    Lars on
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Lars wrote: »
    Time rewind was a safety net for me that allowed the game to flow much better.
    For example, if I reach a room and see what appears to be an impossible jump, I'll go ahead and try it because I know if it turns out to actually be impossible, I can just rewind time. Without that ability, I'd probably waste a lot of time searching the area to ensure that attempting this jump was the only way to go.

    Granted, with this game apparently being more open and with multiple paths and what not, that may not be an issue.

    Exactly. Time Rewind let you be reckless, which is what made the game fun. It put you in the right mood.

    Cause honestly running along a wall thousands of feet above the ground, and then leaping to a pole and swinging yourself over to a far away ledge IS pretty reckless.

    shryke on
  • PompaPompa Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    this is reminding me of Shinobi, from the flowing scarf to the running on walls. thats a good thing though, Shinobi was awsome.

    cant say im too happy with the art direction, but most cel shaded games i didnt like at first have always grown on me after awhile.

    Pompa on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Oh man, this just sounds better and better. Prince of Persia is the EDGE cover story for June, and a Gaffer posted a synopsis. Similar overlap to the Joypad translation but with some refinements:
    PoP details - 8-page preview, lots and lots of concept art, a few small screens, tons of text:

    Based on the same engine as Assassin's Creed (but split off 18 months ago to be adapted as necessary for this game). Art style is described as "Fantasy, but credible". Not many screenshots, and the ones they do have are fairly small, but it looks pretty damn good to me. Character models are beautifully cel-shaded, and incredibly detailed (moreso than Altair in AC, apparently). More polys in his hair alone than in the entire model for the Prince last-gen. The concept artwork shown is, of course, fantastic.

    Open world, not linear levels... but they later say that it's not free-roaming, and then half a sentence later say it's entirely non-linear... ah, then they clear it up: it's non-linear in that you can clear the various sections of the world in any order you like, but the platforming elements are classic PoP:SoT-style linear platforming sections, not an Assassin's Creed-style sandbox (they apparently decided on this because with a more open sandbox, playtesters were performing bursts of acrobatics, then pausing to decide where to go next, rather than the longer, flowing sequences they wanted). Later on they talk about various iterations they tried of the open-world concept - one was an Assassin's Creed-style fully open sandbox, another was a more zelda-style overworld-hub with dungeons branching off, and the final one they settled on sounds like it's somewhere in-between the two.

    Completely new story, with a new Prince, not a sequel to the SoT series at all. Centers around Zoroastrian mythology - a struggle between the gods of light and darkness, Ohrmazd and Ahriman, and starts out with the Prince seeing the legendary Tree of Life destroyed, which threatens to plunge the entire world into eternal darkness (etc, etc). The land has been corrupted, and the major gameplay element/mission structure, such as it is, revolves around cleansing this corruption. Apparently they've done some clever technical jiggery-pokery that allows them to switch between corrupted and cleansed versions of the world on a fine-grained basis, so that you always get a sense that you've personally cleansed a particular area, rather than just pressing a button somewhere and having the entire landscape change around you.

    Also, rather than just allowing the player to cleanse the various areas in whatever order they feel like and that being it, they're structuring it so that when you cleanse an area, all the remaining areas get harder, so there's still a difficulty curve despite the non-linearity.

    Combat is purely one-on-one, challenging duels vs a single, threatening opponent, rather than the increasingly large/intricate brawls of the SoT series. They don't want to compete with God of War, or Ninja Gaiden, so they're going in a different direction. Influences on the combat are listed as being Errol Flynn, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, and The Princess Bride (along with unlisted others). Strategic use of the environment matters, both for offense and defense (and for both you and your opponent). "Every fight in the game should feel like a boss fight". Often won't actually kill your opponent, just drive him off (and they'll come back for more later).

    Oh, and there's one more secret to reveal, that is apparently fundamental to literally everything in the game... but Ubisoft aren't talking about it yet. And they won't say whether or not it's going to be the beginning of a new trilogy (would anyone really bet against that, though?).

    Coming to 360, PS3, and PC, with a "complementary" DS game as well (that isn't a sequel/prequel, but is "connected to the game in a very interesting way" and is "certainly not a port"). No Wii version planned (and in their own words: "you would never see a port of the game we're making"), but Two Thrones Wii showed a lot of potential (despite being a quick and dirty port, in their own wor[d]s) and there are people very seriously looking into the possibilities of a PoP game of some description on the Wii.

    Again, I say:
    Influences on the combat are listed as being Errol Flynn, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, and The Princess Bride (along with unlisted others).

    "Influences" is always a loaded word, but hell fucking yes!

    Lunker on
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  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Pompa wrote: »
    this is reminding me of Shinobi, from the flowing scarf to the running on walls. thats a good thing though, Shinobi was awsome.

    cant say im too happy with the art direction, but most cel shaded games i didnt like at first have always grown on me after awhile.

    Psht. In my day, Shinobi didn't do no wall-running. He threw shuriken. He threw shuriken and sometimes kicked people.

    And we liked it.

    subedii on
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