The Rise and Fall of Prince of Persia -Part 2
Well, hello there, dear reader! In the previous article I spoke about the Original Trilogy of Prince of Persia Games and today I will continue my exploration of the series by analyzing what I call the Renaissance of the series, a name I have given it because I feel that we began anew, with a blank slate. So, let's dive into it!
The Renaissance
Ubisoft acquired the rights for the series and brought Mechner on board to make a new game, the beginning of a new adventure with a new protagonist. This game was Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, launched in 2003 to pretty good sales and a positive reaction from everyone who played it. The game featured a wall running mechanic, a good combat system based on blocking and using the environment to your advantage and the very popular time rewind and time slowing power.It also helped that the story was a personal one, the prince, who is unnamed, seeking out to undo the evil that the Vizier unleashed on his father's kingdom by making them unleash the Sands of Time. The prince travels along with Farah, the princess of India, and the two will get really close along the adventure, but she will betray the prince and steal the Dagger of Time from him. He will search for her and will also catch her being surrounded by sand monsters. The prince manages to fend off the monster, but Farah falls off a cliff, leaving our protagonist to want to finaly make things right. He reaches the recipient which contained the sands and rewinds the time to the point before even getting the sands. The conclusion has our hero kill the Vizier and meet one last time with Farah, altough she does not know him, so the prince leaves, ending on a cliffhanger.
Also in 2003, we received a mobile game from Gameloft: Prince of Persia: Harem Adventures. It is a game in the vein of the original series, a 2D cinematic platformer. It told the story of the prince who tries to rescue king Sharaman's (aka his father) seven wives from the evil Vizier, so it doe not fit in the Sands of Time, well, timeline.
In 2004, Ubisoft brought us Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, the sequel to The Sands of Time. The game has a darker direction, leaving behind the Arabian Nights style. The soundtrack of the game was metal, more exactly Godsmack (fun fact: this game got me into listening to this band), which was a huge departure from the mellow tones of the previous game, but it fit with the new theme. The story follows the unnamed prince again, trying to escape the guardian of time, the Dahaka, who is a scary creature to be honest. This guy wants to kill the prince because he sent a ripple through the time, changing the timeline at the ending of the previous game. Our hero travels to the Island of Time to prevent the creation of the sands. He is tired and angry during the course of the game, and this is translated into gameplay by the improved fighting system which is a joy to behold. They called it free form fighting, and they let you pick up weapons, throw them, use almost all the elements in the environment as tools for your attacks and generally leaving you with a lot of glee for the fighting in the game. Continuing on the subject of the story, there are two endings, based on you finding all the upgrades for the prince's health, which is a cool addition. Anyway, our tormented hero meets a woman named Kaileena on the island, who is secretly trying to kill him, because she believes he has come to kill her, and she is technically not wrong, because she is the creator of the sands. The prince actually kills her at some point, but instead of fixing his problem with his adoring fan, the Dahaka, he assists in creating the sands. He loses all hope, but then finds a Mcguffin which gives him a second chance to fix the problem: The Mask of the Wraith. He puts it on and goes back in time. From here, in the story come the two endings. If the prince does not have all the upgrades, he fights Kaileena again and forces her to come to the present, killing her there and the Dahaka pisses off. In the second ending, the protagonist still brings Kaileena to the present, but instead of fighting her, he fights the Dahaka with a sword which is a reward for the health upgrades. He manages to kill it, further cementing his status as a badass, and also ends up going back to Persia together with Kaileena, as his new wife. This is the true ending. As a side note, this game also received an amazing port on the PlayStation Portable, under the name Prince of Persia: Revelations, which kinda fits the story better, at least in my book.
In 2005, the ending of this trilogy came, with Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, which was originally called Kindred Blades. Both versions of the game (released and unreleased) feature the normal prince and the dark prince. Kindred Blades would have had a more open design of the levels and would have allowed you to switch between the two princes on the fly, while what we got in The Two Thrones is the normal romp of the series, and I am kinda glad it happened this way. The gameplay of this game is a continuation of the one in Warrior Within, with the addition of stealth in some areas (the beginning of the end for the series). Story-wise, the game starts just as Warrior Within ended, with the prince and Kaileena sailing back to Persia. The only problem is the fact that the Vizier is still alive and sieged the imperial city, which is, of course, really, really bad. The ship is destroyed before reaching the shore and Kaileena is captured by the Vizier's men. The prince gives chase and is eventually captured (this poor guy can't catch a break). The Vizier mortally stabs Kaileena, creating the sands in this new timeline and the prince is partially possessed by them, creating his alter ego. The prince embarks on a quest across the city to stop the Vizier and his army, eventually killing his lieutenants and meeting Farah, who does not know him, leading to them having to warm up to one another during the game, like in the first one. In the end, the prince reaches the Vizier, which is now a sand-enhanced creature, fights him in an epic boss fight, and then confronts the dark prince in his mind, but not by fighting him. He literally leaves him all alone in a dark corner of his personality, as he begs him not to abandon him, which is a really smart narrative idea translated into gameplay. After the entire ordeal, the prince begins to tell Farah about his entire story as the sun is setting, which gives the series closure, something you do not really see these days, and something that was tarnished in a particular example of the future of the series. Another thing I need to mention is the PSP port of the game, called Prince of Persia: Rival Swords (as you might have guessed, both The Two Thrones and Rival Swords refer to the prince's internal conflict with his darker self), which, like the one for Warrior Within, is excellent and also has a form of multiplayer. This multiplayer is a peer-to-peer, not internet, racing mode which has its own levels and it is really neat, if you can find someone to play with you.
Also in 2005, a Nintendo DS exclusive was launched, Battles of Prince of Persia, a turn-based tactics game of all things, which takes place in the gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. This is the game in which the prince finds out that the Dahaka is searching for him and he is wandering the world in search of a way to escape his fate. His turn from charming and wise-cracking young guy to brooding and angry asshole is explored in this title, which is making this situation even weirder, making such an important step in the story inhabit a different genre and a weird platform.
Links to the other parts of this retrospective:
-Part 1: The Original Trilogy
-Part 3: The Modern Era
Sources: the cover image comes from pcwallart.com, the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time image comes from thehypedgeek.com, the Prince of Persia: Harem Adventures image comes from the Prince of Persia Wiki, the Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/Revelations image comes from myfreewallpapers.net, the Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/Rival Swords image comes from corepacks.com, the Battles of Prince of Persia image comes from bashers.nl
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