Hello everyone. Today I want to talk about the 2003 reboot of the Prince of Persia Series that started its own continuity: The Sands of Time. I have fond memories of the series and quite enjoy it. I love the more "realistic" platforming with some parkour and the sand powers of the later series. Settle down because this is a very long read.
Here's a quick summary on this game: It's a good game with a decent story and solid platforming. It's brought down a fair bit by the uninteresting combat.
With that out of the way, let's begin.
The Story:
The plot itself is a fair bit more than an excuse plot which is fine. Most 3D Platformers hardly have any. I'm not going to summarize it here as the wiki and Youtube exist.
When it comes to the characters, there are only 3 main characters, Prince, Vizir and Farah but Vizir has like 10 minutes of screentime total throughout the game and not much development between "bad guy who wants immortality". Hurts the story a bit but it still works.
So the majority of character interactions are between Prince and Farah. And these are quite cute and charming. We have a fair bit of contextual lines like them saying "be careful", Farah apologizing if she accidentally shoots the Prince etc. It helps develop their relationship and makes the plot a bit more interesting. It is a little sparse by 2021 standards. To jump ahead a bit, in The 2008 Prince of Persia game pushes character interaction much further as there's a
button the player can press to get Prince and Elika talking which
explores the characters and even talks about the world and their current
location which is great for world building and getting more mileage out
of the characters. What's more is the 2 interact far more with their
actions as well, helping each other with what they're specialized in etc
so when in the end, Prince develops a relationship with Elika, I felt it was a lot more developed. Would have been cool if SoT had something like this where the narrator Prince could talk more about the current location or what he thinks of Farah with a talk button. But as it currently is, SoT's story and characters are still charming and adds to the experience. There's more of a sense of isolation as the game tries more to have Prince be isolated at times and come to miss Farah which is done well.
One novelty this game has is how its story is presented as the whole thing is framed as the Prince telling someone his story. So when the Prince dies in game, we hear Prince telling us "No. That's not what happened, let me start again". We also have the Prince occasionally narrating things and giving insight into the world and characters. I've heard this being described as genius but I'm much less impressed. Firstly, there are times when the story gimmick doesn't make sense. Imagine telling someone a story and going "And then I failed a jump, fell 70 meters to my death....... Wait, that didn't happen, let me try again". It sounds ridiculous. For Save points, the game tells us that Prince uses this for "Do you wish me to continue the story from here the next time we're interrupted". It's a little silly but ultimately kinda nice. I like that having a narrator like this tells us stuff about the setting that would be a little more contrived with the present day characters. One actual benefit is how it contrasts the Prince's character. Story Prince starts as a selfish dick while Narrator Prince is much more wise and sombre. It does a great job creating that anticipation of what happens to make Prince like this. You lose that with the sequels as WW doesn't have a narrator which limits what we hear of the characters and setting. And TTT has Khalena as the narrator despite her being dead which is interesting but lacks that contrast and payoff. They also underplay the whole "this is a story" aspect by not having those "let me start again" lines which I'm fine with.
Still, I'm glad Ubi didn't pull an Assassin's Creed and make us "come out into the modern-day" and do The Prince's chores before going back to storytime.
The Save points in this game have a cool feature, they give the player quick glimpses of the future. Sometimes, it's a quick heads up of the future, sometimes it's a tip about what to do next, sometimes it's an out of context look at something that happens way later in the story which pique's the player's interest. And sometimes it's a troll where the Prince dies in an obvious way like willingly falling to their deaths (I remember as a kid thinking I had to replicate this to progress). The story only incorporates save points and their visions into the story like twice (Prince gets a vision of Farah stealing the dagger and wakes up tries to back up from Farah who is confused and trying to comfort him, and a vision that tells him where the hourglass is and Farah is initially confused about he knows). 80% of the visions are pretty obvious stuff that I don't think I needed the help for (Maybe it's for players new to gaming? That's pretty cool though). But I think it's undercut by the troll moments. If these visions are meant to be accurate, why are these there? Are they meant to make the player doubt them? But the Prince never voices this and just rolls with whatever the vision shows. Still, it's a shame they never reappear again in this franchise.
-Small Nitpicks/Plotholes
Just for fun, here are some small nitpicks I have with the story. Feel free to skip this section.
-For a guy who can rewind time, The Prince never does it himself in the story even in situations where it would be useful like escaping the fall into the prison, or rewinding to turn off the hourglass when the Vizir shows up. I understand the game wanted to have some twists along the way and it would get pretty silly and contrived to keep emptying the dagger but I wish there was a better way to do it.
When the Prince tells Farah his story that takes all night, she doesn't believe it to be true and only suspects something more's going on when the Prince says his name's "Kakalukio". So did the Prince tell the story differently to how we experienced it? Why does Farah decide to trust a strange man who breaks into her house and instead of telling her who he is, starts rambling about metaphors about time? Why doesn't the Prince just cut to chase with Farah? She's already curious how he got the dagger. Things might have been more efficient if the Prince went "alright, here's a doozy. You know this dagger can rewind time right? Well, I used this dagger + hourglass to travel back like 3 days. In that time I was tricked by your Vizir to open said hourglass which created an apocalypse. And you were there and to prove it to you that it's legit: "Kakalukio" Anyway, I managed to undo it thanks to your help. Here's your dagger". Maybe that wouldn't have been as fun to play.
-
-Gameplay
--Platforming
Unlike other 3D platformers of the time, SoT is a "realistic" platformer. Meaning that while the Prince can't double jump, his moveset is still plausible if out there. Stuff like long-distance wall running, wall rebounds and parkour etc. The player has to combine all these moves to move through levels and solve the specific puzzles and challenges that require this moveset. However, there are stuff like vaulting from a wall that speedrunners can use to sequence break the game so there is a lot of versatility from this game. However, in a more casual playthrough, the game doesn't really get harder or more interesting with how to move through levels. Later games like Two Thrones have such strict timing challenges that can be quite hard without using slow-mo powers (and are still challenging with them). Forgotten Sands had way more moves but also magic like being able to solidify water that resulted in some fantastic sequences where you had to alternate between jumping, wall running, turning on and off water. SoT in comparison feels a little barebones in comparison but is nonetheless quite fun.
I know it's unfair to compare a game to its successors and knock points off for it not being as good but I feel it's a worthwhile effort. Good game design is timeless and if it were truly great, we'd be able to go back to experience it and it should hold up. It also prevents a mentality of holding up some games as amazing when they've long since become eclipsed but their successors don't get the credit.
The coolest addition to the game is the sand powers. Thanks to the dagger, the Prince can rewind time to undo his mistakes in platforming and combat. This is genius because in most other platformers, you have a health bar to track how many hits you can take before game over, but pits and spikes are an instant death. SoT gives Platforming it's own health bar by letting you rewind a limited about times per section and what's more you can choose when to continue. You can continue from a safe platform or in the middle of a wall-run or whatever. I wouldn't mind other games and even genres using a similar mechanic. I know Stealth games could also use something like this. Racing Games like Forza and Gear Club already have a rewind feature so it's very versatile.
-Combat
The Game uses a combat system that feels like an ancestor to Assassin's Creed 1 and Batman Arkham's combat system (The sequel would even label it as a "Freeform Combat System"). The player can move around seamlessly, have different face buttons correspond to a single kind of action that can be chained with others or vary on context (like, using Square will attack with a sword, Triangle will use the dagger etc and these commands will be different if an opponent is on the ground or far away etc). When fighting most sand monsters, they can't be killed with regular attacks, so you need to put them into a position where they can get absorbed by the dagger (so a Counter Dagger Steal, or using the sword to knock them down so the dagger can absorb them etc) or you can use powers of the dagger to instakill some enemies without going through the hassle.
The problem is that combat is boring. There isn't a lot you can do to mix up the combat. And Most enemies can be taken down with Vault-Strike-Dagger. And those that can't can be taken down with Rebound-Strike-Dagger. Powers like Mega Freeze is often required to cut through enemies in a reasonable timeframe and given how common sand clouds are, I found myself relying on that a lot. The only times I found combat even remotely challenging is when enemies would gang up and attack me one after the other so the Prince couldn't stand up in time. Or when they were going after Farah.
But the funny thing is unlike WW and to a lesser extant, TTT, SoT is the only game in this trilogy that actually encourages you to fight enemies because you can get more sand powers and get save points after defeating enemies. It's much easier to skip fights in later games.
But the funny thing is unlike WW and to a lesser extant, TTT, SoT is the only game in this trilogy that actually encourages you to fight enemies because you can get more sand powers and get save points after defeating enemies. It's much easier to skip fights in later games.
The gameplay is at its worst when platforming on beams since your speed is massively reduced, the controls are lot more finicky and, especially in the latter half of the game, the game throws sand birds at you that you must deal with who are always out of your range. Sand Bats also require you to stop what you're doing and just keep swiping at them for a while.
-Sand Powers
The player has a few sand powers at their disposal thanks to the dagger. You have powers that require sand tanks and some that require power tanks. Sand Tanks are used to rewind time while power tanks are used for slowing down time, freezing an enemy that can now be instakilled or (if you have the same amount of filled power and sand tanks), can use up all the power tanks to freeze all enemies at once and teleport to them to instakill them for 10 second. While this power is amazing, enemies can tale a while to spawn and your movement isn't the best so you can end up wasting time through no fault of your own.
You can gain more sand tanks by finding 8 sand clouds in the world and then increase power tanks accordingly by absorbing 16 enemies per tank. This can result in the odd phase that getting more power makes the player less powerful as you won't be able to use Mega-Freeze as much as you need to absorb a lot more monsters to fill up tanks during a fight.
-Graphics, Presentation and Artstyle
The environments, UI, Sand, Music/Sound and monsters are very well done and are remarkably distinct. I can recall where a location is just by listening to the soundtrack. I can't say that for any of the other games. The human characters of the Prince and Farah are showing their age but I don't really care about this stuff so I'm not knocking the game for it.
-Other Stuff
I like that despite the Prince being bamboozled by the teleporting doors, Farah acting different and his failure to seal the sands, he doesn't suspect anything when Farah offers him a bath and even keeps his pants on when going for her. My guy is such a dork here.
The final boss fight with the Vizir was kinda anticlimactic but given how lacklustre the combat mechanics are, I don't really think it could have been much better. At least it was brief. The one thing that gets is when the Prince knocks the Vizir onto the balcony, he pulls this "say your last words to the Princess before I kill her" spiel like he's about to activate his trap card..... but you can kill him with 1 hit after that. I wouldn't be surprised if there was cut content or an original plan to have a second stronger phase or something.
There are no subtitles. Given how quiet the voices are, and how loud everything else is, and that my hearing ain't the best, this was a bummer. Also, there aren't options to remap the controls. I'd have liked to move the Gamecube's controls closer to the PS2's. This is often a problem with many older games, The options menus aren't the most flexible.
Apparently, an earlier build of the game had tigers as enemies as tigers brought in as gifts to the Sultan got corrupted. One of the "making of" videos showed them in action. I don't know why they were cut. Maybe they weren't working right or fun to fight? In any case, I know 2 Thrones has giant dog-like creatures so maybe they were reused there?
Enemies can hit and even knock each other down getting you a free kill
I love that the health upgrade fountains are not explained at all. Even when the Prince uses one in front of Farah and she has no idea what he's talking about.
The Prince of Perisa 1 Easter Egg was great.
I like that segment near the end where the game takes away the dagger you've come to rely on for platforming and you feel much more vulnerable.
-Farah has quite a few nice responses. If you attack her, she'll chastise you. If she shoots you (accidentally or not), she'll say sorry in a cheerful way. If you rewind time next to her, she'll say she feels deja vu. I also had a glitch where after Farah takes the dagger, the game didn't take Farah's model away. So I was standing next to Farah, she couldn't talk or progress forward but I could interact with her normally every other way. It was strange. I had to leave her and help the Prince find the real Farah.
The Prince doesn't really react to most of his powers though. Would have been cool if like, he talks about how intense Mega Freeze is.
-I'm kinda sad that when you get the dagger back before the end, you can't get power tanks. Would have been cool to do a Mega Freeze with the final sword.
The prince can restore health (that the game calls Strength) by drinking water. Every sip restores a set amount. Health upgrades can extend your health by a crazy amount. So when you have to restore a Late Game Prince's health fully, he's taking a comical amount of sips. This does make combat more interesting as if you have to restore your health during a fight, you gotta take a risk. Later games could have there be a couple of sips automatically restore all of your health.
Most Cutscenes aren't skippable the first time you see them.
There's a unique falling animation if a horizontal wall run is interrupted that's not in the sequels
Your rewind timer resets when you kill an enemy, making it easy to get a game over if you or Farah run out of health mid kill. Later games fixed this and you can rewind enemies back to life.
In the final hour of the game, the Prince loses his dagger and sword so needs to run from sand monsters he could once easily kill..... until for like 1 room where he gets a sword that can 1-hit kill all the monsters. I think it would have been more effective if the Prince never got that sword and got like one puzzle and platforming challenge in this situation. It would have been a fun gameplay twist as well. The sword itself feels contrived as it's the only other thing that can kill sand monsters and the Prince gets it as soon as he loses his dagger and it's never mentioned how this sword can do what only a magical time travelling dagger has been able to do. Hell, it outdoes it here.
The puzzles are pretty good.
I also hope the upcoming SoT remake is a success as if it isn't, Ubisoft will be fully convinced this game franchise is no longer worthwhile.
So There you have. SoT is a good game but is a little rough around the edges. I still recommend the game for the still solid platforming. Next up is Warriour Within (called Revelations on the PSP for some reason). I'll be discussing both the main console version and PSP version.
Fun fact but I never played this game. I played SoT and then TTT without ever knowing that WW existed. So Child Me was very confused about the story of TTT as "Yeah, the game says the Prince rewound time, but why is the Vizir alive? Why is the prince saying that he never killed the Vizir due to the time travel when he did?"
A quick summary for the game, the plot is cool but there's very little character interaction. The gameplay is a step up but the new open world is a little mixed. It's still a good game overall.
-Story
I'm not going to summarize the story here but instead talk about specific things I liked or disliked.
The new structure of the plot which is, well a lot more plot focused. The plot of SoT was simplistic but (Prince and Farah journey to the Hourglass) made up for it by the character interactions in between. WW is the opposite. There is very little character interaction but the events of the plot are more detailed. There is now the incorporation of time travel more directly as there are multiple time loops and cause and effect going on. There are some mysteries on what's going on like with the mysterious Wraith Creature. And some of these are well done. Like when the Prince turns into the Wraith, it immediately creates a lot of tension because we know the mask won't come off until one of the Princes dies, and we saw the Wraith die last time. Stuff like that make the story interesting even if some of the time travel stuff is a little confusing.
However, unlike SoT and TTT, there is no narrator nor does the Prince monologue while platforming. This has its issues. Firstly, it could have helped in gameplay by offering hints to the player in how to succeed as the level design is more open ended. Secondly, it could have helped in explaining what Prince is feeling in certain areas which would explain his decisions later on. This brings us to Khaleena.
The Prince offers to help Khaleena, even invites her back to Babylon with him.... despite only interacting with her for like what 2 minutes tops? The Prince is also very reluctant to want to kill her despite it being the only way to save his own skin and her attacking him first...... despite being totally cool with killing Shadee. We have no indication from the Prince why he likes her so much. If there was a narrator we could have had something. As it currently is, it feels like the only reason the Prince cares so much about Khaleena is because the script said so rather than it being a natural process. In SoT, the Prince was initially distrustful of Farah and only after journeying together do they grow closer together. It made sense that the Prince would like her by the end. But in WW, the Prince is instantly in love with Khaleena and trusts her blindly (despite the last time him doing that led to a Sand Zombie Apocalypse). The closest reason the game gives for this special treatment is because, like him, Khaleena is also trying to escape her fate..... except Shadee was also basically doing that as well. She initially and reluctantly agrees to Khaleena's suicide mission so Khaleena can save her own skin and then when Shadee's had enough she tries to kill Khaleena only for the Prince to kill brutally Shadee and not even bat an eye. The Prince never acknowledges this irony. Shadee was just doing her job and if she got her way, she wouldn't have had to fight the Prince whereas Khaleena would have always planned to fight him. And also the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing but that falls flat because Khaleena is also the Prince's enemy and the Prince is cool with her. Compounding this is that Khaleena is dead set on killing the Prince to save her skin while the Prince doesn't want to do it. So it really feels like the whole conflict could have been avoided if the 2 just talked for a second. The conflict as a result feels like it happens because the Script says so rather than as an inevitability that needs to be overcome.
And the thing is, there isn't really an easy fix for this. You can't have Khaleena accompany the Prince like in SoT or even talk over the radio/sword like in Forgotten Sands because Khaleena is sending the Prince on these errands hoping he'd die. Why would she try and help him? And wouldn't that give away her intentions (and that's ignoring why she doesn't just kill him directly while the Prince doesn't know of her plans).
The most I can improve, as the story currently is, is make it so Khaleena is worried that if she doesn't kill the Prince, she'd be killed herself eventually by the Dhahaka even if the Prince and her don't fight because one of them needs to die at some point. Khaleena is completely torn by this because she comes to love the Prince as well and is just as reluctant.
This would solve some issues. It would have her be somewhat reluctant which is how we can explain why she sent the Prince on the errands, she was hoping she wouldn't have to kill him. It also justifies why they can't just talk it out, because the clock is ticking. Her being torn about this would also make her appear more sympathetic which is how we can sorta make them more of a couple.
There are still issues here. Like the story demands its romance but there doesn't appear to be an organic way of making it happen. The closest I can imagine happening is Khaleena initially plays along to kill the Prince but gets charmed by him or something which causes her to decide the whole errands thing since she has come to like him and doesn't want to kill him and the Prince gets charmed by her. But the issue there is that this is Warriour Within Prince. It would be weird why this super angry and violent character would suddenly be cool with a betrayal if the one betraying him also likes him and how he was able to charm this person with his current personality. But it appears this may be the best we can do short of a complete rewrite.
This is the only game in the trilogy with 2 endings depending on whether you get all the health upgrades. And they are about the same to me. I have no preference either way, likely because I have no real connection to Khaleena so I have no reason to feel sad if she dies or elated if she doesn't.
-Gameplay
Combat
The funny thing is that Combat is much improved over SoT by an absurd margin but is still lacklustre. Now instead of needing to drain enemies, you just fight them. There are also more moves and commands you can do like vaulting from enemy onto another, vaulting from enemy to a wall and rebound attacking from it down. You can grab and throw enemies and weapons, Steal Weapons and have proper combos. It's great mechanically. You can have a lot more fun here than SoT. But it's still gets boring after a while because there's never a reason to use any of the cooler moves, most enemies are fought the same way every time and the triangle, square, square, triangle, triangle combo is so good it's better than all the others and the game has way too many combat encounters (fortunately you can skip most of them and only fight to get sand back which works a lot better). You can also pick up enemy weapons but there's nothing differentiating the weapons (aside from their appearance and one charge attack that's impractical to frequently use). Would have been cool if different weapons had different combos and synergy with your main sword. Speaking of which, once the Prince's sword gets upgraded partway through the game, it can outclass most other secondary weapons you can equip making secondary weapons even less useful. This system is a little better in TTT as the Prince is stuck with the Dagger for most of the game which is the weakest primary weapon in the game. One interesting change in WW is how counter-attacks work. In SoT, you need to time the counter right before the attack wheras in WW you have to do it right after you block an attack. Nothing in the game tells you of this change so unless you figure it out, you're gonna have a hard time in fights. As for the change itself, it does make WW's combat much easier. In SoT if you time the counter too late, you would get hit making it more a risk/reward approach wheras in WW, by its very nature, timing it too late is less dangerous. It also means you can't have attacks that can't be blocked but can be countered because every attack that can be countered also has to be blockable. I prefer SoT's system.
While I normally don't criticize graphics in games since I value gameplay above all, this is an instance where having lesser quality graphics hurts the experience. On the PSP version, the graphics are less detailed than the main console version, that's understandable. But this plus the smaller screen and muted colour palette (and also my bad eyesight), results in some areas being much harder because I can't see where to go. Like, some ledges blend with the walls as they have a very similar colour and texture so they look like just part of a wall instead instead of a ledge I have to fall into. There were many times I thought I was stuck when all I had to do was drop onto what looked like a wall but was a ledge. In the cave levels especially, there are even these floating platforms and stalactites that I couldn't distinguish from the background and had to leap of faith my way through or remember existed on the main console version. The opposite problem also occurs as decorations on walls have been downgraded so they look as muddy and undetailled as many ledges that I can see. So I jump on them only to fall to my death and realize these weren't the intended path. The worse of these are often trees as it's hard to tell if this tree is a beam or pole I can use to progress or just decoration I won't grab and fall to my death with. I never had this problem with any of the other POP games. Even the PSP version of TTT was still mostly visible. My initial speculation is that WW wasn't initially designed for future ports so levels were made with the 6th gen main consoles in mind, safe with the knowledge that their better textures, lighting and screen sizes would make things clear, only for weaker platforms like the PSP to suddenly get worse when the visuals had to be downgraded. On the plus, side at least TTT on PSP was much more visible so that game was likely designed with ports in mind. But WW's PSP exclusive levels tend to have the worst of it. For example, The new Puzzle room has an actual invisible ledge floating above water you need to stand on to wall run which is actually impossible to see. These were definitely the low point of the game because at least in the other sections, I have reference on what to do or can guess based on the context. Not here. Even the aesthetic of these sections often goes against the rest of the island like the underground statues section that feels like it was from another game that got quickly pasted over for this POP game.
Here are some screenshots highlighting this issue
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On a more positive note, some of the gameplay of these PSP exclusive bonus levels is quite fun and some are even seamlessly integrated into the existing levels. But some are confusing and a chore to play so it events out. I wouldn't advise going out of your way to play this version just for the bonus levels if you already played the main console version.
Another PSP specific topic is the camera, as the system lacks a second analogue stick, some workarounds needed to be made. Now holding L and moving the left stick controls the camera. As a result, you can't move regularly and move the camera at the same time, though that's not much of an issue as the game will change the camera view automatically based on your position, and the landscape and camera reset buttons help keep the momentum up. You can even fight well while moving the camera. The only issue is more the pitch of the camera which isn't as responsive requiring me to have to use First Person or Landscape View to look up to see where I had to go next whereas I almost never had to use in other POP games. TTT also improved this to the point where I could play the PSP version almost as well as the main console version.
Anyway, as for the platforming itself, It's good. Better than in SoT due to the greater number things you can interact with which can add more timing challenges like sliding down a curtain and swinging on ropes. Sand can also be used now to slow down time which can either be mandated in certain sections or voluntarily used by the player to make a doable section easier at the cost of rewinds as all sand powers now draw from the same pool rather than there be separate pools for rewind and everything else. Even the best instance of combat happens during platforming as acrobatic enemies can fight the player on beams requiring timing a good jump to dodge them and then kill them. I honestly wouldn't mind an entire POP game where instead of fighting enemies traditionally on the ground, they are used as platforming obstacles. Kinda like in 2D Sonic games were enemies aren't there to have the player fight them but as an additional hazard and component of platforming. The best instance of platforming happen during the Wraith sections as the game throws more hazards at you and you have to use your slow mo powers at the correct time to give you a chance to move through all while your health is draining. And the Dahaka sections which add a fair amount of urgency.
The new world:
Unlike other POP games, WW is something closer to a Metroidvania in terms of overall progression. The world is open in the sense you can go from one point to another even if there's no objective or task there wheras other games only allow you to move forward. You gain new tools and keys that let you revisit past areas to open them up (and if you want all the health upgrades, you're going to have to remember some really out of the way places early on). You frequently have to backtrack through the new and criss-crossing paths of this world. The big new gimmick here is time travel. The world exists in 2 times, the past and the present. The present has the place being very dilapidated and many traps are broken and easier to deal with but you have the Dhahaka who wants to hunt the Prince down. The Past has no such monster initially but the traps are active in full force which does do a decent job distinguishing the 2 areas. Note the progression here is still pretty linear and scripted. It's not like you're in the present and you come across a broken bridge and decide to either spend more time looking for a way around and risk the Dhahaka finding you or look for a time gate to jump to the past so the Bridge is repaired. There is only one way past said broken bridge. Either the Path forward will involve the Prince finding said time gate or exploring and running into the Dhahaka. There's no choice here.
My thoughts on this are mixed. On the one hand, it is a really ambitious and unique take for a game, especially in 2004. It can increase replayability as once you're familiar with where to go and when, you can explore to find previously inaccessible secrets. On the other hand, the actual progression is linear and you often have to do is take a slightly different turn at some points to progress making it easy to get lost (especially on the PSP version which doesn't even have a map and has a different layout at times so getting lost is much easier). My favourite example of this is when as the Sand Wraith, I accidentally took a wrong turn to return to the Hub instead of a time gate I wasn't sure where to go to so I stumbled across a hidden cutscene between Khaleena and Shadee. Normally, this cutscene is meant to be hidden and shown as a reward to the player for remembering they can get back to the Hub from the eastern side of the Island. But I thought this was proof I was on the right path of progression so I got stuck for a while and had to resort to watching a guide online to realize I had gone the complete wrong way and had to backtrack a fair ways back since I had also saved at a nearby fountain. I think at the very least, some kind of compass or something to at least let the player know they are on the right path would have helped give that safety net to at least where to go and while not giving away the answer entirely and still allowing for exploration. The main console version has a map but it's useless aside from telling you your current object and a rough idea of where it is. So if you take a wrong turn, it's not really helpful and telling you where you went wrong.
Another issue with the world is the frequent backtracking. While it is impressive how many levels can work both ways, there are issues making it less fun. Much of the artstyle and visuals of the pathways between locations are very similar which all start to blur together which can start to get boring (and also help in getting lost) navigating what looks like the same corridor for the 7th time. It is also much worse in the PSP version which adds a massive section in between the central chamber and Throne Room which makes the frequent backtracking all the worse. Now, Don't get me wrong, many of the actual main locations look stunning and distinct even 16 years later, and having creative backtracking paths loop around using them incites the same feeling as Dark Souls 1 does with its creative loops, it's the paths in between that often bring them down. Compare this to SoT and TTT which had more distinct transitional areas that I can remember where I can based on just the music or the walls.
So yeah, personally I didn't enjoy this new approach to the world as much as I wanted to. I prefer either SoT and TTT's entirely linear level approach, or '08's much more open ended but the player has more navigational aids approach. WW's is a bit of an awkward middle ground in terms of execution. I'd love to see a modern remake or re-imagining of WW though and see how far you can take the Metroidvania and time travel approach.
Regarding the shift in tone. SoT had this lighthearted and fairytale-like approach. WW turns and goes much darker and grittier. The colours and much more muted, the soundtrack is metal instead instead of traditional Persian music, there much blood and sexuality (aside from Shadee's and Khaleena's attire, even female sand monsters are into BDSM when you fight them "there is so much pleasure in pain"). I'm not entirely sure if this was just following the market trends to make an edgy game for the sales and following the example of other games at the time like Jak 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog, or was an intentional design approach to push the Prince of Persia series forward in a bold new way without just resting on its laurels. I suspect it's the former but I will assume it's the latter for now and judge the game based on that. And from that perspective, I am somewhat mixed on this.
On one hand, I can defend stuff like the soundtrack and more angry Prince. Even back in SoT, the game's soundtrack used some electric guitar in the Prison level to give this "we're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy" feel. Since WW is entirely a "we're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy" type story, it makes sense to double down on those aspects to sell this new story.
On the other hand, the limited colour palette, while atmospheric, hurts gameplay like I described above. And the sexulization feels juvenile rather than a necessary artistic touch. It feels more like it's there to appeal to the horny 14 year old boys demographic.
-Nitpicks:
How
is there Sands in WW when the Hourglass never got opened in the
present, or the sands weren't made yet in the past? At least in
Forgotten Sands they explain it using a separate Djinn magic
How
does the Dhahaka travel to the Island when it's across water? How does it
get to the past? Also, it would be pretty funny if when the Prince
realizes the Dhaka can't cross water he just sits in a pond from then on
and remains safe. That would be a decent webcomic or HISHE.
How
did the Prince get Farah's Amulet? It's not clear in the trilogy how he
got it. Apparently we learn in Forgotten Sands that when he time
travelled in SoT, the Prince kept his amulet from that timeline. I wish
it was a little more clear in these games. But, that doesn't explain how
this Amulet lets him use Sand powers though when in SoT, all it did was
protect the wearer from the sands.
Shadee beats up the Prince twice.... but runs away from him and tells Khaleena that he's too strong.
Khaleena says she was hoping the Dhahaka would kill the Prince..... only for her to be like "what is that thing" when she sees the Dhaka in the good ending.
Why is there Sands in the past when they haven't been made yet?
-Other Stuff
I dislike that the hud shows you that you have sand slots when you can't use them. At least TTT had that part remain blank until you could.
Most Cutscenes still aren't skippable. Audio mixing is still quite poor. There are subtitles in the main version but not the PSP version.
I find it hilarious how a massive monster could sneak up on the Prince.
There's only like 1 puzzle in the main game. And 2 if you count the PSP version. The one they both share is a pretty simplistic move the pipes around in the foundary level. The PSP version adds a rather creative one where you move platforms around while navigating around it. It's pretty good
The boss fights are ok. Most are just duels against another agile fighter like Khaleena or Shadee, or a giant monster like Brutes. Unlike TTT later, there's very little distinguishing boss fights or making them stand out. One cool thing I do like about the fight with Khaleena in the bad ending is that she can use the slow down time power on you which requires some creative workarounds.
The only health upgrade you can't go to get is the one in the garden as the gate is closed. I ran into a major bug trying to get it where the world didn't load if I went back in time to get it.
So in conclusion, WW is a good game with solid platforming and decent combat (provided you skip some to avoid getting bored). It's more ambitious than its predecessor with its new Metroidvania-like world but stumbles a bit in the execution. The PSP version in particular is way more hit or miss with its bonus levels. I still would recommend the game. Comparing it to SoT, it's a bit tough because the added platforming is better in WW, but SoT has more varied environments to keep the experience fresh but has more boring combat. I'd probably rank SoT over it because it's more enjoyable more of the time.
Now, if there was only a game that would take the best from both these games and combine them together while still introducing new ideas to improve the game further..........
The Two Thrones:
-Gameplay
TTT's gameplay is mostly the same as WW. There are some interesting wrinkles.
Stealth kills are now present. You can mix this with platforming to get the drop on enemies to kill them without needing to enter direct combat. As the Prince you need to do a QTE sequence to kill enemies while the Dark Prince needs to mash triangle to choke out enemies. While these can be fun and are a great addition, they are often less efficient than just fighting everybody and killing them with the best combos quickly. The Prince's QTEs are also used in certain boss fights. Speaking of which:
Boss Fights are finally fun to play. The Giant is a great mix of platforming, attacking his feet and dodging his attacks. The twins offer a great dodging and multitasking affair (even if it's unclear at first how to beat them and the fight itself is very short). The Vizir is also fun. The only lacklustre boss is that purple lady who fights like Shadee for the first phase and then starts jumping in the second. There's a greater variety in boss fights and they often incorporate different gimmicks than SoT and WW who just had straightforward duels.
One new gimmick is chariot races. These are sequences where the Prince has to ride a chariot across specifically designed levels. The chariot does not stop or slow down and crashing head on into a wall kills you. You have to navigate hazards on the road, including other chariots who try and change your trajectory (requiring you to lead the enemy chariot onto a wall or something without crashing yourself) and enemies trying to jump on and knock you off (I wish there was a bit of a timing challenge here or something because you can just mash square to kill them at the first opportunity with no issue). I enjoy these races as a nice change of pace. The PSP version comes with 3 extra races (that feel like 1 super long race split into 3) that are quite difficult. I enjoyed them.
-Bonus Levels
The PSP version comes with a few bonus levels. Specifically, the North American PSP version. This is what surprised me because I played the European Version to death as a kid and there are no bonus levels there yet the European Version of Warriour Within has them. Anyway, unlike WW which integrated its bonus levels much more seamlessly into the existing levels, TTT has the player enter these bonus levels whenever they drain a sand portal. Personally, I don't mind too much. A lot of these levels are quite exotic and disconnected from the regular levels anyway so trying to fit them in would have been quite difficult anyway.
There are 3 types of bonus levels and are cycled through the portals. The first set are proper levels with substantial content, platforming and even the odd Dark Prince segment. These are quite fun and even have some nice lore and character interactions between the Prince and Dark Prince. The environments do feel like they were made for a different game as they look very different from the regular levels. The second set all reuse the same treasure room and require the player to kill the sand general to be able to return back. These are quite underwhelming. The 3rd are just a remix of the magical fountain rooms from SoT where Khaleena reminds the Prince she's somehow helping him despite being dead. These give you new sand powers like slow-mo and Sand Storm once the Prince drinks from the fountain and remembers his abilities from Warriour Within and there is no actual platforming. I am not fond of these sections. The story here with Khaleena helping the Prince out tries to tie into the ending and narration somewhat directly, but nobody really complained about the main console version's story and we don't really gain any new info. You could remove these sections and very little would change.
One thing I find really odd about the bonus levels is the voice acting. They sound so out of place compared to the audio of the regular levels. Like, in the garden level, the Prince is quite upset because of what happened between him and Farah. He enters the bonus level and suddenly he's teasing the Dark Prince about how he's taking his time. He exits the level and suddenly sombre again. The Dark Prince's voice also sounds different during these sections. There's another section later on where the Prince enters a Treasure Room Bonus Level and proudly says "only 3 enemies, I guess Father is doing a better job than I thought". Even though at this point, the Prince knows that Babylon's army has fallen to the Vizir and the situation is truly dire. This line would only make sense several hours earlier and even then would still feel out of character for the Prince. There are bonus levels that happen while Farah is waiting for the Prince and only the last one has dialogue that acknowledges that the Prince should hurry to not keep Farah waiting so I am confused on what the timeline on development of these levels were. If you told me that these bonus level audio was recorded by the voice actors after just receiving a word doc for a script and were told to just email the lines back to Ubisoft, I would believe it.
Regardless, while the 3 good bonus levels are fun, I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to get the US PSP version if you already have a regular copy of the game.
-The Story
I like the overall story. It's decent and the Prince's arc of not being selfish is well done. All the dialogue between the Prince and Dark Prince and Farah, and Khaleena being the narrator to give us more insight into the characters is all fantastic. It adds so much flavour. One criticism I do have towards Khaleena's narration is that some of it is often redundant as we can already glean it from the context rather it enriching our understanding. For example, the gardens section, we have the Prince unusually quiet after Farah finds out his secret, his conversations with the Dark Prince reflect how upset he feels and his later actions and words show he's starting to take Farah's words to heart. So when Khaleena spells it out as the narrator, it is redundant. The Prince's conversations do a good job with "show don't tell" but then Khaleena comes in and tells us anyway.
I'd argue Khaleena's narration is at its best when it tells us stuff we couldn't immediately glean. Stuff like the state of Babylon is something I'd like to have seen more of.
One area I found many online complaints towards is the section where Farah discovers the Prince's transformation. Namely that its forced conflict between the 2 characters that's resolved quickly. I'd argue against that. Because at that point in the story, the Prince is torn between Farah acting his conscience and helping his people, and the Dark Prince wanting revenge against the Vizir at all costs acting as the Devil on his shoulder. With Farah gone, the story creates this fear that the Dark Prince now has nothing stopping his pressure, so it's all the more indicative of the Prince's true colours and new character when he does choose to save people without Farah convincing him to and the Dark Prince trying to pressure him into not doing it. So it works for the story overall since it allows the Prince's character to shine.
I remember as a kid listening to the great speech Prince gives when he finds Sharaman's Corpse:
"
Dark Prince: What now, then? Gather up enough Sand, perform another grand rewind? Or perhaps you can return to the Island and travel back to a time when he might still be saved? Maybe rescue a Damsel in Distress along the way!
Prince: NO! You are right. I have been like a child: naive and arrogant, always rushing to undo my mistakes. Never facing the consequences of my actions. No more. I accept what I have done, and all that it implies. [transforms back, without water]
Dark Prince: What is this?! You have no water! How did you—?
Prince: You hold no power over me now! Begone! Retreat to whatever dark hole spawned you, and do not trouble me again.
Prince: NO! You are right. I have been like a child: naive and arrogant, always rushing to undo my mistakes. Never facing the consequences of my actions. No more. I accept what I have done, and all that it implies. [transforms back, without water]
Dark Prince: What is this?! You have no water! How did you—?
Prince: You hold no power over me now! Begone! Retreat to whatever dark hole spawned you, and do not trouble me again.
"
... and being a bit confused. I was like "hang on, why is the story acting like Prince made so many mistakes and his attempts to fix them being childish? Like, back in Sands of Time, wouldn't the non-childish response be to not fix the mistake the Prince caused after being tricked by the Vizir? So was the Prince wrong in trying and successfully fixing unleashing the sands?"
Looking back, I think the story was trying to address the Prince's mentality rather than literally say he was childish for trying to save the world and later his own life. Kinda like Star Wars The Last Jedi's line of "That's how we win, not by fighting what we hate but by defending what we love". The Prince wasn't fighting for the sake of his people but for his own selfish reasons. It's a little messy but the arc still mostly works.
-The Multiplayer
The PSP version has a neat multiplayer mode. The way it works is that one player plays as Prince and the other as Dark Prince and they race through a set of levels to get to the end first. Levels have 3 paths, a green path which is the easiest but slowest. A yellow path is of moderate difficulty and speed and a red path is harder but the fastest. Players can activate traps on the current path the other player is on and that player has to either risk it or swap paths to avoid the trap entirely.
I played a few rounds back when the game was new. I remember the levels and the added competition were quite cool but the repeated transition sections between levels got a bit repetitive. I'd love to a modern version of this. I know Hitman 2 did something like this but a version for a platformer could be interesting.
-Other Stuff
On the PSP, graphical detail is obviously reduced. textures are muddy (although thankfully it's more visible than WW's port). Lighting is flat, the Dark Prince has no changes in his appearance when he gets low on health. There no civilians getting harassed by guards in the opening. Slow mo sometimes doesn't happen on some transformations which not only looks weird but the audio isn't adjusted. So you have the Prince groaning when he's supposed to be transforming happening after he's already transformed.
Another bug is if you rewind time right after a cutscene, audio from that cutscene may replay.
The PSP version always has the rewind timer active, even before you get the dagger.
Apparently the Vizir's new name when transformed is Zurvan. Which is said like twice in the game, once in a very heard to hear speech from the Vizir and one in an optional line from the Dark Prince telling the player how they performed ("maybe Babylon is better in Zurvan's hands"). There are some more references to this in the Bonus Levels where Zurvan is the Persian God of Time.
-You lose your secondary weapons if you reload a checkpoint in the bonus levels.
-The PSP version adds more save spots. It's also quite buggy. Be careful when rewinding time during platforming section as it's possible the position of some items can get warped. So it's possible that a trap you're jumping past activates even though you safely got past before the rewind.
-Health Upgrades are more important to get due to the Dark Prince sections.
-The bonus artwork and videos you get from collecting sand credits are great. I wish more games did stuff like this.
-In the final level in the Prince's mind, you can't die or get a game over. If you fall off a platform, you just land back on the last platform.....unless you jump at specific times when the platforms change which can trap the Prince onto an infinite falling loop and then gets a game over.
-The game has invisible enemies. The advice the Dark Prince gives you to beat them is "You may not be able to see these creatures but you can still hear them". But you don't need to do that. You are magnetically attracted to these enemies when you attack them so you just fight them normally.
To go on a bit of a tangent, while looking online, I came across information on Prince Of Persia Kindred Blades. The original draft of Two Thrones. Going across many Youtube Videos, I kept seeing this comment, copied and pasted by different people on the videos highlighting the supposed features of this game and everyone lamenting why this wasn't the version of the game they got:
"
Vale96 4 years ago (edited)
According to all the informations gived to us in this years:
1)The Prince still has his WW clothes.
2)Has the amulet of time and a simple dagger as main weapon.
2)Can become a sand monster, the Dark Prince, with the fire and return normal with water.
3)When transformed into the DP he lost his dagger and can retrieve an enemy's weapon and use it as primary weapon with the daggertail and you could have switched from LP to DP with the pressure of a button, when near fire, and to remain it, you would have had to find another way to go ahead without touching water, for example secret passages usable only by the DP.
4)There were day/night cicles, scripted only sometimes.
5)The main antagonist was originally a doppelganger of the Prince, who had the Dagger of Time.
6)There were some level cuts, for example the Babel Tower and the Prison level, but some of them were reintroduced in the american version of "Prince of Persia Rival Sword" for the psp as bonus levels after the Prince deactivates a portal, and there were more chariot races, at least 8.
7)There were more enemies, including the ones in screenshots and some of WW too, like Golems, Keepers, Blade Dancers and Assassins.
8)There were chase scenes with a giant sand snake, controlled by the doppelganger, that was meant to retrieve the amulet of time from the Prince and kill him, it appears in the Prince of Persia 3 mobile game. 9)Kaileena would have sacrificed herself when the Prince was captured in the Babel Tower by some swordsmen and archers.
10)Farah wouldn't have been in the game, only mentioned.
11)The Doppelganger would have transformed king Sharaman, Queen Mehri and the Old Man in sand creatures.
12)The Prince would have had to kill them, Sharaman in the Tower, Queen Mehri in the garden area, before the Stone Guardian and the Old Man in the Lower city level. There still were Klompa, Mahasti and the Twins, but they were only creations of the doppelganger, all the enemies weren't humans before.
13) The doppelganger was supposed to be an inhabitant of the Island of Time who takes the shape and the memories of the Prince and uses the powers of the sands with the dagger in the past to craft an army, take control of the remain WW enemies and attack Babylon in the present , he was meant to destroy whoever changed his fate and take his place, and the Prince created him when he killed the Dahaka (And Kaileena in the bad ending), but the Prince does not encounter him until he returns to Babylon because the creature originated himself in the past and didn't use portals to go in the present, because he is immortal to aging like Kaileena, but can be killed. His appearence was red eyes, black hair, grey skin, gloves, an armour similar to the WW Prince with no amulet and no daggertail, he was like a mix of LP and DP and in his right cheek there was the symbol of the Island, the one from the loading screen of WW.
14)There were more animals, like tigers, bulls, lizards, scavengers, bats and arpies, the very first human/animal creatures in the series, originally created for WW but scrapped.
15) Darius from "Battles of Prince of Persia" and other new characters, like some friends and love interests of the Prince were included.
16)There were amulet and life upgrades, amulet with special doors and life by fountains.
17)There were three endings "Light Prince", "Dark Prince" and "Doppelganger" and final battle was in the Babel Tower. About obtain them: - For the LP, retrieve all amulet and life upgrades, transform yourself few times and stay transformed for a very few amount each time you do it and be LP in the final encounter. - For the DP, retrieve all amulet and life upgrades, stay transformed for the majority of the game, except the scripted parts and be DP in the final encounter. - For the doppelganger, don't retrieve all the amulet and life upgrades and be LP or DP in the final encounter. This is what was supposed to be Kindred Blades, if all the rumours are true, it was going to be a hell of a game, but it was probably scrapped for console limitations, imagine yourself a ps2/ xbox/ gamecube to handle all of this, it would have been impossible, especially in 2005, they should have wait the launch of ps3 and xbox360 to do it. Sorry for eventual errors, I'm not english
368
368
"
Now, I hate to be so cynical but I don't think Kindred Blades was actually doing all this. Looking online and at the official POP wiki, information is much less detailed. There is some reference to the game being somewhat open ended and having a day/night cycle. Having the Dark Prince and his connection to fire is and being able to swap on the fly is also present. But what confuses me is that the wiki basically says "you can swap on the fly......but also The Light Prince would only regain control if the Dark Prince stepped into water". Seems odd you can swap on the fly but also only be able to swap on certain conditions. Perhaps this is something like steeping in water reset any meta influence the Dark Prince would have had locked the player into using the Light Prince for a while? There is nothing specific so your guess is as good as mine.
There is no info I could find on the various weapons, enemies, powers or even the characters and the plot that confirmed the comment. There is also no mention of this Doppleganger these comments mention. The Vizir is listed in the wiki so it seems he is still the primary antagonist. Surely if such a major character was such a big focus, the wiki would list him and summarize of these points from at least somewhat credible sources.
I could confirm that Farah wouldn't have been in this one, but could find no info on Sharaman, Darius and all these other characters. And probably would have been weird if side characters from DS Spinoffs were suddenly a decent chunk of the game as most players would be unfamiliar with them.
There is nothing that confirms there would have been multiple endings. The wiki basically just says "there is speculation there might be multiple endings" so nothing concrete.
So yeah, it appears more like rumours of this game based on some details took a life of their own and were quite embellished and expanded.
What makes me especially sure this was the case are the details of this story. Looking at them seriously, they make no sense. How does this Doppelganger come into being? How does the Prince create him when he killed the Dahaka while this Doppelganger is also supposed to be an immortal that has lived for a long time (and can be killed? That's not what being immortal means!)? How does killing the Dahaka in the present create this Doppelganger in the past. That's not how time travel works in this series. How does he raise a sand army when there is no sand and Khaleena is still alive? The whole point of WW was for the Prince to ensure the sand never get made in the first place and he accomplishes that. How does he get to Babylon and basically take over before the Prince and Khaleena can even arrive despite only being "created" when the Dahaka dies? Hell, how does he even get this army off the Island without the Prince noticing? Even if he created his army in the past, he would have to sit on his army for centuries until basically the present anyway according to the plot. Why does he even go for Babylon first if his beef is with the Prince and they are both on the Island for at least a while? How does the Doppleganger use the dagger of time when again, there's no sand in this timeline. I feel this can't be the actual story. It seems more like people with less than stellar English played a game of Telephone with some of the rumours.
I suspect that KB was just that, an earlier draft of TTT that morphed into TTT. Maybe it was rewritten entirely at some point but still retained the gameplay and basic premise we see in the current version.
But giving these rumours the benefit of the doubt, would this version of the game have been good or better than the current version? Honestly, I doubt it. KB sounds bloated and overthought. Like, why do we need 3 seperate forms for the Prince we can swap between? Imagine if in WW you could swap between the Sand Wraith and the regular Prince on the fly. You would simply stay as the Prince and only swap to the Wraith to fill up your sand before swapping back again.
One of the franchise's best attributes is its simplicity. When making Sands of Time, Mechener initially planned a more elaborate story with 9 main characters and multiple love interests but scalled back to just our 3 main characters because that suited the story more. And the game was better for it. KB sounds like it was the equivalent to SoT's initial draft.
One last Rumour I want to discuss is of Dark Babylon, the rumoured upcoming POP game in 2021 that takes place in an alternate timeline of the events of Two Thrones with God of War 2018 style combat. I personally feel this is just that, rumours that are unlikely to be true. Firstly, why would Ubi's first original Prince of Persia game in 10 years be an alternate timeline version of a game from 15 years ago? TTT is the least remembered game of the trilogy so it's odd that's the focus of this game. The only people that would truly be on board would be TTT fans wheras everybody else would likely be confused on this game which would hurt Ubi as they'd likely want everybody buying this. Secondly, They are releasing a Sand of Time remake. Why would their next game after that jump ahead 2 games and an alternate timeline and have drastically different combat?
"
So there you have it. My very long review of the Prince of Persia Sands of Time Trilogy. Overall they are very fun platformers with interesting ideas of the world. TTT is the best so if you have to play just one, play that. SoT is my pick for second place with WW only slightly behind. Of course, I recomend playing all 3 if you can.
I'm not sure what my next review will be on. I'm thinking maybe Assassin's Creed Bloodlines, GTA Chinatown Wars, Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands (PSP) or Tomb Raider Anniversary. I'm currently playing Cyberpunk 2077 but I don't plan on making a long post about since my thoughts on that game are much less detailed (the game is decent at what it does. Urgency is good).
Regardless, See you Next time.
