Introduction
Don't let the thread title confuse you... Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is an amazing game. One of my favorites, and probably a favorite of everyone who's played it. It has one of my favorite video game soundtracks ever, the gameplay is fluid and fun, the characters are interesting and interact well with each other (not that there are many of them), and the time manipulation mechanic rewards both skilled and unskilled players by making mistakes less painful and combat less onerous. The combat gets pretty boring otherwise, but that's a minor complaint, and the battle music is some of the best in an already stellar soundtrack. But don't let the thread title OR this paragraph confuse you... that's not the game this thread is about. In fact, for the purposes of this thread, most of the story of Sands of Time never happened. That's actually how Sands of Time ended... go play the game for yourself or watch Sethur's LP if you don't know the story, because this game only covers it in a quick flashback.
Warrior Within is none of what I said about its predecessor. On the plus side, Ubisoft did learn from the complaints about the fighting in Sands of Time. I think Warrior Within offers the best combat in the entire series, although I confess that I haven't played the sidescrolling DS game. The downside is that everything else went down a notch. The characters aren't as interesting, particularly since most of them get very little screen time or dialogue. Even the Prince is a disappointment - no longer the man who can find moments of fun while the world literally turns to sand around him, now he's haunted by death at every turn and does nothing to hide it. The parkour and movement portions are still there, but feel more like paths to the next battle rather than the core of the gameplay, and I just find them less fun overall. The music abandons the Middle Eastern feel of the first game and goes for a more modern rock motif, much to its detriment. And the glitches... I expect that quite a few people never made it to the final boss because of two very demoralizing and very game-ending bugs. It's still a fun game, but nowhere near as much fun as Sands of Time was. So it may be for the best that I'm LPing it for you.
Oh, and the story isn't that great either. "Prince of Persia: Let's just retcon what little remains of the first game out of existence, because why not?"
For this thread, I'll be playing the PS3 HD version of the game, which may or may not have some programming updates from the PS2 version that I've beaten previously. I've seen some weird things in this version already. I'll also bring in guest commentators as needed, depending on how much of interest is happening in each video. I'm not soliciting guest requests at the moment, though.
| Part 1: Arrival on the Island of Time | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 2: Chasing the Woman in Too Little Black | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 3: The Dahaka | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 4: A Celebration of Slow Motion and Fast Forwarding | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 5: Rumble at the Garden | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 6: Garden Overgrown | Blip | Youtube | Reversed Dahaka speech | |
| Part 7: Activating the Moat | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 8: The Tower of Gears | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 9: Ruined Clockwork | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 10: The System is Down | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 11: The Door is Open | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 12: The Empress of Time | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 13: The Sword That Can Smash Walls (with a very tiny number of resultant bricks) | ||||
| Solo commentary: | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Guest commentary by Gimbal lock: | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Reversed Dahaka Speech | Tindeck | |||
| Part 14: Kaileena's Library | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 15: Yes, I know the company originated in France and the Canadian offices are just satellite offices, but the studio in Montreal is the biggest one and makes most of the games anyone cares about, and that's the most important thing I have to say about this video. | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 16: The Mask of the Wraith | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 17: The Path of the Wraith | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 18: The Trial of the Wraith | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 19: The Pursuit of the Wraith | Blip | Youtube | Reversed Dahaka speech | |
| Sands of Time bonus: Original Prince of Persia in 3D | Blip | |||
| Part 20: Prince vs. Empress | Blip | Youtube | ||
| Part 21: Prince vs. Dahaka | Blip | Youtube | Reversed Dahaka speech | |
| Bonus | Blip | Youtube | ||
And if you're not reading the thread, at least keep an eye on Gimbal lock's posts. He's one of the developers of the game, and his insights into both the development process and the final product are amazing.
Characters:
The Prince: I'm sure he has a real name, but he's never told anyone what it is as far as I know. He opened the Sands of Time in the first game, incurring an inescapable death curse. He now seeks to undo the curse by erasing the Sands themselves from existence. In truth, the Prince's efforts to destroy the Sands in the past led to their creation, proving that his fate cannot be changed.
The Dahaka: A dark beast, the enforcer of the timeline. The Dahaka relentlessly pursues the Prince, with the single goal of carrying out the curse of the Sands of Time. Fortunately for the Prince, the Dahaka is afraid of water - as long as the Prince can find a waterfall curtain, he can escape the Dahaka's pursuit.
The old man: This guy seems to know quite a bit about the Sands of Time and the Dahaka. He tells the Prince that the Sands originated on the Island of Time, where portals can be found that will take him to the past. He warns the Prince, however, that even by traveling to the past, he cannot change his fate. Some people believe that this old man is actually an older version of the Prince himself, but I don't see the resemblance or any impact to the story if this is true.
Shahdee: The servant of the Empress of Time, Shahdee uses two swords and is determined to stop the Prince from meeting the Empress at any cost. Well, any cost short of wearing sensible armor. The Prince kills Shahdee shortly after arriving on the Island of Time, so she never accomplishes much.
Kaileena: A woman rescued from Shahdee by the Prince. She knows of the Empress and warns the Prince to stay away, but as the only ally he has on the Island, he relies on her for guidance in his quest to kill the Empress. Kaileena is actually the Empress of Time herself, and her guidance is all an attempt to have the Prince killed before he can face her in combat.
The Sand Wraith: This mysterious figure seems to show up wherever the Prince goes, and has even tried to kill him once. But who or what is it, and what is its ultimate goal? It turns out that the Sand Wraith is a time-displaced copy of the Prince who knows that killing the Empress will create the Sands of Time. The Mask of the Wraith has given him a second chance to deal with the Empress and set things right.
NO IMAGE
The Empress of Time: Creator of the Sands of Time, and ruler over time itself. The Prince must destroy her to prevent the creation of the Sands and avert his fate. The Empress has foreseen that the Prince will kill her, and it is this act that originally created the Sands of Time. It is only through seeing his determination that she can try to fight her own fate, though she will ultimately fail.