New Prince of Persia = Fail? what do you guys think?

[Noja87]

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.

The new PoP game shows striking images of the game's "illustrative" visual style - a subtle and highly detailed take on cel-shading - and the new Prince, a colorful 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 said 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. "We decided we'd prefer to return to the tales of the Thousand and One Nights for something more colorful."

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, stylized 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 color 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 color 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 sword fighting 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 fulfill 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, maximizing 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.


- Screenshots -

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What a disappointment. While i like the new prince and the claw, i just don't like the new graphics. Dont get me wrong, i like cell shading, its just that Prince of Persia + Cell Shading doesn't look like a good mix. At least for me it doesn't. And less enemies? what a load of BS. I was expecting this game to look like a better, more beautiful Assassins Creed. Now is just Prince of Persia meets Zelda meets Okami. which is not bad, its just...disappointing. I wanted something more new and original =\

As for the story. What a Cliche piece of crap. Evil God vs good God? where have i seen this before? oh yeah, Sudeki, Grandia 2 and almost every other game out there. Especially RPGs.

I was expecting so much more from Ubisoft Montreal. 0 originality in this one. Shame.

[Thanakil]

I actually like the gfx-side of it. I like a more sober cell-shading like this one, instead of the usual more cell-shading that we see.

As far as the story goes... Dunno, I never cared about the Prince of Persia story. The gameplay was always what mattered.

The nice thing with those games was always the gameplay and the stories well... They really always were sub-par anyway. A new sub-par story doesn't really matter that much, as long as they keep improving the gameplay and making it fun. That's the only thing that I can ask of them.

[skoreanime]

Yeah. The Prince of Persia game has always been about the gameplay for me. Their stories are quite boring

The graphics are certainly going to twists some heads and create mixed opinions. It looks...different. Pictures can only go so far to show us though, I'm sure plenty of opinions will change with a video release.

[3x3cUt0r]

Street fighter IV style, i like it, i hope it good like the others games.

[John Aiton]

those graphics look great

[snickothemule]

Noish.

I like the idea of the new visual direction and the idea of more open ended gameplay and a less emo looking prince.

[Cheesus]

Uber Phail.

They are going to run the Prince of Persia franchise into the ground. The vast majority of players of were in it for the gameplay, story, graphic style, and abilities. Now they decide to scrap all of it and go for something completely different... wtf!?

FFS why on earth didn't they just give it a new name, instead of destroying what the original PoP franchise stood for??

Also, I find the graphics just plain horrid. Its not ****in street fighter, its PoP.

[ozzgx4]

I've always liked the prince of Persia games, although the story lines can be a bit boring

[StriderVM]

.... But I thought that Assassin's Creed was the new Prince of Persia.....?

Just kidding. For me, I think the idea for the different art approach is (maybe) most people would think that Assassins Creed and the new POP game would look really similar.....

[Raziel]

I agree with StriderVM, they probably took into account that Assassin's Creed looks like a new PoP.

Also, why are you all upset by the change of style ? Most people here usually complain that big franchises always keep the same style and gameplay, but when a franchise gets a big change, it's wrong too, WTF ?

IMO, the change is a good thing, 3 episodes of the Sands of Time were enough, and a change like that is a good thing, PoP needed a change, since I still think of Sands of Time as being superior to Warrior Within & The Two Thrones.

[3x3cUt0r]

Totally agree with Raziel.

[Silenus]

Well I was really used to the art style of PoP before, but like said before maybe they needed this to make it stand out.

Lets just see how this turns out.

[Paratech]

I'll wait until its released until I judge it. I really like the last three PoP, I just didn't like the fact that Two Thrones had Starforce, but that's been fixed.

I haven't tried running the second Prince of Persia *WW* on my PC, for some reason it wouldn't run on my 900mhz PC, strangely the first and third ones ran fine.

After I get a new hard drive, I'll add all three back to my PC.

And I'll try and beat them! I had my head handed to me on WW *Playstation 2 version.*

[Densetsu]

So what the hell did you want noja?

To continue milking Prince of Persia Sands of Time storyline until it get's non-profitable?

Atleast they are trying something new. Experimenting. It might not turn out for the best but atleast you can give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Noja87]

Originally Posted by Densetsu

So what the hell did you want noja?

To continue milking Prince of Persia Sands of Time storyline until it get's non-profitable?

Atleast they are trying something new. Experimenting. It might not turn out for the best but atleast you can give them the benefit of the doubt.

Originally Posted by Noja87

I wanted something more new and original

Did you read what i said?...

[Paratech]

Someone could find a PS3/360 owner and try the game as a rental? That'd at least give an idea if it were worth buying for the PC.

I tried PoP:SoT on the Gamecube, PoP:WW on the Playstation 2, and I just purchased PoP:TT on the PC. I still have PoP:WW for the Playstation 2, and all three PoP for the PC.

[Noja87]

I have all 3 for the Xbox =)

Anyway. I will wait for a video and see if that changes my mind about the new style =|

[Squall-Leonhart]

am i the only one who realises those are probably Concept art,....

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by Squall-Leonhart

am i the only one who realises those are probably Concept art,....

I was going on WoT mode but let's make it simple .

Concept art made with the engine (for reference purpose) I could see it being right.
concept art as being real art, drawn and ect, naw. Too many things point to otherwise and this being actual 3D (easily too), even tho at first glance I did wonder about it too. Mainly the environment screens, the screens with the chars were very obviously 3D.

[runawayprisoner]

The screens with the chars make me think that the current engine should be a perfect fit for the Wii... while not really showing anything about how they used anything from the 360 or PS3...