This game goes a lot harder than it has any reason to.
I am a pretty big fan of the Prince of Persia series. I had played Sands of Time and thought it was a pretty great game, but one day during my adolescence I had a fever dream about the 2008 game (it had the music from Sigur Rós that played in the commercial and everything). That one dream sent me off on a path of playing every Prince of Persia game that came out post Sands of Time, save for some spin offs. I enjoyed most of what I played, but those are all far gone memories now and I can't say where I'd stand on them now.
One thing I know for sure though? This is the best Prince of Persia game since Sands of Time.
THIS is how you take something back to its roots while adding to it in a meaningful way. The OG Prince of Persia games were difficult platformers with very touchy combat. This game is a difficult platformer with very solid combat. It adopts many Metroidvania elements, such as gaining power-ups that aid progression and encourage backtracking to find new discoveries. Each upgrade felt satisfying, and by the time you reach the end you'll wonder how you lived without any of them.
The combat itself is simple, but also has enough depth to really keep you going. You really can just mash your way through a lot of enemies, but you are also rewarded for learning how to extend combos. Though sadly, most bosses won't be affected by it.
After the passing of Akira Toriyama, the Ubisoft twitter posted about how this game's art and style was inspired by Dragon Ball Z. I was surprised, but it only made me more curious about this game. Once you reach a certain point, you'll realize just how true that statement was. Unlike the previous stories in the Prince of Persia series, this world has more emphasis on a connection to the gods and powers that enhance the characters. The original Prince in Sands of Time was a simple sword-fighter who also had time powers. Sargon is the same, but with Ashra energy. This is equivalent to Dragon Ball's Ki, in that it enables characters to do all kinds of crazy techniques. These are manifest in the Ashra Surges that you can use in combat. Not only are they over the top, but the animations go extra hard. These Ashra Surges, parry animations, and a lot of cutscenes in general go raw. You can tell they put work into making the action LOOK cool, and it really sold a lot of the fights for me. So much so that if I missed a parry animation on a boss, I would get frustrated because I wanted to see how it looked in that specific fight.
The story is good enough to keep you going as well, and it's a great length at around 20 hours to earn the Platinum. The characters of the Immortals themselves were all pretty great (and their entrance was really cool too).
All in all, if this is the future of the series, I'm all for it.
I am a pretty big fan of the Prince of Persia series. I had played Sands of Time and thought it was a pretty great game, but one day during my adolescence I had a fever dream about the 2008 game (it had the music from Sigur Rós that played in the commercial and everything). That one dream sent me off on a path of playing every Prince of Persia game that came out post Sands of Time, save for some spin offs. I enjoyed most of what I played, but those are all far gone memories now and I can't say where I'd stand on them now.
One thing I know for sure though? This is the best Prince of Persia game since Sands of Time.
THIS is how you take something back to its roots while adding to it in a meaningful way. The OG Prince of Persia games were difficult platformers with very touchy combat. This game is a difficult platformer with very solid combat. It adopts many Metroidvania elements, such as gaining power-ups that aid progression and encourage backtracking to find new discoveries. Each upgrade felt satisfying, and by the time you reach the end you'll wonder how you lived without any of them.
The combat itself is simple, but also has enough depth to really keep you going. You really can just mash your way through a lot of enemies, but you are also rewarded for learning how to extend combos. Though sadly, most bosses won't be affected by it.
After the passing of Akira Toriyama, the Ubisoft twitter posted about how this game's art and style was inspired by Dragon Ball Z. I was surprised, but it only made me more curious about this game. Once you reach a certain point, you'll realize just how true that statement was. Unlike the previous stories in the Prince of Persia series, this world has more emphasis on a connection to the gods and powers that enhance the characters. The original Prince in Sands of Time was a simple sword-fighter who also had time powers. Sargon is the same, but with Ashra energy. This is equivalent to Dragon Ball's Ki, in that it enables characters to do all kinds of crazy techniques. These are manifest in the Ashra Surges that you can use in combat. Not only are they over the top, but the animations go extra hard. These Ashra Surges, parry animations, and a lot of cutscenes in general go raw. You can tell they put work into making the action LOOK cool, and it really sold a lot of the fights for me. So much so that if I missed a parry animation on a boss, I would get frustrated because I wanted to see how it looked in that specific fight.
The story is good enough to keep you going as well, and it's a great length at around 20 hours to earn the Platinum. The characters of the Immortals themselves were all pretty great (and their entrance was really cool too).
All in all, if this is the future of the series, I'm all for it.