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A timeless fairy tale

Please come and sit with me. I would like to tell you a story. A story about a young man from a faraway land. The man is no ordinary traveler, but neither is he a prince, as you might think. He is athletic and handsome, can fight and climb. He also has a sense of humor and a voice that is hard to forget. On his journey, this prince meets a group of men who are pursuing a woman. This woman is no ordinary damsel in distress either, but a princess, and the men following her are the guards of her father, the king. The princess is also beautiful, athletic and powerful. But she does not use weapons. Instead, she has magical powers. The prince drives away the monarch's henchmen, who then releases the ancient god Ahriman from his prison in the Tree of Life. The unleashed god shrouds the kingdom in darkness and transforms the inhabitants into creatures of evil. The not-prince and the princess set out to banish the darkness from the kingdom and travel through four different areas, like the alchemist's laboratory or the concubine's tower. The two sound like the perfect couple. But the princess doesn't trust the young hero at the beginning and keeps quiet about what happened and what her father did. An adventurous journey begins in the fight against evil. Now, how does the story end? Maybe I'll tell you another time...

a guy dressed in a robe sitting in front of his PC and writing an article about an 11-year-old game.

After this (hopefully) atmospheric introduction, I would like to tell you a little more about Prince of Persia . The game was released without an accompanying title in 2008 and only is only related to the prequel of the Sands of Time-series on paper. Here, too, we play the eponymous prince. This time, however, he is not alone, but is accompanied by Elika, a magically gifted princess. Together, they cleanse the areas infested by darkness and overcome battles and climbing challenges.

In general, the game remains true to the core of the brand, but focuses on exploring the levels with wall runs and double jumps. Although there is also combat, it is limited to duels with individual enemies and large life bars. In battle, we can combine the Prince's and Elika's abilities to create powerful combos. For example, the prince throws the opponent into the air with his clawed glove so that Elika can beat him up with magic and then the prince can use his sword again. Although this suggests some depth, there are basically one or two sequences that always work and make the fights rather trivial.

The 2008 spin-off of the traditionally more challenging Prince of Persia-series is also easier than its predecessors in other respects. Although the famous “Dagger of Time” and the associated rewind function are missing, the prince still cannot die. If he makes a careless jump or is overwhelmed in battle, Elika rushes to his aid with her magical abilities. There are no game-over screens. However, this does not make the game trivial, as the climbing puzzles require very precise timing and the game focuses on a different aspect: the story and relationship between its protagonists.

There have also been strong female characters in the Prince of Persia-games in the past. But they all pale in comparison to the princess from 2008's Prince of Persia . Elika is not a running reset point, but a character with depth who undergoes a transformation from suspicious cynic to hopeful optimist over the course of the story. This is complemented by the character of the prince, who appears mischievous and likeable through voice actor Nolan North's performance (Drake from Uncharted). The two tease each other, joke or fall into silence when, for example, Elika remembers her father's deeds. Of course, more than just a friendship develops between the two over the course of the story. However, this doesn't seem forced, as is so often the case, but authentic. It feels as if you are following the development of a real relationship and hoping for a happy ending.

It is obvious: the spirit of the fairytale is inherent in the game, especially as it originates from the realm of 1001 Nights. This is also reflected in the beautiful game world, which even today is still enchanting with its cel-shading look, which was still new at the time. Although the world itself is actually lacking in content, the puzzles and occasional battles make this hardly noticeable.

The game can almost thankfully be said to come from a time when the concept of the open world was not yet the maxim to which action adventures had to conform. Don't get the wrong idea: We recently saw in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, that the two can get along well. But especially today, the straightforwardness of Prince of Persia can be a refreshing disenfranchisement in favor of the narrative. What I want to do is simply work my way to the boss of the area and then, in an orgasmic eruption of magic, banish the evil from the land and once again explore the previously dark and gray environment in bright, vibrant colors on the hunt for the light seeds.

This before-and-after is something that Prince of Persia ´illustrated like no other game at the time and enchanted me almost 11 years ago. Another important point that sets the mood is the fantastic soundtrack. I will take a closer look at this in a separate article. If you want to get a little bit of a feel for it, you can listen to the main theme.

So, after this considerable amount of text, there should no longer be any doubt as to my opinion of Prince of Persia . The whole thing is a fairy tale turned game, a journey into the world of 1001 nights and a successful experiment, which was unfortunately dismissed by many fans at the time as a departure from the series' traditional past due to its low level of difficulty and lack of references to the past. Personally, I too like the old games and would like to see a 'proper' successor in the future. However, I wouldn't want to belittle the 2008 spin-off for that reason. Because it is simply a great experience that I can only recommend to everyone. I'm doing that now, and I've already done it in the past, in the video game format “WohnGameinschaft”, which I was allowed to take part in during my time at university. You can find the video in German below. And that's the end of this story (for today).