Upcoming Prince of Persia Title A Sharp Break from Trilogy

The next game in the Prince of Persia franchise will bear no connection to the last three titles and will be nothing like Assassin's Creed, the developer said.

In an interview and preview with the French Joypad magazine, the game's creative director, Jean-Christophe Guyot, said the goal was to craft a "more poetic vision" than the preceding trilogy.

"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 colourful."

He conceded that Ubisoft bosses were somewhat taken aback at the new direction - including the decision to use cel-shaded graphics - but said they never told him to change course.

"They were worried the Americans wouldn't like it. There were many discussions, but they never said no to us," he said.

Players will find the prince engaged in a Shadow of the Colossus kind of scenario, healing the land by battling bosses, with less numerous but more difficult enemies and an emphasis on sword duels.

The Sands of Time powers will be gone, but a mechanic that will replicate some of its functions will replace it.

The game is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, which was behind Sands of Time, and will come out this year for the 360, PS3 and PC.

Source: Eurogamer.net

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My hopes for this game have now sunk.

Why so? What to expect of the series after it's last saga? Milking it out more would be too much and the Shadow of the Colossus approach got my eye. I'm hopeful that the new saga might bring something interesting like the past has with the time control.

Divinegon:
Why so? What to expect of the series after it's last saga? Milking it out more would be too much and the Shadow of the Colossus approach got my eye. I'm hopeful that the new saga might bring something interesting like the past has with the time control.

A PoP game w/o the Sands of Time is, for me, not a PoP game, having never played the originals.

At least we get a nice new PoP game hopefully it will be a nice new venture for our young (well very old by now) prince.

Well, as an American, I'm all for cel shaded graphics, new game experiences, and fighting giant monsters. Not to mention the fact that the game is based on Zoroastrian mythology.

"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 swordfighting duels, with a very dynamic camera. It's described as being more Soul Calibur than God of War."

Sounds awesome.

This actually looks intersting, and with an emphasis on sword duels, who knows, awesome, realistic but over-the-top sword fights might be possible in a game as something other then a cut-scene or Quick-time-event.

I'm not sure how they're going to continue the story from the trilogy. Unless it's a prequel. Or has no connection to the previous stories, which makes them almost redundant. The story did end with Two Thrones. For me, no more Sands of Time = no more Time Powers. So the new game mechanic seems to be a desperate attempt to keep the old gameplay but with a different name.

I was pretty interested to see how they'd cope without the Sands of Time as a factor but it seems they can't. I hope this game turns out to be more impressive than it sounds at the moment.

Right now, I'm not looking forward to it. I was, but not so much now. Also, I hope they do the series justice in the apparent movie, otherwise I don't know what I'll do.

P.M.

Okay, this would be good as a totally new game but as the next Prince of Persia I have to say I'm dissapointed. From what I can tell they've removed what makes PoP PoP and replaced it with...something else. Could be good. Won't be Prince of Persia.

They just need to change the mechanic so it's not "sand dependant".How about an "adrenaline system" saving you from near-death situations? Basically it'd work like a health meter.

For example:

Let's say we have one of those buzzsaw walls.
The Prince first runs onto it, gets chopped and falls off.However, you can now activate Adrenaline which puts you seconds before facing the buzzsaw.Then we'd have a QTE or sth similar and Prince would hop onto the buzzsaw, quickly take off again and continue with his wallrun.

It took me less than 3 minutes to come up with that.How much time has Ubi got? At least a couple of months.I'm sure they will come up with a good substitute for SoT by that time.

thebobmaster:

Divinegon:
Why so? What to expect of the series after it's last saga? Milking it out more would be too much and the Shadow of the Colossus approach got my eye. I'm hopeful that the new saga might bring something interesting like the past has with the time control.

A PoP game w/o the Sands of Time is, for me, not a PoP game, having never played the originals.

Well there's already three games with sands of time powers, so there's always those to play again. I'd much rather they tried to break new ground than just updating the same old things.

And here I was thinking people didn't actually want developers to keep releasing the same crap over and over again. Everything they've said about this game so far sounds good to me, and I really enjoyed Sands of Time so I think it's in good hands.

Eh...I'm going to change my opinion now. When I took some time to think about it, it occured to me that the safest place for innovation in gaming is in good, established series like this because the developers know that people will buy them. And frankly any innovation in gaming is a good thing.

So...Let's just pretend my previous post never happened, hey?

In an article that I idiotically forgot to copy the link too, Ubisoft talks of the new POP. From what they said, all the POP games, from the original 3 (including the crappy POP 3D), the Sands of Time trilogy, and this new one take place in the same space-time continuum (Is that how you spell that?), however, this is a different Prince.

Apparantly (****SPOILERS*****) in this game, you start off as just a dude. Not a prince. You have a cool looking sword. You even have a bad-ass claw on your left hand in the pics, but in the article, they say right, so it might change. Remember in Megaman X how you could grip a wall and slide down it? Yeah. That's should be possible with the claw. (*****End Spoilers*****)

Edit: Found a forum topic on Gametrailers that has the Article scanned in. Don't click the photobucket links. Just scroll down. Link below. Oh, and I'm an American, and want this game. Just tellen' ya' that to disprove Ubisoft's fears.

http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=389431

Reinventing a franchise, I like it. That's basically what Ubisoft did to the original 90's PoP series and it worked out very well. I'm happy, and surprised, that they're eager to do the same thing again (considering the first reinvention was made by a completely different team in a much later gaming era).

thebobmaster:

A PoP game w/o the Sands of Time is, for me, not a PoP game, having never played the originals.

That's more or less what I thought when Sands of Time came out: "If it's not a 2D maze platformer it's not a true PoP game". And I was right, it was a completely different game.

And I liked it.
Come to think of it if the new Prince game will be too much like the sands trilogy I'll be disappointed.

After reading that link posted, I think I was too pessimistic. I'm still not going to be avidly reading every scrap of info coming out on this game, but I am looking forward to it.

I'm seriously liking how this is sounding. I was originally afraid they were going to murder the SoT franchise, but...let's just say my pants keep getting tighter.

TheNecroswanson:
I'm seriously liking how this is sounding. I was originally afraid they were going to murder the SoT franchise, but...let's just say my pants keep getting tighter.

Charming. Lovely imagery you've given us there, mate.

Well, this game certainly has good looks to it. And PoP was never really about the sands for me... for me it was the insane athleticism of the prince. I hope that's present. It seems to be magical - or maybe it's just gamers like the idea of being able to run up walls and stuff.

StarkRavingSane:
Come to think of it if the new Prince game will be too much like the sands trilogy I'll be disappointed.

As long as the blue-eyed playboy keeps "dicking around on rooftops of an ancient civilization", they've got my vote. To be honest they probably have it anyway since the last three installments are among my all-time favourite PC games.

Prince of Persia Pinball: A sharp break from the trilogy.

Arbre:
Prince of Persia Pinball: A sharp break from the trilogy.

Hey, Metroid Prime Pinball was fun....

Okay, first vid, which actually isn't much of a vid, it's just a speed-drawing of the prince, but, hey, it's the first vid, it's allowed to suck. Link below. Gametrailers, as always.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33651.html

Okay, PoP's hero will be a mix between a tramp and Big Boss.

Okay, more info. This time, it's pictures and written info on someone's blog about the game. Yet again, gametrailers.

http://tycoon.gametrailers.com/gamepad/index.php?action=blog

Edit: His other blog is also about the new PoP, which apparantly had the subtitle of "Ghosts of the Past" at one point or another. It is an earlier blog, and some of the info has become moot (like the fact that this was supposed to be a prequel, but I think it's a chronological sequel now in the PoP universe) but it's still worth a read.

2nd Edit: He changed his blog. Now it has the Edge Magazine scans as well.

3rd Edit: The name might actually be "Prince of Persia: Heir Apparent," and not "Ghosts of the Past."

4th Edit: Speed art of Elikka.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34326.html