New Prince of Persia Is a Sands of Time Betweenquel

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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New Prince of Persia Is a Sands of Time Betweenquel

Next year's Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will return gamers to the universe of the beloved Sands of Time trilogy, filling in the gaps between the original game and Warrior Within.


At a recent Ubisoft press event, our colleagues at Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/14/prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-fills-in-gaps-before-warri/] spoke with Michael McIntyre, director of level design for the new Prince of Persia game, The Forgotten Sands, the debut trailer for which can be seen above.

Set in the years between the original Sands of Time and Warrior Within, Forgotten Sands will chronicle some of the events that led to the Prince's fall from relatively carefree, wisecracking royal to the emo hardened warrior of the sequel. The Prince must harness the power of the Sand - not necessarily just the Sands of Time, either - in order to help defeat an army that is besieging the royal palace of Azad, the kingdom of the Prince's brother.

While the game would be returning to the fan-favorite trilogy after the alternate universe introduced in 2008's Prince of Persia, McIntyre cautioned that the game "isn't the Sand of Time trilogy," which meant that it wouldn't be "entirely focused on time powers. We do have the rewind still, but we also have powers that are more focused on nature - controlling elements of nature."

Given that the game is coming out in May - as is Jerry Bruckheimer's movie adaptation starring Jake Galapagos - it's likely that Ubisoft is intending to capitalize on any hype surrounding the film's release, but there won't be any direct connections between the two (other than the Prince's new model looking suspiciously like leading man Jake Gillyweed's interpretation of the character). However, he won't be providing the voice: Veteran voice actor Yuri Lowenthal will be reprising his role as the Prince, having voiced him in Sands of Time and The Two Thrones.

It's all sounding well and good, but here's the problem I have with it: Since the game is taking place before Warrior Within, it almost has to end on an "everyone gets amnesia" note. The Prince obviously won't have whatever nature-control powers he gained in this game, and Warrior Within makes no reference to any of the events here, anyway. In that regard, I imagine it'd feel kind of like Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - what's the point?

The point could just be "hey, it's a fun game." Which, judging by the past entries in the series, isn't hard to imagine.

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FallenRainbows

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Feb 22, 2009
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Sceptical are we Funk? Maybe they can pull it off. Ever think of that? Huh? Punk!

Sorry... got bored.
 

Woodsey

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I wish they'd leave them alone.

The Sands of Time was fantastic. There was (and still is) no need for anymore.
 

Aqualung

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Could not agree more, Woodsey. I think I'm just going to go ahead and ignore this game, and wait for a new original PoP instead. At least Assassin's Creed is learning from it's mistakes.
 

Du Jour Jaricho

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This is the game that's being based of the new Prince of Persia movie, correct? Or at least spawning from it?

I was actually interested in this, I haven't played a PoP game of yet, but I thought this could actually turn out well. That is until I heard the narrators voice in the trailer, I will tell you I let out a massive sigh...
 

hansari

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CantFaketheFunk said:
the Prince's fall from relatively carefree, wisecracking royal to the emo hardened warrior of the sequel.
You know, I always wondered why the sudden change in direction to ridiculous teenage angst, scantily clad women, and godsmack.

Then I looked inside the games "behind the scenes" footage and saw who the new guy heading the project was.

Suffice to say, I don't believe in stereotypes, but if you have seen this guy in the interview...
 

Bassman_2

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Maybe, stay with me, it is an experience that in the end didn't have a happy ending, bringing us a hardened Prince who wants to forget.
 

AndyFromMonday

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That trailer was shit, hopefully the game itself won't be.

Du Jour Jaricho said:
This is the game that's being based of the new Prince of Persia movie, correct? Or at least spawning from it?
From my understanding, the movie is based on the first game in the trilogy.
 

Grampy_bone

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It seems like a waste to re-boot the franchise with the 2008 game, then go back and insert another game into the middle of an already very convoluted continuity. I think most would agree that the Sands of Time story works well on it's own and the sequels just muddled things up, so I don't see how this will be any more of an improvement. I'd rather see the continuation of the story of Ahriman and Elika.
 

Yog Sothoth

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Grampy_bone said:
It seems like a waste to re-boot the franchise with the 2008 game, then go back and insert another game into the middle of an already very convoluted continuity. I think most would agree that the Sands of Time story works well on it's own and the sequels just muddled things up, so I don't see how this will be any more of an improvement. I'd rather see the continuation of the story of Ahriman and Elika.
I second that notion... I actually really enjoyed the most recent PoP, and am disappointed that Ubisoft won't be addressing or continuing that story line, especially since the ending was so controversial...
 

Mstrswrd

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Mar 2, 2008
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Wasn't BoPoP (Battles of Prince of Persia) on the DS the inbetween game? It wasn't too bad, and it led into Warrior Within decently enough. I guess the DS game is being retconned out, now.

I hate it when they do stuff like that. On the other hand, new game in the Sands of Time-verse. Can't complain about that... hopefully.
 

Phokal

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I think that everything about this has potential except the release date. Ubisoft montreal has a good track record of listening to fan feedback and trying to improve the game (even if they mess up a bit more while trying). Warrior Within was created as such because people complained about the combat in PoP:SoT. I think this will improve on everything that people complained about in the new PoP, but with such a short development cycle, I'm worried there will be other issues.

Still, I'm remained a bit hyped. I like rewind more than "Being saved at the last minute". I want to see a continuation of the new reboot's story, but I kinda wish they had a proper name, so we all could refer to it as something, rather than Sands of Time vs. Reboot.

As for the story, they crafted a bunch of "Between" stuff already. The DS game covered a bunch, and they had trailers pre-release of Warrior Within. One interview mentioned the guy getting stabbed in the back as being an important character to the prince, and that the moment would define his struggle. That CG cinematic, and that guy, never appeared in the final game. I wonder if we'll see him this time around.

My final thoughts on the subject: It's not PoP unless you die gruesomely frequently. The series was founded on particularly brutal difficulty, and the newest entry was entirely too easy. Even when you messed up it didn't feel like defeat or death. SoT got it perfectly: it felt like brutal defeat, but it only set you back 8 seconds. 8 seconds you had to rewatch in reverse.
 

Sewblon

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"Betweenqeul" Is not a word! The events of Warrior Within caused the Sands of Time to have never existed. Which technically makes the entire trilogy a time paradox, since if they never existed until Two Thrones, how did The Vizier learn the legend and know to invade Persia? So the new game couldn't mess up the time line any more than Two Thrones did.
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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Woodsey said:
I wish they'd leave them alone.

The Sands of Time was fantastic. There was (and still is) no need for anymore.
Yeah. it was done, it was great, and we loved it.

This feels like it is going to be the dagger into the back...
 

mrhappyface

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Jul 25, 2009
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No. It would be like what Terminator Salvation did to Terminator. Would we like it if Peter Jackson made a 4th movie in the LoTR series?
 

lightbound

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Over at Gamespy the main page describes the game as being a sequel to the previous Prince of Persia:

"And while the trailer doesn't really reveal anything about what the game will be like -- except that it appears to feature the same lead character from the last title" -Gamespy

Being obviously wrong Gamespy once again makes an epic fail.
 

The Random One

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I hope it shows the Prince being kidnapped and replaced by a time-traveling Duke Nukem/Marc Phoenix hybrid, because that's the only way I can envision that SoT prince becoming the WW prince.
 

Shru1kan

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I'll stay optimistic here. Ubisoft must have learned something about their Assassins Creed trilogy, going from the first one to the second one.

What I hope is that they don't make it too easy. In "Sands of Time" about every 5-10% you were pitted against almost impossible odds, and it always took me a few tries to get past it. If they do away with this for an easier "more casual" experience, they will utterly destroy the franchise.

I want to boot up SoT now on my PC, come to think of it.