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Prince of Persia ...where to begin?

Guy Legend

Guy Legend

Member
I haven't played any of the Prince of Persia games and I'm thinking to jump in. However, I'm uncertain as to if I have to play all three games (Sands of time, Two Thrones, and Warrior Within) to appreciate the story and series. Is it necessary to play all three and do the games stand well today?

I was just contemplating playing Warrior Within but may get Two Thrones as well. I realize that Sands of Time got the highest rating but it seems a little more cartoony to me and I don't really feel like playing all of them....

Advice plz? Also, is any system in particular the preferred choice when playing these games?
 
Guy Legend said:
I was just contemplating playing Warrior Within but may get Two Thrones as well. I realize that Sands of Time got the highest rating but it seems a little more cartoony to me and I don't really feel like playing all of them....
Click to expand...

Go ahead play the others first... it'll make you not want to play the first one or any other Ubisoft game. Sands of Time = Best.
 
[1] start at the beginning.
[2] the second is decent enough gameplay-wise, but has one of the most gut-wrenching art and music design shifts i've ever seen in a trilogy
[3] if you had to play just 2 of them, play the first (sands of time) and last (two thrones)
[4] the games don't hold up perfectly--many of the things that made it unique have been borrowed by other games ten times over (running on walls, parkour-style acrobatics, etc.) but the aesthetics of the game and amount of polish in them alone are enough reason to give them a go
[5] ps2. controller works better than any other for p.o.p.
 
I only played Warrior Withen and had a gret time with it despite it including my very least favorite game mechanic of all time with semi backtracking through levels. Unless you want to play all three of them in order, you should be fine with picking up any one of them.
 
Sands of Time is definitely the best. Warrior Within was a bit of a derail, especially at the beginning, but it more or less gets back on track later on and is still a great game. I've only put an hour or so into The Two Thrones, but I sure it's just as good.
 
Play them all they are all great.

Two Thrones is a really underrated game. If you don't care about story continuity play Sands of Time > Two Thrones and skip Warrior Within (only because it's very buggy, otherwise it's very good.)
 
two thrones is a tighter, better gameplay experience than sands of time. people just gave up on the games after warrior within.
 
I guess this could be considered a Sands of Time spoiler. Question about Two Thrones:

I kind of got drawn into the relationship between the Prince and Farah when I played through Sands of Time. The ending was therefore disappointing but also potentially promising in a way. Does anything significant happen between them in Two Thrones? Don't tell me everything that happens, just whether you think it's worth playing for the story progression/character development, particularly regarding those two characters.
 
yup warrior within was one of the least fun gaming experiences I've ever had. The controls just felt horrible. I dunno the first one seemed alot better to me.
 
Play sands of time, skip WW, then go on to last game but make sure you have some one else play the sword and axe bosses for you.
 
Sands of Time is one of my favourite games ever.

The rest of the series is an incredible achievement - how is it possible to remove absolutely everything that made the first game fun? Top job, Ubisoft. Really amazing work.
 
You have to play Sands of Time first.

Wikipedia up on Warrior Within for the story.

Play Two Thrones.

I don't get why everybody throws in Two Thrones with Warrior Within. It took the improved combat system from Warrior Within and made it NOT repetitive and annoying by adding quick kills and less killing, it added a whole bunch of awesome new mechanics like the wall spring board and the dagger plant, the most annoying traps like the saws were reduced in number, 75% of the angst was removed, and the story was well told. The Prince was actually mature, not "omg teh maturezzz blood and gore while I listen to Godsmack". I honestly believe that Two Thrones is the best in the series.
 
Play Sands of Time on Xbox, it has PoP1 and PoP2 included (those are best played on PC however).

Warrior Within is garbage and Two Thrones is meh. Both are not needed, forget they exist.

Then play Assassin's Creed.

ZealousD said:
You have to play Sands of Time first.

Wikipedia up on Warrior Within for the story.

Play Two Thrones.

I don't get why everybody throws in Two Thrones with Warrior Within. It took the improved combat system from Warrior Within and made it NOT repetitive and annoying by adding quick kills and less killing, it added a whole bunch of awesome new mechanics like the wall spring board and the dagger plant, the most annoying traps like the saws were reduced in number, 75% of the angst was removed, and the story was well told. The Prince was actually mature, not "omg teh maturezzz blood and gore while I listen to Godsmack". I honestly believe that Two Thrones is the best in the series.
Click to expand...

It still sucked, PoP: SoT was a platformer with some basic action, WW was a glitchy POS with crummy action, TTT was mediocre action and a subpar overall experience. It doesn't hold a candle to the masterpiece that is SoT, since the dev team was different. The whole atmosphere of TTT was lame, the action was still lame and the platforming wasn't up to snuff either. It's naive to think that WW's only flaw was angst and Godsmack, TTT still had many of the WW issues.
 
Two Thrones did not carry the faults of Warrior Within. Warrior Within's biggest problem was that there was far too much action and an empty story. There were too many enemies in too close proximity, and as such, dying occured more often. To make things worse, your health doesn't regenerate once you're revived at a checkpoint. So if you hit a checkpoint with near zero health, you're pretty much screwed. Despite having tons of action, the game was paced like a platformer, not an action game. Two Thrones was paced much better.

Two Thrones is really also on another level story wise, the conflict between the Prince and his dark self was really well done. Do you not remember the ending sequence between them? Excellently done.
 
Guy Legend said:
I haven't played any of the Prince of Persia games and I'm thinking to jump in. However, I'm uncertain as to if I have to play all three games (Sands of time, Two Thrones, and Warrior Within) to appreciate the story and series. Is it necessary to play all three and do the games stand well today?

I was just contemplating playing Warrior Within but may get Two Thrones as well. I realize that Sands of Time got the highest rating but it seems a little more cartoony to me and I don't really feel like playing all of them....

Advice plz? Also, is any system in particular the preferred choice when playing these games?
Click to expand...

Be warned that Warrior Within is EXTREMELY BUGGY and contains a fatal bug right before the end boss regardless of version.

SOT is worth playing, the other ones probably not.
 
ZealousD said:
Two Thrones did not carry the faults of Warrior Within. Warrior Within's biggest problem was that there was far too much action and an empty story. There were too many enemies in too close proximity, and as such, dying occured more often. To make things worse, your health doesn't regenerate once you're revived at a checkpoint. So if you hit a checkpoint with near zero health, you're pretty much screwed. Two Thrones was paced much better.

Two Thrones is really also on another level story wise, the conflict between the Prince and his dark self was really well done. Do you not remember the ending sequence between them? Excellently done.
Click to expand...

The biggest problem with WW is the bug at the end where you can't progress in the game, basically forcing the player (aka me who was playing the PS2 version at the time) to start all the way from the beginning, showing how fucked up Ubisoft QA testing really is. When I saw Assassins Creed had the floating characters at E3, I chuckled.
Indifferent2.gif
 
alistairw said:
Sands of Time is one of my favourite games ever.

The rest of the series is an incredible achievement - how is it possible to remove absolutely everything that made the first game fun? Top job, Ubisoft. Really amazing work.
Click to expand...

My feelings exactly.
 
VOOK said:
Go ahead play the others first... it'll make you not want to play the first one or any other Ubisoft game. Sands of Time = Best.
Click to expand...

Sands of Time is SO much better than the sequels sadly
 
alistairw said:
Sands of Time is one of my favourite games ever.

The rest of the series is an incredible achievement - how is it possible to remove absolutely everything that made the first game fun? Top job, Ubisoft. Really amazing work.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, sands of time was a masterpiece, from the level design, art, puzzles, soundtrack,.... everything was perfect.

Then Ubisoft decided to turn the franchise into a beat em up and completely ruin it, nice work ubisoft.
 
Here's the order of the games that you should play IMHO:

1) Prince of Persia 1 on XBLA or PC or SNES
2) Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame on PC
3) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time *prequel to Prince of Persia 1*
4) Watch the ending movie for Warrior Within
5) Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones


Storyline wise*if you are wondering*

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Battles of Prince of Persia (DS)
Prince of Persia Warrior Within
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Prince of Persia 1
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame
Prince of Persia 3D
 
Starting with Warrior Within is fine....the story is great, very intricate and interesting philosophy (though with its paradoxes) - the gameplay is fun (mainly the platforming). I don't see a problem with you starting there. But missing out on Sands of Time is foolish at best.
 
I'll jump on the "only play Sands of Time" bandwagon here. I played it on the GameCube personally. The original PC game (available on multiple formats including an XBLA remake) is quite good, though you have to finish it within 60 minutes, so it only really offers that much gameplay.
 
Kittonwy said:
Be warned that Warrior Within is EXTREMELY BUGGY and contains a fatal bug right before the end boss regardless of version.

SOT is worth playing, the other ones probably not.
Click to expand...
The Two Thrones was buggy for me as well. The one boss fight in the arena type area where you have to do QTE type button presses at the right moment when the screen/sword (can't remember which) flashes for you, well, I never got any flashing so I could never figure out why the fucking thing kept failing every time.

Had to watch a stupid video to figure out how to do that fight to get passed it since there was almost nothing I could do. Pretty much stopped playing the game after that point :/.
 
Drakken said:
I guess this could be considered a Sands of Time spoiler. Question about Two Thrones:

I kind of got drawn into the relationship between the Prince and Farah when I played through Sands of Time. The ending was therefore disappointing but also potentially promising in a way. Does anything significant happen between them in Two Thrones? Don't tell me everything that happens, just whether you think it's worth playing for the story progression/character development, particularly regarding those two characters.
Click to expand...
In response...
They tried to bring back some of the chemistry between Farah and the Prince, but it doesn't really click. She never really travels with you as she did in SoT, so the relationship development isn't really there.

Look, the only modern PoP with involvement from Jordan Mechner is Sands of Time (AFAICT). Is it any wonder that it's the only one worth playing?
 
Yeah, I loved the chemistry and the funny banter between the Prince and Farah in Sands ("Look, a crack!", "Skinny little thing, aren't you"). Nothing like that in the sequels, though.
 
anyone play Prince of Persia: Rival Swords? i was wondering if it was any good since i was considering getting it for Wii.

i've only played about half way through Sands of Time and i like it so far. i've been meaning to finish it (along with other games), and i'll probably pick up it's sequels sometime down the road if i can find them cheap so i have the complete trilogy.
 
If you have a 360 you should download the Classic version, with the updated graphics.

Very nice game and the Prince of Persia ambience drips off it
 
Sands of Time, forget the others (unless you like Linkin Park videoclips).

The remake of the original on XBLA is also fun.
 
Warrior Within ain't that bad, appart from the hideous metal ost and the constant hack&slash. Although the backtracking in time around the levels made pretty much everyone despise the sequel, I found it quite interesting.

Worth of a rental at least. Just don't miss SoT and TTT.
 
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