Prince of Persia®

Ubisoft.

game stays infinitely at start. <* resigned sigh *>

pretty startup screen.

Whelp, uninstalling and never forgetting.

Ubisoft.

This game is a masterpiece, and the art style holds up even today. It's too bad the Epilogue DLC is exclusive to consoles only, the PC port is just incomplete without it. Ubisoft NEEDS to port the DLC to PC or make a remaster of this game and include the DLC as part of the main story on PC.

Prince of Bop It! Twist it! Fuck it!
Ubisoft aims to expand their DEI customer base by giving everybody arthritis.

Map is node based in a chain pattern(∞∞). With 4 bonfires each to fast travel back to. And half of it is blue filter caveshit.
Fortunate(or unfortunate) enough to nope out of rock area and play-through(as much as they let me) the 2 leftmost nodes and was pleasantly surprised with the set pieces. One of them being this blight-infested shipyard, Boomer Bile filter.
The other a Sandy-castle with poppies all over. Pis- actually, it's just colorful. Harkening back to better times.

Fittingly, the 2 rightmost stone-slab nodes are tedious in design and gameplay.
Including bonfire placements that force you to traverse the longest and least engaging platforming chunks in the entire game, each time you fast travel to them.
And you'll have to slog through, because metroidvania-esque obstacle course 'traversal options' are locked in the annals of the game. Further pad out backtracking to progress in it's better areas.
Bop it!(2008) is epitome of padding. It could've easily been half as long to a couple hours long and still be the same game.

Quick-time windows are so generous that it might've as well auto-complete, instead of stress testing your peripherals.
What's not so generous are the metroidvania abilities. 2 are just more single button presses..
_
Oh boy. Guess where these next 2 'abilities' are introduced..
Blue filter node ability is a Superman64 guessing game.
Camera angles make no sense and things either become visible too late or never at all. It isn't even a trial & error memory game at that point.

You find yourself bashing your head against this for upwards of 15 minutes in node 3. Seeing an amusing comment, about how it reminded them of The Neverending Story flying on top of Falkor. Why, you oughtta appreciate this level of ignorance.

The Subway Surfer variant is less egregious. There will be some insane things like a tiny crack in the floor that resets back to the beginning but it's quicker to figure out than 360 angles in the flying portions.
_
During platforming, it's generally a good idea to quickly smack the portal which pops out enemies so they don't come out altogether or quickly platform past them if possible.

Combat is, once again, quick-time and very much a 'one type of enemy' deal. Choreographed as a flashy anime tug of war with unique animations for each combo press but you'll have more than plenty of chances to see them all.

A little extra for Bosses.. They'll have a rock-paper-scissors element, when matched incorrectly restoring their health almost entirely.
On-top of it all, button mashing to the x-treme! No seriously, lower the frame-rate or something? Or get one-shot by the last boss 10 times.
_
Story is spliced rehash of previous games with disjointed dialogue. Characters not only talk like they're in different rooms but also are not even on the same topic.

They should've grabbed this game's aesthetics and slapped em on top of The Forgotten Sands nothing burger movie tie-in game that has nothing to do with the movie and came out with a nothing burger that at least looked decent.

Horrible combat which is made up for by an incredible artistic vision and traversal. My favourite in the PoP saga.

Despite it saying it doesn't, it has full controller support. Very different than today's ubisoft games. I enjoy it.

god of war with one liners, worse fighting mechanics and worse platforming

This game is not the typical Prince of Persia game. Too different in any aspect, literally (even Farah is not what it used to be lol), but that's the interesting thing about it. The magic, the world, the atmosphere (you can be at one moment at ''heavenly'' place and suddenly in HELL). The communication between the Prince and the princess is also very intriguing. What intrigued me the most however, was the ENDING. It really makes you question some things in life really deeply - to make a choice you know is somehow WRONG, but nevertheless it makes the most sense to you. Recommend

What a waste of time. First off, its a collectathon. You have to run around and collect a minimum of 540 spirit orbs or whatever its called. once you collect enough, you unlock a glorified spring board that gets you to other places. You must collect all 4, totaling to 540 orbs to beat the game. Then you have to run through every area (20) and heal it in order to unlock the boss of the quadrant. Not much of a boss but the same enemies you have been fighting. Beat all 4 and you get to the final boss. There is no upgrades or abilities you unlock in this game. You have everything you need only in the first hour. Good right? Not if you like doing the exact same thing over and over 20 times. The art direction is cool but thats about it.

First the combat: When you enter combat its always a duel against a monster. You can dodge but it seems inconsistent so its only to reposition, you can block and parry with the right timing and you can attack with 3 buttons. One with sword, with your girl and your glove. Sometimes the enemies buff themselves so they can only be hurt by one of these but after a few hits with the correct attack, you can attack them with anything you want. I found using the same combo worked out for me. I used XXXYYBYYB (Xbox). You can also usually instant kill enemies if you corner them against a wall or a cliff. Overall the combat got boring doing the same thing over and over, especially when they just parry everything you do or throw you around, wasting a lot of time. Thats a lot of this game, lots of little cutscenes for everything. For combat enemies throw you around or you push them back a lot. It really drags out every fight you do and interupts your combo that would defeat the enemies faster. Also, you can't really die. The more you get hit, your girl saves you and if saved too much, the boss heals a lot of health. A time saver thankfully is some enemies can prevent spawning if you reach them fast enough.

The parkour: Parkour feels pretty stiff and very automatic. Jump? its guided. Wall run? don't have to hold the button. Ring to grab on to? long animation with very generous timing. And if you somehow do fall, your girl will catch you and place you on to the last flat platform you were on. Everytime you get enough spirit orbs, you get to choose a "power" to unlock. All it does is unlock a colored button that bounces you around. Very slowly. One of them is a fly power that is an on rails, dodge walls while auto flying. The worst part is the path it takes makes no sense. When you can fly, you would take the most direct path there? theres nothing in your way. No lets fly around for 3 mins, hitting other buttons that just serve as a time to decieve you into thinking you're playing even though it takes the same single button that needs almost no timing. You can't die at all while parkour. Also no sands of time to rewind at all to redo a small jump you missed (We'll get back to the sands of time) meaning if you've been parkouring for 5 mins because of long animations? sorry do it all over again. And its not like its hard. Button press timings are super generous and animations are so lengthy. It just that sometimes you get impatient or don't see what you needed to do before its too late.

The map is open world but you have to cleanse everything so its just an illusion of choice. Difficulty stays the same the entire game. And theres only like 3 puzzles in the entire game and are more complicated than they should have been tbh. Theres also only like 6 enemies in the entire game you fight. You repeat fight every one of them until the game is done. The map hazards are boring. Just black splotches you can't touch while wall running and have to time to get by.

Story: It's fine for the most part, but if you want to hear more, you have a dedicated button to talk to your girl, Elika. Yep thats right, Farah is not the main love interest because this game is a reboot and nothing from the past games ever happened. In fact, Farah is your donkey. Yeah, what a joke. A donkey thats only every mentioned and never shows up in-game. Farah you have a conversation and have a lot to say which is neat, if you didn't have to stop everything you're doing to listen. You cannot talk to Farah while walking, running, parkouring. You have to stop everything to have a little chat.
The characters are cool. They felt like they were getting to know each other and fall in love, but since the game is sudo choose where you want to go, their dialogue feels like they're out of order and not building up to anything.
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING AND STORY
An evil god threatens everything that Elika's father released. You heal the corrupted lands around so the power of the lands can contain Ahriman again. You go around fighting 4 monster who have sold their souls to him plus Elika's father. Her father did so to revive Elika when she died before the game started. Reviving gave her powers she uses to help you. Now the ending, Elika kills herself containing Arhiman. Since being revived used power that contain Arhiman, it was required to give that power back, killer her. The main character becomes characteristically quiet after and hears whispers of Arhiman, being seduced to used the power, like her father, to revive her. You do this and unleash Ahriman once again, letting the world become corrupt. How dumb. Everything you did was undone just to try and feel deep. Yeah, a bad cannon ending. Now i know theres an expansion that extends the story, and they backpeddle on this bad ending saying "oh it was actually a good and smart thing to do. Some people like this ending, i don't. Notice how i never mentioned the main character as "prince"? thats because Its never mentioned. The "Prince" is just a guy homeless dude that raids tombs. Sounds like a better game if you ask me. There is no sands of time or dagger of time at all in this game. Its all about power a good god that's just magic. And you don't get to use it, all magic stuff is used by Elika. The only mention of "prince" is a corrupted enemy thats trying to seduce you to joining her and be her prince. So not the same.

Overall, this game just doesn't feel like Prince of Persia. it feels like they just slapped the name onto a game they were developing to sell. Could have been called anything else.
Please just play the first 3. Sands of Time, Warrior Within and Two Thrones. Much better games with better combat, parkour and continuity.

Underrated gem that deserves more recognition. The art style still looks amazing even for a 2008 game and the story keeps you hooked.
The gameplay is mostly smooth, lots of parkour sections which feel really satisfying when you get the timing right. The combat is simple, although a word of advice - read the combo list in the menu...otherwise if you only do the basics every enemy will parry 80% of your attacks. On the other hand, if you read the combo list and execute them...the fights become too easy. No one will even touch you if you do the combos right.
But I would say this is a game that you play for the story and the parkour - not necessarily the combat.
No spoilers but the ending sticks with you after you finish.

Prince of persia dooo i gotta say more?

Mmmm yeah thats the good stuff. Gorgeous, well designed, movement feels wonderful and has fantastic fluidity. This game is fully a "~v~i~b~e~" and if you can get down with it, you'll have a great time. Prepare yourself for an ending that sucks sweaty ball sacks, but everything leading up to that part is otherwise terrific.
The graphics have that stylized, timeless sort of look that means even in 2024 it looks super sweet. The combat is fun and very flashy, and generally is never about stress or skill. Just chill.

But lets briefly talk about that chill. Your companion is the Deus Ex Machina personified. Misjudge a jump? She poofs you right back to where you started. Fuck up in combat? She does... Something? idk, but whatever, it's totally fine just relax and keep going as if it never happened. Where FPS games have aim-assist, Prince of Persia has 'jump assist' and I could frequently feel the game massaging the animations to make sure I land where I'm supposed to.

I know, it sounds kinda weird. As I recall, lack of difficulty was one of the main criticisms leveled at the game, and it didn't sell well enough to warrant the much needed sequel which fully makes me sad. In many ways it was a little bit too ahead of its time.
If however you're on board with games that are somewhat off-centre and a bit experimental and stuff, then you might just like it. It sure is one of my most beloved games from the era, but it is quite a departure from the other Prince of Persia games.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319462583
While the odd one out of the franchise, funnily enough this is also the main reason why it has aged so gracefully. I'd say that none of the other PoPs have managed to do that at all, and I'd hesitate to recommend those games to newcomers unless they specifically enjoy older titles. This 2008 iteration doesn't have that issue from either a design nor technical standpoint. It ran surprisingly well on my modern system without the need for any mods, patches or workarounds. This is Ubisoft at the peak of its power, and there was a time when that was something special to behold.

Your omnipotent companion, Princess Elika, sticks with you throughout the game and thankfully she holds a PhD from the Alyx Vance school of video game companion design. She's a total waifu, never gets in your way, is never a liability, she has a lot of cool dialogue. You don't need to worry about her in combat, or her pathfinding, or matching her speed or any of that. She's just awesome, and is one of the best implemented companions in the medium.
The devs have put a lot of care and attention to how she is animated and behaves, and good thing too because she could have so easily ruined the game but you know what? Even judged by today's standards she's just a great character.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3315663040
I'd actually go one further and say she's better than a lot of NPCs we get nowadays, because you can totally ignore all of her lore if you want to. Modern games really like to force that shit for some reason. Endless fucking exposition, droning on about hundreds of years of history and world building, ugh. Show. Don't tell. Or at the very least, tell well & time it right. Such a pet peeve of mine.
But anyway. You won't want to ignore her because she's really cool. But you could.

Seeing as how there's really no repercussions for fucking up, and even with that said the game is pretty easy as a baseline, Prince of Persia is mostly about the exploration, cool parkour, enjoying the beautiful art direction and 𝓪𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬, and story. Music is fantastic, its just that there isnt enough of it. Just chill out, bro. Relax a bit. Not every game has to be Dark Souls.

Oh but anyway, I do have a couple things to say about the story.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319462421
The game has such a lovely, classic but fun fairy tale / fable / storybook kinda vibe going on. Fundamental good vs. evil shit carried by two leads with hella chemistry.
It also ends on one nasty motherfucker of a cliff hanger.

You literally spend the entire game trying to ensure an evil god stays imprisoned. You accomplish this mission, but the princess gives her life to achieve it. Being a horrendous piece of shit, the Prince literally unleashes the evil god to bring the princess back to life. In a rather nice touch, this is identical to what set the game's events in motion in the first place, except it was the princesses father that let the evil god out to bring her back. She just cannot catch a break. LMAO. ROFL. The problem is that the game ends here. Princess Elika wakes up, the evil god runs amok, presumably followed by the apocalypse? Oof size: very large.

I'm very annoyed. I'm upset. I do not enjoy. Apparently there's an 'epilogue' DLC that never made its way to PC, only consoles, but reading up on it there's zero closure to be had there also which is baffling. Likely Ubisoft had planned out a multipart story which never materialized because of poor reception. Dang it.

How it Looks
Well censored Sacred perforated excrement! this was made ages ago but it still looks spectacular AF! stunning scenery and character art, many swirling patterns and effects for my mind to surf! }:) looks like there is multi layers including some 'cell shaded' stuff i think over all it is like an incredibly detailed moving illustration made real with many layers of ornate textures and cg artistry!

How It Feels
I used a pad on this, in most facets of play timing is master. gravity can be your friend.. its the floor + velocity thats your enemy. combat god-bashing arena is reactive + timing based hack N parry situation, Many many boss beat downs! pretty fun though, if abit basic. Over all I found it to be mostly responsive! the timing is usually good not perfect but defiantly pretty solid and fun. It can be frustrating with some long sequences near the end but I guess not too bad in hindsight!

How it keeps whispering demonic nothings in my ear while the domestic of god and goddess destroy and create at respective odds!
The deeds of gods and man are buried in such volume that they are the land in terror as much terra is the land, life is to short to keep tripping when the ground is hungry for your soul!
The voices in this game are thick and harmonious and voiced well from start to finish, some of my favourites where the concubine, the mourning king, Ahriman, Elika and the protagonist wich of course is Nolan North, who apparently lives in every location simultaneously, explains why he did such a good deadpool, he could be anyone.. wait!!.. (checking) ..shhh..nope hes not me, I am me! good!!

way more impressive than the last pop i played but then thats not really fair to the amiga! }:)

Spyro the Dragon for non-furries.

Good

Doesn't hold a candle to the original POP trilogy. The boss fights are repetitive and predictable. The gameplay is just Okay. The only pro being that the art style is good. If you have played the original three games (Sands of time, Warrior within and T2t), this game might come out as a disappointment.

First time playing the Prince of Persia games, got to say it's kinda fun..
Hope to get the other ones soon.

I just miss this old ubisoft game (what a lovely game)

Great art and atmosphere.

You shouldn't play his game. I heard it was easy, but it's not. It might be for someone with skills that I don't have. I got lost immediately with the spastic camera angle and no maps. I had no idea where I was going, or how to follow the woman that had fallen on me. This is not fun and very difficult, unless you're a regular game player, which I am not.

UNDERRATED AMONG POP FRANCHISE, BUT I LOVED IT SOOOO MUCH, THE COLOR AND THE MUSIC IS SOOOOOO VIBING

Loved the charming chemistry between both main characters, but idk why te sequel never came out by Ubisoft. The ending was decent.

Beautiful and very artistic.

I guess If it makes you feel good, or feel nostalgic - take it.
I never played this one of PP games, and it's really objectively bad, if you compare even good and bad stuff about previous Prince of Persia games, which IMO are all great.

Game feels childish, dialoques and personalities feel out of this world.
Control is bad, really bad. How can you break the control if all 3 previous games had it polished to perferction?
But generally movement - that's what got me the most, it's sluggish, has some odd unnatural delay, and feels like some indie game in early access.

FYI I couldn't take more than half of an hour, so maybe the protagonist will stop behave like 4-year old kid with working memory like a fish has, but I doubt it.

masterpiece

Dialogue of the characters is very cringe. The Sands of Time was much better in almost every way.

Decent story but the interactions between the two main characters are pretty great, looks good for its time. Very easy compared to other games in the series. Movement mechanics felt weighty which was nice. Ending left me slightly conflicted.

Score: 8/10

this was aweful. horrible combat, looks aweful, open world that wasnt necessary, and characters that seem like watered down versions of themselves. all the other titles are just better by far while this one feels like a game designed for kids (when that is just a excuse to make crappy games).

I get people that people enjoy it, but funky on new pcs and idk what keyboard keys i need to press for red blue yellow popups and all that.

good game.tons of platforming but beautiful art and character detail on oled deck plays at 90fps full settings.just not alot of action really.worth the price tag.think i got it for 2$ lol

Sequel where?

It’s a given at this point, but the artstyle is absolutely breathtaking and holds up even generations later.
Everything from the music, the platforming, the whimsical adventure-y tone, the chemistry between Elika and the Prince, and the overall flow of how the game progresses is fantastically done.

Where the game falters mostly is in its boss-fights, which feel even more simplistic than Sands of Time. There’s not much acrobatic combat where you can vault over or lunge at enemies like in previous games, and the moves feel more akin to a turn-based JRPG combined with Simon Says, where they tell you what actions to take when fighting an enemy rather than letting you figure it out. Though the combat does feel much more cinematic than most of the other games, it could use more variety.

Plus the addition of collecting light seeds for the entire game does get reduntdant at times. There’s no bonus content or costumes or skills you unlock when collecting all of them, and it can make for a tedious experience so it’s rather pointless.

Otherwise, I still love almost everything about this game and I wish Ubisoft made a sequel that built upon the issues mentioned here while maintaining the look and atmosphere. Absolutely worth playing if you want an easy, immersive experience that isn’t super challenging.

Awesome game for timepass

This game has a fantastic feature, which has all but been forgotten to time, that I think makes it truly special. Characters with different perspectives, who don't immediately try to kill one another. Shocking, I know. It's hard to believe that in a little over a decade since its release such a thing now seems unthinkable. What's even more shocking is the thought that this feature was once so normal, this hidden gem went under the radar of many a gamer, back in the day. The only thing I remember being truly noteworthy about this game was its fantastic trailer, featuring music by Sigus Ros.

Other than all that, the game is more puzzle than action, which may feel at odds with previous titles. Devs also did something a little weird with this one, in which once you encounter an enemy the player is locked into combat - If there is a way to get out of it without dying, I haven't figured it out. Speaking of, enemies are essentially mini-boss fights and get tougher as you progress, after each victory over one of the four bosses.

The environments are a tad strange, as they are clearly meant to be traversal challenges, but somehow I'm supposed to believe they held plays in the middle of a cavernous pit of a cave. If I were to remove points from this game for any reason, it would be the environments. It's not that I don't enjoy them, I just find the reason for their condition to be lacking. Other than solving puzzles or fighting enemies, moving through the environment is probably what you'll do the most of, as you need to collected spirit balls to unlock more areas and abilities.

At the end of the day, I still had fun. Which is more than I can say for a lot of modern releases, being full of microtransaction interactions and wokeness. Prince Of Persia (2008) is the breath of fresh air its trailer portrayed. If you like platformers, you'll probably enjoy this one. And remember, the floor is part of the environment.

This is very cool, age is just a number.

I came here to play a prince of Persia game with an actual story not a jump puzzle simulator

i like the graphics and art style but no time powers

Just a game to play and relax. Easy Gameplay and Good Fighting. And an Okay Animation. I`m playing with 30FPS on intel i5-8250U with Intel graphics(R) 620 laptop, Very weak hardware can run this game really well. Very good Optimized.

What is one grain of sand in the desert? One grain amongst the storm?

New Players:
Prince of Persia is third-person platformer that has you play as some random I assume prince who gets caught in potentially apocalyptic events that can turn the whole world into darkness. He joins the company of Elika and together you attempt to save the world from total darkness.

Review:
It's one of those games that I missed out on from way back, and finally committed time to playing and completing it. I'm a huge fan of the Sand of Time series, which I consider to be the OG PoP experience, hence I didn't think much of this version after release, as it was almost a complete shift away from what made the game great.

That being said, I understand why there are plenty of people who enjoyed this game. It does have a certain special charm to it, and although the experience was somewhat limited, it's one of the most charming and beautiful games I've ever played. On that note, it's also the most boring adventure I've had that I can think of, but I'll get into that.

Gameplay:
The game is a platformer first, no doubt about it. You'll spend most of your time travelling from location to location, doing wall runs, pole swings, the typical Ubisoft experience.

Combat in my opinion has been a massive let down and complete downgrade. Encounters will mostly be with boss figures which total to five rounds before you defeat them. During combat, you're in a locked state and it's mostly about waiting for an attack, parry and counter repeat. This is literally the combat experience, with some exceptions needing to beat an opponent using the environment. It's evident that this version was designed for a more casual audience, but it just didn't speak to me.

The rest of the game you'll spend hunting life seeds which are available in an area after defeating a boss. 540 in total are needed to beat the game, so don't skip out on doing this, but don't waste time getting all of them either, as there's no hidden ending. Fortunately, they're easy to get, but some will be power locked, until you obtain said power to access the area, meaning you need to do some backtracking eventually.

Another important note is that you can't actually die in this game. Falling off heights, getting "killed" in combat, none of this apply as you'll always be saved by Elika. I wasn't too bothered by this, but it definitely takes away the challenge of the game. Nothing is truly serious and therefore there are no consequences either other than the game taking a bit longer to complete.

Graphics:
I've only experienced a couple of games with this art-style, but I have to say, even after all this time, the game looks beautiful. The colors are vibrant, but it has this soft touch to it, given you plenty of eye-candy to enjoy. It's a wonderful fantasy experience. Couple this with the casual approach of the game, it can becomes a relaxing adventure experience.

Story:
After some successful thieving and adventuring, the "prince", is setting off home to enjoy his bounty when a sandstorm hits and you lose your donkey Fahrah. While searching for his donkey, he accidentally bumps into Elika, who is being relentlessly pursued by guards and eventually cornered. Feeling compelled, the prince saves Elika and plunges himself into a potentially apocalyptic adventure.

It turns out that some god of darkness called Ahriman is on the verge of being freed from his prison, which would cover the world in darkness. Elika is among a lineage of women who are sworn to keep Ahriman jailed with the blessings from Ormazd a god of light. Since she is the only one who can truly save the world, the prince serves as an escort and protector to ensure that Elika can use her light powers to heal the land, and once again secure the locks to keep Ahriman from returning.

Conclusion:
I respect that the developers took a chance on something new to revitalize the franchise. True, it's completely different from what I enjoyed, but that doesn't mean it was a bad experience. Why a negative review then? The game becomes boring and stale very quickly. The lack of threat, consequences, meh combat and mostly running after life seeds doesn't make for a memorable experience. I doubt I'll ever play this game again, although I'm glad that I at least gave it a try.

A very refreshing Tone from your usual Action Packed Prince of Persia
AMAZING Sound Track - one of the best in the business
cool gameplay loop and chill characters

nice

I have not played any 3d prince of persia but this is a gem of a game. combat is not very demanding and there is zero character progression towards it.
What you will find here in spades is platforming and character interaction between the two protagonists.
Whenever you have the chance to have the interaction you should exhaust the dialogue as many a times it got a chuckle from me.
Your game time might inflate collecting "light seeds" as you need certain amount to progress but many of these are on the road and you do not need to collect all to finish the game in a reasonable manner before it overstay its welcome as the game has simple mechanics and you have seen it all after about an hour and a half.
But there is something Zen about collecting all and you will be scouring for the last couple of light seeds left hidden out of camera sight many a times and Its rewarding as a puzzle solved.
Graphics still holds with amazing animations and fantastic music. I do highly recommend.

i love the interactions between characters!

credits are longer than the game itself

the worst combat ever and parkour that never ends

Enjoyed till it become too repetitive, and all the levels were alike.

an amazing game. fun to play.

It's been 16 years. The art style still holds up. The chemistry between the Prince and Elika is still good. Some challenging puzzles as well.WHERE IS MY SEQUEL UBISOFT?

Its not good

game froze mid loading screen twice. trash pc port

This could have been a nice reboot of the PoP series but, unfortunately, it was flushed down the toilet by Ubisoft, like many other good games they used to make. I believe the main reason for that was that the game wasn't warmly welcomed by gamers. My PC couldn't run it back in the day but I remember many people complaining about Ubisoft replacing the cool PoP series with a "lame anime surrogate". 16 years later, I have finally played it, and I really enjoyed it! It's not perfect but I find it better than The Forgotten Sands and maybe even The Two Thrones.

Pros:
+ Graphics: thanks to Cel Shading, the graphics still look great in 2024.
+ Music: was written by Stuart Chatwood and Inon Zur - the names speak for themselves.
+ Characters: unlike the old Prince who becomes more pragmatic and dark with each new PoP game (so as the games themselves), the new Prince is actually funny, but in a good way, he's doesn't look like a clown, it's more like he just tries to clear the air whenever it seems possible. I also believe he and Elika make a good team.

Cons:
- Semi-open world seems a bit confusing at first, so as the need to collect light seeds to progress. Although, I would say, those aren't frustrating and add more parkour which is even fun.
- One on one fights aren't as amusing as fights against groups of enemies in Warrior Within. But again, it's arguable.
- Strange performance bug. Sometimes, there're were severe FPS drops and the only way to fix that for me was saving, closing the game, launching it again and loading the save.
- What's really disappointing is the ending. So, the PC version ends with a cliffhanger. The Epilogue DLC, which was and remains a console exclusive (making a story DLC a platform exclusive should be considered a crime) ends with a cliffhanger as well. Lastly, there's a "sequel" called The Fallen King, which was released exclusively for Nintendo DS, and it ends with - guess what - a cliffhanger! This is such a shame.