Whooo...
There were a couple of things I liked about Prince of Persia. I liked the fact that you play in a world and you can progress how you'd like to. You can just kinda keep swinging and jumping and roof-running and you're playing the game, fertilizing the fertile grounds, collecting the light seeds, fighting the corrupted. This in combination with the talking system was neat. So you talk with Elika about wherever you are at the moment if you so desire or you talk to her about silly shit. It's neat because the game doesn't force cutscenes on you or progress slower than you wanted. You control how much information Elika tells you. It's a really cool idea, especially because the game is so sandboxish. The sense of time is also interesting. You wake up the demon god and then I felt a sense of urgency to stop this resurrection thing before it happened, you know? There's a really good sense that events are occurring in real time. The game takes about an afternoon (I assume), and that's about the length of the story too. The physical relationship between Elika and the Prince is very tight. They really work together like Ico and his crazy spirit girl, which makes the banter confusing to me because I would have problems touching someone who kept putting me down like an asshole or flip-side I would have problems wanting to help some tight-ass bitch.
Alright, so I was positive there for a little bit.
I liked the idea of the talking system...but...goddamn...the main character is a sarcastic, pretentious prick, and the female counterpart is the spiritual, sensical one. This means they get stuck on some abstract concept over and over and have arguments about it that are deep, yo. Oh, yeah...that was sarcasm...see? Now just imagine everything I said was dipped in sarcastic or some pseudo-playful tone.
It's pretty cliche. The writing of this "banter" they have is also pretty bad. There are good moments sometimes like when the Prince keeps pestering Elika to play "I Spy" with him, but it would be much more powerful to me if the characters showed a lot more depth earlier on or actual real emotion. Example- unwillingly awakening a dark god you didn't even believe in would cause me to be irrationally angry at the girl who led me into that situation. The whole mission to me would be primarily driven by guilt, and that would make things all "dark." Who likes dark shit, anyway? (grumble grumble, I FUCKINg DO!) My point is Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are famous for their relationships because in both cases the characters are very drawn to each other in act and word...well, I mean Wanda can't really talk with the horse, but the frightened neighing gets the idea across. The Prince and Elika are almost constantly bickering. It would have even been cool if the Prince and Elika started off awkwardly working with each other and then gradually began to trust one another, but it just didn't seem to be happening.
I should have mentioned this earlier, but the premise for the game itself is very flimsy and also cliche. Prince wondering around with donkey finds chick running away (not very clear why she was running away) from dark figure. Prince fights dark figure. Dark figure turns out to be father of Elika and leader (maybe?) of some tribe protecting a god of light, but for some reason he thinks he should stop doing that and chop the tree sealing the god of darkness. Boom! Apocalypse coming! SHIT! well, I guess we better stop that...
Talking with Elika reveals more about the Corrupted you're fighting, but their backstories are very simplistic. This guy was looking for power, he got it, then it corrupted him. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. This is why I stopped. The story feels like an afterthought to the whole game.
I don't know. Maybe you will like the type of dialogue between the prince and Elika. I know people who talk like that and they have smarmy smiles, patting themselves on the back for the clever things they're saying, but I keep thinking they're just bad actors and wish they would open up more. Yes, this is a personal judgment on some people, but if I don't know you, reader, then don't take it personally.
I didn't beat Prince of Persia. I actually had to stop myself from playing it because like the other Prince of Persia games since the first one, I kept playing it to see if it would get better until the moment I was assured it didn't. I stopped because I knew it would let me down at some point and I would feel very odd about it afterwards.
And finally, goddamnit, MeCool and JohnFU...Shinobi was a great fucking game. It was quick and hard. It demanded a lot from the player so it was really engaging, and I have fond memories of miraculous Tate attacks in Bibbles' basement.
I'm as pretentious an asshole as the people who wrote Prince of Persia.
I love Peanut sauce. Put that with some dutch mayo and ketchup on a falafel or with Frites...DELICIOUS!
L0Y0N0nY B DC
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