By Alec Meer on July 15th, 2008 at 9:49 am.
No confirmed subtitle or, I believe, PC release as yet, but it seems likely us IBM-Compatible proles will see a visit from this console royalty. Looks sort of like God of War by way of Lineage, which worries me a little – I want big-trousered acrobatics much more than I do hacky-choppy. Still, pretty, no?
15/07/2008 at 09:54 MasterBoo says:
Sigur Ros soundtrack for a Prince of Persia trailer?
O_O
15/07/2008 at 09:55 Wurzel says:
If i recall correctly, it’s prince of persia: prodigy (or at least was termed so in Edge). Also, choice of sigur ros for trailer music makes me happy and gives me hope for the game :)
15/07/2008 at 10:00 TheModernArdeo says:
J-J-J-JRPG!
*sigh* Prince of Persia, what has become of you?
15/07/2008 at 10:10 MisterBritish says:
So very pretty. Hopefully they’ll do a more acrobatic/puzzely trailer to accompany this one.
15/07/2008 at 10:28 Mike says:
Very, very pretty.
15/07/2008 at 10:34 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ Wurzel: I’m sure the devs have said it won’t have a subtitle, but I can’t remember the source.
Thankfully the story and the art style seem spot on, for example the back-story for the Hunter is rather fableistic and somewhat redolent of PoP:SoT, so the combat and the runny-jumpy are the only real question marks for me. So long as the combat is passable and not the main focus of the game it should be alright by me. My main worry though is that they’ve ditched the Sands of Time and don’t seem to be encorporating another time-rewind mechanism.
Also, this two part interview from Ubidays gives a good idea of where they intend to take the game.
15/07/2008 at 10:47 Someone says:
Shitty music, the game looks like shit and the trailer is shit.
15/07/2008 at 10:55 MisterBritish says:
^ So, overall, you’re looking forward to it?
15/07/2008 at 11:00 Junior says:
I really love the new art style, but for the black outline, you can hardly see it in half the gameplay sections and it looks lovely.
Every time I see the outlining though, it just looks odd.
Thumbs up for more free running games this year.
15/07/2008 at 11:07 Someone else says:
@Someone: You did NOT just call Sigur Ros shit. Tasteless goon.
15/07/2008 at 11:08 gulag says:
Like the art direction, tones of Fables to it (The comic book, not the game.) And is this meant to be co-op or are there touchs of Ico?
15/07/2008 at 11:09 Okami says:
Beautiful, just beautiful. But knowing the direction Ubisoft has taken during these last years, you’ll be able to play through the whole game by repeatedly pressing a single button..
@Someone: The url you are looking for is http://www.gametrailers.com
15/07/2008 at 11:32 Quirk says:
Fighting looks a bit daft. However, I’m intrigued by the second character. My first reaction was along the lines of “Hell yeah, co-op!” but on reflection I can’t see how you’d manage the camera for a co-op Prince of Persia game (unless they’re holding out on us and have a split-screen version). I do want to see what they make of this.
15/07/2008 at 11:52 luckystriker says:
Bootiful…loved the art direction.
15/07/2008 at 11:54 Janto says:
As far as I know, the second character functions as a ‘time-rewind/special power’ mechanic, ie if you slip, she can catch you, if you get a sword through a sensitive part of your royal hide, she can heal you, etc. So not co-op, then, and not really Alyx Vance, either, more a fancy lookin’ gravity gun.
15/07/2008 at 12:54 spd from Russia says:
whats that, Prince of Finalfantasy?
15/07/2008 at 12:57 araczynski says:
i like where they took this. could never get into any of the previous ones, just seemed too ‘jumpy jumpy’. this has me interested.
15/07/2008 at 13:07 Mman says:
This is one of the most crazily good looking games I’ve ever seen, although I found the trailer a little lacking; it seemed like it was so caught up in being “artsy” it got in the way of showing the game a little.
15/07/2008 at 13:10 Radiant says:
That looked awesome!
I was just [well recently] play.com’ing around for a decent adventure game that doesn’t have me managing a billion item inventory list.
PLEASE BE GOOD.
15/07/2008 at 13:27 Chris says:
Oh fuck yes, that looks incredible.
Please, please be as good as SoT. Even just a little bit less good would be acceptable. Please, please don’t fuck it up and try to be “mature” like with WW. 1001 Nights-style fantasy is what they should be going for, not fucking metal emo wank.
15/07/2008 at 13:32 Ian says:
I agree with those who’d like to see more footage, but of the acrobatics and environmental puzzles and such.
15/07/2008 at 13:34 Tom says:
(Tastless goon indeed.)
Looking good. The previous games never really did all that much for me bit this is looking rock’n (must admit though, I didnt’ even try SoT (was it good?))
Hopefully you’ll be able to go online and run through this one with a friend. Now THAT would be all kinds of awesome.
15/07/2008 at 13:49 Meat Circus says:
I believe it’s confirmed to have *no* subtitle.
It’s Plain Old Prince of Persia.
15/07/2008 at 13:52 MeestaNob! says:
Looks pretty, but certainly not a Prince of Persia game.
Whatever that even means any more after 5 years of franchise rape.
15/07/2008 at 14:15 Cultist says:
This had better be good, if only because they used Sigur Ros for their trailer music. You can’t just do that willy-nilly, thats something you have to EARN.
15/07/2008 at 14:28 skalpadda says:
Interesting to see how the choice of music made this stand out quite a bit compared to the rest of the crowd. I never really got into the previous games although I had fun playing Sands of Time for an afternoon while visiting a friend. Looks like it’s worth keeping an eye on in any case :)
15/07/2008 at 14:36 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ Janto: So she is, somehow I’d missed the third page of the EG preview.
15/07/2008 at 14:47 Mattress says:
Odd choosing Sigur Rós to soundtrack a game trailer… Remember when this used to be left of field?
Was it just me or did this trailer reveal little to nothing about the game? (Aside from the odd black-outlining and japanime [loveliness] the art direction on this game has taken)
Remember the days when trailers used to communicate something of the actual game experience?
What’s with this deluge of crappy trailers lately (or ever)? The more I see, the less excited I get…
15/07/2008 at 15:34 Bwah says:
It shows you the style of the game, the game world, the gameplay (combat and acrobatics mainly with glimpses of the secondary character) and presumably the goal of the game (rejuvenating the world) and it does it to pretty music. I’m not sure exactly what more you want from the trailer, particulary considering it’s the first trailer they’ve released.
15/07/2008 at 15:35 Ian Dorsch says:
Trailer looks absolutely gorgeous.
15/07/2008 at 15:36 Cultist says:
@mattress
FYI- using the word “faggotry” instantly makes you look like an ignorant jerk, and pretty thoroughly negates what was otherwise an intelligent post.
Unless you are British and are making a complicated reference to cigarettes, of course.
I’m new here, so I’ll shut up now.
15/07/2008 at 15:45 Lu-Tze says:
Well, I must say this PoP isn’t to my tastes. The black outline looks silly whenever I see it and could easily be dropped, they’ve stolen the main character from a Final Fantasy game as the Prince, and got rid of plausible acrobatics in favour of Sonic-style magical jumppads.
I really hope they haven’t also jumped on the co-op bandwagon, and that they manage to do escorting as well as Ico did, as opposed to how it has been in every other game ever (oh, except Sleepwalker).
15/07/2008 at 16:01 tmp says:
Prince of Persia: Ico?
Not that it’s a bad thing.
15/07/2008 at 16:02 Noc says:
I’m not a huge fan of the character designs, but I AM a huge fan of the painted aesthetic I’ve started to see in more and more games. It’s like taking hyperrealism and running with it. And that includes the stroke, you jerks.
15/07/2008 at 16:17 windlab says:
As someone who hasn’t played any of the PoP games, I think it doesn’t look all that bad. At the very least they’ve got a half decent artistic style.
15/07/2008 at 16:34 Someone says:
Yeah, too bad the 2nd and 3rd PoP’s look 50 times better than this piece of shit.
15/07/2008 at 16:37 Chris says:
Surely Sigur Ros stopped being left of field a couple of years ago when every second tv program or advert started using Hoppipolla on the soundtrack?
Also “SoT (was it good?)” – that would be a huge yes. Personally it’s right up there in my top 2 or 3 games of all time. If they’d had the combat system from WW it would have been damned near perfect.
15/07/2008 at 16:42 KindredPhantom says:
I haven’t played the newer version of Price and Persia but i will say that i like the new style, seems more Persian like.
15/07/2008 at 17:01 azwipe says:
@mattress-
agreed. completely ignorant and out of line. seriously, RPS guys- is outright blatant homophobia ok here? or can i continue visiting your excellent site?
15/07/2008 at 17:05 The Hammer says:
It’ll get deleted when one of the RPS-men get on the site. It comes under the [different people to me] editing.
15/07/2008 at 18:10 EyeMessiah says:
Looks great to me! I like the art style, but art is easy. Making jumping puzzles that aren’t completely soul destroying isn’t. Still, I’m jazzed!
15/07/2008 at 19:19 Chris says:
That sent little shivers all down my spine. Lovely. They’d better not fuck this up.
15/07/2008 at 19:25 Al3xand3r says:
Not bad. But I still think the in game graphics would look nicer if they removed the “cartoon like” black outline. The rest of the style isn’t quite cartoony, there’s no actual cel shading, and it just looks off to me. The FMV of the game don’t have an outline either so why put it in the in game characters? Makes no sense to me. Minor annoyance but I think it’d be pretty evident if they’d just show a video without it…
15/07/2008 at 21:44 Soundofvictory says:
First off, I enjoy the new art direction. I think the cel-shading is spot on because its very subtle compared to some JRPGs that have used it. And the style is definitely more imaginative which is fitting because pop has always seemed like a fairy tale in my mind (at least since SoT).
I know its at an early stage, but a most of the animations seemed pretty clumsy and I hope they get fixed. On that note, anyone know who’s developing this? I hope its Ubisoft Montreal… but if I remember right they’re already working on one or two other projects…
15/07/2008 at 21:46 Patch says:
Blimey, remember when the most you had to worry about in Prince of Persia was jumping over the wobbly floor tiles?
By the way, when he first starts jumping around in that trailer, and he’s swinging around a flagpole sideways, look at his right hand’s fingers and tell me you didn’t think about Jeremy Beadle. Or was that just me?
15/07/2008 at 21:51 born2expire says:
ehhhhhh, the art style is nice. but the direction the game is heading doesn’t look like my thing. call me crazy but give me back the warrior within angry prince and gameplay mechanics to go with it.
15/07/2008 at 22:23 Meat Circus says:
Oh, that looks beautiful.
Are we finally to recapture that Sands of Time otherworldliness that made it such a thing of wonderment?
Let’s hope so.
15/07/2008 at 23:04 The Guy says:
Well, I liked it…
And I dunno who the fuck Sigur Ros is.
15/07/2008 at 23:07 Al3xand3r says:
It’s a band, think French coldplay. This might sound familiar.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EBTH2E5QPEE
15/07/2008 at 23:24 skalpadda says:
Last time I checked, Sigur Rós were from Iceland ;)
15/07/2008 at 23:26 The Guy says:
Ah, yeah… All pretty/fantasy/etc. Not my kinda music but I think it fits the style they’re going for. Don’t know what it means when game designers add Sigur Ros to their music though, lol (is it used all the time? The last time I heard weird music to a game trailer was Jefferson Starship for Lost Odyssey.
As for the game looking like Final Fantasy, well… You all do know FF borrows heavily from middle-eastern myth. So Prince of Persia, a game with a middle-eastern mythological style is going to look like FF.
(Seriously, it’s like saying Warhammer looks like Lord of the Rings.)
16/07/2008 at 00:22 internisus says:
Oh boy. Well, I get what they were going for with the Sigur Ros, but the trailer really wasn’t good enough to make it work. The art direction appears generally nice, but so much looks like the same old thing. Magic swirling colors and distinct jumping points in the environment and that same fighting.
Maybe I’m just sour because I know the music too well to peaceably witness its use for something like this.
But realistically, I just can’t help thinking how the stupid abstract gamey bits are going to ruin the nice style, enjoyable route-finding, and Okami world-restoring.
16/07/2008 at 01:00 DSX says:
Thanks for introducing me to Sigur Ros.. great music.
Second the Prince of FinalFantasy. Not a bad thing though. Art Style FTW.
16/07/2008 at 02:22 propanol says:
It’s definitely confirmed to be up for release on PC, at least according to this Ubisoft press release. Running on the Assassin’s Creed engine IIRC.
16/07/2008 at 03:57 Zed says:
OK, I have to throw this in: it’s a PoP game. The only (only!) thing that REALLY matters are the controls. Playing Sands of Time on X-Box was nothing short of exquisite bloody joy. I LOVED that game.
[EDIT:] Except for combat. The combat sucked. But the jumpy jumpy was fabulous.
16/07/2008 at 05:25 john says:
It’s amazing how much kick-ass music makes that game more appealing to me, when I’d never have bought it otherwise. This one and the russian invasion rts trailer a few weeks back.
16/07/2008 at 06:42 Mr. President says:
The graphics look really weird to me, I’m generally not opposed to cel shading/black outline, but here it looks rather out-of-place and unpleasant. Hope it’ll be possible to adjust visual settings in the PC version.
I generally dislike Sigur Ros, but this track worked surprisingly well with this trailer. I’m sure they won’t be featured in the actual soundtrack for the game, though.
16/07/2008 at 10:59 Man Raised By Puffins says:
A developer walkthrough is up now. Looking very nice.
16/07/2008 at 11:27 Janto says:
It does indeed. A lot of people will be filled with hate at the combat, but so long as they can actually pull off the changes in angles I think it’s going to be a nice step forward.
16/07/2008 at 11:55 Mman says:
Sold. The combat could work out really well as long the enemies are varied enough that each does seem like a separate boss fight.
The one thing I’m worried about is, now its apparently been confirmed it applies to ALL death, as opposed to just falling, the Elica (sic?) save thing looks like it could remove the feeling of danger for me like the revive chambers in Bioshock did (before the patch), with the added issue that I can’t just load a save and pretend it doesn’t exist.
16/07/2008 at 12:44 Mman says:
Just realised there’s a second half, which wasn’t linked: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36543.html
16/07/2008 at 13:44 Chris says:
The save thing looks like it’s just an instant “return to checkpoint” model: pretty much like the “oh no no no, that’s not what happened” in SoT. I don’t see that there’s much to worry about there.
“The combat could work out really well as long the enemies are varied enough that each does seem like a separate boss fight.”
Kinda – I’d also say as long as there are few enough of them that the entire game doesn’t become a string of boss fights interspersed by short runny-jumpy bits. If there are the same amount of baddies as in the previous series, but each of them feels like a boss fight, I’m going to stop playing pretty damned quick…
Play (ignoring cutscenes etc) should be about 90% or more runny-jumpy-puzzly, 10% or less fighty for my money.
16/07/2008 at 14:20 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Still waiting to see Mattress’ comment get edited to something more ironically deadpan, if only for the RPS-was-here bracketing.
I honestly don’t quite see the “Japanime” influence here. The environments are gorgeous in the sense that Lineage’s concept art is, just properly put in motion. And the guy looks more rugged than anything you’ll find gracing the cover of a Final Fantasy game, this including his artsy color design.
I just suspect some people still have a knee-jerk reaction to graphics that aren’t grey-or-brown, which is why they’re still so prevalent even in the day and age when gamers are expected enjoy such “art direction” ironically.
The game looks gorgeous, and I trust the gameplay will be equally enticing–this is Prince of Persia, after all.
It’s just rare finding a big-budget western-made game trying to invoke a sense of awe and wonder in its art, design, and graphics. Usually, people chuck out any notion of this and go for “realism,” which tends to age more poorly to the eye than graphics with a striking, or even soothing, art direction.
That aside…
Is it just me, or did I see the guy swing the girl around like a weapon? She’s possibly the most lethal, most glowy dance partner in videogame history.
16/07/2008 at 14:34 RPS says:
Sorry, we didn’t spot Mattress’ nastiness. Do drop us a mail if you see this kind of thing and we don’t appear to have caught it.
16/07/2008 at 16:57 Stick says:
Throwing girls at your problems: the new – yes – gravity gun. :)
Have to say I heartily agree with the “don’t interrupt the flow” design ideas. When the entire game is jumping puzzles, you need some kind of instant rewind mechanic. Or you – well, certainly I – would be spending half the time looking at save menus. Which would be unfun.
This looks very nifty – and boy am I glad the Wolverine Within is gone.
16/07/2008 at 16:58 Mattress says:
Apologies for my colloquialisms. No homophobia was intended and I didn’t mean to equate being gay with being lame. I was writing as I speak, and living in a relatively liberal society where most people of an age don’t take deep personal offence at any minor (and generalised) tresspasses. Basically what I mean to say is, that certain words work their way into one’s vernacular since you’re a kid (think South Park’s 8 year-old cast who often call things “gay”) and you use them instinctively, not thinking that they’d cause harm to those more sensitive of words because discrimination was never one’s intent.
Still though, I think those who found offence at what I said need to lighten up a bit, I wasn’t making a personal attack at anyone and would’ve thought my words were obviously not intended to inflame… I didn’t think there was any “nastiness” to what I said, RPS overlords, though this is your site, it’s a privilige to comment here and the team have full right to moderate these comments as they see fit.
To talk about the game again, whilst from the trailer and that Edge preview last month, the game art looks technically impressive. I find it a shame that the Ubisoft team has decided to pilfer it’s art style from oriental games. Whilst all art steals and it’s important to steal from the best (Ico, Final Fantasy and Zelda are definitely the best), I think it’s disappointing the Prince of Persia brand continues to betray it’s roots as it has done since the sequel to Sands of Time. There’s nothing Arabic about the art style (except some vague collection of buildings that look like some bastardized cyberpunk/Middle-Earth/Middle-Eastern contraptions (sorry to all bastards, I didn’t mean to offend you in any way). Even if Sands of Time took most if it’s art direction from Disneys Aladdin and not the history books, I found it admirable that a successful and innovative game was released by an American (Canadian-French) company only several months after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
16/07/2008 at 17:14 Alec Meer says:
A good rule of thumb re: posting potentially offensive stuff here is not whether you’d be comfortable saying it to, f’rinstance, a friend, but rather whether you’d be comfortable saying it to a friend’s mother.
(Note that “my friend’s mother is a crack-addled, Neo-Nazi hooker” doth not a carte blanche make.)
17/07/2008 at 02:02 Longley Brandoncroft says:
Looks a bit more like Edmund Dulac than final fantasy from this angle. I hope that’s what they’re going for. Citing a French artist famous for his Arabian Nights illustrations couldn’t be more appropriate.
Specifically; the surfaces are detailed in these delicate, incised lines and big, separated areas of colour…outlined with thick contours. Definitely has that art nouveau vibe, anyway.
It’s too bad the character design isn’t more along those lines.