Sands of Time or the second one of that generation… They kinda blend together in my memory, so I literally can’t be sure which was the one I liked more. But it’s one of those.
They were, however, the first ones I played. I never had the original or even a demo of it and didn’t know the Xbox/PS2 gen ones were part of an older series until way after I played them.
The original 3D Prince of Persia trilogy - If I had to pick one I liked the most ( or left the strongest impression), then Warrior Within for the shear guilty pleasure of using time powers to hear what the Dahaka says to the Prince when it is chasing him and the story of the angsty, emo prince being knocked down a peg and starts the decision to take responsibility for his actions
spoiler
Specifically “killing” his old self and confronting Dahaka in a show of him finally deciding to challenge his fate instead of running away
I will admit Sands of Time had the most engaging story though and that The Two Thrones shook up the formula a bit with the a bigger focus on combat with the transformation ( which is a like a meta-narrative nod to the changes the Prince undertook over the course of the trilogy)
I also quite enjoyed Warrior Within but then again I liked Jak 2 as well. I wonder what happened in that “Shadow the Hedgehog” era to make all these good mascots go bad…
I can only guess being dark and broody or “Bad Boys are cool heroes” was the trend at the time
A time where trying to be “edgy” was hitting a desired target market - a time Ubisoft put effort in their games trying to push boundaries.
Now that I think about it was also a time where games had to try new things because the target market hadn’t exploded in volume yet as well
OG. It’s really well made for its day.
I remember playing this game and was smitten by how good and ahead of time this game was. Sands of time was also very enjoyable but I didn’t play the new version.
I will NEVER play the new version. It looked good and I downloaded a demo of it. They wanted me to make a Ubisoft account so I can log on before I could play. F that noise. There are plenty of other games I can play.
I still like sands of time and the OG one. The OG one is hard as fuck. I never beat it.
It’s on GOG. No Internet required or account to play (as far as I know)
Have fun… Maybe
I believe the Switch version does not require an online account either.
It would make you the least patient, but “Prince of Persia: Lost Crown” is one of the best metroidvanias I’ve ever played. It is old enough now where it is on sale occasionally.
In terms of 3D prince of persias, then I’d say The Sands of Time probably. It’s the most consistent and well-paced.
People love praising Warrior Within but I played it again recently and it doesn’t hold up. Lots of backtracking, lots of confusing camera angles and a frustrating world to get around. Dahaka is very cool though.
I don’t remember Two Thrones enough to comment on it, but I thought it was pretty good at the time.
Prince of Persia 2008 is my 2nd favorite and it still sucks that they never followed up on it. There’s a lot of room for improvement but it was a great entry.
I loved warrior within because it hit at exactly the right time for my dark teenager phase so the dark and broody prince and the dark and broody plot were perfect for me. Sands of time was so well done. I remember thinking how cool it was that the princess outfit changed as he went through the game.
I had the same phase, but I realized the first thing that turned me against it is that the Prince’s entire goal through the game is to not die to the Dahaka. He even sacrifices an entire crew of sailors just to get to the island.
From there I started to enjoy having heroic motivations in storylines.
Sands of time, because it was my first. The rewind mechanic was pretty damn cool
The rewind mechanic was great! I like that it made it kind of “easier”, but only as much as you wanted to use it. I also love the framing mechanic of it being a story. Like if you miss a jump and die… “wait, that’s not what happened”
