NEXT-GEN PRINCE OF PERSIA WISH LIST

A while ago, Ubisoft stated that the Prince of Persia franchise was on hold (bummer #1). After that, a few screenshots were posted on Climax Studios’ website, and everyone thought that they represented the next generation PoP. Unfortunately, those turned out to be mere concept pieces, and nothing came out of them (bummer #2). Now, Ubisoft is teasing us with an announcement of the long awaited series, which is apparently coming next week. In hope that the announcement won’t turn into bummer #3, and Ubisoft will actually unveil a next generation PoP, here is a wish list describing the things which I’d like to see from this possible next entry:

The Return of the Smartass

This is more of a personal wish, but seeing the prince laugh, crack jokes, all in all being more relaxed than his companions among all the bleak things happening around made him a much more loveable character (exactly like Nathan Drake). This is why the relation between him and Elika is so fun to watch: she’s all “this world is going to be swallowed in darkness if we don’t do something,” while the prince is like “uh, yeah, I need to find my donkey because the stolen goods are on him, and making a profit is really hard in these times, you know?”

The Return of the Sand Powers

How awesome are the powers of sand in the Sands of Time trilogy? From going back in time for just a few seconds to avoid getting killed, to slowing down time, or even stopping it completely to easily defeat your enemies, these powers are a blast to use. Bring back these, and find even more ways to play with time. Maybe even create a story which revolves around going back in time, or even in the future a few days? Weeks!? Years?!? That would certainly be an interesting plot.

Warrior Within’s Combat

While the story is predictable, and the characters are a bit generic, Warrior Within really succeeds in the combat department. It features a lot of combat moves, and each of them has a different animation if you’re dual wielding or not. Additionally, there are a lot of weapons to choose from, and you can also pick up your enemies’. 2008′s version of PoP oversimplified things by giving you only one sword (and only one enemy to fight at a time) from start to end, and The Forgotten Sands only changed your weapon two or three times, so a whole arsenal (alongside a lot of enemies on-screen) would be appreciated in the next entry.

A More Personal Adventure

The best stories are the ones which get the best out of their characters. This means that the adventure has to be a personal one, not the usual “we have to save the kingdom/world/universe.” Even if the prince is a smartass, we also need to see a more emotional, human side from him. Saving the prince’s brother in The Forgotten Sands is a decent start, but we need to see much more than that.

A Semi-Open World

When Ubisoft rebooted the franchise back in 2008, bringing us a completely different prince, the developer also brought in, for the first time in the franchise, a semi-open world. After a brief introduction, players are able to choose from four different, interconnected worlds, and create their own paths. This also leads to a specific order in which they will obtain new powers. Creating, let’s say three, or even four different semi-open worlds, which all would have a past, present, and future version would really mean taking PoP to a whole new level of awesomeness.

Off the top of my head, that’s pretty much it, but if you can think of more, don’t forget to let me know in the comments below. All we can do now is wait, and hope that a true follow-up to the Prince of Persia franchise is going to be announced next week. For all your latest PoP news, keep it locked to Analog Addiction.