Princes to Princes, Part Two: Parables and Parrying

So, apparently I don’t have a good understanding of the word “tomorrow”. I started writing about Prince of Persia monday. I also started catching up on 30 Rock, and that was very much conflicting with me wanting to write a blog post. Then the season 5 premiere of LOST happened, so that threw me off again.

Anyway, back to comparing Prince of Persia to Sands of Time. So far, the tally looks like Sands of Time – 1, Prince of Persia – 1, on the basis of platforming (the meat) and graphical presentation (the potatoes) respectively. This lecture is on the combat (the side dish) and the narrative (the gravy). Now that I’ve managed to make myself hungry, let’s have a drink of PoP. (I acknowledge the fact that that pun was horrible.) As before, SoT is obviously Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and PoP refers to the new one without a subtitle.

I can’t help but feel that in both games, the combat is one of those things that was shoehorned in because someone at a dev meeting said “BUT YOU CAN’T JUST HAVE THE PRINCE RUNNING AROUND DOING A LOT OF PLATFORMING! THERE NEEDS TO BE COMBAT!”. In the cases of both games, I disagree. In SoT, the Prince had a goal that was not directly combative: retrieve the hourglass. In PoP, the Prince aids Elika in healing the land, which for all intent and purpose, does not sound combative. However, as most platformers these days exist with enemies as a function of the level design as obstacles, or to break the flow of platforming by showcasing another way in which the Prince is acrobatic. My complaint against the combat in PoP is the same complaint I levied against the platforming: it is down to such a simplistic level that it is essentially an elevated quick time event. What makes the combat worse is that there are actual button-mashy or timed press quick time activities that actually occur. While this makes combat simpler and allows you to view the acrobatic combat stylings of the fresh Prince and Elika, you again do not get as engaged. This unfortunately also makes it aggravating though, as you’re often required to do things at such precise times it simply becomes a game of trial and error. This gets even worse near the end of the game, when the enemies are much faster and you cannot get a hit in without leading with a parry attack, which requires an extremely precise timed press. SoT allows much more room for skill and flair in its combat, and provides the Prince with a bevy of abilities that actually make fighting scores of monsters easier and less frustrating than the two-on-one battles of PoP. You may have to use more button combinations in SoT, but it creates a much more fun combat style.

The thing that really kept me going with PoP however was the story. I always wanted to know more of what was going on. Even when I got all the achievements for talking to Elika, I continued to do so because the interaction between her and the Prince was easily the most engaging part of the game. The Giant Bombcast from last week or so mentioned their favorite parts of dialogue, and one they mentioned was the game of I Spy that the Prince starts, much to Elika’s chagrin. The way the characters played off each other was very well done, even if the Prince had that tendency to come off as an arrogant ass, but even when he did, Elika called him out on it. Since the dialogue was all optional, I knew I could skip it, but I did not want to, as this world and these characters were something I gained a legitimate interest in. Unlike SoT, in which the narrative is far less engaging, and exists mostly just to explain why you are in a certain section of the palace at that time. I do not care about the relationship between the Prince and Farah as much as I do the Prince and Elika. In fact, the thing that I am most interested in about the Prince is the fact that he arbitrarily rips pieces of his clothing off at seemingly random times, or when he talks to himself occasionally and subsequently calls himself out on it. In the terms of narrative drive, I give the award to the newer PoP.

Here’s the part where I should draw my conclusions, but by now the tally is obviously split, and there’s no other factor to really establish a clear winner, and I think that is the point I’ve been trying to reach all along. These are both great games, but for different reasons. Sands of Time is a really great platformer with a well done combat system, where as Prince of Persia is an amazing looking game with a fantastic story that also happens to be a platformer. The critics simply just shit on the new Prince of Persia because it is not exactly like the old one. Sure I have complaints with it, but at the end of the day it is just as engaging as the old one, albeit for different reasons.

Apples to Apples, Princes to Princes

I decided to write a post before midnight for once, which is rather uncharacteristic of me. Then I started playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and as a result, this post comes to you after the clock strikes midnight and my laptop turns back into a pumpkin.

So, I started playing Sands of Time a few weeks back on the PC, had PC issues about 12% into the game, and then went out and picked it up for PS2 because I wanted to play the other 88% of the game. Coincidentally, as I got about 50% into SoT, the new Prince of Persia arrived via Gamefly for my Xbox 360. So, I decided to play that one and finished it in a few days. Now, I’m back to Sands of Time, and just got to the 75% point in the game. It was an interesting experience going from one Prince to another, and since it’s an issue of apples to apples, here’s just a few thoughts on comparing the two. PoP will designate the newer title, while SoT will obviously designate the Sands of Time.

First off, SoT excels in the one place the Prince is known for, and that is his platforming ability. While the skill sets between the two Princes largely overlap, the only thing I miss going back to Sands of Time is the gauntlet for sliding down a wall (which I had tried to do earlier tonight when I got back to SoT only to find out harshly that it was not available anymore). What I didn’t miss were the Elika powers. Namely, the one I referred to as Prince the Hedgehog, the green plate, which caused the Prince to run headfirst in a single direction: up. This meant the player controls his horizontal movement, dodging obstacles and enemies, however, the game forces you into quite a bit of trial and error with this section, since you can’t exactly see too far ahead. Most of all though, this detracted from what I wanted to do the most in the game, and that was jump between ropes and walls and platforms. The moves were more gratifying to perform in SoT, simply because it did not simply feel like a series of implied quick time events, where I knew I had to hit only one button to move from one action to the next.

However, PoP may not have mechanics that are up to par with its predecessor, but it really excels in the narrative and graphical directions. I know comparing this generation’s graphics to the last is not necessarily a fair fight, but hear me out. A lot of the environments in SoT are dark palace rooms or caverns, without a lot of glitz and glamour to them. Even as far as PS2 games go, there are other games from 2003 that look better, such as FFX-2 (which is not a good game by any means), but the game is not about style, it is about platforming. The world of PoP is dark and and depraved after the release of Ahriman, and lush and vibrant after Elika begins healing the world. Assassin’s Creed showed a lot of potential in the engine, and I really loved the environments that game created. Coupling that with the distinctive art style of PoP creates a really impressive world that I simply loved exploring just to see the art style and graphical design of the areas. The world had a good sense of openness to it as well, giving me a few issues of GTA-esque “wrong turn” syndrome as I suddenly found myself facing an enemy in combat.

As for the combat and narrative, well…. I’ll leave that for tomorrow (cliffhanger!).

Bite Size 2008: Except, Now It’s 2009

Bite Size 2008 is my wrap-up of moments in games from the past calendar year. The last post in the series, I look into the crystal ball and try to see my gaming future. Check out this listing for the rest of my Bite Size 2008 posts!

Playing Through Classics

I had a span of time in my life where I played literally nothing but JRPGs and watched a shit ton of anime. I played a few other games, but not too many, and those that I did tended to come out of Japan. While the Final Fantasies and Star Oceans were nice then, I missed out on a lot. Hell, I even missed out on JRPGs because I spent most of my attention on Final Fantasy games. Late in the PS2 life cycle, when people started buying Xbox 360s and I was down in the dumps because I could not afford one, I started playing catch up, and I got into the God of War games, and Shadow of the Colossus, and some others, however, this quest was hampered by my purchase of a 360 to call my own. So, with a still growing list of games I should have played, and a bit of a drought in the beginning of 2009, I will be playing some classics. If you look to the “Currently Playing” bar on the right, you’ll see I’ve got Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Metal Gear Solid and Half-Life all in there. I grabbed 2/3 of the Sands of Time trilogy as well as Metal Gear 2: Substance and 3: Subsistence during a recent Gamestop sale for 25% off used PS2 games, MGS off of eBay, and HL during the anniversary sale on Steam where it was only a dollar. I’m also going to be borrowing a copy of Hitman: Agent 47 for the PC from a friend of mine so I can check that out as well. I’ve got plenty of catching up to do, but really, I’m not complaining.

 

2008: The Asteroid Belt Year in Gaming

Yes, an asteroid belt. There were big titles and small titles flying by, and you could only hit so many of them. I tried to play all that I could, but I still lagged behind. I started Dead Space in 2008, and it just came to me from Gamefly yesterday, so I plan on finishing it in 2009. I never even got around to touching Mirror’s Edge, Saint’s Row 2, or Far Cry 2. Since Far Cry has seen a price drop recently, I expect that one to be the first one I see of those. I did manage to start and finish the new Prince of Persia in five or six days though, which was interesting considering I was playing Sands of Time right before that. I’d also like to sink my teeth into a PS3 this year, although the purist in me will scour eBay for a 60 GB looking for a new home, since I’d like Emotion Engine backwards compatibility. When that day comes, though, I’ll look forward to playing all of it’s big hits: MGS4 (providing I’ve made it through the others at that point), LittleBigPlanet, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted, etc. The theme of 2009 for me seems to be “Playing Catch-Up”. It’s where I’ll probably see the most bang for my buck in my Gamefly membership.

 

Downloadable to my Heart’s Content

There’s plenty of downloadable content coming out in these next few months to get me back into my favorites of 2008. I just finished up the Knothole Island DLC today for Fable 2. That was a bit of a wash, with one achievement that required three hours of slaying civilians and sleeping in order to get a certain vendor to spawn selling a certain item. That was a pain in the ass, but I also felt like I was robbed out of my $10. I actually felt like the Jedi Temple DLC for Star Wars carried a little more weight than this. I won’t let that spoil DLC for me, since I still have the three packs of Fallout 3 DLC, as well as The Lost and the Damned for GTA4, and some DLC apparently coming for Left 4 Dead as well. There’s some MSP spent across the board, so let’s hope it’s all worth the points.

 

 

What the Calendar Year Holds

Well, I already know I won’t be seeing a Final Fantasy this year, so there’s about 100 hours of my life that I get to retain in 2009, but I’ve already stated enough other projects to keep me busy. This year looks to have some interesting titles, but nothing even in the realm of the Fallout 3/Fable 2/GTA4 caliber. Sure, Resident Evil 5 is going to be good, but it is hard to be the sequel to one of the greatest games of all time. Lord of the Rings: Conquest just hit this week, and I’ll be checking that out, though I’m afraid it won’t have the same type of impact that Star Wars: Battlefront 2 did. My friend Joe and I have spent countless hours playing Battlefront 2. We love it so much, when I hooked my PS2 up to my LCD via component cables, and the LCD started dropping the signal during battles to the point where it was unplayable, I ended up buying an Xbox copy so we could play it on the 360 and it’s HDMI cable. There’s always the looming possibility that Battlefront III will be released, but I’m not getting my hopes up for that. If I get that PS3 I’m looking towards, then there’s Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2 coming along for that. However, that’s all dreams and aspirations, so who knows where that is in the grand scheme of things. Let’s hope 2009 brings another good year, even if things don’t look so hot now.

 

Done with this series! With the new semester starting, maybe I’ll have some insightful commentary on… something. Cheers, let’s have a good year of gaming.