Prince of Pesia Game Feel

 The first Prince of Pesia is a game of my early gaming days, Dad brought this huge ass " Laptop? " it was some "Portable" Heavy AF computer and I remember 2 games with it Prince of Persia and Wizard Chess, a very cool Chess game where the piece actually had characters and cool animations as they kill each other or die. 

Back to Prince of Persia, I remembered that separation between the exploration and the combat, completely different way of controlling the character and the pacing was different, Dad did the exploration and I would do the fighting with specific enemies, he gave me the " weak ones ". 


Today I go over some footage as got interested in the SNES Cover of Katsuya Terada and having the "Shadow Prince" 

I was surprised to see the Under ground dungeon with the feeling of heat and the Skeletons, that was totally new to me. 

I kept on watching and got to a Combat Segment and realized how much feel the game had regarding the combat, but hi! SNES right! they already got things down. 

I went back to the Apple II version and my Jaw Dropped, they actually had the game feel down to the simplest form! 

you Space the Prince accordingly, you attack ( the swing has a sound ) you are at a certain distance, you get the sword clash Clinking of metal, and there is the impact and very short hit stop? but then I saw the Prince getting his and the spark was red and the SCREEN FLASHED RED!!! WHAT?! 

a Clear distinct indication that " HI! you are in danger! back up! " even with the limited resources, they got it down! I know I know at the time this was next gen! but come on man! this was solid design! 

I played Sands of Time, Warrior Within and Twin Thrones when I was in Highschool and only recently Played the 2008 Prince of Persia which I ADORE!. 

what was interesting looking at the classic they actually had the same feel! of the classic! MODERANIZED!

you got a clear separation between exploration and Combat, combat wise ( you zone, you defend, wait for an opening and you attack! with very clear indications for each action ) that is exactly how the classic was! 

I do not remember anyone saying anything about that, most reviews talked about how it was celshaded and not the Emo prince, and it lost that feel of action, and kind of a "Downgrade" at least in some of the review I came across, I was young and impressionable and I hated the hand holding of death was VERY forgiving which I disliked but now as I am more into design, I started to understand why such choices was taken. 

but I do not remember a single review mentioning " going back to the classic " feel

Like if we look at it Comparing the 2008 to the Original 

1-You move around to explore 
2-You stop for Combat
3-Combat is : 
    A-Zone and space your self accordingly
    B-get close enough 

    C-Defend
    D-Counter the enemy and make an opening
    E- Enemy Defeated, back to Exploration

Of course the 2008 has all the bills and whistle of animation and sound design so I am not going to compare that but talking more of the fundamental game design, no new weapons, no upgrade tree, no nothing, just a straight forward game that tells a story, which was how the Original was Handled. 

, the one I remember that stayed honest to the original was Prince of Persia 3D for the Dreamcast, Charming but horrible controls lol 

 

Badass cover art

but it was super honest to the original with the health as bottles, separation in exploration and Combat and the pacing of the combat, it was just in the wrong time because 3D games was still trying to figure things out. 

Prince of Persia 2008 Figured that out! it hit that balance of Classic and Level of Polish that made the combat feel super fluid, having the cinematic feel that it felt like it was a story book that you would read for bed time, which is you know " Arabian Nights " 

With that point of view, go back to playing PoP 2008 and tell me what you think! ?