Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
A Look Back
Hello there, today I’m talking about one of my favorite games (a fact that you’ll definitely not figure out while reading) and what it represents in franchise-type games.
Prince of Persia Warrior Within, perhaps the only Prince of Persia game to walk away from the Prince Formula. The only Prince of Persia game where Jordan Mechner, the creator of the franchise, wasn’t involved. And weirdly, it turned out uniquely awesome and became a fan favorite.
Warrior Within takes a step, or rather a wall-run, away from the regular Prince games. It’s dark, it’s gritty, Prince is calling people names, he’s angry and most importantly he can now perform a handstand 360 no-scope using dual swords. And instead of Yuri Lowenthal, he’s voiced by another prominent video game voice actor, Robin Atkin Downes, known for his roles in Team Fortress 2 as Medic and in Metal Gear Solid as Kazuhira Miller.
The story has quite a few twists and actually manages to deliver a somewhat satisfying ending. Since this is a 15-year-old game, if you managed to avoid spoilers, first of all I salute you. Secondly, considering a possible remake happening in the future, I won’t be spoiling any story-related details.
The game follows the Prince, after releasing the Sands of Time and meddling with the flow of time itself. Dahaka, a creature that exists to punish the people who screw up timelines, takes a break from Barry Allen, and is now hunting the Prince for… well, screwing up the timeline. Dahaka is a force of nature, he’s unstoppable and exists solely to kill his target. Knowing that he can’t fight back, Prince decides to travel to the Island of Time, where sands were first created. To find a way to fix his mistakes. Great plan Prince, throwing more time travel at the problem will definitely fix it.
Prince of Persia Warrior Within employs the well-known Prince mechanics such as rewinding time and wall-running, but does so in a much darker setting. Instead of the fairy tale-like atmosphere, we are immediately hit with heavy metal music and brutal combat scenes. Warrior Within also has the “free-form fighting” system that lets us use pretty much everything around us to take out enemies.
So what makes Warrior Within so special amongst the Prince of Persia games? Well, ironically, the fact that it’s the only one that’s edgy enough to cut itself. Warrior Within has this heavy aura, with Stuart Chatwood’s incredible music supported by a couple of Godsmack songs, the game immediately gives out this serious yet hype inducing feeling.
Ubisoft Montreal’s approach to this entry in the series makes it quite obvious that they had a unique vision in mind, but was limited by the brand itself to express it. Jordan Mechner states his vision for the Prince franchise as to be a story for everyone, adults and children alike. To which Ubisoft Montreal says: “No. HEAVY METAL!” which is understandably irritating for Mr. Mechner. He also stated that he was very glad the next game in the trilogy, the Two Thrones, decided to move away from Warrior Within’s tone and once again move back to the classic Prince of Persia theme.
Warrior Within was a polarizing game, to the point of having the creator of the series pick a side. But at the end of the day, it was unique. It tried something new, it tried to expand its limits. It tried to be a heavy metal game, but the mainstream gaming community apparently wasn’t ready for that. At least until Mick Gordon stepped in. Despite the Doom series’ historical usage of it, DOOM (2016) has opened a new door for video games with heavy metal soundtrack in modern gaming. I hope that the potential Warrior Within remake (which I’ve been e-mailing Ubisoft about for 5 years now) will leave a different impression on today’s gamers.
To some, including me, what Warrior Within did was a move in the right direction. And to some, it was the black sheep of the franchise. What Ubisoft is doing right now with the remakes could revive the series, or hit the last nail on its coffin. As Prince of Persia and Deus Ex fans always say: “I hope they don’t cancel it.”