Two Thrones worst in the original Prince of Persia trilogy?

[Annoyone]

Now I'm one of the guys that think that Warrior Within was the best in the series. Amazing gameplay (-improvements), nice story, interesting setting, levels that feel large and varied, believable character arcs, decent characters (despite over sexualized female characters), badass boss fights, rewarding alternative ending and FLAMINGO WEAPON!
Meanwhile, when recently replaying 'The Two Thrones' (not on steam, mind), I was disappointed and almost shocked by how bad it was:

1. the game aesthetics are really dull and repetitive, mostly restricted to urban, sandy environments
   
2. the levels are really small and unimaginative
   
3. please google images of Farah in the first and third game and tell me how two years of technological advancement could have made her that much uglier (low resolution of clothes, clipping hair, no individual fingers)
   The new gameplay additions are also rather weak and annoying at time:
   
4. the plates you stick the dagger in brea any sense of flow, while the launching plates hurling the prince across entire rooms feel artificial
   
5. the Dark Prince's sand addiction leads to unnecessary time related stress and deaths
   
6. boss fights are both easy and unimaginative (except those twin bulls, maybe)
   
7. it is hard to pull of combos as most enemies usually block you halfway through no matter what
   
8. as for the story, it feels detached and far-fetched, with no satisfying closure
   
9. the prince's dialogue with his darker side is pathetic, unfunny and annoying.
   I could probably go on, but you're probably already bored by my rant.
   
10. Just one more: less easter eggs!

Overall it feels like a rushed out alpha version of the intended game that could have profited from many more development months of enhancing, improving and removing.
What are your thoughts on this?

[Vankrys]

i really didn't like warrior within, i started it many time and could never go further than a few hours.

two thrones however, i loved. Nice balance fight/plateforming/puzzle solving.

my favorite feature is the speed kill, rewarding you being stealthy and finding good angle of attack.

[SpyroGuy]

My personal favorite was and will always be the first game, Sands of Time.

WW was ok and I liked it's artistic design, but I didn't really like that I had to continuously revisit areas in different times, even though I admit that it was executed in a pretty clever way, if the time period wouldn't have changed at all, I would have hated that game in it's entirety, because if there's one mechanic I can't stand, it's the repetitive gameplay PLUS open-world areas.

I have mixed feelings about T2T. It found the perfect balance between the beauty of SoT and the "badassery" of WW. Howewer I found the buildup to the ending pretty empty, perhaps because I knew what was going to happen next (climbing tower, facin' villain, tryin' to save mah girl...hmm...) and I wasn't really excited also the way it was executed was pretty generic as well, HOWEWER the final final part (if you know what I mean) saved the entire thing, so overall it was a good experience.

I haven't played The Forgotten Sands and barely played that other game for a few minutes and I'm not really planning to...for me, the circle is complete, I need no more PoP games, no interquels, no prequels, interpresequels or other feces, just move on and close this awesome chapter of gaming history already. There's nothing left to tell of this story, but you can tell it again and again, as much as you like (replay the games).

With that said:
1. SoT; 2. T2T; 3. WW

[Re@l1ty_emulat0r]

Absolutely agree,WW is the best

[Dusk of Oolacile]

Google Prince of Persia: Kindred Blades. There are also a trailers and gameplay videos. That's what the game was originally meant to be. The development was cancelled because of the Sands of Time crybabies and it was turned into this game. It IS an alpha version, rushed out in the last minute instead of Kindred Blandes.

[BallZack]

My order is the order they cam out in.

Sands of Time
Warrior Within
The Two Thrones.

I still remember the frustrations i had back in 2003 when i was a young lad.

[Shrykull]

Warrior within was easily the best game in the series. I loved all3 of the main series games, Two thrones was fun but yes it felt incomplete compared to warrior within. I don't understand why people didn't like the darker sided prince from warrior within, I think he was understandably Pissed off considering his surroundings I thought it felt natural. In the first game before you get the dagger of time, so pretty much in the beginning if you take your time and drop down to areas where you can you will find a series of pictures. these pictures seem to predict the events of the games. The first picture shows a blue demon with im guessing an angel like women holding a glowing child. A second picture appears to depict a red demon standing victorious over a slain and dead blue demon. The third picture depicts a woman in blue bowing in front of the red demon and the red demon eating people from a tree. The fourth picture depicts a blue demon striking down the red demon with lightening or magic. The fifth picture shows the blue demon absorbing sands into an hour glass from the bisected corpse of the red demon. Than a bit farther down the same area as the other pictures a sixth picture depicts a four armed blue god/godess tongue sticking out, hourglass in two hands raised above its head, a sword in one hand and the blue demons head in the other. It may mean something completely different but maybe the four armed creature is the Dahaka the guardian of time and the blue demon is the prince.

[BallZack]

Originally posted by Shrykull:

Warrior within was easily the best game in the series. I loved all3 of the main series games, Two thrones was fun but yes it felt incomplete compared to warrior within. I don't understand why people didn't like the darker sided prince from warrior within, I think he was understandably Pissed off considering his surroundings I thought it felt natural. In the first game before you get the dagger of time, so pretty much in the beginning if you take your time and drop down to areas where you can you will find a series of pictures. these pictures seem to predict the events of the games. The first picture shows a blue demon with im guessing an angel like women holding a glowing child. A second picture appears to depict a red demon standing victorious over a slain and dead blue demon. The third picture depicts a woman in blue bowing in front of the red demon and the red demon eating people from a tree. The fourth picture depicts a blue demon striking down the red demon with lightening or magic. The fifth picture shows the blue demon absorbing sands into an hour glass from the bisected corpse of the red demon. Than a bit farther down the same area as the other pictures a sixth picture depicts a four armed blue god/godess tongue sticking out, hourglass in two hands raised above its head, a sword in one hand and the blue demons head in the other. It may mean something completely different but maybe the four armed creature is the Dahaka the guardian of time and the blue demon is the prince.

Warrior Withins combat was amazing i must say. Hated the Voice Actor. Sands of Time however remains my favourite.

The pictures Do reference what happens in the timeline however. The demons were not references to the Dahaka or the Prince, they might have been refrences to the Maharjas (Spelling, i know) capture of the Sands of Time and the death of Kileena. (Again, spelling)

I'm too tired to English right now.

[BallZack]

Originally posted by Shrykull:

Warrior within was easily the best game in the series. I loved all3 of the main series games, Two thrones was fun but yes it felt incomplete compared to warrior within. I don't understand why people didn't like the darker sided prince from warrior within, I think he was understandably Pissed off considering his surroundings I thought it felt natural. In the first game before you get the dagger of time, so pretty much in the beginning if you take your time and drop down to areas where you can you will find a series of pictures. these pictures seem to predict the events of the games. The first picture shows a blue demon with im guessing an angel like women holding a glowing child. A second picture appears to depict a red demon standing victorious over a slain and dead blue demon. The third picture depicts a woman in blue bowing in front of the red demon and the red demon eating people from a tree. The fourth picture depicts a blue demon striking down the red demon with lightening or magic. The fifth picture shows the blue demon absorbing sands into an hour glass from the bisected corpse of the red demon. Than a bit farther down the same area as the other pictures a sixth picture depicts a four armed blue god/godess tongue sticking out, hourglass in two hands raised above its head, a sword in one hand and the blue demons head in the other. It may mean something completely different but maybe the four armed creature is the Dahaka the guardian of time and the blue demon is the prince.

Just realised, the images represent the Story that the Forgotten Sands follows. Ratash disliking and waging war on King Soloman, and the other demons were the Djinn.

[Shrykull]

Originally posted by BerSerKer:

Originally posted by Shrykull:

Warrior within was easily the best game in the series. I loved all3 of the main series games, Two thrones was fun but yes it felt incomplete compared to warrior within. I don't understand why people didn't like the darker sided prince from warrior within, I think he was understandably Pissed off considering his surroundings I thought it felt natural. In the first game before you get the dagger of time, so pretty much in the beginning if you take your time and drop down to areas where you can you will find a series of pictures. these pictures seem to predict the events of the games. The first picture shows a blue demon with im guessing an angel like women holding a glowing child. A second picture appears to depict a red demon standing victorious over a slain and dead blue demon. The third picture depicts a woman in blue bowing in front of the red demon and the red demon eating people from a tree. The fourth picture depicts a blue demon striking down the red demon with lightening or magic. The fifth picture shows the blue demon absorbing sands into an hour glass from the bisected corpse of the red demon. Than a bit farther down the same area as the other pictures a sixth picture depicts a four armed blue god/godess tongue sticking out, hourglass in two hands raised above its head, a sword in one hand and the blue demons head in the other. It may mean something completely different but maybe the four armed creature is the Dahaka the guardian of time and the blue demon is the prince.

Just realised, the images represent the Story that the Forgotten Sands follows. Ratash disliking and waging war on King Soloman, and the other demons were the Djinn.

Forgotten Sands is the worst game in the series easily. Two thrones took enough cheese from God of War but they atleast stayed true to the combat but forgotten sands is some kind of sad deformed god of war Prince of Persia hybrid. Forgotten Sands makes me cry to think its a Prince of Persia game. Who ever took over ubisoft around the time uplay was made has ♥♥♥♥♥♥ everything up. They have ruined all of my favorite game series: Splintercell, Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed... Why Ubisoft? Why??

[BallZack]

Originally posted by Shrykull:

Originally posted by BerSerKer:

Just realised, the images represent the Story that the Forgotten Sands follows. Ratash disliking and waging war on King Soloman, and the other demons were the Djinn.

Forgotten Sands is the worst game in the series easily. Two thrones took enough cheese from God of War but they atleast stayed true to the combat but forgotten sands is some kind of sad deformed god of war Prince of Persia hybrid. Forgotten Sands makes me cry to think its a Prince of Persia game. Who ever took over ubisoft around the time uplay was made has ♥♥♥♥♥♥ everything up. They have ruined all of my favorite game series: Splintercell, Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed... Why Ubisoft? Why??

Ghosts of the Past was the worst reboot of the PoP Franchise.

[A1]

Sands of Time was not only the best PoP game but one of the best games ever made.

Warrior Within had some welcome gameplay improvments especially in combat, but was a major step backwards in terms of story, mood, design, graphics, soundtrack, voice acting, glitches.

Two Thrones again had some very welcome gameplay improvements, wished there were more chariot riding levels, the dark prince was genius especially the chain whip (which I am hoping any new Castelvania game will mimic), the stealth aspcts were great. It still had problems in terms of design, graphics (Farrah looked really bad) and some soundtrack. It was a slight improvement over Warrior Within but not as good as Sands of Time.

All in all I think Ubisoft really messed up. Rather than keep what was great about Sands of Time and improve in areas like combat + variety in gameplay, they flushed everything that was good down the toilet.

Also I think Two Thrones marked the era in gaming where you hit one button during a quicktime event then your character starts doing really cool stuff which to me is lazy programming, I don't want to hit one button and sit back and watch I want to be in control, it's a game after all and not a movie.

[Xerazal]

I personally feel the same way. SoT was unique for its story-like and simple gameplay. Warrior Within improved on everything IMHO though i do feel like it did suffer a bit from glitches, a slightly confusing story, and a story framework that felt more akin to typical games than SoT. I feel like if they had told the story similar to SoT where everything was a flashback up until the prince fought with kaileena/the dahaka, it would have been much better off though I can see how this could feel like they were falling on old tricks to keep it similar to the first. I will say though that I prefer the combat, darker atmosphere, and I didn't mind the prince being so angry and moody. 7 years of being on the run and never knowing when that thing is gonna pop out and try to kill you would do that to any man.

But back to the topic at hand, yea I feel the same way about TT. They wanted to take the best of both worlds and put them into this game, but in the end i feel like they fell way short. when you save and kaileena says "should i start the story from here next time" was so poorly done as it isn't a part of the story like it was in SoT, so it was pointless. the environments felt bland, which is due to the fact that the city is supposed to be under seige yet there never seems to be anything going on. It made sense in SoT and WW that the places you were at were barren. in SoT the whole castle had been plagued with the sands, so anything living was a sand creature. in WW you were on a remote island that was abandoned in the present, and locked up tight in the past. in TT, it didn't make sense that the landscapes were as barren as they were since you're in a city under attack. Only a few times do you ever really see stuff going on. I blame the technology at the time, as i doubt they'd have been able to make the game run well on all platforms at the time if they had more enemies on screen and more dynamic events at the same time. but overall yea, TT is my least favorite in the series. WW and SoT are neck and neck, with SoT inching ahead only because it started the trilogy and was a breath of fresh air to play at the time.

[dathip]

Good list their mate. I thought the Sands of time was the WORST of the series because of

A) The redundant process of kill enemies by absorbing them through the dagger to take their sand
B) Movement seems much slower
C) The game was too short- beat it in like 5 hours even on first try- no joke.
D) Lackluster soundtrack
E) Lack of Variety of enemies

[Allard]

I'm inclined to agree, The Two Thrones is the weakest one in the Sands of Time trilogy. SoT has its weaknesses like the whole combat aspect, but the characters and story are charming and I'm willing to cut it some slack since it was the first and they didn't refine the stuff just yet. They did refine all the stuff in Warrior Within and regardless of how you feel about the story, art and music direction, (I don't mind them) the gameplay has been genuinely improved with the combat system which at times feels like a precursor to Arkham's freeflow and better platforming. The Two Thrones however disappoints from the beginning. From starters, the game is uglier than the previous one. And it's not limited to just gameplay, Prince and Kaileena look much worse in CGI cutscenes than they did in Warrior WIthin. The combat is more slow and animations feel more wooden. As a whole the combat is a step back - I almost groaned when I learnt that the time-recalling device is the Dagger again, even though the Medallion was much better since it allowed Prince to carry, you know, SWORDS in both hands. And the idiot doesn't even take the Dagger as the off-hand weapon, no, now it's his main weapon. I guess it was to tie in with the new stealth gimmick, which feels forced after the battles in Warrior Within. The whole Dagger thing feels like pandering to the SoT fans and that's because it is, as is the Prince being far more lighter compared to his self in Warrior Within than believable. Yeah, I can buy the Prince turning a bit wacko in WW, because he spent seven years running away from a monster, that can traumatize you, but I don't buy that he healed back by boning Kaileena for a month. Speaking of the mighty Kaileena, who was a formidable swordfighter AND had some magic chotchkis, including, you know, THE ABILITY TO TELEPORT - oh, she's now a damsel in distress that gets murdered so we could rehash the whole Sands of Time and Evil Vizier thing. The Dark Prince feels like a rehash of Sandwraith Prince from the second game and his chains don't control very well (I guess I got spoiled by chain weapons from God of War, those control far better). This rehashed story, rehashed gameplay mechanics and so-so graphics lead me to believe, that the game was created on a pretty tight budget.

[Coins]

WW was a buggy edgy mess imo.