Prince of Persia: Rival Swords (Wii) > Reviews (3)

“Rival Swords” is the culmination of the “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” trilogy that started in 2003, caught the gaming world by storm and revitalized the platforming genre. It’s not as much a retelling of the final chapter, “Two Thrones” that originally appeared in “last-gen” consoles two years ago, but a direct port of it; only a couple motion-sensing controls, an array of traps and a few “behind-the-scenes” extras are thrown in to battle both the relentless passage of time and its own, cheaper, predecessors.

***The Story***

Influenced by “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights”, Jordan Mechner created a beautiful Ancient Persian world filled with mischievous villains and charming princesses in which the Prince would have his acrobatic adventures. Of course, that didn’t mean a terrible lot back in 1989 when the original game released, due to the extremely limited presentation abilities of the era; but for this trilogy, audiences were dazzled with the enchanting music and the atmospheric locales, from joyous marketplaces to bottomless wells and the Hanging Gardens. We were able to better appreciate a more intricate story, involving power, time, choices and responsibility.

In the first Chapter, the callous Prince is manipulated by an evil Vizier into using his latest spoil of war, the Dagger of Time to unleash the Sands of Time. This proves to be the first step in the Vizier’s plan to become an immortal god, as the Sands transform anyone that doesn’t possess a magical artifact into dreadful sand monsters. Thanks to the Dagger, The Prince is not only protected but also attains some control over time itself, something that, combined with his athletic prowess, allows him to confront the Vizier, great-rewind time to before his monumentally foolish action and dispatch the Vizier as he is about to set his wicked machinations in motion.

We find out in “Warrior Within”, that such tampering with timelines does not go unnoticed and a creature called the Dahaka seeks to return order to the flow by finding the Prince; and killing him. We are also reminded that naming things isn’t the game’s strong point, as the Prince travels to the Island of Time to meet the Empress of Time and change his fate (in time). Seven long years of running for his life and reliving moments over and over again throughout the past and present corners of the world have all but broken the Prince’s psyche, but the battle-worn man eventually succeeds in escaping the Dahaka and even earns a new companion: the Empress of Time herself.

This brings us to the current chapter: Two Thrones/Rival Swords. The Empress can’t quite believe how they both escaped their fates but the Prince reassures her: she is safe with him now and nothing could possibly go wrong in Babylon. On cue, they reach a wrecked Babylon, engulfed in flames, invaded by the Vizier’s army. It seems the Prince’s escapades in the Island of Time annulled all of his Dagger-related actions, which meant the Vizier was alive and well, free to go about his immoral, immortality-seeking ways.

With the Empress of Time delivered right to his lap, the Vizier’s dream comes to fruition. He ritually kills her with the Dagger of Time, turning himself into an immortal god and everyone around into ye olde sand monster, this time including the daggerless Prince. Thankfully, the hero manages to snatch his trusty Dagger just in time to prevent the completion of the transformation, yet the monstrous effect lingers on and attaches itself to the wicked part of his tormented personality, in a quite schizophrenic manner. The Dark Prince, a being of strength as enormous as its hunger for Sands and violence, surfaces whenever the going gets hard and has an ever-growing desire to not let the “regular” Prince return as the dominant personality. In his quest to kill an immortal god and reclaim his kingdom, the Prince will reunite with old friends and battle foes thought vanquished, get an ultimate lesson on action and reaction, finally face his responsibilities and suppress his dark persona once and for all… or, perhaps, embrace it!

Although it doesn’t have quite the twists of the previous storylines and obviously requires some background info in order to be fully enjoyable, the story of Rival Swords feels like the third act of an action movie, which is pretty appropriate. Most of the groundwork has been laid, the exposition has been done and all that remains is the final escalation towards the climatic showdown. Although Sands of Time had a more complete feeling and Warrior Within more shocks than the other two combined, when I’ve reached the final moment of the decisive clash there was only one word going through my mind and that word was “awesome”.

***The Presentation***

Rival Swords starts with an expertly done cinematic that quickly establishes the plot and premises. This led to quite a “culture shock” for me when the actual game started and I was given control of the Prince. Modern titles can very nearly achieve the spectacular graphics previously only seen in cinematics during actual gameplay, but Rival Swords, a port of a two year old game which was based on a graphics engine from 2003, isn’t anywhere near that standard. They aren’t bad, as they nearly reach the limit of what that technology was capable of, but they are tellingly “last-gen”.

Low definition textures, a few off the mark context sensitive actions, hair-clipping, they are all little nuances that are easy to get used to and really don’t detract all that much from the experience. I just quite unreasonably believed that inserting Prince of Persia in a new generation console would magically make the graphics resemble more the cinematic than the actual game I’ve played two years ago. Even so, looking back at the gigantic chasms you’ve leapt over, viewing powerful waterfalls as you hang on to resonating poles tens of yards above the ground, was a big part of the Prince of Persia experience and it all seems a little less real now than it used to.

The music has returned from the pretty weird metal riffs present in “Warrior Within” to the more Arabic influences of “Sands of Time” and the soundtrack is all the better because of it.

The voice acting is equally solid throughout and lacking the annoying bits that were present in the second chapter, yet there were a couple of instances were the sound failed to be heard over a cutscene and a portion of the game when your inner voice was speaking well out of place.

Perhaps the most successful part of the presentation is how well it ties all of this to the actual gameplay. A lot of the exposition, most of the interesting dialogue and a measure of the impromptu sightseeing happens while you have control of the Prince, whether you are dispatching foes or performing audacious leaps of faith.

The PEGI rating feels a few years harsher, at 16+. There is some disturbing imagery in a couple of the cutscenes, but things look relatively tame when you have the controls. There are some finishing moves that look painful, but you never really fight anything resembling human.

In all, Two Thrones/Rival Swords was excellently presented when it first appeared two years ago, but, today, the illusion is a tad easier to break.

***The Gameplay***

Prince of Persia’s gameplay and the pace it sets is universally considered as its strongest point. The action rotates from simple jumps and cakewalk fights while plot elements are established, to gigantic encounters and rooms that require incredible displays of acrobatic ability, keeping itself fresh during the whole adventure, which lasts about a dozen of hours.

More often than not, the Prince finds himself a great distance away from the object of his desire, without any conventional paths to it being available. He’ll have to improvise and use his mind-boggling agility to make his way: wall-running, pole-swinging, trap-dodging, the Prince’s feats seem so stunning yet so realistic they have to be seen to be believed.

As such, most of the game’s areas can be seen as big puzzles, where you’ll have to figure out from which wall you’ll have to leap to which pillar. Knowing is only half the battle however, as, with walls crumbling and traps springing on a steady basis, actually carrying out those actions will test your reflexes and timing.

Puzzles get progressively harder and handy tips are provided every time you need to use a new ability, which is great for beginners, but a kind of backwards step for players that have finished the previous titles. The difficulty curve “resets” after each game, making it easier for newcomers to jump aboard the franchise, but harder for the veterans to feel challenged. The Prince increases in ability over the years and can perform even more extravagant tasks, but doesn’t really require much more from the player than the previous iteration.

The sense of haste in the third act that is the Rival Swords prohibits taking too much time with things; something more apparent when transforming into the Dark Prince whose health constantly depletes unless he consumes Sands of Time. This forces you to move quickly in search for more Sands, which can be found in fallen enemies and broken items.

The Sands also provide fuel for the Dagger of Time, allowing some nifty time manipulation.

Holding the Nunchuck C button allows you to rewind time up to 8 seconds back, which is very helpful if you miscalculated your jump or never saw that set of buzz-saws coming. Tapping C slows down time for the rest of the world, making it far easier to squeeze through mobile traps and giving you a great advantage in battle. There are also a couple of combat-specific special attacks, in an effort to end them quicker.

Even though they look pretty slick themselves, with a strong choreography and an involved combo system, the fights certainly take second place to the puzzles, simply because you could probably just flail the Wiimote and Nunchuck, with the occasional press of the guard button, and none would be the wiser. They can be very straight-forward, which led Two Thrones/Rival Swords to introduce the Speed Kill system, which basically allows you to do some more platforming in their stead.

If you manage to sneak behind an opponent, you can flick the Nunchuck to initiate the Speed Kill. You are then required to swing the Wii Remote at several opportune moments, depending on the strength of your foe, in order to complete it. If your effort is mistimed, the enemy will shake you off and normal combat will begin. The interesting part is that in order to get in position, you’ll usually need to perform some more feats of wonder. These can well be the most challenging of the game and are probably intended for the more seasoned players.

The handful of boss fights that exist also implement this mechanic in their way, as you have to similarly initiate the attack and time your strokes in order to strike the mortal blows. It can be frustrating to pull off four hits precisely, miss the fifth and have to start over again, but most of the sequences aren’t that complex and it makes the victory all the more satisfying.

Wii controls don’t come close to revolutionizing the game, as most of the action is triggered with button presses. Swinging the Wii Remote controls the Dagger, while the Nunchuck similarly controls the off-hand weapon. Again, these aren’t reflective controls, with your weapons not moving exactly as you move your hands; they are more inserted in a play-along fashion. This probably proves more exciting to younger gamers, but thrusting the Dagger inside wall-cracks and grappling poles with the Dark Prince’s Daggertail is quite enjoyable and makes the experience more immersive.

Prince of Persia does a great job of allowing you to move around the game-world with such flair, yet never letting you get stuck in a place without a way out; even if that means relatively short falls can sometimes result in “death”. There has always been a question, of course, as to how enflamed storehouses and fragile tunnels always manage to wreck themselves to leave exactly one acrobatic exit for the Prince and things have gotten even more ridiculous with the addition of “plant dagger bases” and “diagonal jump signs”. Then again, if *I* was the most athletic prince Persia ever had, I’d certainly have my palace, if not my whole kingdom built in order to make the most of my abilities.

***The Other Versions***

Rival Swords appeared in multiple platforms two years ago with the less impressively but more sensibly titled “Two Thrones”. Even though this has become my favourite version of the game, it’s by a very small margin, certainly not reflective of the time that has passed since.

It has not changed in any meaningful way, which effectively plummets its value for money, especially considering that “Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition”, which heavily enhances the GameCube version from two years prior and plays quite differently from the year-old PS2 one, retails at a reduced price

***OVERALL***

Most Prince of Persia games are classics: even if their graphics falter and some features feel outdated with the passage of time, their sheer quality will always keep them very enjoyable. If you are a fan of platforms you should definitely give the franchise a check, but common sense dictates that you keep away from this particular title. Even if the Wii is your only console, you can find Two Thrones and a memory card on sale for the GameCube *and* a Wii Classic Controller for about as much as Rival Swords’ 30 to 35 pounds, an inarguably wiser move.