Prince of Persia Warrior Within is an action adventure video game and sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Warrior Within was developed and published by Ubisoft, and released for GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It picks up where The Sands of Time left off, adding new features, specifically, options in combat. The Prince has the ability to wield two weapons at a time as well as the ability to steal his enemies’ weapons and throw them. The Prince’s repertoire of combat moves has been expanded into varying strings that allow players to attack enemies with more complexity than was possible in the previous game. Warrior Within has a darker tone than its predecessor adding in the ability for the Prince to dispatch his enemies with various gory finishing moves. In addition to the rewind, slow-down, and speed-up powers from Sands of Time, the Prince also has a new sand power: a circular “wave” of sand that knocks down all surrounding enemies as well as damaging them. The game was generally well received with the praise being directed towards the newly introduced combat system and the soundtrack.
Following Warrior Within, a second sequel and a prequel were made, expanding the Sands of Time story. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones was released on December 1, 2005 and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was released on May 18, 2010. A port of Warrior Within was done by Pipeworks Software, renamed as Prince of Persia: Revelations, and was released on December 6, 2005 for PlayStation Portable. The port includes additional content including new areas not available in the original release. On June 3, 2010, a port of Warrior Within developed by Gameloft was released for the iPhone. Due to problems with the in-game menu, the game was pulled from the App Store on the same day. It was re-released on June 18, 2010, with the fixed menu and improved tutorial. It has since been removed and is no longer available for download.
Plot
Seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Prince finds himself constantly haunted by a mysterious creature known as the Dahaka. The Prince seeks counsel from an old wise man who explains that whoever releases The Sands of Time must die. Because the Prince escaped his fate, it is the Dahaka’s mission as guardian of the Timeline to ensure that he dies as he was meant to. The old man also tells of the Island of Time, where the Empress of Time first created the Sands. The Prince sets sail for the Island in an attempt to prevent the Sands from ever being created, an act he believes will appease the Dahaka. After a battle at sea with an enemy force led by a mysterious woman in black capsizes the Prince’s ship, the Prince washes ashore unconsciously onto the Island of Time.
He later awakens and chases the woman in black through the Empress of Time’s fortress into a portal that transports the two into the past. The Prince saves a woman named Kaileena from being killed by the woman in black, who later happens to be known as Shahdee. Unable to grant the Prince an audience with the Empress of Time, who is busy preparing to create the Sands, Kaileena instead tells him how to unlock the door to the throne room in which the Empress resides. The Prince makes his way through the fortress, using the sand portals to travel back and forth between the past and present, and narrowly escapes several encounters with the Dahaka, who he discovers is unable to pass through water. The Prince activates the mechanisms in the two towers of the fortress: the Garden Tower and the Mechanical Tower, that serve as locks to the door. He returns to the throne room only to discover that Kaileena is actually the Empress of Time herself, who has foreseen in the Timeline that the Prince will kill her and who has decided to attempt to defy her fate, just as the Prince is doing. A battle ensues and the Prince proves victorious; he kills Kaileena and returns to the present.
He believes that he has changed his fate, but another encounter with the Dahaka forces him to realize that in killing Kaileena, he was, in essence, the one who created the Sands of Time, as the Sands were created from her remains and they flow into the hourglass. The Prince falls into despair, but then finds a glimmer of hope upon learning of a magical artifact called the Mask of the Wraith, which is said to transport the wearer into the past, also allowing the wearer to alter his own Timeline by safely coexisting with his other self. The Prince wastes no time in seeking out and donning the mask, which transforms him into the Sand Wraith, an entity that constantly ebbs away life, and sends him back to the point when he first arrived on the Island of Time. He formulates a plan to force Kaileena through a sand portal with him, transporting them both into the present, believing that if he kills her then, the Sands of Time will be created seven years after the events of The Sands of Time, meaning it will be impossible for the Prince to release them in Azad. While still in the past, the Prince (as the Sand Wraith) ensures that the Dahaka apprehends and destroys his other self, who has just finished unlocking the door to the throne room, leaving the Sand Wraith the only Prince in that Timeline. This act loosens the Mask of the Wraith’s grip from the Prince’s face, allowing him to remove it and return to his normal form. The Prince continues to the throne room and, despite his pleas to Kaileena, a battle with her begins as before. He forces her into the present with him, and it is at this point that the game has two alternate endings. Which ending is played depends on whether all life upgrades and a special primary weapon called the Water Sword were collected.[3]
- First ending, without the Water Sword
The Prince fights and kills Kaileena in the present, and the Dahaka arrives to claim her body as well as Farah’s amulet from the Prince, so that the Sands of Time and all relics pertaining to it are removed from the Timeline. The Prince sails home to Babylon alone, only to discover that the city is being ravaged by war. The old wise man’s voice is heard, once again stating: “Your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate. No man can.” Then the Prince speaks out in utter dismay, “What have I done?”
- Second ending, with the Water Sword
In the present, before the battle between The Prince and Kaileena begins, the Dahaka appears and tries to remove Kaileena from the timeline. The Prince moves to save her and realizes that the Water Sword can damage the seemingly invincible Dahaka. After fighting and defeating the beast, the Prince and Kaileena sail to the Prince’s home of Babylon together. During the journey, he apparently ends up making love to Kaileena where a dream enters in the mind of the Prince, appearing to be a burning Babylon, with a gold crown rolling to the feet of a mysterious, shadowy figure that ominously claims: “All that is yours, is rightfully mine…and mine it will be.” As in the first ending, the old wise man’s voice is heard stating: “Your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate. No man can.” This ending is canonical and directly continues the story in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.