History VideoGame / PrinceOfPersia2008

* NotSoDifferent:

** Played more straight with the Mourning King and the Prince. [[spoiler: In the end, he does ''the exact same thing'' the Mourning King did - free Ahriman to save Elika.]]

There has been no word on a true sequel to the game or any continuation of the franchise with Ubisoft mostly focusing on ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'', and more additions to the ''VideoGame/FarCry'' series, with Ubisoft Montreal's CEO saying that the franchise was being "paused".[[note]]Altough Ubisoft has said they are considering next-gen entries into multiple franchises, including ''Prince of Persia''.[[/note]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** The Prince has quite a bit of this.
--->'''Prince:''' Oh, come on, I've helped old ladies home from the market.\\
'''Elika:''' If they had attractive daughters.\\
'''Prince:''' Yeah. I helped them, too.
** Another moment, when entering The Cauldron:
--->'''Elika:''' The Alchemist can bend the corruption, shape it.\\
'''Prince:''' I knew a potter like that once. Oh, the things she could do with her hands...
** Elika gets in on the act, too.
--->'''Elika:''' I'm beginning to worry about you and your donkey.

Players traverse many different environments using his acrobatic abilities to scale walls and even crawl on the ceilings. Throughout the journey, players combat various enemies as they attempt to cleanse the land of corruption. The game's storyline and setting borrowed several aspects from UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}, the world's oldest monotheistic religion.

[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Prince_of_Persia_2008_vg_Box_Art_5494.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:256:The wind is free, but the sand goes where it is blown.]]

* TakeMyHand: How Elika saves the Prince. Repeatedly. Additionally, if Elika attempts to jump to a ledge the Prince is hanging, she'll start to fall, but the Prince will spin around and grab her hand.
* ToBeContinued: This is the Achievement that pops up after [[spoiler:the Prince resurrects Elika and releases Ahriman]]. Turns out they've abandoned the new storyline in favor of a fourth installment to the "Sands of Time" storyline.

* {{Speedrun}}: There's an achievement ("Speed Demon") for finishing the game in under 12 hours.
** There are also achievements for running between the different fertile grounds in under a set amount of minutes.

* SceneryPorn: ''After'' the land is healed.

* ShoutOut: You can unlock the ''Sands Of Time'' Prince's outfit, as well as Altair's (from Franchise/AssassinsCreed) outfit. Similarly, Elika can be dressed as either Farah from the ''Sands of Time'' trilogy or as Jade from ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil''. You also get achievements for [[Film/{{Titanic 1997}} standing on the beam on the prow of an airship]], and [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed standing on a beam jutting out from a building that provides a spectacular view]].

** There are also loads of references to VideoGame/{{ICO}} and especially VideoGames/ShadowOfTheColossus ([[spoiler:the pedestal where the Prince places Elika's body on is a direct lift, as is the overall plot of making a pact with the devil to save the one you love]]).

** The game opens with The Prince calling for Farah (the name of the LoveInterest from the Sands of Times trilogy). Later when asked if Farah is his girlfriend, he reveals it to be the name of [[spoiler:his donkey]].

* NoFlowInCGI: Averted. There's always a slight wind blowing, and everyone's clothes react to it, even in different ways. The Prince's long scarf and bearskin cape billow dramatically, while Elika's blouse only moves a little.

* NotSoDifferent: Ahriman pulls this near the end.
-->Jailer...\\

* PointAndClickMap

* {{Deuteragonist}}: The Prince and Elika take turns swapping between that and being the protagonist. A lot of the time, the story is about Elika and her thoughts on the whole situation, but the focus sometimes shifts to the Prince and how [[CharacterDevelopment his relationship with Elika is changing him]].
* ProtagonistWithoutAPast: The Prince. He tells Elika as much when she starts questioning him. Hell, the game manual even backs him up on this one. If Elika's persistent enough (ie, if the player keeps hitting that Snark Button) he does reveal that when he was young both of his parents died for someone else's cause, leaving him with an uncle. He's been all over the world and met all kinds of people, but never got strongly attached to anyone. He robs graves and is always getting into trouble, and he's repeatedly gotten his hands on and subsequently lost a great deal of treasure. Where he comes from, rather than inheriting power, people get it by killing each other or [[BribingYourWayToVictory bribing their way into it]].

* EvilTowerOfOminousness: There are plenty of towers in the game, but only a few qualify for this. The Martyrs' Tower, which the Prince speculates is from the [[LampshadeHanging 'ominous and forbidding' school of architecture]], is where the Hunter strung up the corpses of those he caught. The Alchemist's lair is a hodgepodge affair held up by balloons with an observatory located at the very top.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Prince refers to both the war his parents died in and his fight against Ahriman as "someone else's war", in addition to expressing doubt that someone could fight for something other than themselves. [[spoiler:When Elika [[HeroicSacrifice gives up her life]] to re-seal Ahriman, the Prince releases Ahriman again to resurrect her]]. There are also several hints to [[spoiler:Elika's earlier death]], which is in itself ''more'' foreshadowing the above spoiler.
** Also:

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: [[spoiler:At one point, the Concubine creates a dozen Elika's, daring you to figure out which one is the real one. The answer is to leap off the side of the structure, revealing Elika because she saves you as usual.]]
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The Prince has quite a bit of this.
-->'''Prince:''' Oh, come on, I've helped old ladies home from the market.\\

-->'''Elika:''' The Alchemist can bend the corruption, shape it.\\

-->'''Elika:''' I'm beginning to worry about you and your donkey.

* GuideDangIt: Plenty. Finding all the Light Seeds, for one. If you want the "Precious Time" achievement, you have to hold ''completely still'' [[spoiler:after Elika dies]]. Do not touch any buttons, not even ones that don't make the Prince move. Hell, set down the controller, just to be safe.

** A third is the game never explaining that you can press the jump button while on vines to have the Prince speed up his climbing. This makes going over them much less arduous, as vines often slow the normally quick traversal down to a literal crawl without this move.
* HeadsUpDisplay: Averted. Aside from counting up your light seeds, there is no HUD whatsoever.

* KnightInSourArmor: Elika is a rare female example.

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: There are three sets each for the Prince and Elika: one a MythologyGag (the ''Sands of Time'' Prince and Farah), one a ShoutOut (to Franchise/AssassinsCreed and VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil, respectively), and the last a DevelopmentGag ("prototype" versions of the characters).

* AntiVillain: The Warrior.

* ArcWords: ''"If you would have your wish, '''then give me mine'''."''

* ContinuityReboot: This game is unconnected to the Sands of Time trilogy. Pity it was abandoned in order to return to that series.

* DeadpanSnarker: The Prince is constantly snarking in the cutscenes, and once you exhaust the optional conversations with Elika, the dialogue button basically becomes a snark button.

-->'''Prince:''' That's a nice blouse.\\

* DownerEnding: The Prince releases [[spoiler:Ahriman]] in order to revive Elika. The Prince calmly walks away as [[spoiler:Ahriman's darkness engulfs the land.]] ''Somewhat'' subverted in the [[{{DLC}} Epilogue]], where it's revealed that the Prince revived Elika because her power is the only thing that can defeat [[spoiler:Ahriman]] [[KilledOffForReal for good]]; if she'd stayed dead, it would have just been a waiting game until [[spoiler:Ahriman's]] seal broke and he took over the land without resistance. Then it's played straight again when Elika leaves the Prince high and dry to go look for her people, and it's implied that [[spoiler:Ahriman]] attacks him shortly after.

\\

* EscortMission: The developers went out of their way to avoid the EscortMission feel with Elika, with an explicit intent of changing the way player's look at AI-controlled allies. They succeeded.

* {{Protagonist}}[=/=]{{Deuteragonist}}: The Prince and Elika take turns being this. A lot of the time, the story is about Elika and her thoughts on the whole situation, but the focus sometimes shifts to the Prince and how [[CharacterDevelopment his relationship with Elika is changing him]].

* LeParkour: Probably the defining game of the genre. Taken to ridiculous extremes in this game, almost outing the Prince as a relative of SpiderMan. The game even includes a ''ceiling run'' move:

* WallCrawl: Along with ''ceiling crawl''. Assuming there are rings bolted along the wall/ceiling, he can run along them indefinitely. Even [[SpiderMan Spider-Man]] would be impressed.

* {{Expy}}: As a shoeless magician girl protected by a sword-wielding traveling companion protagonist, there's a fair bit of [[VideoGame/{{Ico}} Yorda]] in Elika.

The game is set in ancient Persia, with the eponymous Prince as the main character. He is accompanied by a woman named Elika, whom he met after a large sandstorm diverted him from his course and he ended up in a mysterious land. Players traverse many different environments using his acrobatic abilities to scale walls and even crawl on the ceilings. Throughout the journey, players combat various enemies as they attempt to cleanse the land of corruption. The game's storyline and setting borrowed several aspects from UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}, the world's oldest monotheistic religion.

The game is set in ancient Persia, with the eponymous Prince as the main character. He is accompanied by a woman named Elika, whom he met after a large sandstorm diverted him from his course and he ended up in a mysterious land. Players traverse many different environments using his acrobatic abilities to scale walls and even crawl on the ceilings. Throughout the journey, players combat various enemies as they attempt to cleanse the land of corruption. The game's storyline and setting borrowed several aspects from UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}, the worlds oldest monotheistic religion.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler:If you want to actually finish the game, you have to release Ahriman despite having spent the past god-knows-how-many hours ''sealing him away'']].

* ActionGirl: Elika.

* BadassPrincess: Elika.

The next chapter is a downloadable expansion simply titled ''Epilogue'', released on March 5, 2009, exclusively on consoles. A spin-off [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]] game, ''Prince of Persia: The Fallen King'' was released on Dec 2, 2008. Webcomic/PennyArcade made [[http://prince-of-persia.us.ubi.com/PA/html/index.php a thirty-page comic]] about the origin of the Hunter.

** The DS game ''The Fallen King'', which could be considered a sequel to both the main 2008 game and Epilogue, at least [[spoiler:leaves some hope for a happy ending. It has The Prince go after the king of the City of New Dawn in an attempt to summon Ormazd, and gains a temporary ally, Zal, the "good half" of the king, who ends up dying after killing his other half. The Prince's other new ally, the Ancestor, leaves a message of hope for the Prince, promising that, in time, an inner power would be revealed and new ally would be found.]]

The game is set in ancient Persia, with the eponymous Prince as the main character. He is accompanied by a woman named Elika, whom he met after a large sandstorm diverted him from his course and he ended up in a mysterious land. Players traverse many different environments using his acrobatic abilities to scale walls and even crawl on the ceilings. Throughout the journey, players combat various enemies as they attempt to cleanse the land of corruption. The game's storyline and setting borrowed several aspects from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism]], the worlds oldest monotheistic religion.

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:

* CutShort: The reboot had only one game and epilogue DLC, resolving nothing.

* NoEnding: The Epilogue just ''ends'' [[spoiler: with Elika abandoning the Prince]]. [[AbortedArc And there never be resolution, either.]]

* AbortedArc: The reboot had only one game and epilogue DLC, resolving nothing.