YMMV / Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

• Best Known for the Fanservice:
  • Shahdee is a minor character who gets dispatched not far into the game, yet thanks to her outfit and introduction sequence, many remember her like she was the focus of the game.
  • Kaileena upstages Shahdee in this department. She has a Sexy Backless Outfit, portrayed by Monica Bellucci, and even has a sex scene with the Prince in the game's true ending.
• Broken Base:
  • The funny thing is, pretty much every feature of the game that's considered by some fans to be a flaw will be held as working to its advantage by the other half. What some view as a more mature and complex story compared to the "childish" predecessor, others will see as a teenager's idea of "adult," throwing in out-of-character curses, an angsty and violent attitude, and a pointless character whose only purpose is to show some ass. Is the Persian-inspired heavy-metal music a bold and radical shift from the whimsical tone of Sands of Time? Or is it just a collection of loosely tied together heavy metal singles playing in the background regardless of whether there is any fighting going on? Those issues tend to cause some rather hot debates among fans of the series.
  • Even something as simple as one of the cut lines of dialogue is divisive. In the final trailer for the game, the Prince has a line where he says "I am the Prince of Persia... and the King of Blades!" Some players thought this was awesome and wish it stayed in the game. One of the game's developers revealed in 2012 that the line was cut because they thought it was "pretty lame."
• Contested Sequel: Due to making some gameplay refinements but also taking everything on a Darker and Edgier route, you'll find either fans of the first game who hate it with passion or others who think this is the best in the series.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The Spiked Beasts found in the Mechanical Tower. They have a charge attack that is not telegraphed at all and does significant damage and they explode on death.
  • The female enemies, they're mostly the same as any other enemy, except they cling on to your back and stab you, leaving you vulnerable and knocks you on the floor.
• Follow the Leader: The game secretly kickstarted dark sequels and spin-offs to lighthearted games such as Shadow the Hedgehog.
• Funny Moments:
  • As he watches his past self try and activate the clock tower, the Prince, as the Sand Wraith, confidently thinks to himself that there's plenty of time to get back to the throne room before everything goes wrong. Then a brute comes out of nowhere and tosses him through a wall and into a side chamber, rendering him unconscious long enough to negate that time advantage. The irony isn't lost on the Prince.
  • The joke weapons, which include Rayman's glove, a hockey stick, and a flamingo statue.
• Game-Breaker: Eye of the Storm makes combat encounters a breeze. It makes enemies sitting ducks as they're too slow to land a hit on you and they're incapable of blocking your attacks while the power is active but what makes it a true Game-Breaker is that killed enemies drop sands, allowing you to use the power indefinitely if you play your cards right. Activate Eye of the Storm to easily pick off an enemy, take its sands to replenish the consumed sand tank, activate the power again, kill another enemy, repeat until all enemies are dead.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In Russia, this is by far the most well-remembered and beloved Prince of Persia game.
• Iconic Sequel Outfit: While the game itself is a Broken Base amongst fans, the Prince's outfit in this game remains his most iconic look and was reused in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and the film adaption.
• Memetic Mutation: "I smolder with generic rage"^Explanation Penny Arcade's mocking of the Darker and Edgier changes to the Prince's character in Warrior Within.
• Narm: Once Shahdee cuts the Prince's face, his response of "You bitch!" is easy to laugh off as Obligatory Swearing.
• Never Live It Down: Warrior Within is remembered as one of the most popular cases of video games having a Darker and Edgier turn compared to their previous installments, especially when the Prince's personality sees a drastic change. Within the fanbase however, some like this change, some do not. Even if the next game, The Two Thrones went back to the fairytale-like mood set by Sands of Time, comparisons to this game were still inevitable.
• Porting Disaster: A more downplayed example, as it stands, it's amazing how it looks and it plays on the PSP version called "Revelations". Honestly, it's a complete version of the game. However, the extra dungeons... are quite a pain, and a few players have bypassed them by glitching them, due the fact that they have poor collision detection. Quite a shame, because the Statue Chamber looks amazing.
• Rated M for Money: The most likely explanation for the overall Darker and Edgier stylistic shift after The Sands of Time.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The loading screen in PC version. It's a long, unskippable animation that you have to sit through every time even on modern machines where load times are instantaneous. Thankfully, this can by resolved by deleting the video files used by the screen.
• Signature Song: "I Stand Alone" by Godsmack.
• That One Attack: Shahdee's grab attack. It doesn't have any cues or telegraphs at all, which makes it unavoidable when it comes unless you're already holding the block button. Her kick attack in the second fight also counts since it cannot be blocked and sends the Prince flying, often into the bottomless pit surrounding the arena.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Unlike the game before it, Warrior Within is definitely not for kids due to graphic violence, sexuality and profanity.

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