#warrior within

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

“King of Blades”

I thought I’d never finish this one. I started it maybe 6 months ago, then a bunch of life stuff happened and I stopped drawing for a while until recently. A couple days ago, I saw that the Prince of Persia social media team had put out a call for fan art to celebrate the series’ 36th anniversary, so I thought, what better time to finish up this piece?

For this work, I took inspiration from playing cards and old-time “Wanted” posters. I also had loads of fun experimenting with textures.

I will be honest — the atmosphere of Warrior Within as a whole is not my thing. I did enjoy the gameplay, but the story, characters, and overall tone prevented the game from becoming one of my favourites. To give the game some credit, it is one of only two PoP games that can keep me hooked for hours at a time (the other being Lost Crown). That’s an honour that even my actual favourite PoP games (2008 and Sands of Time) do not share.

For me, WW is the gaming equivalent of a deep-fried Oreo — tasty, momentarily satisfying, but ultimately lacking in substance. Unlike 2008 and SoT, WW does not give me much of a reason to continue thinking about the game after I’ve switched it off. This is in no small part thanks to the drastic tone shift from its predecessor, the one-note characters (how on earth does everyone manage to have the exact same unlikeable personality?), and the story that was completely lacking in emotional weight.

But hey, I guess liked the Sand Wraith — I liked it enough to draw this piece, in fact.

"When a man is faced with his own death, he finds the impossible less of a barrier."

Prince of Persia - Valentine's Day art. Prince's archetype seems to be forever imprinted in my heart and soul. ... coz no one could replace this guy in my geeky heart <3 ...

I just came up with this theory that you basically played as Dark Prince in WW before he was manifested by the Sands in the following game. I have my reasons...

There was a light sword in WW and another in T2T, leading me to believe that the sword was reintroduced in T2T. However, the sword was cursed during WW, meaning that the Prince suffered every blow his enemy took. But if the light sword can only kill sand monsters throughout T2T and Prince also pays with his strength to wield the sword, that leads me to believe the Prince was somewhat of a sand creature. Moreover, the Dark Prince was rather the personality that led Prince through the island.

Thanks be to POPTutorials for revealing this info two months ago. There was an unlockable skin (among others) that was cut from the final game. The one displayed below features the Amulet of Time bloodily embedded into his torso.

Which reminds me of...

the Dark Prince from Kindred Blades, who also has the amulet embedded into his torso. The Dark Prince in Kindred Blades is described, in this E3 review of the demo captured above, as follows: "a corrupt version of the Prince. An evil, violent, and more sadistic alter ego..." Sounds just like the final Dark Prince we got in The Two Thrones.

3. The Dark Prince knew about the Prince's time on the Island. Throughout the game, DP verbally reminds him of his voyage there, usually mentioning Kaileena to spur Prince's memories. Therefore, DP must have experienced everything the "Prince" had experienced on the Island.