Along for the ride is a barefoot girl named Elika, whom Ubisoft promises will be much more integral to the story than the previous PoP sidekick, a bow-wielding Indian princess named Farah who only really came into play when the story called for it. Elika, by contrast, will be with the Prince constantly, and can fend for herself to the point where she'll actually start trying to solve puzzles on her own. She'll also team up with the Prince for coordinated attacks, which you can see a bit of in this teaser trailer (which, for the record, we're told looks almost nothing like actual gameplay):

That video - which showcases a fight between the Prince, Elika and a creature known as the Hunter - also highlights Prince of Persia's new approach to fighting monsters. Instead of just throwing a bunch of weaksauce grunts your way, Prince of Persia will be built around duels with enemies that are just as powerful as you, if not more so. It might sound like just a collection of boss battles, but if you think about it, it's a little like the original PoP games, in which the environment was your chief enemy and combat was rare. Except that in this case, instead of fighting one sword-wielding guard at a time, you'll be facing off against a unique, hulking monster.

While we've only seen a few screenshots and the above trailer so far, Prince of Persia's promise of a radical departure from previous entries has us intrigued. We're a little put off by mutterings about the new Prince being a "darker" character (we already saw how that went down in Warrior Within, thanks), but the shift to a giant, seamless fantasy world could open up limitless possibilities for acrobatic creativity. We'll know for sure when we see it in action in the coming months.

May 29, 2008