14 DAY TRIAL // Prince of Persia is one of the most popular franchises of platform adventure games out there, entertaining players ever since the first game appeared in 1989. Since then, with the help of the French game developer and publisher Ubisoft, we've seen various reincarnations of the Middle Eastern Prince in quite a lot of titles.
Now, with the latest iteration, Prince of Persia, the team at Ubisoft wants to start over, with a completely new story and, more importantly, a new Prince. The changes don't stop here, as, because it is powered by the Assassin's Creed engine, the developers gave it a bold, new art style, which features cell shading and other various innovations, making the game stand out on its own.
But despite these new things, some critics have voiced their concerns that the developers copied two older games made before it, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. These critics cited the fact that in both games players had a female counterpart and the hand holding and saving mechanic was also derived from those two games. Similarities between the environment of Shadow of the Colossus and this new title have also been uncovered.
Now, Ben Mattes, the producer of the game, comes to address these concerns on his personal blog, stating that, although Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have been a huge inspiration for the team he has led, the similarities pointed out by critics and reporters are purely coincidental and it doesn't mean that the team borrowed ideas from the other two titles.
“SoTC was a big inspiration for us, but mostly with the intention of making the boss battles epic and emotional – something they succeeded in masterfully and that we only touched the surface of (in terms of emotional connection on the part of the player). Many of the similarities you pointed out are coincidental, but I certainly don't mind the comparison. We've always been very open about the huge influences that Ico, SoTC and Okami had on us during our development.”
Although no game producer would admit such a thing, the fact of the matter is that Prince of Persia is a great game, but it does have quite a lot of common elements with the other two titles. Hopefully, the team at Ubisoft will be more inspired with the next game in the franchise.