The Complete PRINCE OF PERSIA Timeline Explained!

the Prince of Persia franchise has a long and storied history which spans four different timelines and 11 games and that doesn't even include the four separate versions of the Forgotten Sands yeah it's a bit of a Minefield but it is a Sumptuous fantasy franchise with a deep well of engaging law from the mythical macguffins of the sands of time through to the Persian mythology Inspirations of the Lost Crown but does it all tie together well no not exactly instead we get a franchise that is constantly Reinventing itself tinkering within its own formula to give us something new and fresh each iteration as a result I have four separate timeline strands to break down from the origins of the series back in Jordan mechner's iconic 80s platformer all the way through to the Metro Vania like the Lost Crown via the time hopping antics of the sands of time quadrilogy of course hey my name's Adam and there is no better time than now to dive back into the law of the Prince of Persia so join me as I break down and explain the franchise's many timelines [Music] right let's start at the very beginning the 1989 original Prince of Persia which kickstarts the first continuity on this timeline as the game can be completed in less than an hour or 2 hours if you are playing on the snars there's not a whole lot of story to talk about in short an evil viser known as Jafar not to be confused with the other evil vazer known as Jafar puts the Sultan's daughter under a time sensitive spell where she has to decide whether to marry him or Die the Sultan's daughter has an hour to choose her fate handily visualized by this Nifty hourglass hey are those the sands of time wait I'm getting ahead of myself anyway her only hope comes in the form of her one true love otherwise known as the Prince of Persia who's currently slamming it in the vizier's [Music] dungeons the prince High tailes it across 12 12 levels of increasing complexity on route to the Sultan's daughter killing the vazer in the process and dying like a [Music] lot yeah the original princess Persia is a hard game give me a break and that's pretty much it for Prince of Persia you killed the vazer saved the girl and Walts off into a happy future as a successful franchise waiting for Ubisoft to come a sniffing anyway 11 days later and we reach the events of Prince of Persia the shadow in the flame which sees everything go to ruin for our poor Prince well things start off good at least with the prince and princess married in the wake of the princess heroics in the last game it all goes sideways from there though when the sultan is called away for another War they never can choose their moments the prince suddenly takes on the appearance of a beggar and is exiled from Persia meanwhile a doubleganger prince seizes power in Persia and puts the prince under another time sensitive spell this one's visualized by a tree slowly wilting with each Falling Leaf bringing the princess closer to death not to labor the point but you have exactly one guess as to who's behind all this Mischief yep Jafar who has somehow returned anyway that's pretty much it for your plot in the shadow and the flame as the rest of the game plays out as a greatest hits of the first game with the prince battling death traps and flying flaming skulls as he works his way back to his betrothed he gets there via flying carpet horse and um flying horse which eventually brings him back into the path of well himself after eliminating himself our Plucky young couple are reunited and following his ordeal the prince takes no Chances with jafar's ashes scattering them to the wind but wait who's that mysterious onlooker teased in the final shot of the game surely we'll find out the answer to this tantalizing teaser in the next game right well no not exactly the Prince's first Fay into 3D completely ignores that Cliffhanger and sees the new Weds venture to the Sultan's brother asan's Kingdom for a d RNR only the prince's uncle-in-law not sure that's even a thing has different ideas and throws the poor prince in a jail cell this marriage has been truly cursed for our poor Prince anyway Assan and the sultan have a little brotherly chat and Assan reminds his brother about their vow for their kids to marry which is a weird vow to make but whatever it would be most advantages for you to honor our agreement Assan threatens to kill the sultan if his son rugar doesn't Marry The Princess and we have the plot Catalyst for a new game just to add a little spice into the mix here rugor is half human half tiger which makes the brothers vow weirder still naturally the prince escapes his jail time and immediately makes his way back to the party he was rudely thrown out of at the beginning of the game instead he finds his father-in-law who implores him to divorce his daughter which isn't exactly the conversation you want to be having so soon after your wedding day Assan then makes a move to kill the prince but accidentally ends up killing his own brother and this absolute mess of a scenario ends with the sultan asking the prince to save his daughter from marrying a tiger said tiger rugor then kidnaps the princess forcing the prince into action naturally the princess doesn't want to change her marital status and so ragnor decides to kill her as that's the next best thing I guess the prince steps in just at the right moment kills ragnor in his own big bloody machine before saving the princess and flying off on a wind horse to a happier [Music] reboot okay this timeline's about to get funky with the first of three separate reboots the first being the sands of time continuity foret everything you knew about the prince this is an entirely new timeline Andor Dimension and as a result we're starting completely aresh the sence of time is set in the 9th century ad and sees the titular Prince narrating his epic tale to an unseen listener don't worry all will be revealed in time as a side note this narration offers up some unique commentary on the gameplay such as the prince's nassy comments on your performance wait that's not right I didn't fall let me start again anyway The Prince and his father are on route to visiting the Sultan of aad but attempted into attacking a walled city in India by a clearly evil Vier during The Siege the vazer surrenders to the invading Persians and reveals that there's a hidden treasure Vault located within the headstrong Prince pushes forward to cement his honor to his father and eventually comes across a mysterious artifact known as the dagger of time after some Nifty acrobatics he nabs the shiny blade and presents it to his father father I have brought us honor and Glory much to the ey of the Vier who was angling for himself anyway along with The Spoils of War which include a host of exotic animals some hostages and a great big bloody hourglass the Persians returned to aard and gift them all to the sultan the sultan clocks the giant hourglass because it's kind of an eye opener and the vizer reveals that it houses the fabled sands of time a sight no mortal man has ever seen and with that tantalizing tease he persuades the prince to unlock The Hourglass with his new dagger against the wishes of one of the onlooking hostages a woman named Farah who will come to be quite important across this branch of the timeline the prince stabs The Hourglass and the sands of time pour forth turning all insundry into hideous sand zombies the only people to survive the sandstorm are the vizer The Prince and Farah and so Begins the sands of time the prince escapes from the vizer and eventually teams up with Farah who seems to know more than she's letting on about The Hourglass and the Sands themselves the pair reluctantly agree to team up despite an obvious air of mistrust emanating between them as they Journey Through the nightmarish towers and tombs of aad their relationship starts to thw and the pair are eventually fall in love on route to The Hourglass only the prince still has his doubts about Farah as a result of the Visions he keeps seeing which show him Farah betraying him by stealing the dagger it's this doubt that stops the prince immediately fixing things when the pair get back to The Hourglass and in this moment of indecision he's ambushed by the vazer which forces them to escape once again after getting away from the Vier by the Skin of Their Teeth The Prince and Farah find themselves deep within the tombs of aad where Farah recounts a personal story about her childhood a story that will become important later on just wait why didn't you trust me the pair eventually escape the tombs and make their way to the bath houses where Farah seduces The Prince and the pair have a steamy night together the morning after is not so happy for the prince though as he awakes to find that Farah has actually stolen the dagger the prince chases after Farah and eventually catches up to her as she makes it back to the glass the pair are ambushed Again by a platoon of sand zombies and they both fall off the edge of the Tower and with the weight of both of them threatening to take them both down to the abyss Farah sacrifices herself so that the prince can survive the prince's mourning is interrupted by the treacherous vzer who once again makes a move for the dagger eternal life will be yours I choose death but the prince instead stabs the dagger deep into The Hourglass which immediately rewinds time right back back to the beginning I'm not entirely convinced he knew that was going to happen but hey desperate times and all that anyway we find ourselves right back at the beginning which basically means that all of the previous hasn't technically happened albeit the prince still has the dagger and crucially all of his memories to put a stop to the same fake coming to pass the prince sneaks into Farah's Chambers back in her W city in India and starts telling her his outlandish tale and this brings us full circle back to his narration as it's Farah that the prince is talking to during his commentary the vizer always won for an ambush makes an unwelcome entrance just as the prince is finishing up his story sick of his the prince straight up murders the viser in front of a bewildered Farah and then has the balls to kiss Farah a move that she rightly denies the prince then uses the dagger one last time to rewind Back to Before the kiss such a fantastic story and then he returns the blade to Farah but just before he leaves the prince regales Farah's personal story from her childhood which shocks Farah to her core as it basically gives Credence to the prince's story after all and with that the sands of time comes to a close right before we crash on into the emo Warrior within we've got a date with all four versions of the Forgotten Sands which slots into the timeline here in the 7-year gap between the sands of time and its sequel yep you heard me right a second ago there are four unique versions of the Forgotten Sands with each telling a different story the versions for consoles and PC are largely the same and pick up the action with the prince being dispatched to train with his brother Malik in the hopes that he will gain some much needed leadership skills only when he arrives at Malik's Fortress he discovers it is under siege from an invading Force who are seeking the fabled army of King Solomon and to make matters worse when he reunites with his brother the prince discovers that Malik is hellbent on unleashing the mythical Army to dispel their unwelcome guests as the prince has experience in dabbling with questionable Supernatural forces he advises against that plan but Malik ignor igns him and all hell naturally breaks loose in the chaos Malik and the prince both end up with half of the seal that was keeping the Army at Bay before they are separated the prince is whisked into a mystical realm lorded over by a queen Jinn called Razia who lays out the stakes for our hero it turns out that Solomon's Army is actually controlled by an evil gin called ratash whose hell bent on wiping out all of humanity Razia also reveals that the only way to defeat him is by reuniting the two halves of the seal which quickly becomes a tall order when the prince discovers that his brother is going a little power mad with all the Carnage if you care nothing for power let me reunite the seal Malik slowly becomes corrupted by the power of the seal while the prince is protected by his ties to Razia long story short Malik eventually confronts and kills rattes only for the Jinn to possess Malik and Destroy his half of the seal Razia drops the bad news on the prince telling him that in order to kill ratash he'll have to kill his brother as well you mean kill Malik I won't do that and she possesses the prince's sword ready to take the fight to her gin counterpart the prince eventually catches up to Malik ratash and successfully defeats the evil pairing and our young hero Mourns his brother as he dies in his arms and while this side story doesn't really go any way to filling the gap between the sands of time and Warrior within it at least gives us some context as to why the prince went through something of a personality change between the those two games right things don't end there of course remember there are four versions of this game Let's speed through the remaining Trio for starters the wi version runs with a completely different story that sees the prince team up with another gin to save a Magical Kingdom for a giant plant yeah it's quite the departure the PSP version on the other hand sees the prince hunt down a murderous Fire Spirit while the DS game sees an amnesiac Prince kidnapped by a cult who want to utilize the power of Raja for nefarious means again quite the departure from the main storyline anyway before we get into Warrior within it's time for Something Completely [Music] Different yeah we're venturing into the world of turn-based tactics with battles of Prince of Persia which ties into the widest storyline more than you might think whereas the Forgotten Sands was positioned as the glue between the Carefree Prince of the sands of time and the tortured Soul we see in Warrior within a lot of that connective tissue is actually found in battles of Prince of Persia which sees our young hero embroiled in a war between Persia India and the fictional nation of arasur in between all the turn-based fighting the prince is being hunted down by the Daka an ancient demon of sorts who is the literal manifestation of Fate you see the Daka is rightly pretty pissed off for all the timeline meddling that the prince has done in the sand of time and so he's after the prince for time Justice or something to that effect either way the Daka doesn't catch the prince or else there would be no Warrior within and the prince's involvement within the lengthy Wars at least gives us some more context as to why his character has matured somewhat by the event of the next game speaking of warrior within takes the franchise in a much darker Direction than the fairy tale fantasy of the sands of time and it story matches that tone as well the game kicks off right in the thick of things with the prince being chased by the Fate demon to hacker he's on the run for crimes against time and seeking a back door out he meets with a wise man who tells him about the existence of the island of time which is the supposed birthplace of the Sands fast forward to the prince on his merry way to the island a border ship which is suddenly attacked by a giant barge led by a scantily clad woman who will later learn is shardi a servant to the Empress of time long story short the prince's ship is destroyed and he luckily washes up on the shores of the island of time as the prince makes his way through the ruins of the island he encounters shardia once again and takes after her in Pursuit this eventually leads him through a portal which sends him back through time to when the island of time was in its Heyday in in the past he finds shardi fighting with another woman who turns out to be kylina who is eventually revealed to be the empress herself anyway The Prince intervenes and defeats shardi in combat before teaming up with a reluctant kylina to set about fixing his fate and getting the deaka off his scent the deaka has other ideas though and like a giant Smoky Nemesis he hunts the prince through the temples and ruins of the island of time he's not the only antagonist after the prince though as a mysterious sand also hounds our hero as he goes about his mission the sand wraith gets caught in the daka's war path and is killed don't forget this it'll come back around to being important shortly anyway the prince finally makes it to the center of the island of time and kylina attacks him in order to save her own bacon and keep the prince's fate in check the prince wins the battle however but finds that this has done nothing to stop the Daka and it's here that he learns that the death of the empress actually creates the sand of time as a result of his actions we're veering dangerously close to the realm of the paradoxical here but let's continue handly for this exact moment in the plot the prince discovers a means to change his fate via an artifact known as The Mask Of The Wraith and he formulates a bold plan that sounds crazy in theory and actually to be honest is pretty crazy in execution too he creates a time portal to bring the empress into the present which takes her and the Sands out of their current timeline thus negating their Discovery and removal to aad and of the events of the first game this sort of works but the mass turns the prince into the sand wraith we encountered earlier but the difference here is that we now have two princes knocking about in the present timeline one normal one sand flavored the sand prince managed to save his own skin by allowing his former self to be taken by the decka thus apparently sealing the loop on that little time misdemeanor The Mask it's loose either way our bold hero is Freed From The Wraith mask and he takes his place in the present timeline as Warrior within barrels towards its bomy conclusion the prince rewi Witnesses similar events from earlier in the game where shardi and kylina were fighting after shardi is defeated he then follows kylina to the throne room and tells her that it is possible to change their fate kylina still doesn't believe him however and the pair fight once again this time with the Daka back in the mix and here's where Warrior within's multiple endings come into play based on whether you found the water sword during your adventures through time you got one of two different endings firstly without the water sword the prince kills kyen as per his original plan which creates the sound in the present timeline and rewrites all the events from the first games that that they didn't happen at all the dehaka sucks up all the time energy and vanishes into thin air the prince then makes his way off the island and heads home to Babylon which he discovers is under attack by an invading Army who also happened to have his old flame Farah held hostage and secondly the canonical ending with the water sword where the prince is able to fight off the tahaka and save kylina and the pair escape the island of time aboard a makeshift boat crucially this ending also wipes away the event of the sands of time which I'll explain in just a second on their travels to Babylon the pair get close with one another before arriving at their destination which as per the first ending sees Babylon Up in Flames right we are finally at the climax of the sands of time quadrilogy and the Two Thrones really throws everything back into the mix the game kicks off almost immediately in the aftermath of warrior within with the prince and kylina arriving at Babylon only things are a little different now as a result of all of the princes meddling with the timelines for starters as the Sands were never discovered in the past by the vizir and the Maharaja from the first game the opening of that game has been Rewritten with the vizer now back alive but once a wrong one always a wrong and it's the vizer who's at the heart of babylon's current troubles as The Prince and kylina wash ashore kylina is carried off by the vizier's men and when the prince gives Chase he Witnesses Ken's death at the hands of the vazer who stabs her with the dagger of time and somehow re-releases the Sands all over again with the Sand's raking Havoc a lot happens in a short span of time firstly the vazer stabs himself with the dagger which supposedly makes him Immortal before throwing the dagger to one side meanwhile the prince with nothing to protect him is attacked by the Sands which coil a nasty looking metal whip into his skin seeing the dagger handily nearby the prince grabs it which gives him immunity to the Sands but not before he's been sufficiently infected by the time energy to the point that he now has something of a split personality what has the viser done to me yep say hello to the Dark Prince a narcissistic self-serving bastard of a character who plagues the prince as a little devil on his shoulder but also grants him some Wicked sweet new powers to boot with his Dark Side hidden in plain sight the prince struggles through the ruins of Babylon trying to put things right on his journey he comes back into the path of Farah who has absolutely no memory of him see previous mentions of past timeline meddling for reasons why the prince however is still well acquainted with her and surprises her with the fact that he knows her name and a lot more besides the pair strike up an entirely new relationship as they journey through Babylon but ever the pain in the neck somewhat literally to be honest the Dark Prince rears his ugly face to send Farah running for the hills at his terrible personality you're one of them no Farah this is not how it appears the prince attempts to suppresses in a demon but the damage is done despite that the pair finally reunite and the head after the evil vazir they walk straight into his trap however and the vzer captures Farah and throws our poor Prince down a deep dark well quite literally having hit rock bottom the prince once again resists The Temptations of his dark self but his resolve is weakened when he comes across the corpse of his father picking up his father's old sword the prince lets the Dark Prince back in as a means to put things right and the haphazard pairing set off to confront the vazer what is this and the Two Thrones comes to a head with the prince killing the vazir with the dagger of time which releases the Sands again thus saving Babylon the Sands then take the shape of Kina who tells the prince that his journey is finally over before she makes for pastures new only the prince's Journey isn't over as he's sucked into a mind battle with himself or the Dark Prince at least as he battles with his inner demon the prince struggles to overpower his dark gurges before finally being saved by the voice of Farah which helps him escape the jewel as he emerges from within his mind he sets about explaining just how he knows Farah which triggers a whole fresh retelling of the events of the sands of time and brings this chapter to a close come and I will tell you a tale like none you have ever [Music] heard right who's got two thumbs and is ready to start all over again this guy okay so the 2008 reboot of Prince of Persia starts the story completely aresh in a new timeline alog together for starters there's no guarantee that the prince of this game is even a real Prince but what this reboot does offer is a brand new world full of Rich law that dates back over a thousand years so let's start our story there in an ancient Persian State the world is split in a power struggle between the all powerful gods araman and Omar to keep things simple Aran is a bad lad and omaz is literally the God of Light omaz and his people win out and they imprison the evil araman and his minions in a giant sacred tree known as the Tree of Life to cool off for eternity only as eternity somewhat ironically comes to an end the power of oras and His People starts to wne and araman threatens to break three from his jail enter our Plucky Young Prince voiced by the very much non-persian Nola North at the peak of his powers oh no oh crap who's looking for his faithful donkey Farah who despite the name has absolutely no relevance to the plot of this game whatsoever instead of finding Fara the prince bumps into a woman named elica who's on the run from a pair of soldiers after helping her escape the prince follows elica to the giant tree jail that Lords over the local desert scenery where he quickly discovers all the bad going down things turn even further south when ela's deranged father the morning king turns up spewing nonsense about setting araman free a feat that he eventually succeeds in pulling off which sends a thick layer of corruption across the Persian lands until the rest of the game becomes a cleanup operation of sorts as The Prince and elica hotfooted around the map hoovering up light orbs and purifying the four key regions of the land thrown into the mix are boss battles with a quartet of aran's Chief lieutenants who are known as the hunter The Alchemist the warrior and the concubine respectively each of whom have dense Back stories that you can discover through your interactions with elica speaking of elica it turns out that she died just before you met her yep elica is technically an undead light Zombie Thing during the events of the game as it turns out that she was brought to the tree of life to be revived by araman by her father before the game kicked off which explains why she has all these fancy new light Powers anyway once the prince and elica purify the four key biomes they return to the Tree of Life where they encounter the morning King once again after they defeat him in battle he throws himself into aran's Pit and the the old God returns with avengeance In the Heat of the ensuing battle elica sacrifices herself to seal the evil bastard away for good leaving the prince to mourn his new partner however the prince has fallen head over heels for elica to the point where he can't accept her death so he doesn't he trapes his back through the four regions destroying the four fertile grounds as he goes and then he returns to the Tree of Life to make the same deal that El's father made before the beginning of the game there he destroys the tree itself and Returns the the light power that was sealing araman away back into ela's body which brings her back to life why and the game ends with the prince carrying ela's revived body across the desert as araman and his minions start to tear the kingdom apart only that's not actually the end as the story continues in a further DLC expansion simply titled the epilog here elica awakes from her deathly Slumber and is absolutely pissed at the prince for unleashing evil on the world just for the sake of their relationship okay so you're angry the prince argues in his own defense stating that at least they still have a chance of ridding the world of Iron Man once and for all and well we never find out whether they complete that mission as the epilogue ends on a rather downbeat note with elica leaving to go and find her people while the prince has to deal with the murderous araman [Music] Al however there is some closure to this bran of the Prince of Persia methos in the sequel Prince of Persia the Fallen King which came out on the DS on the same day as its conso Big Brother Here We join the prince on another adventure to a separate Kingdom where he's seeking to make amends for unleashing evil upon the Known World by summoning the like power of Omas instead he gets drawn into another fight against the corrupt forces of araman alongside a new ally called zal long story short this new pairing thwarts the corruption tearing through the kingdom but at the cost of Z's life but at least the game on a note of Hope for the prince as he chats with a mysterious character known as the ancestor who tells him that he will eventually find an inner power to conquer his demons and so all of this finally brings us to Prince of Persia the Lost Crown which reboots the franchise once again Within A Whole New World albeit with a Metroid Vania twist and if you are yet to play The Lost CR consider this your spoiler warning here we meet a brand new hero named s sgon who's part of a mythical Superhero Squad named The Immortals along with the rest of the Immortals Saron travels to mount karf which is plagued by bizarre time anomalies on route to rescuing the kidnapped son of the queen of Persia I.E the Prince of Persia said Prince Hassan has been kidnapped by a rogue member of the Immortals sargon's Mentor anahita before he's shockingly murdered by Varon the head of the Immortals who's got his eye on the throne yep I'm thinking thinking the Immortals aren't the all singing all dancing superhero group they claim to be anyway due to those AFF forementioned time anomalies Saron discovers a loophole to save Hassan from his Fate by entering into a Time bubble of sorts to save the Prince of Persia and to keep things vague so as to not overly spoil things the game's just come out as of the release of this video Sargon Ventures around the Labyrinth on Mount CF fighting monsters and waking up ancient constellations on route to a final showdown with Varon and his old teammates and that my friends is the Prince of Persia timeline or timelines I guess fully explained if you like these kinds of gaming timeline videos we've got plenty more on the channel right now including metroids Silent Hill and Zelda thanks a lot for watching guys I'll see you next time

Channel: GameSpot

Views: 152,395

Keywords: prince of persia, prince of persia the lost crown, prince of persia the lost crown gameplay, prince of persia timeline, prince of persia chronology, prince of persia timeline explained, prince of persia explained, prince of persia sands of time, sands of time, warrior within, the two thrones, the forgotten sands, prince of persia reboot, history of prince of persia, prince of persia history, prince of persia lore, ubisoft, ps5, xbox series x, nintendo switch

Id: IAN2CdVswWA

Length: 28min 16sec (1696 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2024