Patryn: "arabiannightsy".
See, and this is the core problem we are facing here,mate, again and again until everyone will confront himself about their own world view.
I have been once reading a review of a really....screwed up girl who said that Warrior Within is an abomination because it doesn't follow the "orientalistic view of western gamers" which is pretty much romantic medival Arabia with some Indian and lesser Persian elements.
As twisted as she is, she got one point. Why the hell so many people disliked WW was because this game took the brave step to go away from the dreamy Arabia to a darker ancient Persia. People want to see Aladin, not Cyrus.
It is interesting that a prejiduce view really determinates your gameplay fun. Because:
Warrior Within is the closest game to a Persian theme of the whole POP-series.
You think old Persian mythology was nice and all fluffy added with candy but it was not. It is a dark battlefield between good and evil, where the blade is the only answer for glory and survival and evil haunts you everywhere. Pretty much LotR without the gay Elves and Goblins. If you read the Shahname by Firdausi you'd pretty much get how nasty the Persian mythology can be.
The developers must've taken alot inspiration from the Avesta (Zoroastrian bible) and the Zurvanian religion of Sassanid times when they worked on WW.
All the weapons you can collect in the game are possessing names directly from the Avesta (they even added some own made background story of each weapon, I can search it for you) which in context got some ironical undertone.
The Dahaka's name is coming from the Avesta aswel, but the guardian of the timeline got it's interpretation from the Zurvanian world view.
That everything within the timeline is pure chaos and arbitrariness und how futile it is to try to manipulte it.
I must say the Dahaka got also some old Greek elements about the determniating power of fate but it does play a lesser role since WW plays in an ancient era of Persia(unlike SoT).
Also, the Persian world suffers under a melancholic vanitas theme. If you travel to the past you see beatuful architecture and a mysterious yet aluring environment. But in the past everything is abonded, fallen apart, and forgotten. Just like the old glory Persia once carried before the arabs and turks destroyed everything in order to supress the population at their whim. Maybe to much reading into it, but the sand stays while everything vanishes.
Yes, the script was bad, yes Farrah was missing, and yes the metal thong was unneccessary(but hawt) and yes this game is glitchy as hell (that's why I want it on GoG, so it will be debugged) yet you have to reconsider the dynamic of the storyline with it's well placed twists. And don't forget the Prince. He is a tragic Firdausian hero, one even said he is a figure Shakespeare would've invented.
Nah, nevermind me, I am just a biased fan with a really off the head interpretation of WW.
Now about the similarity of SatF:
1.It plays on an abonded island which is pretty much dead(duuurrrrr)
2. Dark temples and dungeons
3.The inhabitans are wearing masks
4.The Prince himself dies and resurrects himself with the help of an irrational power
5. Both Princes were Outcasts(lol)
6. Both changed their fates
7. Some chick who wore some dress similar to Kaileena
Personally I think Ubisoft couldn't have come up with an original sequel so they just looked back at the Mechner classic added with the critics that the gameplay in SoT was to repetitive.
I think it turned out pretty well. The gameplay got alot better, the plattforming harder, and the combat alot more dynamic. But the choose of writers was poor. Ubisoft stated on their homepage that they hired high talented Hollywood writers for the WW-script.
If the script in WW is so bad you cannot wonder why Hollywood is full of fail. I'd have asked someone who was into dark stories like John August or even Michael Ancel (Beyond Good and Evil).
And that's why I want it on GoG. Not because of OMGSOFUCKINGEDGY AND CRAWWWWLING IN MY SKIIIIIIINNNNN111
One for the gameplay, second for the story, third for getting rid of the bugs and forth as a symbolic meaning for a successful expirement from Ubisoft's side worthy of a GoG.
That a franchise can change it's theme and still be a good game only by doing it right.
Personally I think WW would have got less hate if Ubisoft followed the original finale on T2T before scrapping everything and redesign it in less than 2 months to pretend that this is intended. SoT would've been gone, yes, but better than having future shit like The Forgotten Sands. Meh, fuck it.
