Archives for 2008

I know these are usually just left as is, but getting my mitts on a copy of this game is one of those feats that just made my day. I’ve been wanting this game since waaaaay back in 2002 or so when it was originally released. I passed on it when it first came out and since then it has been impossible to find anywhere.

Fast forward to last year. I was in one of the two rinky-dink video stores in my town and I happened upon a copy of R.A.D. on the shelf. I tried to convince the clerk to let me buy it, but no dice. It drove me nuts as I knew nobody else in town was going to rent it. I’ve gone into the store since and checked to make sure it was still around and thankfully it was. I was heading home from work today and popped into the store to see if they had Iron Man on blu-ray (nope) and there was my lonely R.A.D. on the shelf. The owner was in the store today and I put on my best hang-dog expression and asked if he’d be willing to part with it.

$15 later, I was walking out of the store with the game! And from what little I’ve played, it is a blast.

This is one of those games that, by not buying it and never being able to find it, turned me into the kind of near obsessive collector over the past several years. If I ever see a game with an interesting concept, I am almost loathe to pass it by because I don’t want a repeat of what happened with this game to happen again. It doesn’t help that you’ve got a company like Atlus that preys upon people like me, what with their awesome concept games and incredibly tiny print runs!

I’ve played a few of the previous Prince of Persia titles like The Warrior Within and the original version. The prince (for those of you who don’t know the main character of the series has never had a name except simply, the prince) was always alone and looked like a nomad who was in need of a bath but still looked cooler then cool.

This time around the prince has a companion in the form of Elika. She is able to help the prince fight, make it through the environments, and keep him alive. I think she’ll be taking the place of the dagger of time and help the player make it through the game and instead of stopping time and reversing it when you die with the dagger, she’ll be the one to save you with her magical powers.

One of the new abilities that the prince is getting in this next-gen version is called the “roof run” which allows the prince to run on the roof as he grabs a hold of rings hanging from the ceiling of a level. The developers even mention in one of their commentaries that he can go from a roof run to a vertical wall run. The new ability however really doesn’t make the game next-gen to me. Something that does and hopefully will make it seem much better then the previous installments is the newly revamped combat system. The new system was designed to be a cinematic experience. In the video that is linked they named Final Fantasy: Advent Children and Soul Calibur as inspirations for the combat system.

That’s encouraging to hear.

There are four main buttons that were described.

The Princes Sword button: which seems simple as the prince taking a swing at the monster with his sword. I’m hoping and assuming that the further the you take the combo the better the moves are and in turn the swordplay takes a more cinematic/skillful approach then just a simple swing.

The Elika button: you call in your backup and Elika takes a crack at the monster your fighting and if the videos I’ve seen are anything close to what she’ll be doing it seems that her attacks might be more flashy then the princes.

The Claw/Lift button: the prince uses his other hand to attack with his new claw. Which is also the attack to knock the opponent into the air. Hoping some cool stuff can come from this claw, who knows maybe it can power up and do some massive damage? Fingers are crossed….

The Acrobatic button: last and certainly not least, this button is the one that gets me thinking that the combat really will be a cinematic experience. Just imagine all of the combos that you can make with these four buttons. It would be a great system if they make a lot of button combination animations available.

I’m looking forward to see how everything they are trying to put in the game turns out. We’re probably still pretty far away from the game actually coming out but I for one am expecting it to be a solid game. That is if the game play length is more than 2 hours.

This is just a small amount of info about the game itself if your interested in hear more about the game check out the videos that are available at the main website.