Prince of Persia: Next Gen

So...I've obviously been on a huge Prince of Persia kick as of late and have been eagerly playing/reading/collecting videos and fanart on my favorite characters. Which kind of led to the realization of: "Oh yeah, there's a new PoP by Ubisoft coming out soon." This was helped along by Tony, who made me watch a few trailers and gameplay movies.

It looks amazing. So far game play looks like all the fun I'm already having except now you have a constant companion and the moves are tuned to be more flowing rather than having massive splatter death every five-to-ten minutes or so. It's cell-shaded to look like a painting. The voice acting is great (Kari Wahlgren is the female lead--I don't know who does the Prince but I like his rather blasé attitude) and the lines I've heard are funny. The combat is waaaaaaaaaay improved and more epic in feeling. The story is that you're helping Elika, some mysterious magical girl, restore the world that's been corrupted by evil influences back into the pretty happy nature we all know and love.

Cell-shaded to look like artwork? Restoring the wonders and splendors of nature? Constant companionship and fun combat and puzzles? Why does this sound eerily familiar?

Most people won't know this is ripping off Okami to some extent. I guess that's all right. To be fair, it only seems to be borrowing certain elements, and not enough to be blatently stealing Okami's thunder. Still, it does make me uneasy. As does the character of Elika.

Elika's there to aid you and even keeps you from dying. That's cool, but then it kind of makes the Prince useless. She helps you in combat and is really powerful. You have...a sword. Also a gauntlet. Woo-hoo? The gauntlet helps you in platforming in some really fun and interesting ways, but part of the fun of the Prince in the Sands of Time trilogy was that he was the powerhouse behind all of the neat platforming tricks and ruled the combat. I have lovingly nicknamed him "Monkey Boy" because of it. He also had the dagger to pull off super moves. This Prince seems like he'd be flat in comparison. Again, haven't played the game or really know much about the character, so who knows? Maybe I'm totally, totally wrong. I hope so.

I'm all for powerful female sidekicks. Really. It's just Elika seems too powerful. Where's the fun in that? Farah could hold her own for quite a while and set up one-hit kills for you (sure, it'd be nice if she managed to at least finish off one of the finicky-re-spawning bastards, but whatever). She could also hit you in battle and vice versa, but still it was kinda charming. This though...Elika's more of a device than a character. So far. Again. Haven't played, can't say for sure. These are just impressions.

Apparently you can't die, either. Not sure if that's a plus or will feel like the game is babying you. Also, the story is "non-linear". What's wrong with linear game play? I need that at times to tell me what's going on! Ah well, it does create a feeling of more freedom, which is cool.

So these are my impressions/rants. Agree/Disagree? Tell me why! Feel free to comment. ^_^