Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

The second game in a Continuity Reboot series of the Prince of Persia games, with one of the most amusing Darker and Edgier twists in history. The storybook "Arabian Nights" feel of the first game was replaced by sexual content (including several Stripperific female characters, graphic violence, language and heavy metal music by the band Godsmack. Followed by Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

Following the events of the previous game, the Prince is being hunted by an unstoppable beast, the Dahaka. The creature is apparently a guardian of the timeline and wants to ensure that the Prince dies like he was supposed to. In a desperate effort to avoid this fate, he travels to the island where the Sands of Time were originally created, hoping to find a way to avoid this whole mess.


 * Actionized Sequel: Warrior Within was taunted as having a more complex combat system than its predecessor, as is implied by its title.
 * Alternate Ending: If you get all the life upgrades, you are able to acquire the Water Sword, . In this case the basic story of the alternate ending is the canon for the next game, which Kaileena acknowledges in the opening narration.
 * As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The combo attacks are Oronte's Grudge, Ptolemaios' Anger, Wrath of Cyrus, Rage of Darius, Azad's Furious Retaliation, Zaroaster's Ire, Asha's Fury, Ahriman's Revenge and Mithra's Vengeance. This video's description looks up each name and concludes that sure, they're all ancient Persia-y, but "it is quite clear that only a few are actually suitable to name combat attacks after."
 * Autobots Rock Out: The title song is "Straight Out Of Line" by Godsmack and the combat music by Inon Zur is heavily stylized on Godsmack's typical sound. The music blaring when you're being pursued by the Dahaka is an instrumental version of I Stand Alone.
 * Bondage Is Bad Implied. Countless enemies, especially the Initiates (sometimes also called Executioners) the player encounters during the last quarter of the game, wear hardly anything but black leather straps.
 * Clipped-Wing Angel: In the Alternate Ending ,
 * Death's Hourglass Used subtly:
 * Dramatic Chase Opening: The Prince is running away from the Dahaka.
 * Dual World Gameplay: On the Island Of Time, it had to be explored in the past and present with decay changing pathways and accessibility and the characters present.
 * Escape Sequence: The Dahaka chases.
 * Failure Is the Only Option: The Prince discovers that the only way to get The Dahaka to stop chasing him is
 * Game Breaking Bug: The entire Sands trilogy has its fair share of buggy code but Warrior Within is a particular standout. There are quite a few scenarios that can render the game Unwinnable, such as being transformed into prematurely or the final time portal simply refusing to work (and many of these feature irreversible, game-restarting conditions caused by save points in point-of-no-return locations).
 * Guide Dang It: Finding and collecting all the life upgrades to unlock the alternate ending could be a pain in the ass.
 * Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The boss battle.
 * Idiot Ball: The Prince and the Empress of Time seem to play tennis with it.
 * King Incognito:.
 * Male Gaze: Shahdee's ass-first introduction is a particularly blatant example.
 * Real Is Brown: Warrior Within's art director said in a bonus commentary on the disc that the game was designed to be basically monochrome to make it easier to unify designs. The Forgotten Sands also have this, but it takes place in a desert kingdom so this is at least somewhat justified. Then again, all of the games take place in a desert kingdom, so...
 * The Reveal: Two major ones, the strange creature you see but never interact with . And
 * Rewarding Vandalism: The Prince can gain sand by smashing objects in the environment. See Why We Can't Have Nice Things.
 * Screw Destiny: The motive behind the Prince's actions.
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
 * Stable Time Loop: The Prince goes to the Island of Time to prevent the Sands of Time--the source of all his misfortunes and the reason he is being hunted by the Dahaka--from ever being created.
 * This one is a Stable Time Loop inside a Stable Time Loop - the only reason the Prince has the chance to do this is because
 * True Final Boss:, provided you . Otherwise, the final boss is just , which leads to a major Downer Ending with only the bleakest of hope as the Prince is freed from his curse but at the cost of just about everything. The Alternate Ending was actually made canon in the next game, which Kaileena acknowledges in the opening narration.
 * Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: The Empress. She employs several round-about measures to kill the Prince: she sends Shadee after him, curses one of his swords, forces him to solve puzzles in two towers laden with deadly traps and mooks, and all the while hopes the Dahaka will finish him off if he doesn't die on his own. When all this (predictably) fails, the Empress goes one-on-one in a sword and sorcery duel . She never, however, utilizes her greatest tactical advantage to its full potential: . What does she do with this amazing upper hand instead? . She should have just, and while he was bemoaning his fate, walked up behind him, stabbed him, taken his medallion, and been done with it.
 * She was kind of falling in love with him. Hence the reluctance to murder him.
 * World of Buxom: All of the female characters have very large breasts.