Prince of Persia 4 downloadable content coming in the shape of Epilogue

29 January 2009

Posted by:Josh

Ubisoft has announced that the Prince of Persia story of the Prince and Elika will continue with a brand-new epic adventure in the form of a new DLC epilogue. The downloadable content will be coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 26th. Pricing has yet to be announced.

The DLC will continue the story of the retail game, will increase the difficulty, add a new power for Elika and a new attack for the Prince, will reveal a brand new location, and will include two new unlockable skins that will become available after completing the Epilogue.

The DLC epilogue will include:

* New Region: The Underground Palace – A corrupted underground palace from which the Prince and Elika need to escape in a new epic journey.
* New Power: Energize – Reconstruct destroyed areas of the environment to create a path and rush through it before it vanishes.
* New high pace: The new trap challenge – The Prince and Elika will face more cunning foes, cleverer traps and level design, adding more to the difficulty level in over 3 hours of gameplay.
* New Attack: Sprinting Clash – A duel move that lets you or the enemy trigger a sprint attack, charging towards each other, clashing your weapons fiercely.
* New Unlockable Skins: Finish the game and unlock exclusively, from the early development of the game, the Prototype characters of the Prince and Elika.

Additionally, IGN spoke with Jamal Rguigui, Associate Producer for the Epilogue DLC, about the upcoming expansion. They learned a great deal about the adjustments being made to Prince of Persia to add some challenge, Elika’s new “Energize” power, and they also learned about the return of someone we all thought was dead . . . Here is part of the interview below.

IGN: First off, a lot of folks will wonder why this wasn’t included in the full game. Do you have a response to ease gamer concerns?

Jamal Rguigui: The team decided to go on ahead full throttle with some cool ideas that the team had during and post-production and developed a unique DLC that would enhance the experience for Prince of Persia fans. We have a lot of ambitions for the DLC and we are filtering all the feedback from the industry and the community of gamers. Players can expect to have a specific experience that will give them more content with superior difficulty and pace. This is one of the most ambitious DLC projects from Ubisoft, and it adds to the understanding of PoP’s new world and characters.

IGN: Can you give us a little bit on the story and how much it adds to the original game?

Rguigui: Without spoiling the end of the game to those who haven’t completed it, the DLC will develop the relationship between the Prince and Elika following the end of the game and will give additional narrative elements. Also, players will discover the immense and once glorious Underground Palace which is now corrupted and where danger awaits every corner.

IGN: There are four powers in the retail game, all of which are travel based. Is this the same for the new power? How does it work?

Rguigui: Elika’s new power “Energize” is a travel based power that adds a timing challenge. This power allows Elika for a short period of time to materialize an area of the environment that was previously destroyed. Therefore, the Prince and Elika will be able to access areas previously impossible to reach without this power.

IGN: What’s the new attack being added and how does that affect the combo strings in POP?

Rguigui: Since we wanted everything to feel more intense, we added the “Sprinting Clash” making both the Prince and his foes more dangerous. When at a distance from the enemy, the player can mash the Acrobatic button to sprint. This leads to an opportunity for the player to “stun” the attacker and therefore take the offensive. These make for even more intense combat sequences and with a little creativity, the player can create some rather memorable moments in duels. Honestly, it’s a pretty cool move and can really change the dynamics for combat!

Read the full Prince of Persia DLC interview interview for the rest of the details.