History VideoGame / PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones

* UnresolvedSexualTension: With Farah, which the Prince Lampshades.
* UniqueEnemy: The Stone Guardian. Massive, unique, inexplicably there, doesn't even have a healthbar.

* VolcanicVeins: The Dark Prince.

** The game ends the same way the first one began, [[spoiler:with the prince telling Farah the events of the first game, starting with the same lines and going all the way back to the raindrop and the Prince running through the jungle to Farah's quarters]].

* ButterflyOfDoom: The entire game was caused by one. In taking Kaileena away from the Island of Time, the Prince has changed the course of history. Without the Sands of Time, he never had a reason to go to Azad or kill the Vizier; thus, he's back to pursue his EvilPlan.

** In an elevator, Farah remarks that she's heard of a similar device in Azad, a reference that ''Sands of Time'' players will be [[ThatOneLevel intimately familiar with]]. The elevator even uses the same sound effects as the Azad one!
** When getting the first weapon in the game (a regular knife), the Prince remarks that he never has a suitable weapon when he needs it. In ''The Sands of Time'' he once awoke to find all of his weapons missing and had to run past the hardest enemies in the game until he found a replacement. At the beginning of ''Warrior Within'', he lost his sword and had to use a stick, and broke another later in the game shortly before running through a dungeon full of enemies.

* ActionCommands: In a variant of this, the "Speed Kills" had to be executed by positioning the Prince in a specific location and were used to initiate, or pre-empt by killing off, combat instead of being used as {{Finishing Move}}s. More conventional examples show up against the bosses, which almost invariably need Speed Kills to be defeated.
* AffablyEvil: The Dark Prince is often little more than a VoiceWithAnInternetConnection; it ''never actually lies'' to you, since he's just the shadow of the Prince brought to life by the sands of time. Nor does it seem particularly malicious until much further into the game.

* AllThereInTheManual: The game doesn't tell you anything about the invading army the Vizier commands, outside of mentioning that he killed the Maharaja and took over his kingdom suggesting that their his army, making them come off as just a legion of {{Mooks}} to fight. The Bradygames strategy guide however, has much more information about them, detailing how they are made up of a massive collection of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians Scythian]] nomad tribes whose lands were being encroached upon by the Indian and Persian empires. With the loss of their traditional hunting grounds causing a food shortage, the Scythian tribes began to fragment and [[CripplingOverspecialization specialize in certain martial arts]], hence [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration the unique look of each enemy type.]] The Vizier was able to rally them to his side by promising them vengeance against both empires.
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:The Vizier mentions that when he and the Maharaja arrived at the Island of Time, they found the Hourglass, the Dagger and the Staff of Time. No mention is made of the Medallion of Time however, which they should have found just like in the original timeline. Farah noticeably doesn't wear the Medallion like she did in the first game, or at least not above her clothes. This leaves it unclear whether a second Medallion does still exist in the new timeline, or whether the Prince's manipulation of the timeline meant the one in his possession was the only one that exists.]]
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In the segments where you get to play as the Dark Prince, all enemies will drop Sand, giving you a chance to fully recover your health quickly. Even if the combat sections as the Dark Prince are more crowded and chaotic compared to the normal Prince's fights, at least the difficulty gets alleviated by the high chances to recover health. Also, the player will automatically recover full health when transforming between the Prince and Dark Prince.

** During the above speech, [[spoiler: the Vizier]] also mentions a great many books for him to read up on that educated him on the Artifacts of Times (Sand, Hourglass, Dagger, Medallion, etc). This references Kaileena's library that the Prince passes through in the last third of ''Warrior Within''.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: At least in the first two games, it is justified how the Prince is able to collect the Sands (In ''Sands of Time'', he directly stabs them to be absorbed by the Dagger of Time, while in ''Warrior Within'', the Sands automatically gravitate to the Medallion of Time in his chest). But since this game is still based on the engine of ''Warrior Within'', the Sands still gravitate towards the Prince's chest, even if he threw away the Medallion in the opening cutscene. It would make sense if the Sands are pulled by the Dagger this time, but no, this is unfortunately not the case.

* OptionalStealth: Stealth Kills are introduced in this game: most of the time you'll find that using stealth and the surrounding environment to take down enemies is the safest approach, but you can just barge in and attack all the enemies face to face, though things can get aggravating pretty soon, especially around Sand Portals. Oh, and [[YouFightLikeACow the Dark Prince will usually mock you if you can't kill all the mooks of an area stealthly]].

* ContinuityNod: In ''The Sands of Time'', while it's fairly obvious that the Dagger is protecting the Prince from being turned into a Sand Creature, it's not fully clear that Farah's medallion is an Artifact of Time that's doing the same, nor is it alluded to ''at all'' that the Vizier's staff is as well[[note]]It could be assumed that the Vizier's control over magic was doing that, but again it's left unstated[[/note]], with both of these details only being mentioned [[AllThereInTheManual in the instruction manual]]. In this game, during [[spoiler: the Vizier's pre-reveal speech as the Prince climbs through the throne room]], he mentions finding the Staff among the Dagger and empty Hourglass of Time, confirming the Staff's status as an Artifact of Time in-game for the first and only time.

* BloodlessCarnage: Relative to ''Warrior Within'', at least. In that game, the Sands-based enemies would still bleed quite a lot despite ''also'' dissolving into sand, and when vertically bisecting an enemy the interior flesh was very visible. In ''The Two Thrones'' this amount of gore during kills is removed, although blood is still present for actual weapon impact and around corpses strewn about the levels.

* CosmicRetcon: Other than the Prince still remembering everything that happened, it's quickly revealed that, thanks to the events of the previous game, what was left un-retconned of the first game is now retconned out of existence as well.

* BookEnds: The game ends the same way the first one began, [[spoiler:with the prince telling Farah the events of the first game, starting with the exact same line.]]

** In an elevator, Farah remarks that she's heard of a similar device in Azad, a reference that ''Sands of Time'' players will be [[ThatOneLevel intimately familiar with]].

* DramaticIrony: Farah remarked at one point that she wishes she could visit Azad someday, unaware that technically, she already did in the first game, [[spoiler:and she even died there, before the Prince resets the timeline]].

* EarlyBirdCameo: At the start of the first chariot section, the Prince drives his chariot into some mooks carrying a human prisoner, which allows the prisoner to escape. Eagle-eyed viewers may pick up that the prisoner is [[spoiler: Farah from the first game in the trilogy]].

* FallingDamage: There is falling damage, but it is unconventional in that it is always lethal, meaning that a fall must either be completely harmless or immediately fatal and there is a certain height level that separates the two outcomes, though there's no way to ascertain its consistency.
* FictionalCurrency: In this game, the Sands themselves serve as currency. Known as "Sand Credits", they are used in the gallery to unlock artworks and stuff.

* HealingSpring: Not one body of water in ''The Two Thrones'', but all of them. You can drink from any water you find to regain health, most notably the saving fountains, and it also changes the Prince back to normal if the Dark Prince has taken over.

* KinderAndCleaner: To get rid of the DarkerAndEdgier and RuderAndCruder taste of ''Warrior Within'', the only instance of profanity in this game is just a CurseCutShort.

* LighterAndSofter: It's still darker than the first game, but it manages to find a happy medium between the first game's fairy-tale atmosphere and snarky protagonist and the second's [[DarkerAndEdgier darkness and edginess]] and improved combat. Unlike the second game, the same attacks as before won't dismember enemies or send heads flying as the Prince.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The E3 2005 trailer:
** It shows the Prince with a different outfit that resembles a dark brown armor. This does not appear in the final version.
** The Daggertail glows blue instead of the orange-yellow in the final version.
** In fact, the trailer itself is merely a pre-rendered CGI from start to finish.

** At the end of the game, [[spoiler:the Dark Prince gives a long one to the Prince saying that his own failings are why he's still able to exist despite the Sands having faded from existence. The Prince occasionally fires back with a ShutUpHannibal, but ultimately leaves the Dark Prince behind at Farah's urging.]]

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Ultimately subverted. One of the key elements in the prince's CharacterDevelopment is his realization that going back in time to fix his mistake has only made things worse, and that he needs to accept them in order to save the day.]]

* ShirtlessScene: The Prince loses his shirt around the time he first hears the Dark Prince and remains half naked for the rest of the game, although he inexplicably regains it while [[spoiler:confronting a separated Dark Prince inside the mental realm after vanquishing the Vizier]].

** The huge army sequence outside the palace has many shout-outs to ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. The Prince and Farah running from a huge swarm of enemies only to be encircled is straight from the Goblin attack in Moria's Dwarrodelf hall, while the sweeping aerial shots as the two armies clash is from many of Creator/PeterJackson's shots from that trilogy. The Prince talking with the Old Man in the midst of battle as they plan their next move is also reminiscent of Aragorn and Gimli conversing with Théoden during the Battle of Helm's Deep, and as they leave, there's a first-person shot of one of Farah's arrows flying right into an enemy, just like the famous Legolas arrow shot during the Moria stairs escape.

* SolveTheSoupCans: It's not readily clear how you should fight the boss fight against the Twins.

* TimeyWimeyBall: The exact machinations behind why the Vizier is still alive and why he decided to attack Babylon ''now'' of all times are explained in a line of dialogue that Kaileena, as the narrator, feels is so important [[NoFourthWall she tells the player to]] [[NoticeThis pay attention to it]]. [[spoiler: Since the Prince took Kaileena to the present, there's a long period of time where the Staff, Dagger and Hourglass of Time existed, but the Sands of Time themselves did not. The Maharaja's raid on the Island of Time still happens, but since the Sands aren't present, the Vizier never convinces King Sharaman of Persia to attack so he can get them. Instead he keeps the Dagger, which reacts to Kaileena's presence when the Prince brings her to the present, giving the Vizier visions to attack Babylon since that's where the Prince will take her. The Maharaja isn't convinced, so the Vizier kills him to co-opt his kingdom's resources]]. The Prince manages to remember the original events of the first two games via unknown means, possibly because he's the one who instigated these changes, or because he possessed the Dagger and Medallion of Time while he was altering the timeline.

----

* ShoutOut: The camera's pause and OrbitalShot at the climatic moment [[spoiler:of the second-to-final battle in which the Prince leaps off to deliver the final blow to Zurvan]] is a shout-out to the BulletTime mode in ''Film/TheMatrix''.

''Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones'' is a game released in 2005 to conclude the trilogy that began with ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' and continued with ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin''. It returned somewhat to the original's fairy-tale tone (with the arrogant Prince as a "dark side" of the character). It retained the basic combat changes made in ''Warrior Within'' with minor adjustments, but toned down the graphic violence. In addition, the Prince was much more likable, and even had [[AuthorsSavingThrow regrets over his behavior in the previous game]]. Again following the events of the previous game, the Prince returns to his home Kingdom of Babylon only to find war erupting and enemies everywhere. He learns that messing with the timeline so much has skewed any sense of proper history and the Vizier of the first game is still alive. Seeking to complete his original goal of the first game, the Vizier unleashes the curse of the sands once more, this time partially corrupting the Prince himself. Finding a darkness within himself that transforms him into a dark creature, the Prince seeks to stop the Vizier once more and return things to their proper state.

* BodyHorror: When the Vizier plunges the Dagger of Time into himself to gain immortality, his back ''sprouts a scorpion which attacks him!''

* BrokenAesop: The moral of the story is the Prince moving away from his darker ''Warrior Within'' characterization, accepting that he has become selfish and cruel (especially when on the Island of Time), and learning that he has been acting like a child by constantly seeking to use the Sands to undo his mistakes instead of owning up to them and accepting the consequences. The moral is broken in that the Dahaka desired to kill him for unleashing the Sands even after he reversed time so they were never opened, and he only went to the Island to try and prevent the Sands from existing so that the Dahaka would leave him alone. Even while on the Island, he tried to talk to Kaileena to prevent his fate before resorting to violence and found his was stuck in a StableTimeLoop that required him to release the Sands in the first place. When you remember he was originally tricked by the Vizier and had no idea what would happen which makes him more blameless, the Prince is being judged for breaking the time loop that required him to die and wouldn't exist if he hadn't opened the Hourglass. However, later games like ''VideoGame/BattlesOfPrinceOfPersia'' and the Wii version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'' do show him causing harm due to his short-sightedness and poor decisions, meaning that retroactively the moral does still make some sense.

* BladeBrake: Like in ''Warrior Within'', the Prince can leap towards and stab his dagger into banners to safely slide to lower ground from high places.

* BrokenAesop: The moral of the story is the Prince moving away from his darker ''Warrior Within'' characterization, accepting that he has become selfish and cruel especially when on the Island of Time, and learning that he has been acting like a child by constantly seeking to use the Sands to undo his mistakes instead of owning up to them and accepting the consequences. The moral is broken in that the Dahaka desired to kill him for unleashing the Sands even after he reversed time so they were never opened, and he only went to the Island to try and prevent the Sands from existing so that the Dahaka would leave him alone. Even while on the Island, he tried to talk to Kaileena to prevent his fate before resorting to violence and found his was stuck in a StableTimeLoop that required him to release the Sands in the first place. When you remember he was originally tricked by the Vizier and had no idea what would happen which makes him more blameless, the Prince is being judged for breaking the time loop that required him to die and wouldn't exist if he hadn't opened the Hourglass. However, later games like ''VideoGame/BattlesOfPrinceOfPersia'' and the Wii version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'' do show him causing harm due to his short-sightedness and poor decisions, meaning that retroactively the moral does still make some sense.

** When getting the first weapon in the game (a regular knife), the Prince remarks that he never has a suitable weapon when he needs it. At the beginning of ''Warrior Within'', he lost his sword and had to use a stick, and broke another shortly before running through a dungeon full of enemies.

* ChariotRace: Much to the frustration of many players, a chariot race takes place. The player has to not only pick the proper way to turn, which may not always be obvious, but also ram into enemies along the way. This seems to be a favorite of Ubisoft's.

* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler:The Prince still has feelings for Farah, despite the events of the first game being long overwritten by temporal meddling. Kaileena meanwhile [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascends to a higher plane of existence]] after the sands are freed from the Vizier's control.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler:Kaileena is killed by the Vizier and becomes the Sands of Time in order to set off the plot and make way for Farah. She is revived in the end, and declares that she will now seek out other worlds so that no one can ever abuse the power of the Sands again. This was actually quite well-received, given that most fans liked Farah better.]]

* BrokenAesop: The moral of the story is the Prince moving away from his darker ''Warrior Within'' characterisation, accepting that he has become selfish and cruel especially when on the Island of Time, and learning that he has been acting like a child by constantly seeking to use the Sands to undo his mistakes instead of owning up to them and accepting the consequences. The moral is broken in that the Dahaka desired to kill him for unleashing the Sands even after he reversed time so they were never opened, and he went to the Island to try and prevent the Sands from existing. Even while on the Island, he tried to talk to Kaileena to prevent his fate before resorting to violence and found his was stuck in a StableTimeLoop that required him to release the Sands in the first place. When you remember he was tricked by the Vizier and has no idea what would happen which makes him less blameless, the Prince is being judged for breaking the time loop that required him to die and wouldn't exist if he hadn't opened the Hourglass. However later games like ''VideoGame/BattlesOfPrinceOfPersia'' and the Wii version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'' do show him causing harm due to his short sightedness and poor decisions, meaning that retroactively the moral does still make some sense.

''Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones'' is a game released in 2005 to conclude the trilogy that began with ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' and continued with ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin''. It returned somewhat to the original's fairy-tale tone (with the arrogant Prince as a "dark side" of the character). It retained the basic combat changes made in ''Warrior Within'' with minor adjustments, but toned down the graphic violence. As well, the Prince was much more likable, and even had [[AuthorsSavingThrow regrets over his behavior in the previous game]]. Again following the events of the previous game, the Prince returns to his home Kingdom of Babylon only to find war erupting and enemies everywhere. He learns that messing with the timeline so much has skewed any sense of proper history and the Vizier of the first game is still alive. Seeking to complete his original goal of the first game, the Vizier unleashes the curse of the sands once more, this time partially corrupting the Prince himself. Finding a darkness within himself that transforms him into a dark creature, the Prince seeks to stop the Vizier once more and return things to their proper state.

''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' [[https://cards.pennyarcademerch.com/presents/page/prince-of-persia-the-two-thrones-page-1 made an eight-page comic]] for it.

* HonorBeforeReason: When the Prince first sees Zurvan in person, in his full god-like state, he immediately tries to take revenge by [[WhatAnIdiot rushing at him with a knife]].
** To his credit, he was working on the assumption that, since the dagger created Zurvan, maybe it could kill him too. But even the Dark Prince points out that this was a pretty big logical leap to base an entire strategy around.

* BrokenAesop: The moral of the story is the Prince moving away from his darker ''Warrior Within'' characterisation, accepting that he has become selfish and cruel especially when on the Island of Time, and learning that he has been acting like a child by constantly seeking to use the Sands to undo his mistakes instead of owning up to them and accepting the consequences. The moral is broken in that the Dahaka desired to kill him for unleashing the Sands even after he reversed time so they were never opened, and he went to the Island to try and prevent the Sands from existing. Even while on the Island, he tried to talk to Kaileena to prevent his fate before resorting to violence and found his was stuck in a StableTimeLoop that required him to release the Sands in the first place. When you remember he was tricked by the Vizier and has no idea what would happen, the Prince is being judged for breaking the time loop that required him to die. However later games like ''VideoGame/BattlesOfPrinceOfPersia'' and the Wii version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'' do show him causing harm due to his short sightedness and poor decisions, meaning that retroactively the moral does still make some sense.

* AllThereInTheManual: The game doesn't tell you anything about the invading army the Vizier commands, outside of mentioning that he killed the Maharaja and took over his kingdom suggesitng that their his army, making them come off as just a legion of {{Mooks}} to fight. The Bradygames strategy guide however, has much more information about them, detailing how they are made up of a massive collection of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians Scythian]] nomad tribes whose lands were being encroached upon by the Indian and Persian empires. With the loss of their traditional hunting grounds causing a food shortage, the Scythian tribes began to fragment and [[CripplingOverspecialization specialize in certain martial arts]], hence [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration the unique look of each enemy type.]] The Vizier was able to rally them to his side by promising them vengeance against both empires.

* AllThereInTheManual: The game doesn't tell you anything about the invading army the Vizier commands, making them come off as just a legion of {{Mooks}} to fight. The Bradygames strategy guide however, has much more information about them, detailing how they are made up of a massive collection of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians Scythian]] nomad tribes whose lands were being encroached upon by the Indian and Persian empires. With the loss of their traditional hunting grounds causing a food shortage, the Scythian tribes began to fragment and [[CripplingOverspecialization specialize in certain martial arts]], hence [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration the unique look of each enemy type.]] The Vizier was able to rally them to his side by promising them vengeance against both empires.

* GodhoodSeeker: The Vizier's ultimate plan thanks to the Sands of Time and the Dagger. It kinda works, transforming him in a NighInvulnerable WingedHumanoid with a glowing humanoid body who names himself after Zurvan, TopGod and predecessor of Zoroastrism in ancient Persia.

-->'''Dark Prince''': Are you sure you can drive this thing?\\
'''The Prince''': Let us hope! If I crash, it is the end for both of us!

* EnemySummoner: Sand Guards are EliteMook enemies guarding a nearby Sand Portal. If they spot you, they'll immediately try to activate said Portal, which will force you to fight through many guards to seal it. However, if you manage to keep the Sand Guards from summoning by killing them either in combat or by a Stealth Kill, the portal will remain unoperative. Fortunately even if they still manage it through, the summoned backups are still limited per portal.

-->'''Prince''': Oh, Father, give me guidance, lend me strength. Where have you gone? ''[beat]'' Father, gone… Wait, that's it!

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNoWhere: The Stone Guardian from the Gardens: one moment, you're traversing a lushful garden palace infested with enemies. Then, a huge monster made of roots, sand and stone emerges from a nearby crumbled turret to attack you, kinda like [[CallBack the Brutes]] from the previous game.Unlike them, you end up taking control of the beast to breakd down a series of gates until it falls dead from the wound and into running water.

-->'''Dark Prince''': "If I am selfish, Prince, it is because ''you'' are. If I am ruthless and reckless and lacking in morals, it is because '''''you''''' are! I did not spin myself out of the ether; I was not conjured by some mad Vizier. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I. Am. You!]]"

-->'''Dark Prince''': If I was an enraged Sand god intent on killing you, and you had already slain two of my best lieutenants, well, I'd be inclined to try a less direct approach. One that exploits your new-found compassion.

* UniqueEnemy: The Stone Guardian. Massive, unique, unexplicably there, doesn't even have a healthbar.

''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' [[http://penny-arcade.com/presents/page/prince-of-persia-the-two-thrones-page-1 made an eight-page comic]] for it.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Due to the events of ''Warrior Within'', The events of the first game have been undone and the Vizier is back to try becoming immortal once again.