GameCyte

Just one day after Ubisoft confirmed the Prince of Persia series would continue on consoles, PC and DS, we have our first glimpse of that “brand-new illustrative art style” their Montreal studio has been working on, thanks to a cover story in French game magazine Joypad. Sure enough, the game is cel-shaded, and takes visual inspiration from the likes of Okami and Ico.

Provided first (as near as we can tell) by Pro-gamers.fr, the beautiful scans reveal a roguish Prince dressed in flowing scarves of purple and orange, sporting both an ornate sword and a very conspicuous spiked gauntlet mounted on his left hand. It appears that the glove will assist in wall-running and other feats of acrobatic skill.

While we’d love to get a full translation of the scans (any readers speak French?) a quick Google Translate of Pro-gamers’ take gives us some insight into the story and gameplay objectives. Apparently the ‘corruption’ and ‘decay’ to which the teaser website referred reflects the state of the Prince’s world:

The new Prince of Persia sports as you can see at first glance a graphic shadé cell with a brand new hero, a prince who was formerly a thief who will inadvertently unleash the evil Ahriman god. He was imprisoned by his twin brother Ohrmazd in a box that our hero will of course find … The world was deeply affected by the return of the evil god and the main character decides to catch up trying to save, to restore colors like a Okami or a Twillight Princess Zelda.

To heal the world, you need to kill guards. A difference of Okami, the change will dynamically. It will thus resume World color as the vegetation resume life.The developers have announced environments a little more open with multiple branches possible in which you will be helped by using a compass. Regarding the gameplay, the fighting will be more dynamic with the effects of the camera Ninja Gaiden. The prince has a glove to claw that will let slide along the walls and will be able to make a jump a wall to another at an angle of 45 degrees.

I’m not sure about the wisdom of using a Ninja Gaiden-style camera — I still fondly remember my screams of agony upon jumping directly into a pit of hot lava for the eighteenth time — but the screens are mysterious and alluring, and so I’m greatly looking forward to a preview I can actually read. I hear there will be one in the May issue of Edge…

Here’s some screens of a storyboarded battle; to download more, try this excellent post on VGChartz.