Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003) [Full English Subtitle] [Enhanced Audio] [UHD] [Story]

I would like to share my passion project with you all, which is to manually put english subtitles over the original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time game from 2003, making all that beautifully written dialogue now completely understandable. For those who don't know: for some reason the original game doesn't actually have ingame subtitles, but what it does have is a pretty bad audio quality, which sometimes make the dialogue completely inaudible, especially during gameplay. I have even used the original script of the story where it was possible, making the dialogue as accurate as I could possibly make it. I would like to invite everyone to experience this magical tale once more, now with full english subtitles! Enjoy! ----------------------------------------- Amidst the scorched sands of ancient Persia, there is a legend spun in an ancient tongue. It speaks of a time borne by blood and ruled by deceit. Drawn to the dark powers of a magic dagger, a young Prince is led to unleash a deadly evil upon a beautiful kingdom. "Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of Time, and I can tell you... they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this. Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard." A decisive, if temerarious, Prince of Persia, eager to prove his mettle to the demanding King Shahraman, remorselessly lays siege on an Indian city and discovers two artifacts: a large hourglass filled with glowing sand, and a dagger bestowing its wielder the ability to manipulate time. Ominous a trope as the theft of age-old, mysterious, magical items usually is, chaos soon bursts free. Unleashed, the devastating aspect of the Sands of Time transforms those it reaches into frenzied abominations, as it spreads ever onward. Our Prince finds himself trapped, in the once splendid Palace of Azad, with a treacherous Vizier and a kind, wary woman whom his father’s army had forced into slavery. One sole goal is on his mind: to reach the Hourglass atop a far-off, now monster-infested tower, and exact due retribution. From this relatively simple setup springs a tale of rich nuances. Original creator of the Prince of Persia series Jordan Mechner (who joined this fourth entry as consultant, writer, and designer), in an article published 5 years following the game’s release, motivates the streamlined plot: rather than twist the gameplay into a narrative, it is story that should support how the game is designed. After scrapping the initial draft, in which the unnamed Prince is faced with a plethora of additional characters and diverse political factions, the team decided that a clear sense of destination—finding oneself at point A and being required to reach point B—would more effectively draw the player in, without unnecessary complications. Mechner’s new script, retaken here from his official website (another way to read the story is through the prose written by one extraordinary fan), generally features but two supporting characters: an “obvious villain” on the one hand, and on the other a Maharajah’s daughter whom the Prince variably distrusts, distances, and cherishes. The simplicity of plot correlates to that of game design, focused on being entertaining and challenging yet accessible and logically embedded. As far as setting is concerned, almost the entire game is placed in one majestic palace, and thus the Aristotelian unity of action taps into the unity of place too; unity of time (traditionally speaking) reigns in that everything around Azad takes place in approximately 24 hours. Without any loading screens or other seams of transition, the player moves through booby-traps, gardens, caverns, barracks, baths, halls, courtyards, dungeons and the like with enhanced immersion, since Azad feels like a place that might truly exist and function, though its dimensions are entrancingly enlarged. Game director Patrice Désilets explains his team’s objective of blending platforming elements into the environment reasonably: Something that was really, really important for us (and the same with Assassin’s Creed afterwards) is this idea that there’s no ‘game design element’ around the player. It’s all part of the palace, part of the game world. I’m not there telling you ‘oh, this is a column you should climb,’ it’s just the natural architecture. So it was all about hiding the game design inside the game world. Similarly, the innovative mechanic that can rewind time between any moments outside of cutscenes (requiring the player’s console or computer constantly to record recent gameplay) was an idea emerging from the desire to have a ‘rewind’ function without breaking the illusion of the game. It would simultaneously provide a cue for the story through the Dagger of Time, and offer the player various possibilities diversifying combat and movement.