Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame

Story

The game takes place eleven days after the events of the first game. During this time, the prince was celebrated as a hero who defeated the evil Jaffar. He refuses all riches and instead asks for the hand of the princess as a reward, to which the Sultan of Persia is reluctant. The game begins when the prince enters the royal court of the palace. Before he enters, his appearance changes into that of a beggar. No one recognizes him, and when he tries to speak to the princess, a man who looks just like him (Jaffar, who is magically disguised) emerges from the shadows and orders him out. When the guards chase him, the prince jumps through a window and escapes the city on a ship. As he falls asleep on the ship, the prince dreams of a mysterious woman who asks him to come to her. At that moment, the ship is struck by lightning thrown by Jaffar. When the prince regains consciousness, he finds himself on the coast of a strange island. He comes to a cave full of reanimated human skeletons that fight him. Finally, he escapes on a magic carpet. Meanwhile, in Persia, Jaffar seizes the throne in the guise of the prince. The princess falls ill under Jaffar's spell of gradual death. The magic carpet takes the prince to the ruins of an ancient city full of screaming ghosts, snakes and traps. When he arrives in a former throne room, the prince loses consciousness and the mysterious woman, who turns out to be his mother, reappears. She explains that the prince is from a royal lineage and is the only survivor of the massacre by "armies of darkness". She begs him to avenge the fallen. The prince rides a magical horse to a red temple inhabited by warrior monks with bird headdresses. There he discovers that the shadow created in the events of the original game can now leave his body at will. He uses his shadow to obtain the magical flame of the temple, whereupon the bird warriors kneel before him. He flies back to Persia on the magic horse and confronts Jaffar. With the shadow and the flame, the prince burns Jaffar, killing him forever. After Jaffar's spell is broken, the princess awakens. The prince orders the ashes of the former vizier to be scattered. The game ends on a cliffhanger when an ancient witch is shown watching the happy couple through a crystal ball. According to Jordan Mechner, the plot involving the old witch and the "armies of darkness" was supposed to be resolved in a sequel, but it never came.