Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Story

King Sharaman of Persia and his son, known only as the Prince, cross India on their way to Azad and conquer a city with the help of the treacherous vizier of the local maharajah. During the battle, the prince wants to win honor and glory in his first battle and goes directly to the Maharajah's treasuries, where he discovers the mythical Sands of Time, safely stored in the hourglass, and the Dagger of Time, which he quickly learns can turn back time a little. When the prince presents the dagger to his father, the treacherous vizier demands it as payment, but King Sharaman refuses. The Persians then continue their journey to Azad with the wealth of the prisoners they took from the Maharajah, including the Maharajah's beautiful daughter, Princess Farah. In Azad, the vizier, now in the service of King Sharaman, gets the prince to use the dagger to release the sands of time from the hourglass. A terrible sandstorm covers the kingdom and the Sands of Time turn all the inhabitants of the palace into monsters. Only the prince, Farah and the vizier remain unchanged because of their possessions, a dagger, a medallion and a staff. In the midst of the catastrophe, the vizier demands the dagger from the prince, who refuses and escapes. The prince soon teams up with Farah to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass, which the vizier takes to the top of the Tower of Dawn. As they make their way through the palace, the two are constantly stopped by sand monsters (including a sand-obsessed King Sharaman) and a deadly web of traps set in hopes of killing the creatures. The prince is worn down more and more until his princely armor is nothing but shreds and his body is covered with bloody wounds. While the prince doesn't trust Farah at first because the Persians treated her badly, the two grow closer over time. After a terrific battle climbing the Tower of Dawn, they reach the Hourglass and are about to complete their mission when the prince hesitates and suddenly becomes suspicious of Farah's true motives. Before Farah can convince the prince otherwise, the vizier confronts them both and uses his magical powers to imprison Farah and the prince in a tomb. While they wait to die in the tomb, Farah tells the prince, who also reveals his claustrophobia, a story she has never told anyone: When she was little, her mother told her about a secret magic word that allowed her to escape everything that scared her: "Kakolookia." Once the prince repeats the word as if by magic, he finds himself in a mysterious tunnel that winds down into a dreamlike bathhouse that resembles the magical fountains the prince used to use to increase his health. There he meets Farah, who invites him to bathe with her. As they bathe, the prince and Farah eventually fall in love and find comfort in each other in their perilous situation. When the prince awakens afterwards, he finds himself in the tomb and discovers that the magical cave was only a dream, but one that he believed Farah had also shared. But Farah, the dagger and his sword are gone and he has only Farah's medallion to protect him from the sands of time. The prince, who has found a new sword that destroys the sand monsters on contact, pursues Farah and catches up with her on the Tower of Dawn, which he must climb from the outside. When the prince finally reaches the top, Farah is overpowered by the sand monsters and dangles the dagger over a cliff while the prince grabs the blade. Realizing that the prince will die to save her, Farah instead sacrifices herself and lets go of the dagger; and true to the game's prophecy, "If you want to live, die in love," she plunges to her death in the hourglass room below. The prince then tries to use the dagger to save her, but finds that the sand tanks are empty because Farah has used them all up. Enraged by the death of his beloved, the prince uses the dagger to massacre the last of the sand monsters in the tower and descends to weep over Farah's corpse. As the prince mourns, the vizier emerges from the shadows and offers the prince a hand in his evil plan by promising him eternal life. But the prince angrily refuses because those he loved have died, and before the vizier can stop him, the prince plunges the Dagger of Time into the hourglass and rewinds time to the night before the invasion of the maharajah's kingdom. The prince awakens, still with the Dagger of Time, and secretly finds his way to Farah's bedroom, where he tells her the whole story, which she doesn't remember because it hadn't happened yet. However, the vizier discovers the prince and tries to kill Farah and the prince, fearing that his planned betrayal has already been revealed. He tells them that he is suffering from consumption and would die anyway, and that his plan is to cure his impending death with eternal life. In the ensuing battle, the prince kills the