Fun for everyone, lacking on a little.
¤ Story ~ Basically our main protagonist "Prince" is missing his carrier of fine unsaid goods lol. He runs into a pretty woman who seems to be trying to escape from a gang of soliders. Curiosity kills the cat and he finds himself following behind this woman (named Elika) and becoming part of her epic journey to cleanse her homeland of the courrupted evil god Ahriman.
An interesting feature in the storyline, but not directly in it, is the commentary between the "Prince" and Elika. Granted you have the options to talk to her anyway to learn more about her people and kingdom, but after the fact if you continue to utilize the chat function it becomes comical. It definately made me laugh a time or two.
¤ Gameplay ~ It's a very simplistic gameplay in my opinion. They've taken the traditional PoP game where it's an even mix of platforming and fighting and narrowed it down to mostly platforming. You run, jump, balance, climb, swing and slide around a very vast but beautiful kingdom and on occasion pull out your sword to kill a bad guy. It's a shame that there's not enough fighting in this game. Basically there's your main minion, Ahriman, and his 4 cronies of which whom you'll fight a few times each to unlock new areas in the kingdom. Maneuvering around is easy, unless you have a perception problem (which lol sometimes I do if I'm in a hurry and not paying close attention). You can not die in this game, which is almost particularly annoying to me. Instead of dying, you're rescued by the heroine Elika and her magical powers from her god. She then just sets you down on the nearest stable platform you were on last. Every single time. And fighting the bosses wasn't very challenging either, to my disappointment. I think for most of the boss battles Elika basically tells you what you need to do in order to finish off whoever you're fighting instead of the game letting you figure it out on your own. Where's the challenge in that?
¤ Graphics ~ I hear time and time again how people complain about cell shaded games. Oh just get over it. I know everyone wants every created game to be sharp and crisp and in incredible detail. But cell shading gives a game a memorable sensation as any. But you have to realize that a lot of developers are either too afraid, or too lazy to delve into the depths of the PS3's capacities to create something almost realistic. Take it out on them.
This new PoP game is almost in the range of Okami, but in richer detail and brighter colors. Watching the lands go from corrupted to cleansed is a very enlightening experience.
Anyway, as a brief over view, PoP is definately a fun game, comical in some spots. It's platforming is relatively easy even for the most inexperienced gamers. Cell shading is still a refreshing outlook towards gaming, whether it's lazy development or not (lol). It's only real downfalls are the fact it's almost too easy, you can't really die, and it's too easy. Replay value is minimal, but you do have to probably give it a second or third playthrough in order to gain all of the PlayStation 3 trophies or Xbox360's achievements.