The Palace Guards[3] are a common enemy in the original Prince of Persia and its sequel, and take the role of supporting characters in Prince of Persia 3D.
Biography[]
Prince of Persia[]
The Palace Guards, though technically working for the Sultan, are more loyal to Jaffar and are complicit in his coup.[4]
In the Super Famicom version, there is an exclusive beginning cutscene of the Guards beating the Prince before throwing him in the dungeon.
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame[]
Palace guards only appear in the first level, having been misled by a False Prince into thinking that the real Prince is a criminal. The guards are now capable of running and jumping but due to the Prince's experience, they can be defeated in one hit unlike other enemies.
Prince of Persia 3D[]
In Prince of Persia 3D, the Guards act as loyal allies to the Prince and only appear within the game's story. Several guards accompanied the Prince, Sultan and Princess in the visit to Assan. They are seen guarding the Prince and Sultan in the opening cutscene, but whilst attending the party, they are distracted and caught unaware by an Assassin disguised as a Belly Dancer whom subsequently kills the surprised guards.
Their enemy counterpart are the Guardsman.
Gameplay[]
The palace guards are the most common enemy throughout the game. They used varying types of swords and different color palettes, each palette being stronger than another. The first guards are, as you would expect from a the beginning of a video game are weaker than their palette-swapped predecessors seen in later stages.
The player need not worry about wasting five minutes on the first foe in the game. There are also other types of guards in the palace, such as a fat one that acts as a boss in one of the stages in the first game on the SNES version.
In the SNES version, when Prince arrives at the throne room for a boss gauntlet, a unique and more powerful guard appears first, this guard wears grey clothes and most notably, his skin is blue like Jaffar himself in that version of the game.
The guard variants in order of weakest to most powererful are:
- Dark Green (nicknamed "Grunt")
- Navy Blue (nicknamed "Soldier")
- Bright Blue (nicknamed "Sergeant")
- Red (nicknamed "Lieutenant")
- Purple (nicknamed "Major")
- Grey with blue skin (nicknamed "Guard Captain")
Trivia[]
- In Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame Jordan Mechner planned on adding Assassins, who looked like the Palace Guards, but dressed all in black, and would of have a new ability to jump over the Prince and attack from behind[5].
- In the SNES version, the blue skinned guard is the only foe in the boss gauntlet that the player had not battled beforehand.
Gallery[]
References[]