9 Video Games Heroes Who Completely Failed At Their Quest

3. The Prince - Prince Of Persia

Prince of persia 2008
Ubisoft

On the surface, the story of Prince of Persia (the cell-shaded version) looks pretty simple. You (as the titular Prince) are tasked with taking down Ahriman, an evil being who wants to snuff out the light in the world and bring about the age of darkness, ruled by him and his fellow corrupted beings.

Naturally, you're not going to let this happen, and the Prince (who's not really a prince) teams up with Princess Elika (who's really a princess) to take Ahriman and his forces down by using the Tree of Life.

So far, so simple (well, as far as end of the world fantasy plots go), but things get hairy when Elika is mortally wounded. The only way to save her is to destroy the Tree of Life, and therefore eliminate any possibility of Ahriman being beaten. Like the true hero he is... the Prince completely says "stuff it" to the world at large, and saves the woman he fancies.

The interesting thing about this entry is that the character actually chooses to fail his quest - an fascinating decision which was tragically undone in the game's DLC.

Advertisement
Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.