Tower of Ahriman

The Prince asks why Elika's people built a temple to Ahriman despite the fact that he is the source of all evil. She says that "he wasn't always bad" and it was when he tried to overpower Ormazd that things went bad.

This area also shows the prince and Elika in total flirt overdrive. If you want to hear it use the left trigger. If you fear cooties or women stuff, skip on these exchanges, it may fill your heart with goodwill and make you want to call a girl.

The design is very similar to the other levels: rings, stones, cracks, but the interesting thing about this level is the camera. On the final assault, you have to climb up a huge wall. As you climb, the camera flattens along the wall and looks up at the two of them climbing. Although it could have been exploited as an up-skirt, the designers used it to really change the perspective and make appear as if you are crawling along the ground. It is a really interesting use.

When you get to a wall with two huge rotating disks, you must align them to get up to the next level. Here is how to set it up correctly:

First, skip past the first crank and wall run across the gap to the other crank.
Grab the ring there to lower the sliding hand grabs that look like beer bottle openers.
Turn the crank on this platform so that the slit in the rotating disk is aligned to the exact position of the other rotating disk.
Wall run back to the platform on the right side and turn it and both disks turn. Align both of them so that the slits are angled like an "L".
Jump up to the first beer bottle opener, wall run across to the first disk, then climb up the vertical fissure.
From there, follow the cracks along until you wall run to the right jump across to another wall that has a blue disk on it.

At the top is the giant Warrior. As you fight him, the Warrior asks the Prince why he fights. The giant can see how Elika fights for her people and, as the Warrior, he fights for Ahriman's minions. But, he doesn't get what is in it for the Prince. I think this is the first video game boss I have faced who actually has been following the whole soap-opera that has been occurring. The Warrior is actually invested in the story.

Fight with the Warrior:

Because of the Warrior's armor, you can not directly hurt him with your weapons. You can push him around but you can not hurt him.
The way to beat him is to push him off the platform.
Rather than push him all the way to the edge (which would take a while), run over to the edge and lure him there.
Then, dodge to the other side of him and start attacking.
When he is at the absolute edge, Elika and the prince will work together to push him over.

The prince gets annoying again after beating the Warrior. He yells to the the sky "Hey Ahriman, this is my tower now, not yours." Then he pleads with Elika to have her name the tower after him, get a commemorative plaque with hire some maidens to take care of it and him. If he is trying to get her to like him, asking for pieces of her kingdom while she is still drained from exorcising this land is not the best way to do it. Despite this, Elika agrees and says "you can have the city." The prince asks her about this offer and figures that it is just her way of keeping him around. So if you are keeping score, "you can have a city " is princess talk for "you want to come in for a drink."

The way down to the rest of the city is through the newly flipped up wooden panel. You descent down to the bottom is a crisscrossing scaffolding of slides that makes it feel like you are in one of those marble machine construction kits. It is a bit tricky because the camera angle and the color of the path blend together. To make it easier, pay close attention for the screen to turn black and white which indicates that you should double jump.