Ok, wish I could help you, but I simply can't. I don't know.

As for the guard, you really need to lure him out by doing one of those blocks that flow into attacks. For the rest buttonbashing still helps. Quick successions of attacks and blocks. The guy does have a counterattack which really is lightning fast and pretty much unblockable, but he rarely uses it.
He's the most difficult opponent in the game, but easily beatable once you get the hang of it. Playing with him and defeating him using multiple techniques is actually one of my favorite pasttimes in the game :D

I also won the game several times without cheating, one had to get pretty good at it but it was by no means impossible, and I think that not that hard. Or is there something I'm missing?

I never cared about the time, however, and didn't even know about the cheats.

Both good games - agreed, though I think PoP2 relies on the storyline much more than PoP (which is a good thing imo) - but the combat system.....You'll never get into those lengthy sword-battles in PoP2, like the one with the fat guy, or the lvl 8 def guard in PoP, where just a single exchance can take several seconds.....

/Raasted

I was wondering if you just have to practice the tricky things in the game or if there are shortcuts that make you quicker - sort of.
I remember the game to be a very tough one and I never played through ever since. :ranting:

I always felt that it was mostly a matter of knowing exactly what to do when. Basically knowing all the traps by heart because they'd killed you so often before... :bleh:
Not that many shortcuts as far as I remember, except for the spectacular one in what-was-it-again where you jump down, hang onto a ledge, drop and the entire level is finished. Now that was a time saver!

I can happilly say that I killed the crud out of the 8th level and got to the 9th a few days ago. I found out a system to beat the 8th lvl guard and the fat guy.
Fat guy - just block and strike until he is exhausted and gets killed.
8th lvl guard - hold shift + step forward, then quickly block and strike. Works every time.
Stuck however on 9th level - nowhere to go, tried everywhere... :blink:

level 9? that's a tricky one. if i remember you go left, up, right then up and then left. and watch those green potions. don't drink them. one of them turns you upside down :not_ok:

but lemme check...

edit: i couldn't find the right solution in my quicky. but since if you go left there is nothing that would open the door. instead of going immediatelly left, try moving still up when you reach that guard on the top right corner. maybe there is something there. i can't remember exactly...

Correct me if I'm wrong - but isn't lvl 9 the one were you have to get help from the little mouse (he opens the gate for you when you're haning from the ledge) - or is that one lvl 8?

Concerning the PoP/PoP2 - I have now replayed PoP2, and I think I know what I meant with the inferior combat system. It is basicly the same, but it feels like the prince reacts a little slower in PoP2 (it has nothing to do with the speed of the game or the machine it runs on) - it may be imaginary, but it sure does feel like that...

Corrected. The level 9 is the one with two green potions. one flips you arround the other one flips you back (players, do not touch them!).

Thanks for the corection - though I would like the corect answer with it :ok:

/Raasted