Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown breathes new life into the iconic series
After languishing in the archives of time, Ubisoft has brought the action-platforming classic Prince of Persia back, this time in a somewhat scaled-back shape and a sub-genre new to the series.
Taking somewhat of a gamble, The Lost Crown isn’t just a great Prince of Persia title that digs into and expands what the series can be, with interesting lore and fully leaning into the mythical elements — it’s a truly gorgeous and rewarding Metroidvania in its own right that arguably gives games like Hollow Knight and Metroid Dread a run for their money.
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As Sargon, one of a band of legendary warriors known as the Immortals, you’ll set out on a quest to save the prince and future king of Persia from a mysterious plot to take his place on the throne. With lots of twists and turns along the way, involving some interesting use of time, the adventure had us gripped from the start.
Mount Qaf is, as settings go, huge thanks to its many and varied biomes but more importantly being an extremely dangerous place to be, with death waiting for you at every drop, turn or jump, thanks to its many traps, pits of spikes and enemies all over the place.
Equipped with Sargon's swords Qays and Layla to begin with, you’ll gradually develop a full arsenal of varying weapons and time powers to experiment with and juggle as you explore the different biomes of Mount Qaf.
Combat is frenetic and multi-layered, with a suite of combos and specials at your disposal. Sargon will be tested to his limits as the enemy variations slowly build up, making for some challenging areas that require you to really master flowing between abilities, attacks and platforming in order to survive.
Athra Surges serve as your special attacks which can really turn the tide of battle in those desperate moments — they also look cool and wouldn’t be out of place in Street Fighter or Marvel vs Capcom as super combos.
The platforming elements are far from shallow as once The Lost Crown gets going, you’ll find some really brutal moments that’ll have you puzzling out exactly what abilities are needed and when — often having to switch between three or four in a hair-trigger moment to move forward. Yet somehow, the challenge always feels fair. During our time in Mount Qaf, we never felt frustrated or like we had been denied progression out of hand.
That being said, The Lost Crown has a plethora of accessibility options and clever additions to the game, meaning the barrier for entry is pretty much open for everyone.
Is the combat too difficult but you’re loving the puzzles and story? Bring the difficulty down. Struggling with remembering where things are on the expansive map? Buy a map from Fariba or with the addition of Memory Shards, you can even save a screenshot onto the exact point of the map you’re stuck, so you know to return later.
These little variations serve to progress the Metroidvania genre forward and open the doors to players of all skill levels.
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As you explore Mount Qaf, you’ll often find new amulets to equip, each offering different buffs and changes to your build of Sargon, once again helping with difficulty barriers or moulding the play experience to suit you best.
Along with the usual extra health or damage, there are some more interesting amulets to play around with should you fancy the challenge. One that we found particularly fun to experiment with increased our attack exponentially but at the cost of reducing our health to near zero.
It’s hard to talk about The Lost Crown and not discuss the art style. The environments are beautiful and rich, you can feel the tonal shift as you move between biomes, from the warm hues of the upper cities to the dinge and dark of the Sunken Harbour.
Sargon's movements and time abilities burst with shapes and colours, but the character designs themselves are great, feeling like a callback to classic games not worried about overt realism. Each character has their own painted avatar appear on screen as they talk. They’re expressive and really just cool.
Everything’s injected with an almost punky and exciting vibrancy and movement that, while seemingly minimalist or simple, just elevates the experience.
Cutscenes are often exclamation marks to tense battles and fill the screen with flashy visuals and brutal finishers akin to something you’d see in Bleach or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which filled our hearts with joy each time.
Yes, seeing the words "Prey Slaughtered" was great after beating Mergo's Wet Nurse in Bloodborne — but somehow, we think maybe this is better?
After 2023, a year in which the games industry saw so many people removed from their jobs due to what can only really be seen as corporate greed and an obsession with profits before people, assets before art, it’s good to see a big studio create something smaller but no less special. And we can only hope this happens more often and leads to a more stable industry for the talented and passionate people that makes these things possible.
2024 is here, and we’ve got a fresh Prince.
Platform reviewed on: Xbox Series X
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is out on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC on January 18, 2024.
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