Prince of Persia is back, not with a remake but with a reboot of the franchise, returning to its 2D action/adventure roots. The Lost Crown is the first Prince of Persia in the Metroidvania genre and it got me wondering why we didn’t get this sooner. A marriage made in heaven? Let’s find out!
A new story
As said in the introduction, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is another reboot of the long-running Ubisoft franchise and features a new protagonist and story. The kingdom of Persia has seen better days and is constantly in the grip of danger. An elite group of warriors called the Immortals are the only ones preventing Persia from kneeling for its enemies. Led by Vahram, the seven brothers and sisters in arms have fought countless battles together and caught the eye of Thomyris, Queen of Persia, who calls on the help of the Immortals to save her abducted son Prince Ghassan, the Prince of Persia. This quest takes the Immortals to Mount Qaf and its mysterious Ancient City where time doesn’t follow its natural flow at all.
You play as Sargon, the youngest of Immortals and the new hero of this game. Armed with his dual-sword combat talent and extraordinary agility, Sargon will embark on his most ambitious adventure yet to save the Prince of Persia. Sargon isn’t your ordinary hero, gifted with the ability to acquire supernatural Time powers in Mount Qaf, he’ll quickly stand a chance against the true gods of the ancient worlds. It’s a story filled with emotional connections, betrayals, and ground-shaking plot twists. The story of the Lost Crown got me hooked from the start and thanks to the many twists, it certainly kept me entertained throughout my fast-paced adventure, it’s a new direction for the franchise and I loved it.
Where the past meets the future
Prince of the Persia: The Lost Crown takes the franchise back to its past with an over-the-top 2D action/adventure game packed with tricky platform sections and tons of enemies to defeat. It’s great to see the franchise returning to where it all started but it also takes it to the future by adding a Metroidvania layer for the first time. As a Metroidvania game, you’ll learn new abilities throughout your adventure, opening up new paths on the map, which you are free to explore. Just like other Metroidvania games, there are a lot of collectibles and secrets hidden in the enormous world so it’s encouraged to explore as much as possible. Everything that makes other Metroidvania games so great is here, from unlockable maps, new skills, hidden passways, and a wide variation of enemies, you’ll never get bored exploring the world of The Lost Crown. Even when it involves a lot of backtracking. It’s a bit strange we had to wait on a Metroidvania Prince of Persia game for so long because it really makes a lot of sense. It feels like the oldskool classic got teleported to 2024 and adapted itself to the needs of modern gamers. The result is a fast-paced Metroidvania game that even innovates the genre a bit.
One of the most important things that this game does differently is its pacing and combination of complex combat and deep exploration. The exploration part feels very similar to other Metroidvania games since you’ll gradually unlock the map of the world, showing you where you can go. The game uses some interesting mechanics such as the ability to take screenshots and place them on your map, that way you won’t forget that unreachable door or treasure once you get the right skills to reach it. Besides that, you can also use a variation of icons to mark special locations on the map, making it a lot easier to navigate the maze-like world. Small innovations like that make it a lot more fun to explore the world since you’ll rarely backtrack without a good reason. Although the world is pretty huge, thanks to the options on your map and later also the fast traveling, you’ll enjoy exploring every little detail.
An agile hero
Besides that, it’s Sargon and his agility that make exploration so much fun. If you ever played the older 3D Prince of Persia games, you know that acrobatic moves were always a part of the experience. It’s something we lost to the Assassin’s Creed franchise, that kind of replaced the old Prince of Persia games. In The Lost Crown, we see one of the most agile protagonists to date and this makes the game so much smoother. Right from the start, you’re thrown into this fast-paced game where combat and exploration follow each other up at a high pace. Wall running, and pole swinging combined with special Time Powers will transform the world in your virtual playground. When you find the right momentum while platforming, you’ll have a blast with the acrobatic moves that are a huge part of the game. They also play a crucial role in some of the more complex puzzles.
Like any other self-respecting Metroidvania game, there are a lot of environmental puzzles often blocking your path. To solve them you’ll have to use your agility in combination with your weapons and special Time Powers. You can for example shoot a bell with your bow and arrow to make a temporary block appear out of nowhere. By quickly wall-jumping before these blocks disappear you can reach the next platform, but only if you use your Time Powered dash jump. It’s just one example of situations you’ll face pretty early in the game. To more you advance and the more moves you’ll unlock, the more complex the puzzles will become. Mastering and combining your moves isn’t that hard thanks to the tight controls and before you know it, you’ll be jumping and sliding your way toward the finale. It’s clear that a lot of time and love went into this traversal but it paid off.
Impressive combat and challenging bosses
That being said, combat certainly forms another major part of the game and it’s as addictive as it should. Your main weapons are your two swords but the more you progress, the better your skills will become. Pretty early on, you’ll get access to your bow and you’ll have found countless amulets to increase your stats or special characters who can power up your gear and weapons. Increasing the power of your weapons is crucial if you want to defeat the bosses but never underestimate to power that comes with some of the amulets. These amulets are hidden in the world and offer small advantages depending on the ones you equip. If you select the right amulets, you’ll deliver more powerful attacks or you’ll recharge your Athra surges faster. Athra surges are the exceptional abilities of Sargon and the reason why he’s part of the Immortals. See them as gorgeous special powers, both offense and defense. The Athra surges work as any other special attack in other games, by filling up a little bar, you can activate the special power with the push of some buttons. Switching between amulets and Athra surges is only possible at the Wak-Wak trees, small save havens that restore the health and equipment of Sargon.
All things considered, there are a lot of things put into place to make combat as accessible as possible but don’t be mistaken, this is a challenging game. When you play it on the normal difficulty setting, you’ll face challenging fights without a doubt. It’s never ‘Souls’ hard but if you want to defeat the bosses, you’ll need to learn their pattern of attack and master your timing of dodging and parrying. With over 60 different monsters and 9 bosses, the game will keep you on the edge of your seat. Combat is extremely fast-paced and those agile acrobatic moves will certainly come in handy. If you want to experience a more casual game, you can easily switch the level of difficulty to focus on the story instead of the combat, this makes it a lot easier to defeat all your enemies. The game offers different difficulty settings for its combat and exploration. If you want to discover everything without help, you can play the exploration mode where you need to find everything on your own. Not your cup of tea? Select the guided mode for easier navigation and help on your map. You can switch between these modes without losing any of your progression.
New visual style
As you can see on the screenshots, the game also comes with a new visual style that combines a cartoony look with flashy bold lines reminding me of the Borderlands style. It’s a fun style but it doesn’t make it the best-looking game in the genre. The Lost Crown isn’t really here to impress visually but focuses on fluent combat and exploration instead. The visual style didn’t bother me and from time to time, the game did manage to impress with some creative biomes and backgrounds. It’s nothing special but it gets the job done. More importantly, the performance in handheld mode impressed me. I witnessed a couple of hiccups but nothing game-breaking or worth mentioning. As a fan of handheld gaming, I loved how well this game performed on my Switch OLED and I kept coming back for more. It’s no small game either, completing this will roughly cost you 20 hours of intense gameplay, more if you want to discover everything.
Conclusion:
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great game for fans of high-paced action/adventure games with challenging combat and fun exploration. The Metroidvania layer makes sense and feels like something that should have been part of the franchise way earlier. It’s not the Sands of Time remake a lot of fans are waiting for but it also isn’t an afterthought. This is the real deal and I’m a fan of this new direction, I can only recommend playing it for yourselves!
