Let’s be honest. It’s been far too long between drinks for Prince of Persia. It’s been over a decade since we had a new release in the franchise. After the Sand of Time trilogy, it seemed as though Ubisoft weren’t sure what to do with the Prince. The rebooted, Nolan North voiced Prince of Persia from 2008 was a decent entry but it bumped up against Assassin’s Creed and was put out to pasture.
A return to the Sands of Time timeline with The Forgotten Sands was okay, but hardly the revolution fans had been clamouring for. Thankfully, Ubisoft has woken the Prince from his long slumber and prepares to reward fan patience with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
Having had several hours hands-on with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, I am happy to report that the Prince is indeed, very much back.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
While named Prince of Persia, the Prince himself is the “damsel-in-distress” this time round. Following an attack on Persia, Prince Ghassan is kidnapped and the Immortals are tasked with rescuing him. Sargon, the player character is a young member of the Immortals and seeks to prove his value and worth. His desperation to show just how fierce he can be seems out of place initially, but as the story unfolds and his past is revealed it starts to make more sense.
Played from a 2.5D side-scrolling perspective, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is every bit a Metroidvania title. The game’s map, Mount Qaf, is a sprawling, labyrinthine maze with branching paths, secrets, hidden areas and more. In the first few hours, I got to play, I was constantly butting up against areas I knew I’d need to come back later for. Thanks to the nifty Eye of the Wanderer tool, I was able to put a screenshot of the location I needed to remember on the map so I knew what I was coming back for.
Absolute game changer.
I also wasn’t expecting a bit of Dark Souls in my Prince of Persia, but the influence is there. Don’t worry, you won’t be dying over and over and having to traipse back to your corpse to collect your XP. However, when you do die, you’ll respawn at your most recent Wak Wak tree with all enemies back. You’ll take a slight hit to your XP too, but that’s the price of doing business.
When it comes to exploring Mount Qaf, Sargon is lousy with options. He can run, jump, slide…at first. But the more you explore and the more upgrades you acquire will see Sargon, double jumping, dashing, dashing in the air, flipping and much, much more. The traversal in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is an absolute joy and a thrill and the obstacle courses Ubisoft Montpellier have crafted to make maximum use of Sargon’s abilities are spectacular.
There’s a real rhythm to moving Sargon around Mount Qaf and a real sense of achievement when you flawlessly make your way through a deadly section. When you start to mix combat into traversal, The Lost Crown really starts to sing.
Just to be clear. I was only playing through the first four or so hours of the game so I was only scratching the surface of what’s included and on offer in the final game. Like traversal, combat starts off simply enough. Sargon wields the classic dual-blades of the Prince and can attack and parry. Parrying at the right time will open up enemies for follow-up attacks while parrying during a special yellow enemy attack allows Sargon to perform a super-powerful counterattack. If an enemy attacks you with a red attack; get the hell out of dodge. You know red attacks can’t be blocked or parried…is this your first rodeo?
Sargon eventually gains access to his Athra gauge to unleash devastating special moves that can devastate enemies and provide buffs to Sargon himself. By attacking enemies, Sargon gains Athra, but take damage and the gauge will be depleted. It’s a nice little seesaw, but on the lower difficulties, it’s pretty easy to stay ahead of the curve.
Speaking of difficulty. I started my hands-on session on the highest difficulty and friends, it’s not fucking around. At the highest difficulty setting, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will ruin you. I lost track of the number of times I died and eventually had to drop the difficulty down because there was just no way I was going to be able to get through the content on offer. Parrying and blocking windows become fractions of a second. Enemy attacks carve swathes of health off you and anything less than perfect traversal and flawless fighting will see you back at the Wak Wak tree to try again.
Difficulty purists are going to dig it. Everyone else, stick to medium.
Even after I’d unlocked some abilities, equippable Amulets (to augment my stats), upgraded weapons and armour and even a projectile weapon, the harder difficulties proved too much for me in my limited time. Maybe in the future, I’ll go back and try again, but I think the best way to see The Lost Crown the first time is on a difficulty that doesn’t risk a flying controller.
Visually, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a few steps behind, but that’s to be expected as it’s releasing on last and current-gen consoles, including Nintendo Switch. It’s far from ugly and makes good use of stylised, cartoony graphics to maximise its visual appeal. It has a nice, Saturday morning cartoon look and feel that really suits.
So far, so good. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has been a long time coming and it’s a really smart choice by Ubisoft to release a smaller-scale, 2.5D game within a proven genre. The unique qualities The Lost Crown has and sense of style and flair Ubisoft Montpellier has infused it with make it stand out from the deluge of other Metroidvanias on the market.
From my time with it, I am really looking forward to seeing more and think that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is exactly the kind of return the Prince of Persia needs.
Look forward to playing it on 18 January, 2024.
Leo Stevenson attended a hands-on event as a guest of Ubisoft Australia. Airfares were provided by Ubisoft Australia.
