Prince of Persia is a series stepped in sadism, and I have 35 years of PTSD to prove it. In the 1989 original, Broderbund hurled me into the deep end of spike impalings, chomper dismemberment, and blood-curdling shrieks as I meteored down to my deaths. In the 2000s, Ubisoft augmented that torment by shifting us into 3D brawling plus the timeless bastardry of fourth-dimensional traps.
As you’d expect, the escalation of dev-on-player abuse reaches new heights in this reboot, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. It mushes the deliciously cruel platforming of a classic Metroidvania into the relentless siege of a colossus boss fightin’, bonfire respawnin’ Soulslike. It also radically recasts the hero of the franchise and delivers a generous runtime of 20-25 hours, too.
In short, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a modern take on abuse that exceeded my middling expectations and surprised me at almost every turn. For the life of me—many of them measured in embarrassingly short increments—I couldn’t put this down.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
For no good reason that I can discern from this side of the end credits, Ubisoft is slipping us into the parachute pants of Sargon, a non-Prince. That being said, what he lacks in heir-apparentness, he more than makes up for in stylish dreadlocks, ‘tude, and Avenger-level combat abilities. Dude is basically the Captain America lynchpin of a Persian Super Friends called The Immortals.
Long story (of mostly visual comics) short, you and this crew become locked in a 2.5D, reality-bending funhouse that’s semi-open-world. As time goes on, your simple quest to save a kidnapped royal spins out of control as supernatural forces, paranoia, and good old-fashioned in-fighting derail your heroics.
I’ll not spoil much more beyond that basic premise. The narrative here is perfectly serviceable, though the attempts at emotional plot twists don’t quite hit their targets full-on. When it comes to Sargon himself, he definitely leans more towards the cocky hero we saw in 2004’s Warrior Within. And I’m happy to say that the somewhat abrasive brashness he sports in Act 1 mellows as the horrors of Mount Qaf humble him.
All in all, Sargon’s a better rejig on the last “Prince” we got, who was basically Nolan North playing Nolan North at a slightly higher pitch.
Truth be told, the story is kinda secondary for most PoP fans—puzzle platforming and dextrous swordplay are why we tie our sash on in the morning. Both of the pillars are not only represented here, they’re the strongest versions this franchise has ever seen.
After a bit of exploration, the former is laid with the solid foundations you’d expect—wall-running, double jumping, and air-dashes. Soon enough, this is layered further with the ability to mark/recall mini-respawn points, dimensional shifting to enable/disable level elements, and the use of arrows/grapple hooks on distant switches or handholds. I also dig the inclusion of a boomerang-esque chakram that can also be used as a short-range teleportation device.
To their credit, Ubisoft leverages all of these abilities in increasingly taxing ways. Basic traversal around the castle will constantly have you scratching your head on how to proceed (or even if you can in this particular section). The fog of war map design is also fond of luring you into thinking a straight-line approach to a big obvious objective marker is best when in fact you need to loop around in a much more roundabout way.
Fair warning, traveller: Mount Qaf is a proper huge playspace, and finding one of the fairly few and far-between Fast Travel points comes with a great sense of relief. You’ll feel the same excitement whenever you notice some telltale yellow leaf debris (and golden “breeze” lines) that signify a nearby Wak Wak tree. It’s standard Dark Souls bonfire rules here—your life pips and health potions replenish, plus you can reconfigure your two Athra Moves or perk-providing Amulets.
The former are L2-modifier, meter-fed superattacks that are fuelled or diminished by landing attacks or copping damage, respectively. Going through blind on Immortal difficulty, I didn’t use too many of these because I was absorbing constant abuse, desperately trying to read and memorize boss attacks. If you don’t do some serious “pre-game” grinding, many of their hits are insta-kills.
I’d like to tell you the incidental, low-level combat is more forgiving, but it pretty much isn’t. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown loves to spawn in extra foes just outside of your hit reach, right as you’re corralling on-screen grunts into a manageable multi-person thrashing. More often than not, you’ll overextend on a combo and become locked in as an incoming unblockable (or obviously parryable) attack winds up against you.
Restraint must become thy new religion if you hope to outwit this cast of 60+ enemy archetypes. It also helps to have razor-sharp reflexes to either dodge beyond the first hit of a longer ganking or to parry it for a one-hit counter-execution.
Speaking of, I have to say how surprised I was by the complexity of the combat system. Sargon has quite a wide repertoire of combos that makes cunning use of launchers, down-slams, dash kicks and combo integration of his sub-weapons. When it comes to satisfaction, Sargon delivers princely rewards in terms of responsiveness and fun factor. The multi-phase boss battles in particular had me on the edge of my seat (and health bar) more often than not.
Honestly, Ubi Montpellier’s top-tier art department is responsible for a lot of that satisfaction. In terms of attention to detail and presentation, TLC looks and runs like an ultra-violent Rayman Legends on methamphetamines. You’re getting superb attack animations and showy special effects that inject extra oomph into every slash, dash, and DragonBall-level super move you do.
Those props extend to the environmental artists who have made Mount Qaf one of the most captivating…er, inescapable death traps in recent memory. The only thing more impressive than these luscious 2D backdrops is how visually diverse each of the 13 biomes are. Be that is may, though, these radically shifting environments always manage to retain their readability from a puzzle perspective.
Whichever way you look at it, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is another fine entry in the modern-era Metroidvania renaissance. It absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as games like Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and Metroid Dread. Furthermore, the ‘Avatar Formerly Known as Prince’ proves to be a decent refresher on a beloved OG gaming hero.
My fellow long-time fans should forget all fears of this being an evolutionary misstep. The various pitfalls one must avoid when rebooting a series—see Prince of Persia (2008)—have been expertly dodged. After a series of impressive new acrobatics, Ubisoft has effectively landed Sargon on a rock-solid foothold from which to leap into a sequel. Or, hopefully, two.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was reviewed on PS5 using code provided by Ubisoft.
