Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the type of game I want to see more like from AAA studios. It’s gameplay forward, ultra stylish, and more than anything focused. Also a feature I wish more big-budget games would mimic: it explores all its ideas in less than 30 hours. While I had a few nagging gripes with some of the design choices and the occasional bug, I’ll remember my time on Mount Qaf by the ultra satisfying exploration and immensely well-made bosses.
Arguably, the most important aspect of a metroidvania is its world design. I’m thrilled to say The Lost Crown’s world is a joy to navigate. It features just enough openness to feel exciting while not being overwhelming. On a micro scale, it features all the tried and true methods of gating progress: one-way doors, magical barriers, and ledges that are just out of reach. Enemy and hazard placements range from predictable to devilish and make every room have its own unique identity. The majority of said rooms are fundamentally different to navigate depending on which direction you’re coming from as well! The optional activities have a little something for every type of player. There’s walled in combat trials for the fighter freaks. There’s precise traversal challenges for the platforming peoples. There’s esoteric puzzle rooms for people with bad taste. Mount Qaf doles out worthwhile rewards anytime you stray off the beaten path. When it was all said and done, I finished the game at a little over 80% completion on my file and I was not going for a completionist run. It feels like the design encourages exploration at every step of the journey and that just aligns super well with how I like to play games.
The other main pillar of metroidvania design is combat. While I tend to be more attracted to the slow, deliberate combat of titles like Hollow Knight, I think Prince of Persia succeeds in adapting fast-paced, stylish action combat to 2D. Fights in The Lost Crown almost feel like a platform fighter and that sense only increases as you unlock more Simurgh Feather upgrades. You’re constantly parrying/dodging attacks, juggling enemies in the air and dashing around the combat space. It’s a lot to keep track of and even after I defeated the final boss on the 2nd hardest difficulty, I felt like I had only scratched the surface on what Sargon was capable of. In terms of progressing your power, Ubisoft Montpellier didn’t reinvent the wheel. You got your big traversal upgrades gained through story content, health/weapon stat increases, a few ultimate-type abilities and a copy/paste version of the charm system from Hollow Knight. Part of me wishes they would have sprung for some more interesting upgrade systems here but what’s in place gets the job done. The only building block here that doesn’t work for me is some of the enemy designs. Near the end of the game, oftentimes enemies would have attacks that lock you into a set animation. The visuals of these moments were well done but they really put a stop to the momentum of combat in a way that got really annoying. One enemy in particular kept grabbing me and exploding for half my health bar over and over and over again. Souls games have enemies like this that prove to be extremely memorable but since this combat system is so much faster, it just doesn’t really fit. Most bosses also had attacks that did this but the spectacle of a boss fight made it feel much more appropriate.
The narrative was fine. It had some moments but really I wasn’t super invested. It centers around a cast of Persian mercenaries (but like the good kind that are on your side) and their trying to chase down someone who kidnapped the titular Prince of Persia. Then it eventually devolves into fighting god which is of course the only thing you could hope for in any video game story. It’s just fine. I just didn’t really care but the flashy visuals of the cutscenes made up for a lack of anything interesting going on in the plot.
Now is the part of the review where I gush about the art. Good golly gosh this game has style. The style is not in its deeply detailed environment art or its admittedly not-super-engaging character designs. No, this game’s style is in its VFX and Tech Art. What is the style of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown? It’s shiny, iridescent shapes with sharp edges. Your eyes can easily go blind to just how beautiful the VFX is after a few hours submerged in this world but if you watch gameplay and really pay attention to them, it’s unreal. The typical 3-hit attack combo is exploding with energy. Your mid-air dash is a work of art. Every single verb that Sargon can perform is just bathed in this sheer essence of style. I absolutely love it. A lesser game would just use some generic whooshy white particles but The Lost Crown makes a statement here that the team has some extremely talented tech artists. And it’s performant! The game runs at 60fps on Switch and 120fps on everything else! I will take Style over Fidelity every day of the week.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown left a lasting impression on me. It wasn’t something I was fiending for at every hour of the day. It was an experience that respected my time and had me coming back a few times a week for a quick session. I’m sick and tired of these 100 hour open world games slurping up all my time. Give me more The Lost Crown level games from immensely talented teams. I’ll take a TotK or Elden Ring every few years but unless you got that level of juice in the tank, stick to this streamlined, concise model. Rant over. The point here is that regardless of length or scope, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great video game. It’s worth your dollars. Buy it so Ubisoft gets the message but more so buy it because it’s a fantastic metroidvania.
Arguably, the most important aspect of a metroidvania is its world design. I’m thrilled to say The Lost Crown’s world is a joy to navigate. It features just enough openness to feel exciting while not being overwhelming. On a micro scale, it features all the tried and true methods of gating progress: one-way doors, magical barriers, and ledges that are just out of reach. Enemy and hazard placements range from predictable to devilish and make every room have its own unique identity. The majority of said rooms are fundamentally different to navigate depending on which direction you’re coming from as well! The optional activities have a little something for every type of player. There’s walled in combat trials for the fighter freaks. There’s precise traversal challenges for the platforming peoples. There’s esoteric puzzle rooms for people with bad taste. Mount Qaf doles out worthwhile rewards anytime you stray off the beaten path. When it was all said and done, I finished the game at a little over 80% completion on my file and I was not going for a completionist run. It feels like the design encourages exploration at every step of the journey and that just aligns super well with how I like to play games.
The other main pillar of metroidvania design is combat. While I tend to be more attracted to the slow, deliberate combat of titles like Hollow Knight, I think Prince of Persia succeeds in adapting fast-paced, stylish action combat to 2D. Fights in The Lost Crown almost feel like a platform fighter and that sense only increases as you unlock more Simurgh Feather upgrades. You’re constantly parrying/dodging attacks, juggling enemies in the air and dashing around the combat space. It’s a lot to keep track of and even after I defeated the final boss on the 2nd hardest difficulty, I felt like I had only scratched the surface on what Sargon was capable of. In terms of progressing your power, Ubisoft Montpellier didn’t reinvent the wheel. You got your big traversal upgrades gained through story content, health/weapon stat increases, a few ultimate-type abilities and a copy/paste version of the charm system from Hollow Knight. Part of me wishes they would have sprung for some more interesting upgrade systems here but what’s in place gets the job done. The only building block here that doesn’t work for me is some of the enemy designs. Near the end of the game, oftentimes enemies would have attacks that lock you into a set animation. The visuals of these moments were well done but they really put a stop to the momentum of combat in a way that got really annoying. One enemy in particular kept grabbing me and exploding for half my health bar over and over and over again. Souls games have enemies like this that prove to be extremely memorable but since this combat system is so much faster, it just doesn’t really fit. Most bosses also had attacks that did this but the spectacle of a boss fight made it feel much more appropriate.
The narrative was fine. It had some moments but really I wasn’t super invested. It centers around a cast of Persian mercenaries (but like the good kind that are on your side) and their trying to chase down someone who kidnapped the titular Prince of Persia. Then it eventually devolves into fighting god which is of course the only thing you could hope for in any video game story. It’s just fine. I just didn’t really care but the flashy visuals of the cutscenes made up for a lack of anything interesting going on in the plot.
Now is the part of the review where I gush about the art. Good golly gosh this game has style. The style is not in its deeply detailed environment art or its admittedly not-super-engaging character designs. No, this game’s style is in its VFX and Tech Art. What is the style of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown? It’s shiny, iridescent shapes with sharp edges. Your eyes can easily go blind to just how beautiful the VFX is after a few hours submerged in this world but if you watch gameplay and really pay attention to them, it’s unreal. The typical 3-hit attack combo is exploding with energy. Your mid-air dash is a work of art. Every single verb that Sargon can perform is just bathed in this sheer essence of style. I absolutely love it. A lesser game would just use some generic whooshy white particles but The Lost Crown makes a statement here that the team has some extremely talented tech artists. And it’s performant! The game runs at 60fps on Switch and 120fps on everything else! I will take Style over Fidelity every day of the week.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown left a lasting impression on me. It wasn’t something I was fiending for at every hour of the day. It was an experience that respected my time and had me coming back a few times a week for a quick session. I’m sick and tired of these 100 hour open world games slurping up all my time. Give me more The Lost Crown level games from immensely talented teams. I’ll take a TotK or Elden Ring every few years but unless you got that level of juice in the tank, stick to this streamlined, concise model. Rant over. The point here is that regardless of length or scope, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great video game. It’s worth your dollars. Buy it so Ubisoft gets the message but more so buy it because it’s a fantastic metroidvania.