Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, the Way of Metroid We Go

Ubisoft has finally decided to give Prince of Persia fans yet another game in this long-forgotten series. The road has been nothing short of rocky, from a number of supposedly canceled games to a game that has been in development for a few years now. It seemed like they would just give up on this franchise, and then Nintendo launched Metroid Dread, and somehow Ubisoft knew exactly what direction to take this series in.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the latest game in this platforming series, and the first major entry after The Lost Sands, and it does not feature the prince. In this game, players actually explore a world looking for the prince so they can save him from his kidnappers in the ancient and mystical city of Mount Qaf. Let’s take a look at everything that makes this game worth playing.

Ubisoft has found the best way to bring this series to a modern world

Prince of Persia has been the darling of all platformer fans for a long time. Gamers have literally started their lives in gaming with this franchise. Fans might still remember the game that Jordan Mechner designed all on his own. That game was a 2D platformer, and then the series evolved into 3D. But now, almost 14 years after its last major installment, Prince of Persia is back, and that too in a 2.5D avatar.

And it looks like looking back at the moment where it all started has really worked for the franchise. The Lost Crown excels in the form of a fast-paced 2D action-adventure title. And on the way, it also introduces some interesting new features that are first for the franchise.

Gameplay

On the surface, The Lost Crown is a 2D action-adventure platformer. And it is incredible at doing what it is tasked with. The protagonist, Sargon, runs, jumps, does all the aerobics, and even fights with grace. And the surrounding levels are designed to show exactly that. Every new screen in this game asks players to perform a certain action; it feels like the developers just want players to see how smooth that platforming is. And that’s not even an overstatement; from the very start, this game is full of complex platforming scenarios. And moves-wise, everything is here too, from wall jumps to wall runs. Sargon might not be the prince, but he knows how to move like him.

Combat is something even better. Players have their usual attack that can be done using a single button. Then there’s parry, which is done using the LT, or L2, if you are playing on a PlayStation console. And parrying in this game works just the way it works in Metroid Dread. If an enemy’s weapon shimmers before attacking the player, that means they can parry that enemy, leading to an instant kill counterattack. Normal attacks can be parried too, but they would only stun an enemy.

Now this does not make parrying an instant kill easy mode for the game. Enemies get harder and harder to parry as the game advances, and this game has no shortage of enemies to combat either, so keeping a close eye on those signs of when one should parry becomes increasingly necessary. There’s also a slide mechanic that players use with RT or R2. They can slide from under the obstacles and even dodge those non-parryable enemy attacks, too. Sargon is equipped with a pair of curved blades and a bow. He can fire those arrows to take down distant enemies.

A curious twist for Metroidvania fans

All the combat and transversal mechanics are packed into a very nice little package by a bunch of Metroidvania mechanics. For gamers who are unaware, metroidvania is a term coined for Metroid and Castlevania games. Both games give players large maps to explore. On their way, they would find certain unreachable locations that they could remember and come back to after they had corrected their tools to reach them.

Revisiting the parts of a map is the one thing that makes these games stand apart, and that’s what Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown does, too. But this game also gives fans something brand new. After years of getting lost in Metroidvania maps and not remembering where players saw that area where they had to return, Ubisoft has given fans a solution. They now allow players to take images of an unreachable area so they can take a look at it and know exactly where to go back and what they would get if they went back there. It’s a very small thing, but it makes a lot of difference.

Finally, there are some special abilities that players can use when they fill Athra’s glow bar. This bar fills when players achieve perfect parries.

No doubt, Ubisoft took a lot of inspiration from Metroid Dread for this game. But this game has a lot going for it on its own too. Its platforming is impeccable, and its combat is so fast-paced and exciting that players will not get tired of it anytime soon.

A story carried by its gameplay

While the gameplay of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is just too good, its story is just okay. For starters, players play as Sargon, who is part of a bunch of egoistic superhumans who call themselves “The Immortals.” They are in search of the kidnapped prince Ghassan. This search brings them to Mount Qaf, where, due to some mysterious otherworldly power, things have gone somewhat weird.

Eventually, it is revealed that the person who is responsible for this kidnapping is someone Sargon knows very well. While it does play with a twist, there’s nothing in this game’s story that would surprise its gamers. They would always find themselves more focused on exploring the sprawling levels and fighting those varied enemies. It’s a serviceable story that would be rude to spoil but is not something to be taken very seriously.

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Just play the game and uncover its secrets, as this is one of the few games released last year that would be a pleasure to platinum on PlayStation.

Visuals

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has visuals that do not stand out much. Yes, it is a very good-looking game and no doubt it runs very well on pretty much every platform out there. But it leaves a lot to be desired. And no, this is not about the fancy ray tracing and stuff. See, this game is developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, a well-known studio for games like Rayman Legends and Valiant Hearts: Coming Home.

In art style, the above-mentioned games are miles ahead of what Prince of Persia has to offer. It’s a 2.5D action-adventure platformer that looks clean and runs incredibly well on a Nintendo Switch. But one can’t help but wonder what they were capable of and what made them limit themselves in this matter.

Still, when looking at this game objectively, it looks pretty good. The lighting is awesome, the character design is very well done, and the environments are variable and immersive. When one stops thinking about what could have been, they kind of love what they have. That’s the case here; thinking about finally getting a well-made Prince of Persia title is enough to love this game for what it is.

So Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a very good game with engaging gameplay and a bunch of tricks up its sleeve. It has a story that is mediocre at best and visuals that are clean and beautiful. One would say it’s everything a Prince of Persia fan needs at this moment; after all, gameplay has always been a staple of this series, and The Lost Crown has that.

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