When I played some of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown at PAX Australia 2023, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, given the last few entries in the franchise have been very dull. But I couldn’t have predicted just how good the game would be and how lucky Metroidvania fans would be to have such a fantastic new entry in the genre this early in 2024. With fantastic combat that features some anime-level intense boss battles, fluid and challenging platforming and time-bending puzzle mechanics, this is the most exciting Prince of Persia has felt since the early 2000s.
Let’s start with what could be a controversial decision for the franchise: you don’t play as a Prince of Persia. Instead, you play as Sargon, a Persian warrior who is part of a group called the ‘Immortals,’ which are like the secret service for the Persian royal family. When the Prince is kidnapped by one of the Immortals, he tracks them beside the Immortals to Mount Qaf, which used to be part of the kingdom during King Darius’ time but has become a mysterious ruin since then. It’s a spiralling mountain with underground catacombs, a prosperous city somehow day and night simultaneously and more than a few secrets to discover. Mount Qaf was also home to Simurgh, the God of Time and Knowledge and once protector of the Persians, but the Simurgh has been missing for a long time. However, inside the mountain, Sargon and co soon realize that time isn’t moving at an average pace, and more than a few odd characters seem to have been trapped here for 30+ years.
Like all good Metroidvanias, you’ll explore and double back in areas with new abilities later in the game. Sargon starts with some basic moves in combat, like the ability to counter and dodge. Still, by the end of the game, there’s the ability to create a shadow and quickly transport yourself to that position, a double jump, dash, bow and more that takes the boss fights of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown to the next level. Ordinary combat encounters range from grunt-like enemies Sargon can despatch pretty efficiently to armoured thugs and enemies that feel like mini-bosses. You can never mash the attack button and end up in a victory. And with a limited amount of health, unless you want to seek out collectables to upgrade Sargon’s health, you’ll die quickly if you’re not careful. Sargon does carry a potion he can use to replenish his health, but again, you’ll need to spend time and currency to upgrade that past one use per checkpoint.
I need to double down on how great the boss battles are in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Each creature or human enemy you face gets a flashy introduction screen with their name, the music is fantastic, and the battles are usually two or three phases with the edge-of-your-seat balancing of parrying, dodging, and whittling down their health bars. They are very challenging, but there’s a fantastic feeling in each victory, and even though we’re only a couple weeks into the year, I know some of these fights will be some of my favourites for the year.
On the other side of the game’s two main components, the platforming can be just as challenging in all of the game’s optional areas and the main story path in the second half of the game. As soon as Sargon gets a couple of new abilities, the platforming starts creeping more toward Celeste’s territory with extended areas of spikey blocks hanging from the roof and floor, requiring Sargon to time his abilities to make it across. I loved these platforming sections, even as challenging as they were. However, while playing the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode a couple of times, my hands ended up in odd cramps attempting to quick momentum carrying and precision-based actions.
Worry not if the talk of combat and platforming difficulties have you squirming, as the game has plenty of accessibility sections to help you. You can switch the combat difficulty up and down as you please and customize it to your liking. The platforming sections can also be skipped with an option to teleport through them. Even Mount Qaf’s map world can be ‘guided’ or ‘exploration.’ The latter is more like a traditional Metroidvania with zero help to guide you in the right direction. In contrast, the ‘guided’ option will place an icon on the map and tell you where your next objective is, and it’ll also make inaccessible doors red so you know you need to come back later with a new upgrade or power. I started in exploration but soon switched to guided as I found the limited icon on the map still meant I had to explore to find my way there, but at least I knew roughly where I was heading and didn’t have to bang my head against walls trying to find where to go.
The option to play Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in so many ways is just one way the team at Ubisoft Montpellier is improving the Metroidvania genre. But the most significant addition to the game, and one I can never go without in a Metroidvania again, are ‘Memory Shards.’ These markers allow you to place a screenshot from where you’re currently standing. So when you spot a chest you can’t reach, a collectable you use you need new power for or a door that needs a key, you can mark these on your map but also have a visual reference. Later, when you get a new ability, you can loop back to your Memory Shards and see what areas in Mount Qaf you can access or what chests and collectables you’ll now be able to reach. It’s such a simple feature in premise, but it’s a game-changer for the genre.
You’ll have no problems re-exploring areas of Mount Qaf thanks to handy fast-travel points around each of the game’s main areas. Aesthetically, it’s a beautiful place to explore, and even on the Nintendo Switch with a lower resolution compared to the other platforms, I still found the art direction to carry such rich inspiration from Persia and Persian mythology.
Although Sargon and the main antagonist are both well-developed, their linked story plays out in a non-traditional way that I appreciate. Much of the supporting cast doesn’t get anywhere near as much time to shine, and this is where the game falters somewhat. It could be because introducing a group of 8 highly intriguing ‘Immortals’ is too many, or this game simply couldn’t give them all a great backstory. Maybe it’s the art department’s fault because I wanted to know more about each of these characters and was highly disappointed when some of these disappeared quickly in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The voice acting, at least in English, is also a mixed bag, and many of the main characters are rather dull. One character even sounds like Siri voiced it (edit: it’s text-so-speech, thanks IGN!)
