Prince of Persia The Lost Crown Review

"Metroid of Persia"

Campaign

January 17, 2024 at 7:41pm
By Jason Stettner

It’s been quite awhile since we’ve had a Prince of Persia game. At least, a proper new entry and that time period has been about a decade and a half. We have here a return to form with a style reminiscent of that which is a Metroidvania, or well it hits that genre perfectly well. The adventure starts with a heavy focus on cinematics and establishing the world.

You play as Sargon, a younger member of the Immortals and one that helps turn the tide of war in favor of Persia. Things go horribly wrong however when a mentor of Sargon kidnaps the young prince and you’re sent off to go find him. Again, a slow burning start that begins teaching you mechanics and the real magic begins once you start freely exploring.

Sure, there are some cinematic moments that show up while you play but once those guide rails are off you really are free to tackle this openly which was fun. You can choose a sort of guided way for waypoints or the freedom to explore with clues on where you’re to head.

It’s an interesting initial choice and really sets the stage for discovery. The world also opens up further as you begin to gather new abilities, take on dangerous bosses and figure out the overall mystery of this location.

There are teases of time being a bit different here and of course some other secrets or well references in the forms of collectibles or other aspects you may stumble upon while going about. The story itself is rather lengthy and quite well done from a structuring standpoint.

It’s straight forward to follow, but there are areas where you can visit and feel rewarded. Spots to revisit with new abilities and a sense of actual progression as you visit creative areas. When you go through it you’re also able to revisit the places to find what’s left, so no new game plus that I noticed there in case you were wondering.

Gameplay

As mentioned this is a Metroidvania experience. It’s a 2.5D sidescrolling game with platforming elements at the center. You’ll battle enemies using some swords, a bow and other little tricks you discover slowly over the course of this very lengthy adventure. The difficulty also scales up greatly as you progress, but luckily the game has great accessibility options so technically anyone should be able to play this.

You’re also able to do things the traditional way where you build your character up with abilities and benefits you discover. Though honestly I needed to use some help elements difficulty wise as some of the later bosses were insanely grueling and I just couldn’t even track what was happening.

That was also the case with some platforming elements. I wouldn’t call it the most difficult platformer I’ve worked through but there are some very tiring parts in the late game. Nothing impossible, it just can cause some fatigue. Especially with the pacing I was going through the game at to get this completed.

It’s not normally overly hardcore, but some of the spaces did require extensive and perfectly executed platforming over a lengthier gap of time which could be a lot to handle. The presentation here is actually really well done. It doesn’t necessarily push technical boundaries visually but the use of cinematic gameplay with regular movement was nice and felt fresh here.

The music was excellent and I liked the aesthetic direction. If you’re on Xbox Series X you get a 4k resolution at 120fps which can feel buttery smooth. The world is also well crafted past that in the sense that can generally tell where to go. Checkpoints have yellow sparkles leading to them, the walls are marked in a logical way and your map is very helpful.

Probably a bit of advancement for the genre, you can make an image marketing to remember a space on your map which was nice to see. They space the world out nicely as well, balancing the variety of foes and the biomes you visit along the way. Each area is unique, the challenges are distinct and the puzzles can have an edge but were fun to figure out as you’d visit them with various abilities you gather while progressing.

The Conclusion

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is a great Metroidvania experience providing a lengthy, challenging adventure that balances cinematics with gameplay while also evolving the genre. I was rather impressed by what this had to offer and just how much there was to do here. It had really well setup cinematic moments that helped establish the world and that mixed in with regular gameplay very effectively.

You really got to understand your core character, and you met interesting individuals along the way. The boss battles were varied, although at times a bit overwhelming. There are neat elements here that maybe lean into a Dark Souls like balance difficulty wise but with such varied accessibility options or even in-game ways to upgrade your tools I don’t believe it’ll be something that will be out of the realms of completion for anyone.

They actually really did quite nail this one. It’s fun, I liked exploring and it’s got a whole lot going on. From collectibles, to references and many things you can do outside of the very lengthy core setup. The visuals were well done and it felt very smooth to move through it aside from the sewers which I somehow went the wrong way in. I felt like my character steadily improved and I enjoyed seeing that enhancement over time.

This one is also very satisfying in terms of how everything progresses and while I don’t normally fully indulge in this genre I did quite like this one. Outside of some grueling bits here or there it was a very well done effort that I’m sure many will enjoy. It was also just really nice to get a new Prince of Persia game, it almost feels like the franchise has been lost to the sands of time. I’d actually love a sequel to this or another similar type of entry within the overall series despite loving the 3D line of games.

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Prince of Persia The Lost Crown Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by Ubisoft

Rating Overall: 8.6