The prince is back, the prince is back, oh watch out, the prince is back! After 14 years in hiding (presumably after that live-action film flop), Prince of Persia returns courtesy of Rayman Origins and Legends developers Ubisoft Montpellier, sporting a seductive 2D Metroidvania-style presentation, darting platforming, engrossing hack and slash gameplay, and wouldn’t you know-it’s utterly fantastic!
Ubi gets a bad rep for laborious open-world trudges that quickly sap enthusiasm thanks to their banality, but don’t get it twisted because Ubisoft Montpellier are the guys representing the best side of the Ubisoft developer/publisher label, the results speaking for themselves when you gaze upon how gorgeous and gracefully protagonist Sargon looks and moves. Sure, Sargon’s hair is comparatively consistent with a flavourful bowl of Kellogg’s All-Bran, but the majesty unveiled before your eyes is a work of utter brilliance.
As mentioned, you play as Sargon, a prince and member of the incomparable and prestigious Immortals clan, a band of formidable warriors fighting the good fight for all of Persia. Don’t be mistaken, Sargon is not the prince, but he is charged with rescuing Prince Ghassan after a treacherous betrayal of Anahita, Sargon’s mentor and confidante. Anahita takes Prince Ghassan up to Mount Qaf, where Sargon must play Mario to Ghassan’s venerable Princess Peach-so the hunt is most definitely on.
Straightforward setups are harmonious with the Metroidvania genre, which is why The Lost Crown is easy to understand, relatable, and keeps the majority of the focus on exploring the palatially pretty, but perilous and unpredictable nature of Mount Qaf. If you’re looking for intrigue and are wondering about why Prince Ghassan has been kidnapped, along with deeper storytelling involving magic and curses – The Lost Crown has you covered as you’d expect, but though there is some substance here, it’s rather lightweight. Afterall, story isn’t The Lost Crown‘s strong suit, but it nevertheless respects your time and knows exactly why you’re playing.
The Lost Crown‘s is undoubtedly a shining beacon of the Metroidvania genre. Not only does The Lost Crown contain a scintillating and vivacious array of platforming and combat challenges, but the way in which it sings with smoothness and a meticulous level of control helps it stand out in a genre rife with contenders.
One of the most important ingredients in making a great Metroidvania is movement, and The Lost Crown nails this fundamental spectacularly. The fast, fluid and agile movement of protagonist Sargon is delightfully slick to behold, translating gracefully to the spritely 2.5D platforming. Furthermore, Sargon’s ability to clamber from platform-to-platform, fling from wall-to-wall, and swing off bars is effortlessly zippy, providing a buttery and pleasant sense of control and movement autonomy.
Throughout your trek through Mount Qaf, you’ll continually rub royal cufflinks up against all manner of prowling pests and razor sharp contraptions. The citadel and the lands beyond are insidiously stuffed with devious rotating spike traps, and populated by conniving critters, spear-toting sentries, and sinister swooping menaces ready to pounce on Sargon and stub his momentum. You need to constantly be on your guard and don’t overlook your foes, so make the most of parrying to deflect attacks and swipe quickly and ruthlessly to survive.
There are lots of challenges to overcome in The Lost Crown, it throws a lot at you, but it’s not beyond managing. If you want to optimize your experience, there are some brilliant accessibility options that contain a bunch of sliders to customize your experience as you please. There are vision and audio adjustments and features that can aid with subtleties such as wall-jumping, showing that Ubisoft Montpellier have taken great care in trying to welcome new players into the world of Metroidvania-style platforming.
During battle, blocking and dodging is integral to your success, but the swift satisfaction of utilizing Sargon’s dual blades allows combat to flow wonderfully. Taking out fodder enemies is usually straightforward, but you need to be on your skates when they strike, so they don’t lop off chunks of your health, so it pays dividends when you can move at the pace of a thousand paparazzi snapping naughty photos. If you do take a licking and can no longer keep on ticking, you can restart at the last shrine where you saved your game to continue onwards, so you can continue your adventure without tedious backtracking.
On the subject of shrines, they’re not actually shrines but Wak Wak Trees. These sacred logs with wooden strands of hair are very useful, seeing as they can give you the chance to save your game, and also fast travel to any point on Mount Qaf where a Wak Wak Tree can be located. In addition, you can swap out amulets and generally revitalize Sargon by finding these trees spotted in and around the Mount Qaf citadel.
New to Prince of Persia are these spangling amulet modifiers you can apply to Sargon, which are powerful augmentations you can equip for offensive advantages as you rid Mount Qaf of its scum and villainy. Featuring 38 amulets in total, these buffs can turn the tide of battle in a bunch of seriously rad ways like granting you a sneaky peak of enemy health bars, gain a modicum of health after successful parries, decrease the power of oncoming melee attacks and produce a bubble that temporarily slows down time, opportunistically serving Sargon a momentary motion advantage, forming a salivating chance to slay away. Each of these amulets are labelled extravagantly.
Another new wrinkle to The Lost Crown comes in the form of Athra Surges-which are a compendium of powers harnessed by the Immortals, granting Sargon immense power during combat-that stem from a special sacred energy. Athra Surges are very useful, especially when you need to dispatch of flying pests or reign down cheeky spats at you from up high, but they’re equally great anywhere skirmishes and tight-knit tussles take you. Go grab Bahmut’s Rage and relish in the thunderous impact it produces. Furthermore, the lightening thrashes and spins Sargon performs are flashy and dazzling, they truly provide an awesome sense of mightiness that’s utterly majestic to bear witness to.
Along with amulets, Athra Surges provide Sargon with even more sources of devastation, giving this glistening new Prince of Persia a phenomenal range of abilities where you simply feel like an otherworldly deity carving caverns of brutality that sweeps vengefully throughout the citadel.
Sargon’s cat-like fluidity is felt most-exactingly during boss fights, where you can quickly swipe a few times before dodging frantically out of harm’s way, before slashing away whilst their backs are turned. Bosses carry large red health bars and you’ll need to make cerebral use of Sargon’s athletic, melee and projectile toolsets to whittle them down
Such rapidity of movement feels exquisite to behold, which should come as no surprise considering Ubisoft Montpellier’s previous work on Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends. Basically The Lost Crown is an outstanding and satisfying tale of swords, royalty and seismic beasts, held together by an immensely rewarding 2.5D platforming experience.
Besides some divisive quibbles you could make towards its animated style, The Lost Crown serenades with colour and threaded meticulously with a majestic hue. The way Sargon moves is eloquent and bosses are similarly designed with aplomb. The Lost Crown is an utterly gorgeous game that knows that it is and flexes its big princely muscles at you whenever it feels like doing so.
Similarly, the sound design packs a punch with a glorious soundtrack that compared favourably with what the series has produced in the past. The only dinger is that there could’ve been more charisma in the cast and a bolder more exacting sound design aesthetic, but what’s here is still impressive to behold.
Conclusion
Given it’s been well over a decade since a new Prince of Persia game was released, it’s understandable for one to be skeptical about The Lost Crown in spite of the development studio’s excellent pedigree. Rejoicefully, The Lost Crown has turned up at the beginning of 2024 and has laid down a remarkable gauntlet for every game to live up to this year. The combat and the electrifying assortment of powers in The Lost Crown makes battles against all of Mount Qaf’s foes a vigorously moreish delight. Yes, the characters, story and lack of charisma and personality bite is a little disappointing, but when you’ve got a joyously raucous return of Prince of Persia on full display here, any disappointment flutters away and returns into the form of pure elation. The Lost Crown is a celebration of the Metroidvania and you’ll be truly glad to come along for the ride with Sargon and company.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
