Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Ubisoft Montpellier, the studio behind the beloved Rayman Legends, recently previewed their upcoming 2D action adventure platformer, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. We had a chance to go hands-on with an early build of the game, playing on both PC and Nintendo Switch for around two hours.
A Return to the Core Ingredients
In a presentation, director Munir Radhey spoke of a desire to bring back the core ingredients of Prince of Persia platforming puzzle-solving, time-based powers, and a sense of adventure. This new outing is set in a legendary Persia that is described as an age of heroes and gods. Players take on the role of Sargon, a young and impetuous hero, who is part of a superhero-esque gang of seven warriors known as The Immortals.
A Striking Visual Style
Immediately apparent is the game’s striking visual style, combining 3D foreground environments with painterly backgrounds. Its vast world is made up of several visually distinct biomes. Beams of light beat down over the deserted streets of the lower city, leaves drift serenely through an autumnal forest, and sand dunes swallow crumbled ruins in the depths beneath the city. The backgrounds are richly detailed and are clearly intended to demonstrate Persia’s rich environmental diversity.
The Quest to Rescue the Prince
Sargon and the Immortals journey to Mount Caf, a land cursed with time anomalies, to rescue the kidnapped son of the Queen of Persia, presumably the titular Prince. Whether the game has anything innovative of its own to offer remains to be seen.
Sargon Explores Mount Calf
Pop culture has often portrayed deserts and temples in a high fantasy setting, but Sargon is about to explore something much more behemothic. Mount Calf is a land of lava-fueled forges, floating scripture, sand-filled caves, and broken statues frozen in mid-air, all bound by a temporal curse.
A Metroidvania Adventure
Sargon’s journey through Mount Calf is a modern metroidvania experience. The world is interconnected, allowing for plenty of exploration, shortcuts, and secrets. Traversing the world is effortless, thanks to Ubisoft Montpellier’s 2D platforming heritage. Navigation is subtle, occasionally nudging you in the right direction, but with multiple exits in each room, there are plenty of challenges and rewards to discover.
Platforming Pleasures
The demo did not include a tutorial, but all of the modern platformer moves are present and correct, from air dashing to wall jumping. Getting from A to B is a constant delight, and the series’ infamous traps make a welcome return in the form of platforming puzzles. Later in the game, a challenging run hinted at the kind of twitchy, pixel-perfect platforming pleasures found in Hollow Knight.
Combat Encounters
Sargon has a pair of swords and a quick-fire bow that can transform into a chakram-esque boomerang. Dodging and parrying is fundamental to success in combat encounters.
High Risk, High Reward Combat System
The combat system in Sargon is high risk, high reward. Enemies dish out significant punishment for poorly timed moves, so players must be careful and precise in their actions. Sargon has a variety of combat powers that seem drawn from the catalog of generic 2D video game special moves. These include a powerful wave attack, a lunging thrust and an area of effect healing spell. Certain enemy attacks, indicated by flashing eyes, trigger special counter moves if successfully parried and can function as an instant kill against grunts or an opportunity to take a sizable chunk from a boss’s health bar.
Smooth and Responsive Gameplay
The Lost Crown appears to run at a locked 60 FPS even on Nintendo Switch, making the combat feel fluid and responsive. Sargon’s animations and movements throughout the world are underpinned by prominent anime inspired visual flourishes. Dash moves trigger a flash of abstract color and instant kill parries include dynamic 3D camera moves, dramatic color shifts and super satisfying animations. It looks impressive and is designed to be in service of how the game feels, much like special moves and counters in 2D fighting games. A successful parry is as much an aesthetic reward as mechanical.
Time Powers at Sargon’s Disposal
Sargon has time powers at his disposal, thanks to Simmer, a mythical bird and god of time and knowledge drawn from real Persian legend. In the preview, these abilities were limited to an air dash and a kind of teleporting power, known as the Shadow of Simmer. Players can crystallize their shadow of Sargon in a particular place and then teleport back into it at the press of a button, warping through hazards and enemies. As they do so, the move is accompanied by a satisfying rewind sound.
The Sands of Time
The Sands of Time is a power that only affects the main character, Sargon. This power allows Sargon to navigate past mobile hazards or pop up behind enemies, as the shadow can be crystallized at any point, including in mid air or during a combo. This opens up many opportunities for combat and exploration.
Persian Folklore
The game features a number of creatures, friends and foes, drawn directly from Persian folklore. The development team was keen to ensure accurate and sensitive representation of Persian mythology. One boss battle sees players fight a fierce semanticore, a creature widely seen across Greek, Egyptian and medieval arts, but the team was keen to highlight its roots in Persian mythology.
Love Letter to the Franchise
The development team is keen to acknowledge the franchise’s own mythology too. Animations frequently reference past entries, such as a finisher that directly quotes the iconic acrobatic vault from the Sands of Time trilogy and a mini boss, lifted directly from the 1989 original, albeit reworked, into a much more traditional combat encounter. Their hope is that The Lost Crown is not a reboot of the franchise, but a love letter to it.
Familiar Notes
If this short preview is anything to go by, The Lost Crown feels an awful lot like a case of familiar notes.
The Lost Crown: A Metroidvania-Style Game
The Lost Crown is a game that draws heavily from the Metroidvania genre, with many elements that are reminiscent of classic games such as Hollow Knights and Metroid Dreads. Players take on the role of Sargon, who is able to equip power-bestowing amulets, just like in Hollow Knights. These amulets can be found in an area called The Sacred Archives, and are functionally identical to the Emmy’s found in Metroid Dreads.
A Familiar Feel
The in-game conversations with NPCs strongly evoke the anime-style portraits of Hades, and the game as a whole has a very familiar feel. Immortals Phoenix Rising appears to be a distinctly post-Breath of the Wild creation, and it’s hard to play The Lost Crown without constantly being reminded of the modern greats of the Metroidvania genre.
Innovative or Familiar?
While it’s clear that The Lost Crown draws heavily from existing games, it remains to be seen whether it offers anything truly innovative or simply stands on the shoulders of greatness. We’ll find out when Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is released in January 2024.
