The Lost Crown: A Side Scrolling Adventure
Much like the original Prince of Persia from 1989, The Lost Crown is a side scrolling adventure in which you must avoid deadly platforming traps as you journey through 9th century Persia in the hunt for missing royalty. Spikes line corridor floors, murderous pendulums swing across your path, and platforms break beneath you. For fans of really deep cuts, you’ll even have to contend with your own doppelganger.
A Warrior Named Sargon
Thankfully, your protagonist, a warrior named Sargon, who exudes more cool than a refrigerator, has taken a few hints from the sands of time and packed some temporal bending powers for his mission. Foreign for the most part, though The Lost Crown is something new. This iteration is a full blown metroidvania, and Rayman Legends Studio Ubisoft Montpellier has crafted a sprawling, interconnected map that takes you from haunted dungeons to the heights of Mount Calf, the mythical mountain from Arabic folklore.
Classic Level Design
That classic level design is blended with elements you’ll recognize from the metroidvania greats, including precise platforming play that makes extensive use of Paris nail biting bosses and a variety of amulets that augment your abilities in substantial, meaningful ways. From what I could tell from about two hours of hands on time, it’s shaping up to be pretty good.
The Immortals
My demo began just after the tutorial and introduced Sargon and his fellow warriors, a group called The Immortals. There’s a clear comic book and manga influence to their characterization – huge personalities with even bigger muscles – which makes it immediately clear that this is a very different proposition to the classic games. And, as you may already have noticed, you don’t play as the Prince of Persia.
The Lost Crown: An Immortals Mission
The Lost Crown is a metroidvania game that follows the well-honored traditions of the genre. The titular character is the Immortals Mission, who has gone missing and it’s up to the player to bring him home.
Exploring the Map
The map of The Lost Crown twists around itself, often branching into multiple pathways that snake back around to the areas already explored. Progress sometimes requires the player to go in the complete opposite direction to where they were originally heading, descending into the map, only to eventually reappear from the opposite side of a blocked path, forming a full loop.
Platforming Challenges
Making these loops more complex are the near constant platforming challenges that get progressively trickier. The demo begins simple, with rows of spikes, easily avoided by precise jumps and drops, but data puzzles demand more. The player must hit targets with their bow to summon platforms, often in quite complex arrangements, and sometimes while midfall. Thankfully, it all runs at 60 frames per second, even on the Switch, according to the developers, so the frame rate keeps pace with the trickier jumps.
Enemies
Guarding these platforming challenges are a collection of angry corpses with swords, spears and bows, as well as several more interesting picks from Persian folklore. Sargon has his own pair of blades to strike back with, although they’re at their best when parrying blows since a perfect deflect triggers an outrageously stylish animation that fulfills Ubisoft Montpellier’s anime ambitions. Parrying often is also beneficial as it helps build the player’s atheros glow, an energy gauge that, when filled, can be spent to perform Sargon’s most powerful abilities.
The Manticore: A Demonstration of the Lost Crowns
The Lost Crowns is a game intent for boss fights, and the Manticore is a great demonstration of this. This lion-like beast from Persian mythology is armed with razor claws and a deadly scorpion sting, making it a formidable enemy. The fight against it is a two-stage battle that grows increasingly complex as the monster throws a greater variety of ranged attacks. It is a genuinely exciting challenge that is matched by a fight with the protagonist’s dark reflection in a later level.
Sargon’s Skills
The protagonist, Sargon, has access to both fast flurry of high damage strikes and a healing skill. These abilities are much less flashy than their Sands of Time predecessors, with one simply being a dash with a fancy animation that suggests you’ve sped forward through time. This ability can shift you out of the way of the Manticore’s poison strikes, making it an invaluable tool. Sargon’s other time power in the demo was the ability to place a shadow marker in the world and then instantly rewind back to it. This acts as a sort of checkpoint, allowing you to make a risky move and then walk back to safety if things look like they’re about to get messy. Think of it as a little like Sombra’s translocator from Overwatch.
But theres still plenty of potential here, and I cant wait to see what else Ubisoft has in store.
A New Twist on the Prince of Persia Series
The Prince of Persia series has been around for decades, and with the release of the new game, The Lost Crown, Ubisoft has taken the series in a new direction. The game is a 2D Metroidvania, and while it may lack the temporal bending powers of the Sands of Time trilogy, it still offers plenty of potential.
Amulets to Bolster Abilities
One of the most interesting features of The Lost Crown is the ability to bolster abilities with amulets. For example, one amulet can fire a laser beam back to your shadow upon triggering a teleport. Another can set arrows ablaze, and yet another can restore your health on a successful parry. With these amulets, combat encounters can become even more exciting.
Creative Enemies
The most satisfying thing I saw in my two hours of playing The Lost Crown was an enemy I couldn’t touch. This towering prison guard was armed with a staff that could instantly teleport me to a jail cell. He was surrounded by a huge circle of mist that represented his senses, and if you walked into that circle, even if you were a floor below or outside of his vision, he would warp to your location and give chase. Avoiding him required careful timing and quick reflexes, making him a memorable adversary in a level full of more traditional foes. Hopefully, there are similarly creative enemies in all corners of the map.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
The fate of the kingdom is in peril, and it’s up to the Immortals to save it. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is an upcoming action-adventure game that promises to deliver a thrilling journey full of combat and platforming challenges. Set in a forbidden land, players must brave the darkness and rescue the prince from his captors.
Solid Combat and Platforming Foundations
The combat and platforming in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown are said to have solid, challenging foundations. Players will be able to upgrade their abilities and face off against a variety of enemy types and powerful bosses. This will keep the combat and platforming evolving over the course of the journey.
Release Date
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be released in January 2021 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Fans can check out the reveal trailer for more information, and stay tuned to IGN for more updates from the Summer of Gaming.
