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, platforms break beneath you and for fans of really deep cuts, you’ll even have to contend with your own doppelganger.
Sargon and The Immortals
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 packs 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, saw 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.
My Demo
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
The Lost Crown is a metroidvania game that follows the well-honored traditions of the genre. Players take on the role of the Immortals Mission, who has gone missing, and it is 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 where progress is made. Players may find themselves descending into the map, only to 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 began with simple rows of spikes, easily avoided by precise jumps and drops, but data puzzles demanded more. Players must use their bow to hit targets, often in quite complex arrangements, and sometimes while mid-fall. Thankfully, the game runs at 60 frames per second, even on the Switch, so the frame rate keeps pace with the trickier jumps.
Enemies
Guarding the 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, and they are at their best when parrying blows. A perfect deflect triggers an outrageously stylish animation that fulfills the game’s anime ambitions. Parrying also helps build Sargon’s Atheros Glow, an energy gauge that, when filled, can be spent to perform his most powerful abilities.
The Manticore and the Lost Crowns
The Manticore, a lion-like beast from Persian mythology, armed with razor claws and a deadly scorpion sting, was a great demonstration of the Lost Crowns. This two-stage battle grows increasingly complex as the monster throws a greater variety of ranged attacks. It was a genuinely exciting challenge, and one that was matched by a fight with my own dark reflection in a later level.
Sargon’s Skills and Time Powers
I had access to both a fast flurry of high damage strikes and a healing, well two skills that were vital in the fight against the Manticore. Sargon’s skills 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. It will shift you out of the way of the Manticore’s poison strikes, though, so it’s not to be sniffed at. Sargon’s overtime power in the demo was the ability to place a shadow marker in the world and then instantly rewind back to it. At any moment, it can act as a sort of checkpoint – drop it before you make a risky move, and if things look like they’re about to get messy, you can walk back to safety. Think of it as a little like Sombra’s translocator from Overwatch.
But theres still plenty of potential for the game to surprise us
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
The Prince of Persia series is taking a new direction with its latest installment, The Lost Crown. This 2D metroidvania game has some exciting new features, such as the ability to bolster abilities with amulets. I had the chance to try out the game for two hours and was impressed by the variety of amulets and creative enemies.
Amulets
Amulets are items that can drastically change the way an ability works. For example, I had an amulet that fired a laser beam back to my shadow upon triggering the teleport. Other amulets set arrows ablaze and restore health on a successful parry. I’m looking forward to discovering a wide variety of increasingly wild amulets.
Enemies
The most interesting enemy I encountered was a towering prison guard 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. Even if you were a floor below or outside of his vision, he would warp to your location and give chase. Avoiding him required carefully timed jumps and slides, making him a memorable adversary. I’m hoping to find similarly creative enemies throughout the game.
The Lost Crown is already proving itself a worthwhile pivot for the series. Its temporal bending powers may not be as exciting as those in the Sands of Time trilogy, but there’s still plenty of potential for the game to surprise us.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
The fate of an empire rests on the shoulders of the Immortals, tasked with rescuing the kidnapped prince and restoring hope to a cursed kingdom. In January 2021, gamers will be able to join the Immortals on their quest in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox consoles, and PC.
Challenging Combat and Platforming
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown promises to deliver an intense and challenging experience, with solid foundations in both combat and platforming. As players progress through the journey, they will be able to upgrade their abilities and face off against a variety of enemy types and powerful bosses.
Reveal Trailer
To get a glimpse of what awaits in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, gamers can check out the reveal trailer. For more news and updates from across the summer of gaming, gamers can stay tuned to IGN.
