Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

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Life is a Metroidvania, if you think about it. When you’re born, you haven’t even unlocked the ability to walk yet, much less double-jump. Grow older and wiser, though, and you gain new abilities, and soon you’re leaping through the air with the best of them. It’s this connection to reality and how we grow as people, eventually learning to somehow force ourselves skyward despite there being no ground to push off of, that makes the genre so enjoyable.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a rock-solid example of the genre from Ubisoft, returning the franchise to its side-scrolling roots without sacrificing any of its tried and true mechanics. It’s the kind of game you’ll want to take a break from double-jumping and air-dashing to try out.

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In ancient Persia, the mighty warriors known as the Immortals helped keep the kingdom safe in the face of danger. Sargon, a member of this storied group, is called into action when the Prince of Persia, Ghassan, is kidnapped by his traitorous mentor Anahita. The Immortals follow Anahita and Ghassan into Mount Qaf, a holy site where the mythological Simurgh is said to grant the royal family of Persia their power and wisdom. There, they’ll discover there might be just a bit more going on than a royal kidnapping, as evidenced by the fact that the passage of time on the mountain appears to be more of a suggestion than a law.

As you might imagine, Mount Qaf isn’t the peaceful place it used to be. There’s tons of bad guys between Sargon and the Prince, so you’d better be ready to fight. The Lost Crown’s combat is a little spicier than many of the series’ previous entries. Unlike the 2008 reboot, you can absolutely die, and until you get the hang of what you’re doing you should expect that to be pretty common.

By default, on offense you’re able to slash around with his blades, launching directional combos and following enemies up into the air for a beating, while on defense you can dodge or parry incoming attacks – the latter’s particularly satisfying when you parry certain powerful attacks, leading into a cinematic counterstrike. Successfully dealing with your opponents will charge the Athra Gauge, which can be spent on powerful Athra Surge attacks that really bring the pain. Collect more of these as you progress and swap them to suit your needs, and along with the various gear pieces that Sargon collects they do a lot to keep combat feeling fresh.

Naturally, Sargon’s arsenal includes more than just blades and bows. Thorough exploration and sidequesting will yield magical amulets that can enhance your abilities, offering increased damage and health or more unique boosts like a temporary time-slowing bubble that activates upon parrying enemy attacks. You can enhance these amulets and collect more slots for them over time, and these make for a great prize after a difficult platforming section or optional battle.

Baddies aren’t the only thing out to show Sargon what for, though. Mount Qaf itself is packed to the gills with all manner of nastiness that he’s going to have to avoid via precision acrobatics. There’s bars to swing around, spikes to dodge and more; if you’ve played the classic Prince of Persia games, you’ve got an idea of what you’re getting into from a platforming perspective. This can be more or less punishing depending on difficulty, but generally speaking a trap won’t instantly kill you – it’ll just eat enough of your health that the next enemy pack you run into might be able to handle it themselves.

As you progress, you’ll gain new abilities in classic Metroidvania fashion. These offer utility both in and out of battle, allowing you to reach places that were otherwise accessible or dodge attacks that might have been unavoidable otherwise. There’s plenty of those classic skills you know and love, like an air dash, but there’s more esoteric options like a rewind-teleport that allow for some mind-twisting puzzles later in the adventure. In particular, this game’s very fond of repurposing familiar abilities in unique and tricky fashion, such as allowing Sargon to convert his bow into a boomerang and throw it at enemies or lodge it into switches to help with platforming.

There’s not much to complain about from a gameplay perspective, so it’s nice that The Lost Crown’s quality remains high when it comes to the presentation. This game represents yet another aesthetic shift for the Prince of Persia series, in this case aiming for a classic comic-book style with plenty of bright colors, explosive freeze-frames, giant muscle-y men and women beating each other up…you can probably picture what I’m talking about, and rest assured that it works. The Lost Crown’s style helps bring the adventure on Mount Qaf to larger-than-life proportions and the game looks and sounds fantastic on every platform it’s available on.

As one of the first big releases of 2024, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown starts the new year off with a bang. Despite firmly being in the Metroidvania genre, its combination of high-octane combat and hair-raising platforming makes it a bit closer to The Game Kitchen’s Blasphemous series. It’s a fine example of two great tastes tasting even greater together, like Taco Bell mild sauce and peanut butter. Try that combination before you try to tell me it’s not good. It’s worth a look…or, well, a subscription to UPlay+ if you want to save a few bucks.