Amid a deluge of formulaic, open-world, AAA releases from Ubisoft, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown stands out as a diamond in the rough. Spinning off from the continuities of both the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trilogy and the 2008 reboot, The Lost Crown follows Sargon, a brand new protagonist through a self-contained story inspired less by Arabian Nights and Orientalist motifs and more so by real Persian mythology.
Sargon is a member of the Persian Immortals, presented in the game as a diverse team of seven elite warriors. They are named after a real, historical, heavy infantry unit that fought under the Achaemenid Empire. Many of the boss fights in the game also feature fearsome creatures taken directly from mythology such as the chimeric Manticore and the colossal serpent Azhdaha.
Unlike more recent mainline Prince of Persia titles, the art style seen in The Lost Crown does not attempt realism, instead opting for a highly saturated color palette and exaggerated, striking character designs. Many animations, such as the Athra’s Glow special abilities or Sargon’s brutal counterattacks seem directly inspired by animation styles seen in a variety of shonen anime.
The Lost Crown most dramatically departs from its recent predecessors in how it most imitates the original 1989 title. Although the classic 16-bit rotoscoped animations do not make a return, the 2D side-scrolling gameplay is a far cry from the 3D platforming seen in The Sands of Time trilogy. The excellent execution of this playstyle is thanks to none other than the development team at Ubisoft Montpellier, the studio behind the Rayman games, another stand-out modern 2D platformer.
Through its incorporation of unlocking traversal abilities and backtracking through previous areas to unlock new paths and discover helpful items, the game falls firmly in the Metroidvania genre. The name is a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania, games that pioneered their eponymous category. Although not a dead genre by any means, recent Metroidvania games like “Hollow Knight” or “Blasphemous” actively try to emulate some of their progenitors’ lower-fidelity art styles and control schemes. The Lost Crown on the other hand features complex combat more akin to what one might expect from platform fighters like Super Smash Bros.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is currently available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch and PC online stores. It can also be played through Ubisoft’s new game pass subscription service Ubisoft+ Premium.