Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is an Action-Adventure platformer and the latest installment in the Prince of Persia saga by Ubisoft Montpellier. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth your time and money.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review Overview
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Rewarding Metroidvania Exploration Fun and Synergistic Combat Challenging yet Fair Boss Battles |
The Game Has a Parry Problem |
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Overall Score - 82/100
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown honors the legacy of its series while bringing its own unique, fresh modern take by going back to the 2D roots of the original series but with a Metroidvania twist. Although the story isn’t as engaging as the previous games, it more than makes up for it with its focus on rewarding exploration, challenging boss battles, and brilliant combat. All of this is further enhanced with its amazing set-pieces, inspired heavily by Persian history and mythology. However, The Lost Crown is not without its technical flaws, as the gameplay can suffer from its occasionally finicky input controls. This is especially noticeable during the more precise platforming sequences. Overall though, this game is a welcome and amazing addition to the franchise that fans and new players alike will enjoy.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown successfully creates a captivating and nostalgic adventure for both long-time fans and newcomers alike.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Story - 7/10
For the first time in the series, the titular prince of Persia takes a backseat in the story and instead follows Sargon, the youngest of a group of elite warriors called the Immortals. It’s a completely new tale that isn’t connected to any of the previous games. Although the story and characters aren’t as compelling nor interesting as the Sands of Time Trilogy, it still does a decent job of keeping you in the dark about certain characters’ goals and the mystery behind Mount Qaf, although you could tell this story wasn’t the focus of this game. In true Prince of Persia fashion, this game still delves into the magical and mythological lore that we’ve come to expect from the franchise.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Gameplay - 9/10
It's still surprising that this is the series' first foray into a Metroidvania-style game, especially given its history with 2D games. It’s one of the more accessible Metroidvania games out there as the game is full of modern quality-of-life improvements that make going back and forth between areas easier. That’s not to say that the game itself is easy; its combat properly presents a considerable challenge.
The hack-and-slash gameplay demands mastery of the intricate combination of Sargon's attacks, parries, slides, and dodges. Successfully mastering these elements can be highly rewarding, but that can also be a bit of a double-edged sword, as the enemies are rather punishing if you aren’t fully paying attention. It's worth noting that the controls may feel a bit awkward on occasion, particularly the parry system. At times, using it can seem like a gamble, given its occasionally imprecise timing and occasional lack of responsiveness to input.
While the rewards for skillful gameplay are evident, the game avoids becoming a mindless button masher, as enemies can easily capitalize on mistakes, especially bosses. The integration of combat and exploration is seamless and perfect, with weapons serving not only for battles but also for guiding players through puzzles in various areas.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Visuals - 8/10
While the graphical quality of the game's characters and enemy models is nothing outstanding, the game compensates for it through its exquisite set design in various areas. The visual cues during gameplay are particularly striking, and the art design of the character is truly impressive. Whether experiencing the war-torn battle of the initial area, permeated with the stench of blood, or navigating the ancient royal road seemingly frozen in time, it's evident that Ubisoft aimed to create an immersive experience, ensuring that players feel as though they’ve transported to an ancient, mythical version of Persia.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Audio - 8/10
For an even more immersive experience, I suggest switching the game voices to the Persian language with English subtitles. This allows you to truly transport yourself into the setting. While the English cast does an excellent job, it’s just a bit of an odd choice to have the characters speak with British accents. As for the music, the game reaches new heights using a blend of loud, bombastic tones and mystical, contemplative hymns. This not only reflects the historical setting but also infuses a modern vibe, very akin to its gameplay. The boss-battle music in particular stands out, featuring electrifying guitar riffs combined with hypnotic Persian melodies that amp up the excitement and motivation to defeat them.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Value for Money - 9/10
At a price point of $50, this game unquestionably offers good value for your money. With a main story boasting 20-25 hours of gameplay, along with rewarding side quests and hidden items scattered across the map, the game ensures both an engaging experience and extremely fun replayability.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review: A Timeless Classic Returns
As a long-time fan of the classic Sands of Time trilogy, I approached The Lost Crown with skepticism, mainly due to its significant changes in both narrative and gameplay. Additionally, I'm not particularly fond of Metroidvania-style games, given their often very challenging nature, my dislike for back-and-forth exploration, and my anxiety about fully completing each area.
However, my concerns were allayed upon discovering that the development team behind this game was responsible for Rayman Legends, a 2D Metroidvania widely regarded as one of Ubisoft's best games—an opinion shared by many, including myself. They made a promise to the fans that this game would deliver a genuine Prince of Persia experience, and after months of anticipation, I can confidently say that it lives up to that claim.
The game does an excellent job of revitalizing the franchise with its bold new direction, so much so that I can confidently say it’s a top contender for being one of the best games in the franchise. By no means will it top the story in Sands of Time. That’s an incredibly tall hurdle. But the great thing about this game is that it pays respects to its roots while trying to stand on its own by focusing on its own strengths.
Quality-of-life mechanics contribute significantly to the overall experience: Memory shards allow you to capture a snapshot of your current location and mark it on the map for future reference. Athra Surge is a gauge that fills up from performing actions like parrying, attacking, or even taking damage. These features all add an extra dimension to the gameplay while making challenges more manageable, especially since death is a common occurrence.
Rather than copping out and relying on a gameplay loop of a monotonous grind as many games are wont to do, each death in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown serves as an opportunity to understand the patterns of each area or boss. When you die, the puzzles remain completed, and you instantly respawn at the nearest checkpoint, which is typically not too far away.
Additionally, your potion always replenishes upon death, leaving the only real setback being losing a bit of money. Even in boss battles, you can restart the encounter without having to return to a checkpoint.
This shift in approach to the typical Metroidvania experience transforms frustration into a more thought-provoking and enjoyable experience.
Regrettably, the one aspect of the game that significantly bothers me is the parrying of enemy attacks. This mechanic tends to be a hit or miss, quite literally. There have been numerous instances where I felt the game wouldn't allow me to parry effectively, either due to noticeable delays in activation or an outright failure to register my parry input. Initially, I thought it might be an issue with my controller, but even after switching to a keyboard, I encountered the same challenges. While it can be quite frustrating, this issue could hopefully be easily fixed in the future through an update.
Pros of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
| Things Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Got Right |
|---|
|
Rewarding Metroidvania Exploration Fun and Synergistic Combat Challenging yet Fair Boss Battles |
Rewarding Metroidvania Exploration
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown truly excels in its Metroidvania exploration system. Beyond simply rewarding your curiosity with amazing items, perks, and epic boss battles, the game encourages and empowers you to freely explore the expansive world. In typical Metroidvania fashion, there's a fair amount of back-and-forth, but it never feels tedious thanks to numerous pathways and shortcuts that cleverly circumvent obstacles. The vast Mount Qaf map offers a bevy of diverse areas, from undead-filled ruins to mysterious forests teeming with perilous wildlife like man-like birds.
The interconnected nature of the map seamlessly aligns with the storyline, as the mountain, a mysterious entity, traps different parts of time within its vicinity, creating a fascinating connection. The Persian mythology inspiration is vividly evident, with the art department doing an exceptional job of bringing the world to life.
Traversing this engaging world is a delight, with Wak Wak trees serving as save/heal points, and merchants offering upgradable items to enhance combat and traversal. Ubisoft's thoughtful additions, such as fast travel points and Memory Shards, make the exploration process more convenient. Memory Shards, consumables that capture and mark specific areas on your map permanently, prove especially helpful for revisiting locations.
For fans preferring a more classic Metroidvania experience, Ubisoft has included an exploration mode, allowing you to navigate the map with minimal information.
Lastly, the puzzles in The Lost Crown not only add a layer of fun to the game but also present a satisfying challenge without ever feeling frustrated. These puzzles serve as an enjoyable break from combat and traversal, making it a valuable incentive for exploration. Ranging anywhere from activating switches to discovering hidden pathways, the puzzles cleverly utilize Sargon's dash, jump abilities, and weapons to keep players engaged and entertained.
Fun and Synergistic Combat
Initially, the game equips you with dual blades, a classic of the Prince of Persia games. These blades serve as your primary weapons, allowing for both normal and hard attacks. From there, the game gradually unfolds its extensive arsenal, introducing weapons, buffing amulets, and unique skills that significantly enhance your combat abilities. Among these are the bow and chakram, ranged weapons that not only are effective against aerial foes but also play a role in puzzle-solving.
The true gems, though, are the skills featured in the game. Athra Surges, the gauge that grants you unique powers when filled, empowers you to unleash potent moves that deal substantial damage to nearby enemies. Another highlight is the time powers, offering special time-warping abilities usable in both combat and exploration. These powers range from mid-air dashes to pulling enemies into alternate dimensions.
Despite the seemingly overpowered skills and weaponry, the game doesn't take it easy on you and doesn’t allow button-mashing as a solution here. The combat poses a great challenge, demanding a mastery of the basic mechanics of attacking, parrying, and dashing. Parrying and dashing particularly become crucial, as enemies will deliver powerful blows and are able to block your attacks. Understanding the timing for striking or parrying becomes the key to survival. However, once you've mastered these gameplay elements, you'll truly feel like an unstoppable Immortal.
Challenging yet Fair Boss Battles
This game draws inspiration not only from Metroidvania titles but also seems to take cues from the challenging mechanics of the Dark Souls series, something particularly evident in its formidable boss battles. These bosses not only deliver more powerful blows than regular enemies but also demand an understanding of their intricate attack patterns for you to defeat them successfully. Unlike normal enemies, bosses have health bars and plenty more unstoppable attacks.
You’ll become quick friends with the game over screen from the repeated deaths in these boss battles, but it all acts as part of the learning process. Fortunately, the game mitigates the frustration of dying by allowing players the option to retry the fight immediately or respawn at a checkpoint upon defeat.
The encounter with General Uvishka, the first boss, stands out as a significant trial, showcasing the game's potential difficulty. Personally, experiencing a few setbacks before grasping the boss's patterns highlighted the challenge for me. Instead, they proved to be both incredibly rewarding and enjoyable experiences.
Cons of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
| Things That Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Can Improve |
|---|
|
The Game Has a Parry Problem |
The Game Has a Parry Problem
The primary complaint I have with the game centers around its parry system. In the game, executing a well-timed parry to counter enemy attacks allows you to block 100% of damage, whether it's from attacks or projectiles.
A yellow light will signal that you can counter the incoming attack, while a red light indicates an uncounterable one. As one would expect, there is a slight learning curve but the parry generally works as intended and adds a fun element to the gameplay. It’s especially enjoyable when you successfully counter a yellow light attack, which rewards you with a cinematic sequence and substantial damage to the enemy.
Given the importance of parrying in dealing with relentless enemies, particularly in group or boss battles, mastering this skill becomes crucial. However, a notable drawback arises as the parry system occasionally seems to malfunction. At times, it feels like a major gamble than a reliable mechanic, due to imprecise timing and sporadic unresponsiveness to input. I've experimented with the parry mechanic both using a controller and a keyboard outside of combat, and I maintain that there is a significant input issue with the mechanic during my assessments.
Unfortunately, this issue occurs more frequently than expected, resulting in unnecessary deaths. Nevertheless, there is hope that this issue can be addressed through a future patch.
Is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Worth It?
It’s Worth Every Penny
Priced at $50, this game offers excellent value, catering to both dedicated fans and newcomers alike. It's a treasure trove of exciting and enjoyable moments, featuring an addictive gameplay loop, a 20-25 hour story mode, exploration filled to the brim with engaging puzzles, varied weapon/skills customization, challenging boss battles, and tons of side quests. It's a worthwhile experience for anyone seeking a fun and rewarding challenge, and it’s a proper welcome back after a long hiatus for the Prince of Persia series. It’s my hope that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown gets a trilogy, just like Sands of Time did.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Overview & Premise
The story centers around Sargon, the youngest member of a mercenary group known as the Immortals. Endowed with special abilities, Sargon embarks on an epic quest to rescue Prince Ghassan, the Persian throne's heir, in Mount Qaf—a once wondrous place, now cursed and hostile.
Surviving a close encounter with death, Sargon awakens unscathed and discovers a mysterious crystal. This crystal grants him the ability to wield various time-warping and bending powers. Armed with these newfound time abilities,
While exploring Mount Qaf, the strong bonds between the Immortals will be put to the test by a mysterious curse, eventually leading Sargon to gain time-warping abilities.
Sargon will engage in battles against both friends and foes, facing even those he once considered as his family, all in a determined effort to save the Prince of Persia.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Home FAQ
Is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown a Sequel or Reboot?
It’s neither a sequel or reboot. In an interview with Director Mounir Radi, clarified that The Lost Crown game was not a reboot for the franchise but instead considered “a whole new chapter.” He states fans could have it “perceived as a prequel” to previous games.
Where Can I Play Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown?
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and the Nintendo Switch on January 18, 2024. Players who want earlier access to the game can get the Deluxe Edition instead, which releases on January 15, 2024.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Epic |
$49.99 (Standard Edition) $59.99 (Deluxe Edition) |
 Xbox Store |
|
 PlayStation Store |
|
 Nintendo eShop |
|
 Ubisoft Store |
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Product Information
 | |
| Title | PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE LOST CROWN |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 18, 2024, January 15, 2024 (Deluxe Edition or with Ubisoft+) |
| Developer | Ubisoft |
| Publisher | Ubisoft |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Windows), PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Metroidvania |
| Number of Players | Single-Player (1) |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB Teen |
| Official Website | Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Official Website |
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