Full video review: https://youtu.be/2NU7YZFD0h0
What happens when you take the studio that made the excellent Rayman Legends and task them with tackling a new Prince of Persia game? Well, you get a pretty solid metroidvania.
Background
When this game was revealed, it was blasted by negative comments. It is a bit of a change of pace for the series, but I am a pretty big metroidvania fan and also a fan of the studio’s past works so I was looking forward to this one. And the devs pretty much delivered on that expectation. This is a full-fledged, high production value metroidvania that comes with just about everything I like about the genre plus some.
Combat
When I first started playing, I was actually a bit disappointed by the combat. You have your single attack button you just press repeatedly - and that’s pretty much it. There isn’t really much in the way of additional moves or alternate combos outside of some directional changes. This makes the early game a bit basic. As I played though, the game gradually introduced more mechanics and I kinda grew to like it.
The combat is fast-paced, challenging even on the game’s normal difficulty, and has a nice sense of weight to it. You don’t just ragdoll, you get slapped around and you actually feel it. Within a few hours, I was dashing, parrying, dodging, shooting, comboing, and all of this just felt good to do. The simplicity of its inputs became a nonissue for me.
Exploration and Movement
The Lost Crown is a proper metroidvania through and through, giving you access to large sections of the map right off the bat, but you not really fully being able to explore it all the first time you see it. You’ll have to come back at some point when you have that air dash or that teleportation move, and only then will you access that that previously inaccessible ledge leads to an entirely new area with like 20 new rooms to go through.
The map here is massive and I quite liked the variety offered by the different biomes. You get your usual desert areas and catacombs, but also a forest area, a sunken harbor, a snowy mountaintop - it’s got a lot going on and each biome has its own set of enemies too. The game in general does a great job at avoiding that sense of repetition, both through its enemy variety and the actual levels too.
The pacing is also solid. You are introduced to new mechanics right up until the end of the game and I really liked how each made movement even more fun than the last.
Content and Length
There are a ton of secrets, collectibles, and even full side quests to complete that you can find just wandering around. Some of these sidequests are pretty simple, but some are genuinely fun, like the one that introduces eight different minibosses that need their spirits freed or the one that has you repeatedly freeing this guy from getting stuck in the oddest of places, often requiring you to parkour your way into the room he’s found himself in.
I think best of all, this side content was added without making the experience feel bloated, like what is typical from Ubisoft releases. It took me around 15 hours to beat the game and that felt like a really nice length for a metroidvania like this. Not too long, not too short, and still plenty of room for me to complete all of the side content. I can easily see completionists getting a good 20-30 hours out of this one.
Story
I can’t say I really liked the story, but I also cannot deny that it wasn’t outright bad. It is just average. The characters are forgettable and while the twists can be surprising, I can’t say they had much impact on me due to not really caring for the characters. They’re just not given really any time to develop, making the story come off as basic.
Graphics and Music
On the whole, I cannot say that the game looks bad. It looks fine for what it is. I liked the stylized approach, the detailing was decent, the lighting, camera, and all of that was fine, it’s just brought down a bit by the fact that this is still obviously a game designed for the last console generation and it shows. The UI design in particular might be even worse than that, it looks like something I would get in a mobile game. Same with the music, which I liked in game, but not quite enough to listen to outside of it. Again, just fine.
Performance
No issues playing at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti and nothing in the way of frame stutters, freezing, or crashes. That said, I did run into several bugs. I had the camera break on me a few times, including during a boss fight where a cutscene was playing and my camera wasn’t focused on it so it kinda just looked like a mess. I also had my character get their model stuck in one pose a few times and the animations sometimes bugged out on me too. Nothing too major aside from that one cutscene one, but the game could use a bit more polish regardless.
Overall
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a solid metroidvania and easily one of the best I have played in years. The combat, despite its initial simplicity, grows to become much more than that, with a full slate of abilities used both there and in exploration. The exploration is also really rewarding, with excellent level design, plenty of biome and enemy variety, and tons of secrets to find. The story and graphics may be a bit disappointing, but I had a lot of fun with this one, much more so than I thought I would going into it. An easy recommendation for metroidvania fans, regardless of your experience with Prince of Persia titles.
What happens when you take the studio that made the excellent Rayman Legends and task them with tackling a new Prince of Persia game? Well, you get a pretty solid metroidvania.
Background
When this game was revealed, it was blasted by negative comments. It is a bit of a change of pace for the series, but I am a pretty big metroidvania fan and also a fan of the studio’s past works so I was looking forward to this one. And the devs pretty much delivered on that expectation. This is a full-fledged, high production value metroidvania that comes with just about everything I like about the genre plus some.
Combat
When I first started playing, I was actually a bit disappointed by the combat. You have your single attack button you just press repeatedly - and that’s pretty much it. There isn’t really much in the way of additional moves or alternate combos outside of some directional changes. This makes the early game a bit basic. As I played though, the game gradually introduced more mechanics and I kinda grew to like it.
The combat is fast-paced, challenging even on the game’s normal difficulty, and has a nice sense of weight to it. You don’t just ragdoll, you get slapped around and you actually feel it. Within a few hours, I was dashing, parrying, dodging, shooting, comboing, and all of this just felt good to do. The simplicity of its inputs became a nonissue for me.
Exploration and Movement
The Lost Crown is a proper metroidvania through and through, giving you access to large sections of the map right off the bat, but you not really fully being able to explore it all the first time you see it. You’ll have to come back at some point when you have that air dash or that teleportation move, and only then will you access that that previously inaccessible ledge leads to an entirely new area with like 20 new rooms to go through.
The map here is massive and I quite liked the variety offered by the different biomes. You get your usual desert areas and catacombs, but also a forest area, a sunken harbor, a snowy mountaintop - it’s got a lot going on and each biome has its own set of enemies too. The game in general does a great job at avoiding that sense of repetition, both through its enemy variety and the actual levels too.
The pacing is also solid. You are introduced to new mechanics right up until the end of the game and I really liked how each made movement even more fun than the last.
Content and Length
There are a ton of secrets, collectibles, and even full side quests to complete that you can find just wandering around. Some of these sidequests are pretty simple, but some are genuinely fun, like the one that introduces eight different minibosses that need their spirits freed or the one that has you repeatedly freeing this guy from getting stuck in the oddest of places, often requiring you to parkour your way into the room he’s found himself in.
I think best of all, this side content was added without making the experience feel bloated, like what is typical from Ubisoft releases. It took me around 15 hours to beat the game and that felt like a really nice length for a metroidvania like this. Not too long, not too short, and still plenty of room for me to complete all of the side content. I can easily see completionists getting a good 20-30 hours out of this one.
Story
I can’t say I really liked the story, but I also cannot deny that it wasn’t outright bad. It is just average. The characters are forgettable and while the twists can be surprising, I can’t say they had much impact on me due to not really caring for the characters. They’re just not given really any time to develop, making the story come off as basic.
Graphics and Music
On the whole, I cannot say that the game looks bad. It looks fine for what it is. I liked the stylized approach, the detailing was decent, the lighting, camera, and all of that was fine, it’s just brought down a bit by the fact that this is still obviously a game designed for the last console generation and it shows. The UI design in particular might be even worse than that, it looks like something I would get in a mobile game. Same with the music, which I liked in game, but not quite enough to listen to outside of it. Again, just fine.
Performance
No issues playing at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti and nothing in the way of frame stutters, freezing, or crashes. That said, I did run into several bugs. I had the camera break on me a few times, including during a boss fight where a cutscene was playing and my camera wasn’t focused on it so it kinda just looked like a mess. I also had my character get their model stuck in one pose a few times and the animations sometimes bugged out on me too. Nothing too major aside from that one cutscene one, but the game could use a bit more polish regardless.
Overall
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a solid metroidvania and easily one of the best I have played in years. The combat, despite its initial simplicity, grows to become much more than that, with a full slate of abilities used both there and in exploration. The exploration is also really rewarding, with excellent level design, plenty of biome and enemy variety, and tons of secrets to find. The story and graphics may be a bit disappointing, but I had a lot of fun with this one, much more so than I thought I would going into it. An easy recommendation for metroidvania fans, regardless of your experience with Prince of Persia titles.