I really like this one! A metroidvania that gets way more right than gets wrong, in fact, I don't have many complaints. A must play, just not at full price.

The story is pretty simple. You play as Sargon, a member of a group called the Immortals, tasked with protecting the Persian empire. When prince Ghassan goes missing, you go on an adventure with the group to find him. While the story goes in interesting places, it's overall pretty forgettable.

I wanted to challenge myself, so I played on Hero, which is the game's hard mode, knowing that the difficulty would be pretty front-loaded, normal for the genre. And yeah, those first few hours were sweaty. Thankfully the game really benefits from snappy controls, you can parry pretty easily, and most moves are telegraphed. I died a few times to some out-of-nowhere nonsense, but those were few and far between.

Sargon's animations are a real treat. He can Mario 64-like transition from a run to a backflip on a dime, and I really enjoyed how smoothly the game handles regular traversal mixed with some of the abilities you gain. Most of them are your standards. You get the double jump/air dash/ grapple, but you also get a cool move where you place a shadow with RB, and pressing it again, you can instantly teleport back to that point, no matter where you are in the room. Pretty good.

As for the metroidvania portions, fast travel points are decently placed and later you get an expanded fast travel, which I really appreciated. You also get the ability to take a snapshot of a puzzle you can't solve yet and places it on your map so you can see exactly what you need to progress. Overall I didn't have much difficulty with navigation, and you can buy treasure maps which will place every side quest object on the map so this feature was only used a few times in my run. However, I did play on "Guided" mode, which also places quest markers on the map, so maybe if I played on the more blank slate mode this would have been more useful.

Now to gush. I would say this is the best metroidvania I've played this year. The side quests and collectibles make item hunting and 100% completion doable. Prince of Persia also contains probably the most innovative biome I've played in years with the Raging Seas. I won't say more, but it really is a treat for the eyes and leans really hard into the time mechanics of the story. Playing on hard also made some of the bosses a real challenge, some of the best I've played since Metroid Dread, requiring tricky parries and skilled reflexes.

Overall, yeah this is what a metroidvania should feel like. Doesn't overstay its welcome, but invites you to stick around after 100% to try the boss rush and Permadeath and Speedrun modes, not to mention the even higher difficulty levels. There was a lot of talk in the beginning of the price tag. No, I don't think its worth it at $50, but I got it for $20 and I think that's the perfect price. Go play it!

Metroidvanias I played in 2024 Ranked:
1. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
2. Animal Well
3. Blasphemous 2
4. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
5. Afterimage
6. The Mummy Demastered