PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE LOST CROWN (XSX)
A key part of Ubisoft’s portfolio, Prince of Persia has gone through several reinventions over the years, from the Sands of Time rebirth to the 2008 reboot. Even so, The Lost Crown marks perhaps the most distinctive rebirth yet, seeing Ubisoft Montpellier returning to the 2D plane while adapting to modern sensibilities and overhauling the aesthetics to a major degree. In fact, despite featuring in the title, the Prince of Persia is not even our playable protagonist this time, focusing instead on a new hero. Overhauls aside, fans of the series will still see many of the key series tenets here, and it makes for a distinctive and engrossing return after a close to 14-year hiatus.
This Prince of Persia serves as a new beginning, as the Kushan Army battles the Persian empire. With the latter having endured famine and drought for decades, the victory seems inevitable, but aid from a powerful clan known as the Immortals helps Persia turn the tide. The success is sadly short-lived, as Prince Ghassan is kidnapped and taken to Mount Qaf. While the Immortals pursue, it’s soon clear the location holds dark powers and secrets aplenty. As you take the role of Sargon, you must explore this place while getting to the bottom of why Ghassan was taken here. It’s a twisty thread that borders on convoluted as you progress, but the roster of characters, from protagonist Sargon to his band of Immortal comrades, prove likeable and the core mystery keeps you guessing.
As if taking us back to 1989, The Lost Crown returns to the 2D space. Sargon starts with a basic move set, allowing him to jump, slide and wall jump to navigate the environment. However, a slew of powers become available with story progression, such as an air dash and making a copy of yourself to teleport back to. As you’d expect from Metroidvania-style games, much of your map is closed off initially, but these additional powers help open up these paths. You can even mark these spots on your map with a memory screenshot. The world is well designed, whether you’re exploring the overgrown Hyrcanian Forest or the trap-laden city areas, and puzzles feel gratifying from the start, as you’re required to quickly use your current toolset to overcome platforming obstacles. Movement is rapid yet responsive, platforming is crisp and controls feel responsive, making pulling off complicated sequences of jumps a breeze.
Combat plays a key role here, as you battle the undead, mythical monsters and other warriors. Armed with dual swords, there’s a focus on parrying and studying enemy movements to create an opening. Certain moves can even let you finish off foes instantly, marked with a golden glow, though conversely, unblockable attacks flash red. You can also use your acquired powers to aid you, such as dashing around projectiles thrown. It’s snappy, challenging and often fun. It certainly takes getting used to, even on the normal setting, and bosses regularly require several attempts as you wrap your head around their offence. Being felled repeatedly by bosses with multiple phases can prove frustrating, but it’s satisfying overcoming their patterns and end battles in explosive fashion.
Combat plays a key role here, as you battle the undead, mythical monsters and other warriors. Armed with dual swords, there’s a focus on parrying and studying enemy movements to create an opening. Certain moves can even let you finish off foes instantly, marked with a golden glow, though conversely, unblockable attacks flash red. You can also use your acquired powers to aid you, such as dashing around projectiles thrown. It’s snappy, challenging and often fun. It certainly takes getting used to, even on the normal setting, and bosses regularly require several attempts as you wrap your head around their offence. Being felled repeatedly by bosses with multiple phases can prove frustrating, but it’s satisfying overcoming their patterns and end battles in explosive fashion.
You get some aid from Athra Surges, governed by a gauge that builds with offence and counters. Once you reach a gauge level, you can activate a move, often a potent attack which flashes the screen in a blaze. Further surges are gained through progression and exploration, encouraging experimentation as higher-level surges require longer charging but can prove more potent. You can also equip Amulets collected throughout the game, often gifting buffs such as extra health, slowdown of time when you counter and resistance to certain elements. Whether duelling with challenging bosses or battling during general exploration, combat is gratifying once you wrap your head around its timing-based difficulty.
The Lost Crown boasts a distinctive style that apes anime with stylised characters, eye-catching use of colour and backdrops which look almost hand-painted. Animations are also gorgeous, seeing Sargon’s movements flow like water whether running or sliding. Sure, nothing particularly pushes the console in terms of textures or detail, but it makes up for it with consistently smooth performance and dazzling art similar to Montpellier’s seventh-gen Rayman games. The audio is also strong. The voicework is strong and bolstered by well-written dialogue, adding personality to the roster of characters. Audio cues, such as enemy grunts, collection sounds and whirring traps all work too. But the music proves the standout, with some bombastic tracks which raise the stakes accompanied by more sombre exploration themes, such as the Soma Forest which instils a sense of melancholy.
The Lost Crown boasts a distinctive style that apes anime with stylised characters, eye-catching use of colour and backdrops which look almost hand-painted. Animations are also gorgeous, seeing Sargon’s movements flow like water whether running or sliding. Sure, nothing particularly pushes the console in terms of textures or detail, but it makes up for it with consistently smooth performance and dazzling art similar to Montpellier’s seventh-gen Rayman games. The audio is also strong. The voicework is strong and bolstered by well-written dialogue, adding personality to the roster of characters. Audio cues, such as enemy grunts, collection sounds and whirring traps all work too. But the music proves the standout, with some bombastic tracks which raise the stakes accompanied by more sombre exploration themes, such as the Soma Forest which instils a sense of melancholy.
Prince of Persia draws on the past and the present to creative a lively, eye-catching adventure
It’s a touch slow at first, but The Lost Crown builds into a satisfying, engrossing and lengthy adventure. If you focus on the main story, it takes around 10 hours to polish off, but it’s hard not to be distracted by all the hidden paths and goodies to find. Each area contains treasures to find, lore that adds colour to the world and upgrades to help build Sargon into a warrior. Time Crystals let you buy items from a myriad of merchants, ingots and coin let you upgrade your weapons and amulet respectively and a handful of side quests offer short yet interesting stories of others trapped at Mount Qaf. To earn the coveted 100%, you’re looking at closer to thirty hours, not to mention a slew of updates which have added challenges, and additional difficulty settings including permadeath and speedrun modes.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown marks a satisfying return for a dormant series, looking to both the series’ past and current indie games to craft something new. A satisfying narrative, gratifying exploration and challenging combat come together to form a great final product. And with a distinctive presentation and plentiful content, it feels remarkable next to other Ubisoft titles which often follow an open-world formula. It may not please all prior fans of the series with its changes, and it can sometimes tip more towards frustration than satisfaction, but for those wanting a new world to explore (and revisit with new powers), this should be just the ticket.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown marks a satisfying return for a dormant series, looking to both the series’ past and current indie games to craft something new. A satisfying narrative, gratifying exploration and challenging combat come together to form a great final product. And with a distinctive presentation and plentiful content, it feels remarkable next to other Ubisoft titles which often follow an open-world formula. It may not please all prior fans of the series with its changes, and it can sometimes tip more towards frustration than satisfaction, but for those wanting a new world to explore (and revisit with new powers), this should be just the ticket.
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VERDICT
"By looking to both the series’ past and current indie games, The Lost Crown marks a satisfying return for the Prince, thanks to gratifying exploration, distinctive presentation and challenging combat." OVERALL: 8/10 |
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