Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the POP game we didn’t know we wanted! I can easily recommend it to fans of the best game and series that Ubisoft has released in recent years.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review: The Prince of Persia series is one of the good names that remain in the minds of the players with the Sands of Time series, which was published before Ubisoft was going back and forth between Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry. Fans have been demanding a new Prince of Persia for many years, but Ubisoft’s response to this issue was not as we expected.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
News such as an event in For Honor and Sands of Time Remake, which turned into a snake story and looked worse than before, were not very promising, but The Lost Crown was announced and now we are here with the PlayStation 5 version review.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Those Stuck in Time
In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, we go to the warring Persian Kingdom and control Sargon, the youngest member of the Immortals, the elite warriors of the Prince of Persia. An alarm is sounded before our soldiers, who won victory after the difficult struggle, can complete their celebrations. The Persian Prince is kidnapped by a trusted commander and taken to the Mount Qaf region, where the true king is chosen by the gods.
Mount Qaf is an abandoned land after a great disaster, and when we reach here, we understand better why it was abandoned. Time works strangely here, the structures are suspended in the air in the middle of the destruction, the soldiers who set out last night have become corpses that have been dead for many years, and the sea remains motionless with its contents in the middle of a giant siege.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
On our way to save the prince, we meet interesting characters in the place, listen to our teammates trying to cope with the effects of the region, and sometimes even have to fight with ourselves. The story starts off plain but as it progresses, more details are revealed and it becomes interesting. You can guess from the very beginning that everything is not as simple as it seems, but I am very pleased with the direction it went and the treatment of the characters. The story was very good.
Prince of Persia x Metroidvania Game
The Lost Crown is a 2D platform game, returning to the roots of the Prince of Persia series, but this time it also includes metroidvania elements. If you have played games such as Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight released in recent years, you may be a little nervous, but don’t worry, the Ubisoft Montpellier team has brought various improvements that even those who are not used to this genre can easily play.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
When we say Metroidvania, the first feature that comes to mind is the ability to go back when you gain a new ability and go to parts we could not reach before, which is also present in this game. For example, there is no double jump at the very beginning of the game, but you see a platform in front of you that you can only reach if you jump twice. You have options such as keeping this in mind or writing it down in a notebook, but The Lost Crown has added a third option: take a photo! In Assassin’s Creed games, you can generally see photos taken by other players on the map, and this one uses a similar system.
You can only have 10 (more later) photos on the map at a time, but it’s a great feature to help you find the place you need to go without having to ask yourself “why did I mark this place?”
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Among the abilities we acquire, there are many different things such as trapping something (or person) in another dimension and using it later, moving to an alternative dimension, throwing oneself forward, or a bow that can turn into a chakra. While these give us an advantage during battle, they are also useful for solving puzzles and progressing between levels. So if you can’t get past a point, instead of getting angry and quitting, take a photo and move in a different direction. The game already has an option to guide you, so it’s harder for you to get lost.
Sargon is the youngest member of the warriors called Immortals and a very good fighter. He can inflict serious damage on opponents with his reliable swords, and can quickly turn control of the battlefield to his advantage with the help of his time powers and bow. It is also possible to increase the attack types, change the arrow type or make our Athra abilities more effective with the help of medallions we find in the environment.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
We can say that Athra is a kind of internal force in the world of the game, and powerful warriors can make special attacks using this Athra. We can create rapid combos that can inflict high damage on the enemy, ground-to-air attacks or vice versa, power waves that we can throw at distant enemies, or force fields that can heal ourselves. In order for Athra to accumulate, it is necessary to be careful in both attack and defense. While rapid attacks and successful parries accumulate Athra, the blows we receive cause this power to disappear.
Sargos doesn’t have a shield, which means he doesn’t have a traditional blocking feature in the game. You can anticipate attacks and dodge them by reacting quickly, or you can roll under them and pass. Since rolling does not provide Athra, the priority is on parrying. When you learn dodgeable attacks and start responding properly, you begin to defeat even the toughest enemies in an easy way.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
The game has platform puzzles and they are quite well thought out. Some of them are even seriously challenging, luckily they are optional. However, one of them was tied to a side quest, and even though I had completed that challenging quest, it was considered incomplete due to a bug, which made me very angry. Anyway, there will be minor mistakes. By the way, the thing that bothered me the most was the sound it makes when you throw it across the room when you make a mistake in a puzzle. It distracts me a lot.
It took me about 20 – 25 hours to finish the game and overall it was an enjoyable experience, but I think some abilities came too late and this was a tactic to increase the game time. It’s not a big complaint, the game doesn’t make you tired of itself, but I think they wish it was a little longer.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Quality and Performance
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown 2D (2.5D, I couldn’t decide on that part) looks great for a platform-metroidvania type game. If you want a 3D game with realistic graphics, you may be disappointed, but I am very pleased with what I see. We have a beautiful game that resembles the 2008 Prince of Persia game in terms of art style, and sits somewhere between Sands of Time and Warrior Within in terms of content and gameplay.
I actually like the art style, I also like the idea of Prince of Persia games changing style with each new series, but here both Sargos’s design and some finishing animations are extremely reminiscent of the League of Legends spin-off games. Especially, there is an area in the future where we are in the middle of naval battles, it made me think “it’s like a Ruined King side game”. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but it seems unoriginal.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
The sound and music are very good, especially the music was made by Gareth Coker, whom we remember from the Ori series, and he did a great job. My biggest complaint about the music is that in some cases they disappear when you start the level from the beginning or leave and enter the area. The funky fight music plays and it spoils the atmosphere a bit. The voices were successful if we ignore the fact that some of the characters were soulless (sometimes they were actually voiced by AI). I have no complaints about the main characters.
I played the PlayStation 5 version of the game and I can say that I experienced it very smoothly and cleanly at 4K resolution and 120fps. I did not encounter many graphic errors. Sometimes there were errors such as various events not triggering (like my broken side quest) or the intro video playing from the beginning when I entered the main door again, but I did not experience any problems that significantly affected the game.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Conclusion
I left the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown adventure, which I entered with almost zero expectations and even prejudices, with an average game time of 25 hours and a great sense of satisfaction. This wasn’t the Prince of Persia game we wanted, but it turned out to be exactly the Prince of Persia game we didn’t know we wanted. The fact that Ubisoft aroused a certain sympathy in me with the games it has released recently made me think, “Is it going back to its good times?”
If you are interested in the Metroidvania genre, you will like this game. Even though it is a new game for Prince of Persia, there is a high probability that you will like this game. If you are someone who is both interested in the genre and loves Prince of Persia, definitely do not miss it. We have a game that is accessible enough for even players who are unfamiliar with the metroidvania genre to play, and of a quality that does justice to the genre. It’s a very good step towards the revival of the series, let’s see what they will do with Sands of Time Remake.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review / PS5