Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review – A Great Comeback

We have also prepared a video review.

This year, the Prince of Persia series will celebrate its 35th anniversary. However, over such a long period, many different names have appeared, so when this name is pronounced today, everyone can imagine something different. Someone will remember the legendary original from Jordan Mechner, someone will remember 3D games from Ubisoft. However, in recent years, the series has been completely frozen. Yes, somewhere on Friday, a remake of the famous Sands of Time was announced, but it was taken away from the original studio and development was actually resumed at Ubisoft Montreal, so we will have to wait for it.

So it was quite a surprise when last summer we saw the announcement of a new game in the Prince of Persia series, subtitled The Lost Crown, from Ubisoft Montpellier, the studio that gave us, for example, the Rayman series. And although many were skeptical about the game, I was looking forward to it from the very beginning. It’s not even another 3D game or even a full-fledged return to the roots, because it’s a 2D (or in this case 2.5D) platformer, but first and foremost a metroidvania. However, this is what attracted me most to the game. So how did it turn out?

• Platform: PC (review version), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
• Release date: 18.01.2024
• Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Genre: Metroidvania, platformer
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Data for download: 25 GB
• Play time: ~20 hours
• Price: €49.99 (Ubisoft Store), available on Ubisoft+.

Played on Steam Deck OLED and the following PC build:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K
• FRAME: 32GB DDR5 6000MT/s
• Video card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16GB VRAM)
• Storage: Solidigm P44 Pro (1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD)

Return to Persia

Although the prince himself appears in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you may be surprised to learn that he only plays a minor role. You take on the role of a young warrior named Sargon, who belongs to a group of seven called the Immortals, who protect all of Persia in the name of Queen Tomyris. However, Prince Hassan is kidnapped, and the warriors set out on a rescue mission to Mount Kaf and the old city located there. But this is a special place where time flows differently for each person, and saving the prince will not be easy.

At first glance, the game can impress with a beautiful visual style with bright locations. Whether you are in the city itself, in the forest, in the archive or even in the dark dungeons and catacombs, you can count on a beautiful sight, which together with the sound system creates a wonderful atmosphere. I really need to highlight this part of the game, because few games have such a high variability of the environment, as well as such a unique design that plays with time.

The level of detail isn’t very high, but for most of the game it doesn’t matter at all, you only notice it in the cutscenes which don’t look very good due to the low quality of the character models or facial animations. The icing on the cake is a few pre-recorded movies which play in absolutely insane quality with extreme compression artifacts.

It’s a shame because the voice acting is great and the story is actually very interesting and full of unexpected twists. You’d expect a Metroidvania to be more gameplay-focused, but the game doesn’t skimp on cutscenes, plot development or lore. I wasn’t too thrilled by the ending, but the overall impressions of the story are definitely positive.

And before I get to the gameplay, I have to mention the fantastic soundtrack, which is by Iranian composer Mentrix and renowned British composer Gareth Cocker, who has, for example, music from the Ori series. Lost Crown interestingly combines traditional music with a touch of modern genres and creates an incredibly interesting mix that I will be listening to with great pleasure even after the release. Whether it’s calm melodies or tense moments during a boss fight, you will definitely not be bored. It’s just a shame that the audio mix seemed a little unbalanced to me and the music played too quietly, so I recommend adjusting this in the settings.

No walks in the park

Now finally on to the gameplay, and I would start with movement, which is incredibly important in a platformer and especially a metroidvania, and so I am glad that it actually worked. Jumping, sliding and running are just the starting options, but when you add in later abilities like dashing or teleporting, you get a very diverse mix that can be used to great effect. And there is no loss of flow as you move through the rooms, which is just extremely pleasing. Unfortunately, I can’t say that it would be completely without problems. Firstly, my character had glitches while jumping a few times, and secondly, the thing that really burned me was that the controls, especially the dashboard, are not as responsive as I would like, so you can jump to the right, but Sargon jumps to the left, causing you to lose valuable progress.

If I had to mention something in common between Lost Crown and other parts of the series, it would be traps and all sorts of traps. You encounter them quite regularly and they are definitely not easy to overcome. You will have to use not only all of Sargon’s skills, but also your logical thinking to even figure out how to get through this section. I liked most of these rooms, however, some passages are quite frustrating and you have to go through a long stretch of the path without a checkpoint. The problem is that the difficulty of these parts of the game fluctuates greatly and can increase to an insane height. The game will definitely test your patience many times.

It must be said that Lost Crown offers a solid amount of accessibility settings. First of all, there is an exploration mode (which is the default option) and a guided mode. In the former, you will have to figure out a lot of things on your own, as is usually the case in metroidvanias, while the guided mode, as the name suggests, will give you some guidance. Either way, you will have to go back a different way, but luckily there are quite a few fast travel locations. Personally, I always enjoyed this exploration and returning to familiar places with new abilities, but it is definitely worth noting that if this is your first metroidvania, you will have to be prepared. This genre is not for everyone.

But back to the traps and puzzles, which vary from location to location and each time you try something a little different. In addition, each part of Mount Kaf hides treasures, items related to the history of this place and all of Persia, and you will even come across side quests. Some of them are not very creative and just want to bring you certain items, while others introduce you to interesting characters, solve other puzzles or go on a pilgrimage to save the moon. Side quests are definitely a good distraction if you do not want to just follow the main story. With the crystals or coins you get, you can then buy interesting upgrades and slightly adapt the style of play to your needs.

Difficult fights

While the puzzles are important, the main part of the game is the combat. And while I was a little skeptical, it ended up being much more difficult than I thought. I highly recommend going through the full tutorial, as it will teach you a lot of tricks that you might not have figured out on your own. You have basic sword attacks (quick and “charged”), as well as the ability to throw enemies, throw them in the air or, conversely, throw them down, or perhaps slip under the enemy’s feet and go behind their vulnerable back. In any case, there are many defenseless enemies in the air, so it is advantageous to stay above the ground as much as possible and perform various combos. Two other weapons will help you with this: a bow and a chakram, which works similarly to a boomerang.

However, you will have to approach each enemy a little differently. Some of them are small and can be easily overlooked, some can fly, some have shields, and I could go on. There are dozens of enemy types and you definitely don’t have to worry about some variety, the game pleasantly surprised me in this regard. They are also inventive in terms of design, and I will probably never forget the scary monster in the catacombs.

However, the highlight of some areas are of course the boss fights. Some of them are truly epic, and I enjoyed gradually learning their attacks so I could effectively dodge them, but there are two things wrong with that. Firstly, the third boss is designed in a completely incomprehensible way, and until now I didn’t understand how to avoid some of the attacks, I just had to “tank” him.

Technical condition

The second issue I consider a pretty serious bug, because I had one boss where the music wouldn’t play at all, after the first stage the boss would disappear completely and I would suddenly find myself in the next room. I had to go back to the last checkpoint, but that meant going through a pretty difficult platforming run again. Unfortunately, I know I’m not the only one this has happened to and there are many more serious bugs in the game. It was clearly emphasized to reviewers that they were playing a day one patch, but that’s not how I imagine a day one patch to be. So I’d rather wait for further fixes.

Finally, I would like to mention the overall technical aspect, which is very good, if you don’t count the bugs and glitches. You can run the game without any problems even on older machines. I ended up playing it mostly on PC, where I could afford to drop the resolution from 3240p to 4K with a stable 120 fps, but I also spent a few hours on the Steam Deck OLED. In less demanding passages, the game in 720p was able to maintain even 90 fps, but during some of the larger battles or boss fights, the frame rate dropped. Despite this, the game can be recommended for the Steam Deck and handhelds in general, since it was made for them. Unfortunately, on all platforms, you have to expect the occasional stuttering while playing. It is more noticeable on the Steam Deck, but fortunately, it is not a big deal on the PC.

Metroidvania with everything

Overall, I think Lost Crown succeeds. It’s a somewhat unconventional concept for a series that, on the other hand, has never had a completely consistent definition. It works very well in conjunction with Metroidvania, and fans of the genre are sure to find something to like. The game’s accessibility options make it a theoretical entry point into Metroidvania, but expect some big jumps in difficulty, which itself is set pretty high. But if you can forgive the few shortcomings, you’re sure to have a good time. I’d just be wary of picking it up on release day, as there are still some pretty serious bugs in the game.