Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review

It’s been a long time since we have seen a new Prince of Persia title; there hasn’t been a new entry to the series since Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was released in 2010. The newest title features an all-new protagonist that we haven’t met before — Sargon, the new main character of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. He is one of the young members of a warrior clan named The Immortals. It is up to this young, gifted warrior to travel to Mount Qaf, the cursed and hostile city, to rescue Prince Ghassan, the heir to the Persian throne, who has been kidnapped. Will this title be considered an up for this series, or will it drag the franchise down further?

This new instalment is a beautiful 2D action-adventure platformer game that is set up like metroidvania and set in a mythological Persian world. You will need to use your skills — both combat and platforming — along with your unique time powers to defeat enemies and mythological creatures whose time is corrupted. This Persian-inspired world is made up of huge landmarks and environments that are highly detailed and gorgeous-looking, with a soundtrack that makes you feel like you are visiting this place in real life. Besides the great music, you also hear extra things like birds chirping and wind chimes ringing that pull you into these cursed lands.

When you begin playing The Lost Crown, there are two different game modes to select from: Exploration, which has minimal map information and forces you to explore the world for yourself, or Guided, where icons on the map show your next objective. In the latter, the paths available and blocked are shown, making it an easier option for navigation. If you change your mind, you can switch between the modes at any point in your adventure if you are finding the map setup too easy or incredibly challenging. Besides the modes, there are also five different fight difficulties to select from that will help customise the game to the right level of challenge that you want to experience. Ranging from Rookie, which has minimal challenge but lets you enjoy the story, to Immortal, which is intensely difficult and has no room for error.

The Immortals, the group of warriors that Sargon is a part of, fight to protect Persia and keep it safe from enemies. Prince Ghassan has been kidnapped by Anahita, the woman who raised and trained Sargon, a fellow member of The Immortals. Well, she was… until she became a traitor and captured the prince. Vahram, one of the group’s members, was told to search Mount Qaf to find both Ghassan and Anahita.

The game gives you a quick overview of how the controls work. Everything felt incredibly fluid and responsive on the Xbox controller that I was playing with and worked smoothly to try and manoeuvre Sargon to avoid the pits of spikes, swinging blades, and enemies standing in your way. There is also a more in-depth and intense battle tutorial that you encounter when you speak to Artaban, one of the members of The Immortals. He has a large list of challenges for you to complete, and you will be rewarded with crystal shards for each one you finish. It is worth your time to try and finish each of these tasks, as they will teach you useful attacks and skills that you will use constantly against enemies and traps while on your quest. If you happen to die too many times against a foe or are trying to get past a booby trap, you will see the Game Over screen, where you will have to start off at the last Wak Wak tree that you saved, so be sure to have a stock of potions and save your game frequently. The other perk of visiting one of these special trees is that your health will be replenished, saving your potions for when you are stuck in a remote area or a battle against an enemy.

The Lost Crown implements a new system that could possibly change the way we play metroidvanias forever. If you had to think about the part that you hate the most about games like that, I’m sure constant backtracking and aimlessly wandering would be at the top of that list. The Lost Crown uses Memory Shards that let you take screenshots and place them right on the map beside where you took them. This will help you remember exactly which spots require a different ability to access. All metroidvania games should have a system like this! It is one of the most useful things I have ever encountered in games with a lot of backtracking. This will save you so much time — yay, no more walking around hoping you will discover that one area that you weren’t able to get to before! It was great to be able to focus on the quests at hand instead of trying to make my own map to remember where everything was located and losing a lot of progress when I wasn’t able to find the save spot!

The Lost Crown uses 38 different amulets to give you special abilities like letting you fire more arrows, increasing the amount of damage that you deal, or giving you more max health. In the beginning, you only have four spots available, but as you progress, it will extend up to 12 slots that let you mix and match the amulets for endless combos whenever you visit the save trees. These special pieces could make your journey a lot easier if you figure out which ones will aid you the most for your play style.

Besides just the main story of the game, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown shows us different pieces of Persian mythology, like the legendary bird named Simurgh. This is the guardian of destiny and time, keeping them all in balance. The power lies in his feathers, and his protective flight brings prosperity and peace to Persia. If you are touched by his shadow, you are protected from evil. The game draws you into this magical world with 13 different biomes to explore, each with a bit of myth infused into it. As you explore this world and progress in the story, your quest list is constantly updated; some of these quests are for the main story, while others are side quests and are more optional. Completing these other tasks will reward you with special items that you can use on your journey. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I am having a great time taking on tasks from characters that I encounter on my travels to learn more about their backstory and more about this cursed world.

You may wonder if Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown feels like it fits in with other titles in the series. I am happy to report that it definitely does, especially when you begin to encounter traps and obstacles that get in your way. Pits of spikes and swinging blades trying to chop you in half certainly bring back memories of earlier titles! When you progress, Sargon will learn different time powers by collecting the wings of the god Simurgh. Being able to manipulate time and space with these magical feathers was incredibly helpful in combat, but also while trying to explore the areas of this vast world.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a metroidvania that does so many things right, even changing how the genre is traditionally played. I am hoping that other action platforming games take notice of all the things that worked so well in this game, like the Memory Shard system, and try to use systems like this that help lessen the amount of aimless wandering that you do while playing. It was nice to concentrate more on the story and quests instead of hoping I would remember the exact spot where an obstacle was located. If you have been a fan of the Prince of Persia franchise in the past, or if you want to play an excellent action platformer in metroidvania, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a title that you have to check out! I can’t wait to see what the future of this franchise holds, and I hope that it is followed by another awesome title!