Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is Metroidvania Royalty

For a long time I just wasn't interested in Metroidvania games. I was bad at figuring out where to go and what I needed to do to get there. Eventually, I got better at them, probably thanks to Destiny somewhat because I got really good at figuring out where to go when it wasn't marked. Once Silksong came out, I enjoyed it and the metroidvania aspects, I decided I just had to immerse myself in the genre. So now I'm just playing a ton of them.

Enter: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I had heard some really good things about it so decided to grab it on a sale and give it a go. It was fucking amazing. Not only did it give me everything I wanted from the genre, it also introduced new features that I want in all Metroidvanias from now on. The Lost Crown is something special.

The Premise

You play Sargon, the youngest among the remaining Immortals of the Persian Empire. When, after a battle, the prince is kidnapped by your mentor. You have to chase after her with your fellow Immortals to rescue the prince. You'll have to go into the cursed city of Mount Qaf which has been, essentially, removed from linear time. Will you rescue the prince? Will you find out why your mentor did what she did? Will you accidentally make your parents not meet and end up almost disappearing until you manage to get them to fall in love at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance? It's up to you to find out.

The Good

The story is actually really interesting. I adore stories that have a lot of mythological aspects and this one is a stand out case of how a game should do that. You get to interact with God's, with Persian creatures of myth, with all these interesting things. It's amazing how interested I was in the story considering I did not expect to be. The time travel aspect of it also introduced a really interesting experience where you are seeing multiple versions of the same character, even fighting yourself a few times. You get to experience other characters being out of sync with you. For instance, one of the Immortals has been wandering around for weeks when you find him but you? You've only been there for a couple hours. It's really intriguing.

The game feels very rewarding. You get upgrades after every big boss, you get moments where you have to perform puzzles that give you a really interesting charm afterwards. You're able to find upgrades in a bunch of different places and, considering other games recently have made me feel like the experience just all around isn't rewarding, this was an amazing change of pace.

Then there's the platforming. Sure you'll have moments of really difficult moments but you'll get little "checkpoints" for every new actually solid ground you manage to get to so you usually feel like you're making progress. Then you either get an interesting charm or a special currency that allows you to get some really powerful stuff with a unique vendor. It's not super hard while still having challenge, I really appreciated being able to perfect the movement so well that you're able to just glide through those moments, while also not being punished during the time of learning to perfect the movement by dying constantly.

Oh, and more on the puzzles: they're really interesting and take some getting used to but they use the abilities you have been given incredibly well. I had multiple moments where I was able to do something that I hadn't expected all because of those abilities and that the puzzles allowed 3 versions of me to be able to do multiple aspects of a puzzle. They're just very well put together and I'm really impressed with them.

The difficulty/accessibility options are also wonderful, especially since other games recently have none despite how they should. I'm able to turn up and down how much damage the enemies do and up and down how much damage I do. Its really cool because you can make whatever kind of difficulty you want basically. You can have the enemies do incredible damage but you do barely any. Or have you do a ton too so that you get the feeling of risk when fighting. This is how shit should happen and I adored the ability to fuck around and get the difficulty exactly how I wanted to. All Metroidvania games should get these settings, they're really not that difficult to implement. The game didn't balance for it because why would you? You, as the player, are empowered to decide how to play the game. It's wonderful.

The level design is also damn good. I never felt too lost, and best of all there's this ability that really needs to be in all Metroidvanias. You can hold down on the D-pad and take a picture of the space you are at so if you come across a space where you know you're not able to continue because of a missing ability, you can take a screenshot and know to come back. Then when you get a new ability you can go to your map and look through those screenshots to see if any of those roadblocks can be passed. It's an amazing feature that allows you to both see what you can go back to and not have to remember constantly what certain pins mean what on maps. Amazing.

The art style and music is also really good. The unique art style allows the game to stand out but also manages to play with color a lot more and be able to have moments that enhance your experience fighting bosses because it's fun, even if it's not "immersive". The music meanwhile has the exact tunes for the exact right moments, and even though it's not amazing, it's still pretty good. It helps you get into it.

Then there are the bosses. They're frantic brawls, sometimes against giant beasts and other times against humans. You get such a variety of bosses that have a variety of difficulty whether from sheer size of the amount of attacks you have to avoid. To face the last couple bosses you really need to have mastered the combat and your abilities and you can turn down the difficulty while still being challenged which is really appreciated. Exactly how it should be. Difficult bosses are more than just dying super fast.

Finally, going off of that point, the combat is surprisingly very deep. With many of your charms you're able to add different things that allow unique abilities or just allow you to be able to do more damage. You're empowered by the game and it makes the combat feels intricate even if it's a bit floaty sometimes, but being able to dodge, jump up, get a prior version of yourself set up above the enemy, dive down with a cool attack, then go back to the prior version and do it again. Or be able to get around giant enemies and attack them in unexpected ways all because of your abilities. There are also these things called Athra surges which are essentially super abilities that allow you to either do a ton of damage or, particularly useful, lay down a circle of healing that allow you to get some health back during some of the more difficult fights. You unlock these over the course of the game. Sometimes from normal bosses, sometimes from yourself. They add an extra layer to the experience because you're able to engage with them as you play without having using them hurt your ability to survive in a fight. Athra regenerates on hits so you're able to fight and use strong abilities while also using your potions to heal. Athra adds a great extra element to the game and they're flashy to boot so you get to enjoy the outlandishness of them as well as the color they bring to the screen. All in all, great combat system.

The Bad

As with many Ubisoft games it has one thing that I really don't like that is just overused, exclamation marks! It's of course meant to do the typical "hey hey, look here" thing but the moment you fall behind on getting rid of them it eventually just clutters the whole menu system and that sucks ass.

There's a bit of very finicky platforming, not to say it's not good, as I already covered, just that there were a lot of moments where I felt like I wasn't that close to the environmental hazard but was still hit by it and other moments where I felt like I was even closer to it but wasn't hit. It, while annoying, is more of a nitpick since you weren't punished much for getting that slightly wrong.

The Ending - Detailed

**Start Spoilers**

After lighting (or whatever the word is) all the stars, going back in time to prevent the killing of the Prince and challenge Vahram. There you discover he's actually the son of the deposed king. The king deposed by the current queen. Once that fantastic fight is over you have to climb to the summit of Mount Qaf, fight a reanimated corpse of the deposed King, and then go to the heart of the city in order to confront Vahram once and for all.

There, at the place where his father was killed, is the heart of the Simurgh (magic time bird). After offering Sargon one last chance to do the "join me and we will rule the galaxy" thing, Sargon turns him down and Vahram absorbs the heart. And accidentally, or kinda purposefully, destroys the world.

With the world in a void and Sargon deep into the post-apocalypse depression, the Simurgh appears to him and shows that he was chosen by them to do great things. That he was gifted their powers to save the world. So Sargon goes to fight off Vahram once and for all.

They fight and fight (and such an amazing one at that), words are said, emotions are felt, Vahram realized he dun fucked up, and must sacrifice himself to make the world right. Which he does.

Back in Persepolis with the world back to normal and the Prince alive, he abdicates his princely right to the throne and walks off while Sargon implies to the crowd that the Queen killed the former King. Basically saying "I guess you should explain that one huh?"

That probably didn't go down well, but we don't know because Sargon, one of the last immortals, goes to soak his feet in a pool. When all of a sudden a bird lands only for us to see that that bird, is actually that old man from Qaf. Just in bird form and only obvious in the reflection of the water. They exchange some laughs. Then the next scene is Sargon leaving Persepolis on his horse while the other 2 of the 3 remaining Immortals swear they'll take care of young Vahram. Sargon then rides off into the sunset.

**End Spoilers**

The Ending - Reaction

I actually really enjoyed the ending. I liked that there was the reveal of who Vahram was, I liked how the environment changed for that last little bit. I liked the final boss fight with how absolutely chaotic it was. I liked seeing what happened when they got back to Persepolis. I liked it all.

That said, the only notes I can think of is that I genuinely don't like that Sargon didn't just tell the crowd the truth. He was right there, ya know? He didn't have to do it all. And I understand why he didn't because he wants the truth to come from the perpetrator not from himself, but I still think he could have. This is just what I wish happened as opposed to an opinion on what happened. I still enjoyed what happened.

The Conclusion

I've played and been playing several Metroidvanias in the past few weeks and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the only one to make me feel like I was rewarded for my time. Like the game didn't just respect my time investment, but actually wanted me to keep playing and keep having fun, even if that meant facing difficult fights or platforming sections. It's an amazing game and a particularly amazing Metroidvania that isn't too overwhelming in size or too punishing.

I highly recommend it, like a lot. If you're looking for a game of this genre where you feel like you are given power over your experience then you should absolutely play it. Or hell, just play it anyway. It's a great experience and I can't express enough how much I enjoyed it. Its also not a super long game so you don't have to deal with having a 30-50 hour investment. I didn't do everything but only spent around 16 hours on it. It was a great time and the small problems I had with it didn't impact my experience much at all. Truly wonderful.

Meow,

Cat