Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review – a lean and assured Metroidvania

After more fairish reboots and spin-offs than I’d care to count, Prince of Persia is back for yet another go at reinvention. This time around, through a blend of a Metroidvania structure and a dutiful nod to its side-scrolling past, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a lean and assured mechanical treat, and a damn fine video game.

You play as Sargon, a member of a gaggle of brawny warriors known as the Immortals, sworn to protect the Persian crown. It’s your job to save a kidnapped prince, which takes you to a towering citadel and its periphery where Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s story and action unfurl. Despite a handful of decent twists, it’s not the most novel premise, but The Lost Crown’s narrative simplicity is all in service to a game that knows where its strengths lie. It won’t stir the emotions, offer much contemplative insight, or have you gasping at its clever narrative gymnastics, but nor does it set out to be. It’s a tight, focused form of dressing designed to highlight its combat, platforming, and puzzling.

Like any quality Metroidvania, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s map plays a central role, rippling out in size and complexity. It’s cleverly realised, a labyrinthine network of 2.5D chambers, claustrophobic shafts, lifts, contraptions, and diverse biomes that interconnect and mesh, crawling with hazards, from ghostly apparitions and squirming masked slugs to knotty platforming sections. Each area has a unique visual and design stamp. You’ll dart between the autumnal hues of a dense forest, grapple above ships frozen in time on roaring seas, and dredge the oppressive dark of the citadel’s depths. You seek out piecemeal progress, led by your curiosity, doubling back for hours to solve puzzles and reach hidden rooms once you’ve unlocked new abilities like double jump or teleporting arrows. It’s rewarding, with stacks of secrets and twists which are best discovered first-hand that evolve and surprise for each area.

This is a strange compliment to make, but The Lost Crown produces the type of apprehension that’s a hallmark of a robust Metroidvania, that you might have skipped or overshot a secret or concealed puzzle. Much of the game’s best moments come from scrambling to beat platforming-based puzzles or scratching your head for solutions to less mechanically demanding but equally testing mysteries. This is a Ubisoft game, so there’s more hand-holding than, say, Hollow Knight‘s hands-off, directionless drop into a muted subterranean kingdom. But, you’re very much left to your own devices most of the time to figure it out with only an infrequent nudge to follow the story path when ready.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown boasts polished, engaging combat that flits between timed parrying and precise, deft Hollow Knight-like acrobatic movement – and is often as mechanically challenging, especially with difficulty bumped up – with half a dozen well-designed bosses that offer memorable encounters. It’s tough and stern with its difficulty, which ramps up as you reach new areas. Tactics that worked initially don’t land as well, the telegraphed movements of early enemies replaced by jittery dashes and ever-constricting space to catch your breath. Though Sargon is restricted to two scimitars strengthened by amulets hoovered up as you go, air attacks, time powers, and collected special attacks (available when a ‘power bar’ fills up) layer each fight, with new combo permutations surfacing even near the tail end of a 25-hour playthrough.

The inspirations here are worn on the sleeve, bordering on derivative, and there’s an argument that The Lost Crown lacks originality, another Metroidvania cast from the same worn mold – Ori, Axiom Verge, Guacamelee, Sundered, and so many more. But when you’re mentioning games of this ilk and quality, this is certainly not a complaint, especially as it’s commendable how Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown spices the formula to create a concoction with a distinct flavour despite flagrant similarities. Your mileage with this will vary depending on your appetite for Metroidvanias. I’m partial to their charms if they have enough going for them to scratch that exploratory itch and have me electively repeat an unforgiving platforming section. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown offers that and so much more.

Reviewed on PC. Code provided by Ubisoft.