Systems: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 4/5, Windows
Release Date: January 18, 2024
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Time Spent: 1h 27m
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By the time this article is out on Friday, January 18th, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will have already been released across all the platforms listed above, as well as already having been released on the 15th for people who paid an extra $10 to play the game three days early as well as a couple of other cosmetics, in-game equipment, and a digital guidebook. I'm saying that my primary criticism of the demo will be moot by the time this goes to print. And since I really only have one complaint specifically related to the demo, let's get it out of the way right up front. There was no save option in the demo. There are white glowing trees scattered throughout the various maps where you refill your charge/attack meter, refill your potions, and your health bar and while there was no specific dialogue pop-up about saving, for all intents and purposes, it felt like I was saving the game; there also wasn't a special spinning/saving icon that usually happens in games like these. So after playing for nearly 90 minutes and deciding that I wanted to stop playing and head off to bed with the plan to pick up where I left off. Now, granted there was the message that said that progress would be lost if you returned to the main menu, but I took that to mean any progress after your last save, and I probably should have thought about all of the other demos I've played that actually let you save your progress; which isn't too many.
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Now, it's been. . . maybe 30 years since I last played a game in the Prince of Persia franchise, although I have some vague memory of playing Sands of Time or maybe watching someone play a handful of minutes of it. The point is, I know this franchise, but my experience with any of the 17 titles is limited. That being said, I am somewhat versed in the realm of Metroidvania games and this game felt very intuitive for the most part. After 87 minutes, I was still a little button-mashing-happy and not always hitting the parry trigger at the right time, or using my optional and selectable secondary skills outside of accidentally hitting the button. Wall jumps were easy to do from the get-go, as was swinging and launching from the poles/bars like a gold medal gymnast, and it all felt great to do like I had been doing these actions for hours on end already. I wouldn't be surprised if there had been some residual skillz from my time playing Metroid Dread.
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The story itself was straightforward, or at least it is in what is presented at the beginning of the game, although I would be surprised if the writers took a few hard left turns throughout. Our playable protagonist Sargon is part of an elite group of warriors known as the Immortals who have been tasked with the rescuing of Prince Ghassan who was taken to Mount Qaf. Sargon himself is quite a likable character, not coming off at overly cocky as he isn't the leader of the Immortals or the newest hotshot member. He does get some gruff from some of the other members when they split up claiming that Sargon will only slow them down in their search for the kidnapped Prince. It's the other Immortals that also intrigue me as I would be very surprised if they don't become either unlockable characters after you finish the main campaign (or finish under a certain time) or if they each become paid DLC. The issue would be if the game was fully balanced with different playable characters in mind who all have slightly different combat styles and abilities. The other tip-off that this might be a future thing is that the ranged combat icon for Sargon is a bow-and-arrow, while his specific ranged weapon is a boomeranging chakram ala Xena. Or is it?
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Speaking of the chakram for a second, this was one of the few mechanics that felt a little clunky; I apparently lied about only mentioning one thing I didn't like about the demo back up there at the beginning. The way it operates is to press the Y button (on an Xbox controller) then using the left joystick, you aim where you want to throw it. It isn't wholly unintuitive, but I felt that I could only throw it while standing still whereas I would have loved it if I could have thrown one at enemies while on the move, but this is where your actually having a bow comes in. It felt like the bow was for shooting enemies that were in your direct line of sight where you didn't need to aim because then the game would switch to using the chakram. Maybe it was just me.
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The second criticism is only with how the buttons/joystick operate on the map screen. Because this is a Metroidvania as well as some added map mechanics that I won't get into here, you are going to be referencing your mini-map quite frequently when backtracking or just looking for where you think you're supposed to go. Moving around the map is done with the left joystick, which is fine. But you can also move the map with the right joystick. But not both joysticks at the same time because that would be silly. Zooming in/out is done with the L/R Triggers, which didn't feel intuitive to me at least.
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~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
I Excel Without Ever Even TryingP.S. I feel the need to apologize for not getting as dynamic of pictures as I wanted to, but because I don't have a capture card for my laptop, I have to rely on whatever form of screenshot I can get with the client that I'm using. Since I was playing through Epic Game's client, I had to use the Windows+PrtSc button to get a screenshot, which meant that I was holding the controller with both hands, pressing the Windows button with my left pinky, and the PrtSc with my right pinky all while trying to have Sargon look cool doing stuff, typically with enemies around.
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