I have loved the Prince of Persia franchise ever since I played The Sands of Time back in 2003 on the Nintendo GameCube. Something about the world, the time mechanics, and the platforming in the original captivated me, and I have been a fan ever since. With Prince of Persia: the Lost Crown, the franchise goes back to its side-scrolling roots, while also branching into a fascinating new direction.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown puts you in the role of Sargon, one of the Immortals. The Immortals are an elite force of warriors, who return to their home from a difficult battle and celebrate victory. Sadly, victory is short-lived as the Prince of Persia is kidnapped and taken to the mysterious Mount Qaf. The mountain has mysterious properties though, and Sargon finds himself (and his allies) lost in a temporal labyrinth.

The Lost Crown is a Metroidvania at heart, and as such the usual trappings are there. Side-scrolling platforming, puzzles, exploration, and combat are all on show, and here they are as polished as one might expect. On the subject of combat, The Lost Crown provides a polished, fluid combo system that allows you to seamlessly blend all of your abilities and weapons in ways that will allow you to tailor your fighting style to the foes you face.

Sargon can utilize multiple abilities, from standard attacks, parries, dashes, and ranged attacks, all the way to a unique special ability known as the Athra Surge. By building up the Athra gauge, Sargon can unleash a strong attack or ability that allows you to deal massive damage. Parrying and dodging are both heavily important, and based on the difficulty you choose this can be easier or more difficult in practice.

However, Accessibility is where Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown truly shines. In addition to difficulty options, there are a myriad of options such as text backgrounds and other things that make The Lost Crown much more accessible. One that comes to mind for me is the option for “Platforming Portals,” which helps you bypass certain difficult platforming sections if you find that they are too tough for you.

The best accessibility option has to do with something called Memory Shards. These shards allow you to take a picture of things and pin it to your map. So, if you find an area that isn’t traversable yet, you can mark it with an actual image. No longer do you have to try and figure out what you pinned a certain symbol on your map for. You have a limited number of shards, but they are replenishable, so it isn’t that much of an issue.

Truth be told, I don’t have very many complaints about The Lost Crown. It plays well, the environments are gorgeous, the characters are interesting, and the combat feels smooth. Certain sections are a little annoying because of platforming traps, but overall nothing feels unfair. The sad reality is that with other games coming out this year, I can easily see people overlooking Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in favor of other games.

Overall, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is easily one of my favorite Metroidvania games in years. It is a sprawling experience with climactic battles, great exploration and platforming, and above all the versatility to be accessible to a wide array of players. It also adds cinematic set pieces and emotional cutscenes. Don’t sleep on this one folks, the Prince of Persia franchise is back.

A PlayStation 5 Review Copy of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was provided by Ubisoft for the purposes of this review.

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Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

$49.99 USD

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• Great Accessibility Options for the Map
• Gorgeous Visuals
• Fluid Combat
• Multiple Difficulty Options
• Intriguing Story