GAME REVIEW: Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown (XBOneX)

 (1991 - Tom Howe/Marcus Mumford)

For the small number of you who still keep track of what's coming out of this blog, you've probably noticed a pretty steady decline in posts. That's pretty much down to the fact that I've felt at a loss about things to write about for quite some time now and I've been giving serious consideration to retiring this blog entirely. Before I go though, there's something that I want to call to your attention.

I work in the 'Accessibility' industry. That's Accessibility, with a capital 'A', as in the extent to which something is usable, including people with disabilities. 

The pursuit of Accessibility in all things is a struggle for equality and equity that is only just shy of Sisyphean. The reasons for this are legion but one of the biggest hurdles comes down to a simple misunderstanding of just who 'Accessibility' is for. Making something truly Accessible is not just about making it usable by people with disabilities, it's about making it usable for EVERYONE, including people with disabilities. It's a small distinction that has created a mountain of problems.

Stay with me, this is relevant to video games, I promise.

The basic problem is this: People hear the word 'Accessibility' and think that it's just about helping people with disabilities. (The 'Why' behind this is complicated, and more than a little self-inflicted but that's a story for another article.) Your 'average' individual doesn't think that Accessibility is about them. Convincing the world -- inventors, creators, engineers, investors, salespersons, marketers, you name it -- that Accessibility is actually incredibly valuable to EVERYONE is the Holy Grail of achievements in my line of work. Why is this so difficult? Perception, mostly. People have spent a very, very long time looking at Accessibility in terms of 'Us' and 'Them'. (Yes, I'm aware that you could have this discussion about any minority, though I would point out that people with disabilities are THE LARGEST minority in the world.) Normally-abled people don't look at Accessibility products and services and consider how they might enrich their lives as well. It's an incredibly complicated and nuanced problem with a deceptively simple solution: Convince people that what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

...But how do you do that? How do you correct decades -- centuries? -- of misconceptions? 

...Well, if you're Ubisoft Montreal, you wrap the solution up in an already incredible good video game and then put it down in front of your customers and ... wait.

The game? 'Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown'.

If you're of a certain age or of a certain persuasion, you know that the 'Prince Of Persia' franchise is one of the oldest in the history of video games. The original 'Prince Of Persia' came out in 1989. It's basically 35 years old now. To put that in perspective, Mario's debut on the Nintendo Entertainment System was in 1985, at the dawn of modern gaming.

In the decades that followed its initial release, eight additional games were released. What started out as a 2D platformer went 3D in 2003 after Ubisoft bought the rights to the game and rebooted it. 20 years and four games later, the choice was made to bring the Prince back to the second dimension in an effort to focus more on platforming, puzzle-solving, and more fluid combat. In January of 2024, 'The Lost Crown' was released. Since that time, it has garnered widely excellent reviews and acclaim, most notably for a handful of 'new' features being hailed as revolutionary and ground-breaking. Sites like 'Polygon', 'Game Informer', 'Digital Trends', and 'Game Rant' all talk about them. You can hardly find a review video on YouTube that doesn't mention them in some way.

What most of then completely miss is the fact that the 'ground-breaking' features that everyone loves and now wants in all future games in this genre were specifically developed for Accessibility. Don't believe me? Check this out:

Seriously, go watch that. Go watch all of it. This is how you fix the problem.

The rest of the game?

It's a mixed bag, honestly. Most of what you find inside of it is quite good, good enough to make you readily forgive most of the things that are less so. Let's dive into that now.

STORY

'Crown's' story is one of the least remarkable parts of the game. It's serviceable enough to wrap a game around but there's little of it that will call shock and awe out of you. Many of its story beats are predicable and your protagonist, Sargon, is equal parts likable and one dimensional. The supporting characters in the game are pretty much all on the same level as well, and that's ... well, it's just fine, actually. They're fine.

As stated, you play Sargon, one of a team of 'Immortals', uber-warriors that are chasing down a group of people who kidnapped the actual Prince Of Persia and took him to a holy mountain citadel called Mount Qaf. The citadel is where the majority of the game takes place. I won't spoil anything about it except to say that there's a lot of standard Metroidvania fare to be had here and it's pretty much all excellent.

GAMEPLAY

Most reviews of this game spend the majority of their time talking about this subject and mine will be no different in that regard.

With any Metroidvania, the excellence of the game typically boils down to a few common factors. Most of them are hits in 'Crown' but there are a few misses as well. To start, we'll dig into the map. The very first Metroid game taught everyone in the industry a really valuable lesson -- albeit one that should have been really obvious in hindsight -- about maps: People get lost without them. This is especially true the larger and more complex your game world becomes. Thankfully, this is one of the areas where 'Crown' not only does it well but probably does it better than anyone ever has. Your map becomes available to you almost immediately, fills out generously as you explore the game, and can be augmented in each of the game's clearly defined zones by finding an NPC that is happy to sell you augmented map information. The game also immediately gives you access to two things that set the standard for how mapping should be done in these types of games -- and possibly in others -- going forward. The first is something called Memory Shards. This is basically the ability to not only place a marker on the map that says, 'Something important is here', but also attach a SCREEN SHOT to it so that you know WHY it's important. In Metroidvanias, this is absolutely huge. Backtracking in the game is mandatory because the world is filled with things you can't reach or paths you can't take because you're lacking a power or ability that you'll gain later. Knowing that 'something' is in a part of the map is good but being able to look at a screen shot and know WHY you couldn't reach that something is better. Yes, the game only gives you access to a finite number of Memory Shards which feels like a completely pointless limitation, but take solace! 

First, the game really gives you quite a few Memory Shards. I've never run out. Second, the game also gives you an unlimited number of normal marker pins and each pin can be configured with a wide variety of icons. Find a place in the game with a glowing red door that you can't pass? Place a Memory Shard there -AND- place a normal pin using a dedicated symbol for that style of obstacle. Then just use that same symbol without a shard for similar situations. Boom. Problem solved.

So, the map is solid, which means now we need to concern ourselves with the world contained within the map, and that brings us to movement...and this is where that mixed bag starts to rear its head a little. 'Crown' is a GORGEOUS game, running at up to 4K 120FPS on the right hardware. That sounds like a good thing, and people describe the game in terms of its lifelike animations and fluid character, enemy, and environment movement. The problem with all of this fluidity is that the best 2D platformers are typically talked about as having 'razor-sharp' and 'responsive' movement. That's critical in this type of game. Ubisoft Montreal got so caught up in trying to make the movements lifelike and fluid that they forgot one small thing:

Life does not stop on a dime.

'The Lost Crown' is a game that frequently demands you be both fast -and- fluid. Unfortunately, there are just some places in the game where the controls just don't let you do that. Jumping is floaty and vague-feeling, movement in-air feels sluggish and imprecise...it's just not what you want when the rest of the game wants to move so much faster. It's doubly frustrating because when things -do- go the right way, you feel like the master of your realm. It's incredibly addicting and one of the game's biggest draws. Moving -well- in this game is easily one of the best parts. Moving poorly, equally as bad. Fortunately, Ubisoft Montreal was aware of this being a problem, especially for, say, gamers with dexterity or cognitive issues, or even just people who aren't veteran gamers. You can fully customize just how time-sensitive ALL of this is in the game's Accessibility settings. Platforming a struggle? Slow the platforms down. Or just TURN THEM OFF. It's an incredible check-mate to this problem and it instantly makes the game enjoyable again.

In a similar vein, we have to talk about one of the game's biggest mechanics: Parrying. A huge part of how you manage combat in 'Crown' is parrying incoming enemy attacks. As with other games like 'Jedi Survivor' though, it's not just about the parry, it's about parrying the right attack at the right time. The game does an excellent job of differentiating the right and wrong attacks but, as with movement, it all comes down to how precise your movement is. The parry animation itself engages quickly but takes precious time to END. Not starting it at the right time is effectively the same as not having done it at all...and you can see how this could be seriously problematic in a game with controls that are very much not 'razor-sharp'. When it works, you feel like an unstoppable force. When it doesn't, you pay for it dearly. These parts of the game where the game's fluidity is actively working against you are some of the worst parts of it.

But...again, Ubisoft Montreal is there to save the day. Want to tone the damage from botched parries down? Sure, you can adjust that. Want to expand the parry time window? Sure! Want to increase your own damage? Sure! Absolutely no problem whatsoever!

And speaking of damage, let's talk about combat. In this, 'Crown' will feel right at home to people who have played the God Of War games -- or, heck, any modern fighting game. 'Crown's' combat rests with chaining together basic moves into crushing combinations. Sweeps, launches, juggles, finishers, parries, back-attacks, it's all here, baby! That's awesome!...if that's what you want out of a game like this. The way that 'Crown' integrates this kind of combat into the game makes for a really interactive combat experience but in its default configuration, combat takes...too long. Yes, you can upgrade your weapons as the game progresses, making enemies easier to blow through, and yes,  you can change Accessibility options to make enemies weaker. I sort of...don't feel like you should have to do that though? I shouldn't have to hit basic enemies four, five, SIX times to kill them by default. This problem gets REALLY out of hand later in the game when you have larger enemies that not only take forever to kill but who are immune to some of your really handy combat techniques like launches and sweeps. I like satisfying combat but sometimes this feels like it drags on. This, then, is the first part of the mixed bag that doesn't immediately have a solve. It's not a deal-breaker, just ... a little disappointing in a game that's otherwise excellent in so many other areas.

Boss fights in 'Crown' are ... unremarkable. They're gorgeous, cinematic, and ... unremarkable. There's nothing really new here. Bosses are usually big, have a defined move-set, and they kill you a lot until you learn that move-set, at which point you can take them apart piece by piece. Most of the bosses are quite vulnerable to certain types of your attacks as well, so you'll find yourself sliding a lot to get good position, whack them a few times, and then slide again. The only stand-out part of any boss battle is the fact that there are certain attacks that don't immediately appear to be dodgeable. This is MADDENING in a game like this. You have all the time you need, you see them coming from a mile away, and...you're not sure what to do other than sit there and take it. Fortunately, these attacks don't do enough to kill you if you've gotten the rest of the battle on lock.

In addition to normal combat, the game also gives you a few other abilities as you progress through it. These new abilities are where the game really shines because most of them encourage you to do new and creative things with the environment around you. One ability allows you to create a clone of yourself, frozen in time, that you can return to at the press of a button. This allows for some crazy combat and puzzle setups that you have to see to believe. Another ability sort of...turns you into Kirby. I'll leave it at that, except to also say that it's an absolute BLAST when you get it. There are more common Metroidvania abilities afoot too but I really don't want to talk about those either because the game really handles how it uses those well too. 

You can augment your character a number of ways as the game moves along, from finding fragments of objects that increase your life when you gather enough of them to this game's version of 'Charms', called Amulets. Amulets grant small powers to your character like a little bit of increased melee damage, slightly better damage to enemies in the air, slight poison resistance, slightly more of this, slightly more of that. Each amulet can be upgraded to make it more powerful though, allowing you to build a character that really plays the way you want. Like to stand at a distance and pepper people with ranged stuff? There are amulets for that. Like to use your super heavy attacks? The game has amulets that let you charge those faster. Want an extra life when fighting bosses? No problem. There's nothing really shocking about how Amulets work. 'Crown' just does them really well, and really refined.

'The Lost Crown' isn't exactly what I'd call an easy game by default, but it's not super challenging either for veterans. The default difficulty is good, I feel. Save points, called Wak Wak trees, are spaced liberally around the game, allowing you to heal and swap your amulets around with frequency. You'll also occasionally come across Fast Travel stations in the game. This is another one of those rare misses though, hence the use of the word 'occasionally'. See, 'Crown' is a HUGE game and parts of it are nothing but bonkers platforming. Getting from Point A to Point B can sometimes take a really, REALLY long time. The slog is bad enough but when you introduce some of those huge enemies or platforming sections to it, it sometimes discourages the kind of backtracking that will net players every last goodie and secret in the game. This is a cardinal sin of any Metroidvania and I'm honestly a little shocked by it here. I stopped playing the game for several days after taking a death that sent me back to a Wak Wak tree that came before a really annoying platforming and combat section because I just...did not have it in me to trudge back there again.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the audio design of the game. Generally speaking, it's also 'fine'. It's not bad. It's not ground-breaking. It's fine. And it is. Fine, that is.

It's a hard time to be a Metroidvania right now and be taken seriously. There are so many that have come before and so many of those have been SO. GOOD. Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown is a very good game that wants to stand in a room largely populated by a lot of really, REALLY very good games. That might seem sub-optimal at first until you remember one other really crucial thing:

A lot of people can play this game that can't play those other really incredible titles. This is their entry point and, because of that, it makes it an even better game for everyone else as well.

If that's not the hallmark of an incredible game, I don't know what is.