Put away last year’s plethora of RPG games: the new Prince of Persia has enough action and adventure to take up your day

There hasn’t been a Prince of Persia game in eons. The last I played was back in 2010 when I was finishing high school; back when I’d do anything to break away from homework. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was my main go-to, between bouts of Mass Effect 2 and God of War 3.

Now, getting fully into the new release Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, I’m asking myself why the heck has it taken Ubisoft so long to deliver this new branch in such a worthy franchise. The Lost Crown is not like the usual Prince of Persia experience but it is set in the exotic mythological world that we’re familiar with. In short, I love, love, love this game.

Funnily enough, I’m also in the middle of reading a book that was given to me by an Iranian friend, which delves into the history of Persia. The Persian Book of Kings, is about kings from creation to the dawn of Persian civilisation and has proven to be the perfect segue from my previous Persia gaming to the release of this new game (thanks Elmira for the book!). But I digress.

In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – a Metroidvania style action-adventure game – you play the young, immortal Sargon equipped with his trusty blades ‘Qays’ and ‘Layla’. After repelling an army in the opening scenes, Sargon sets out to save Prince Ghassan, who has been captured and taken to Mount Qaf to be brought before The Simurgh, a giant bird-like deity who resides over time and space.

Your initial mission is to catch up to and save the Prince, and from there you dive deeper into the secrets of Mount Qaf and a mythological Persia.

Activities include finding wak-wak trees that act as save-and-healing spots, collecting amulets to enhance and alter your abilities, complete side quests, out-maneouvre traps and obstacles, and gaining new abilities and Simurgh ‘time powers’. Those time powers will give you access to previously inaccessible areas and challenges to complete throughout your journey through Mount Qaf.

This game itself magnificent on the aesthetic front, and a true joy to play. The combat is fun and fluid as Sargon shoots, weaves and cleaves through ample enemies (and bosses, of course).

The story is compelling and has a really nice flow, and the mapping is really well done – where you can add ‘memory shards’ to make back-tracking so much easier. Basically, you’re taking a screenshot as a point of reference to keep you on track, and in my opinion this is a good feature of the game, and it ought to be included in all Metroidvanias.

With its beautiful visuals, brilliant acrobatic combat and an array of accessible features, this game will delight longtime fans of the Prince of Persia series, and is sure draw in battalions of new players to the fold.

Put your RPG gaming on hold for the moment; all the adventure you’ll be craving is right here in one action-packed game.

Benjamin Roccamante

‘Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’ is available to play on PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Series X and PC. The good news, too, is that you can cross-save across all platforms.

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