Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE LOST CROWN suffers from Metroidvania slowness before it shines
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a slow burn to a fault. Its beginning hours are mired by overly simple platforming, not helped by a disjointed narrative that left me with zero investment in its story. If I were reviewing this based on the first 15 hours alone, I would’ve been a lot more sour. Yet its second half does a fantastic job of leaning into its strengths, and when I rolled credits I couldn’t help but wish the entire game had been this way.
It’s a solid attempt at a Metroidvania from Ubisoft and one that, all things considered, took me by surprise with how much I came to enjoy it. I’ve never been one to express much interest in Metroidvanias or even Prince of Persia for that manner, but The Lost Crown has given me the bug.
IMMORTAL REIGN
I may not have dabbled in Prince of Persia previously, I do at least know that this is the series’ first appearance in a long 14 years. It swapped out its 3D perspective to return to its 2D platforming roots, and forgoes its eponymous prince character in favour of new protagonist Sargon. This lad isn’t royalty, but rather a member of the Immortals, a group tasked with protecting the prince Ghassan and keeping Persia safe.
Eventually I opted out of paying attention to the story
He doesn’t do a very good job of the whole protecting thing though, as his mentor snatches Ghassan away to Mount Qaf, where time is all funky and nonlinear, causing some strange behaviour and mysterious characters to crop up all over the place. Sargon jets off with the rest of the Immortals to try and save Ghassan, combating all of Mount Qaf’s weirdness.
At least, I’m pretty sure that’s the premise of the story. The Lost Crown’s narrative is underbaked. Pieces of the overarching story are missing – outside of members of the Immortals, I was often lost as to who people were and their motives.
Books around the map provide additional lore, but they proved of little help when it came to the moment-to-moment story beats. Grand reveals were met with zero reaction from me because they were delivered so awkwardly with little-to-no buildup that I was unsure why I should even care. Eventually I opted out of paying attention to the story entirely, rather than choosing to be confused by it.
It’s a shame because a stronger narrative would’ve really helped get through the slog of its early hours. When I first arrive at Mount Qaf with Sargon I have a simple jump, slid
