Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | PS5 Review

It has been a long time since the last Prince of Persia game. The franchise was a staple for me growing up, especially as Ubisoft would put out a game every year or two. And then, for so long, not a thing. Rumors and false starts abounded, but us fans were left wanting and waiting. Luckily, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has arrived.

Turn Back the Sands of Time

This newest game from Ubisoft Montpellier goes back to a 2D structure, similar to the very first Prince of Persia games. Unlike those bona fide classics, however, The Lost Crown is a gear-gated game. The standard trappings of the genre are all here: a large, interconnected map, exciting boss battles, and abilities that open up new avenues of discovery. All of these things are done so effortlessly well you would think Prince of Persia had always been in this genre. The Lost Crown immediately stands out as one of the best gear-gated games ever produced.

The map of Mount Qaf will trick you several times. More than once, I couldn’t fathom the world being any larger, and each time it almost doubled. Thanks to a clean, clear map, I never got lost amongst the vastly different areas. A large part of this is also because of the inclusion of Memory Shards, which is a finite resource allowing you to take screenshots of the environment and have a marker automatically placed on your map. It may not sound like too big of a deal on paper, but I promise in practice it is revelatory. It would be hard to imagine future gear-gated games without it.

Mount Qaf is a land of magic and bent time. This allows for a surprising variety in locations. There’s a massive ocean area, creepy caverns that reach to the lowest depths, a stunning library, and more. Because of the surprising rules of the magical mountain, you will see things you would never expect. This extends to enemy variety, with each area having at least a half dozen brand new enemy types to fight.

Unleash the Warrior Within

Fight them you shall, with one of the fastest and most responsive combat systems a gear-gated game has ever seen. You can unleash such an exciting array of techniques right from the onset, such as enemy juggling and parrying. Parrying, in particular, is always exciting because pulling off the right kind of counter can instantly kill basic enemies. Each enemy has a wholly unique moveset to learn, and they hit hard if you fail. Thanks to the game’s surprisingly in-depth difficulty options, I was constantly engaged in every combat encounter and had an unbelievable amount of fun using every ability.

Each traversal ability you unlock also provides new combat options. Right until the very end of The Lost Crown, you’re adding new and exciting moves to your repertoire. It keeps things fresh for basic enemies, and makes for exciting boss encounters. I seriously haven’t had this much fun battling bosses in a long time. I rarely beat a boss on the first try, which I commend the developers for. They all have a classic video game feel to them, requiring both pattern memorization and lightning fast reflexes. There’s also a bit of a puzzle element to them as you decipher which of your abilities will best allow you to avoid their crushing attacks. Each one is a thrill.

In Persia There Are Two Thrones

I was equally thrilled by the story. In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you actually play as Sargon, a member of the Immortals, rather than the Prince. The Immortals are a team of uniquely empowered elite guardsmen. The premise of the game sees Prince Ghassan kidnapped away to a forgotten Persian Kingdom on Mount Qaf, ruled by a legendary King of old. From here, the story genuinely surprised me at multiple points. Its twists and turns are hidden well, but never come out of nowhere. Several times, I couldn’t believe the writers actually had the gumption to take the twists I was seeing.

On Mount Qaf, time works differently. What may have been hours for one person may be decades for another. It leads to exciting situations where Sargon may not know about the very thing someone is angry at him for, or many other tantalizing possibilities. The whole thing plays out like a long forgotten ancient fable, which is more than appropriate for a franchise like Prince of Persia. Some things may seem mysterious or somewhat too magical, but it’s because you’re seeing a mythological tale play out before your very eyes. There’s a great deal of talk about destiny and fate, and it all has an epic nature to it, in the true meaning of the word.

I absolutely love Sargon as our new protagonist. He’s a bit cocky, but he has the skills to back it up. He also possesses enough empathy to want to help anybody you come across on Mount Qaf. I also quite liked the character of Vahram, your leader of the Immortals. Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the Immortals cast doesn’t get fleshed out the way I was hoping for. Each Immortal has such a fun design and personality that I wanted to learn more about them, but they get minutes of screen time at most. One member has two or three lines of dialogue before being forgotten about entirely. It was a bummer not to learn more about them, as they all seemed so interesting.

Never a Forgotten Sands

Platforming is an essential piece of the Prince of Persia recipe, and The Lost Crown is no different. The platforming often demands a lot from the player, which is something I was very excited to see. Traps are everywhere and one wrong move can lead to you restarting the sequence. It’s never too punishing as it sends you back to the last piece of solid ground you touched, but it also isn’t afraid to produce a platforming sequence so difficult you’ll need a dozen or so tries to pull it off. The puzzles are also fun, as often they require you to combine a new ability with your own reflexes making your brain and muscles work in tight tandem.

Prince of Persia couldn’t have asked for a better return than The Lost Crown. It is amongst the very best gear-gated games ever made, and it’s a fresh and exciting direction for the beleaguered franchise. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown deftly ends in a way that resolves the main plot threads, but leaves just enough mysteries to get you excited for a sequel. Sargon proves himself capable as the new lead for this series, and I hope we get further adventures with him sooner rather than later.

To hear me talk more about Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, be sure to listen to the January 24 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 57:07 time stamp.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown provided by Ubisoft for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Epic Games Store.