Metroid of Persiania: The Lost Crown

When I picked up the latest and still very recent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown as a pleasant distraction for Wargroove’s longer and longer slogfests, I did not expect the game—in my head portrayed as yet another boring metroidvania clone—to be that big and that good. In stark contrast, the drama evolved around the game with reported layoffs after “softer than expected” sales reports makes me question what kind of expectations (and practices) a publisher like Ubisoft has. But let’s not dwell on the Ubisoft crap sauce poured on top of this otherwise excellent title and focus on the good stuff instead.

As an irritating pun to the game’s homage, I’ll be calling The Lost Crown Persiania from now on. This review is not devoid of spoilers. If you like to go in blind, stop reading here and don’t look at any screenshots. Otherwise, you’re welcome to rock/scroll on!

In case you missed it, Persiania (this will get annoying pretty quickly!) is the first new PoP game in ten years—and a 2D platformer instead of a 3D action/adventure one! That’s a pretty radical shift, and that move alone demands respect. But Ubisoft Montpellier didn’t stop there: they pulled from all kinds of metroidvania classics, threw it all in and coated it with a fresh lick of old Persia paint. The result is a beautiful homage that looks and feels great but does not manage to break into any new territory in itself. The question then is: does it have to?

Persiania proudly wears its influences on its sleeve. Remember Hollow Knight and the cartographer? The huge multi-coloured map? The terrors and darkness of Deepnest? Equipping and swapping pins to get stronger? Aerial dashes? Gathering precious ore tucked away in hidden corners to upgrade your nail? Yup, all there. Remember the combat and map structure of Metroid Dread? Yup. Remember the tough and precise platforming sections and the strawberries of Celeste? Yup.

So what is unique to this game, then, besides the obvious theme (and the obnoxious Ubisoft Connect shitshow)? Persiania (oh come on) is also tough as nails—at least, at first. Luckily for us, they didn’t copy the sparse bench locations. Died in the middle of a boss fight? Just press try again and you’re back at it! How great is that? Later in the game, to make traversing even less of a chore, you can teleport not just from… well… teleporters, but also from save points that are spread liberally across Mount Quaf. Also, Persiani—okay, fuck it: The Lost Crown—received the 2024 accessibility award for good reason: you can play around with any imaginable setting, including making blocking easier or incoming attacks easier to spot.

Another small but welcome addition was the ability to put up visual “memories” on the map where portions are gated through classic metroidvania design. That makes it much easier to come back later when you do get that inevitable double jump. It’s a bit puzzling to me why they initially limited that at 10, but I’ll take it. Speaking of the very solid map design for the most part, if you’re having trouble chasing down the treasure needed to boost your health bar or sharpen your blades, you can simply buy treasure maps, and some sidequests also point to the right direction.

All these features help shave the rough/sharp edges off games like Hollow Knight with their inconsistent difficulty spikes. I’d say this is the best recent tough yet doable entry-level metroidvania I played. I might even put it above Metroid Dread if it were not for the tad too long playtime for my tastes (about 25h instead of my expected 10h), and I hated the EMMI sections anyway.

If you are expecting the game to have awesome boss fights, you won’t be disappointed. It doesn’t nearly have as much fights as Hollow Knight, and obviously not all of them are memorable, but I enjoyed figuring out attack patterns of most of these.

One of the reasons the battles are enjoyable is the very satisfying combat in PoP, where with the right amulets (pins/whatever) equipped, you can dish out a ton of damage even while airborne. From the beginning till the very end, the combat stays great, and especially during the first half of the game, you’ll need to stay on your toes, as even mundane lancers and swordsmen can outright kill you with a few well-placed swings.

There are two ways to deal with incoming swings: blocking and evading. Sargon, our protagonist, is very nimble, so the latter is not a problem, but if timed just right, the former will result in a spectacular counter-attack including a stylistic cel-shaded action-movie sequence. The problem is the timing, however. Sometimes I get them, and sometimes they’re totally off, resulting in a big splash of blood with an X shown on screen, taking a good chunk of your health, to add to the humiliation. Again, there are options (and amulets) to partially mitigate this, such as the Shield of Mirtha that creates a time bubble around you greatly slowing down the enemy if the block was successful, allowing you to start decimating.

As you slowly unlock new abilities—it’s a metroidvania after all—you’ll expand your combat move set, as almost all abilities can be employed both for solving the puzzles the game throws at you as for dispatching enemies and bosses. Just one felt very flimsy to me, and I barely used my bow besides hitting hard to reach buttons, but apart from that, the moves were all cool and tied in with what is happening in the story.

Well… “story” is a big word. Most reviews criticize the cohesion of it and while I agree, I don’t think it matters much in a metroidvania, and it’s still digestible enough. What was a bit harder to digest—again, besides the Ubisoft crap that needs another mention and I also mentioned in the Rayman Legends review—were the numerous small and bigger bugs I encountered. At one point, after clearing out an ambush, the door just wouldn’t unlock. At another point, the camera stopped following Sargon, or he just disappeared. None of these can’t be solved by a restart, but they were quite annoying.

I played the game on the Switch and besides the overall lower fidelity I was fine with, some stutters and framerate drops were noticeable. Loading times were not very quick but still good enough. This is the kind of game that is well suited for the platform: a great pick up and play game.

In the end, I am very glad I played The Lost Crown. It’s a successful transition to 2D and I hope the Prince stays that way. Don’t expect a radical departure from ye olde metroidy classics, be prepared to invest a bit more time, and shrug and reboot if you encounter game-breaking bugs.

Happy Simurgh feather hunting!