3.5/5 ★ – Frank_S's review of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

A Great Game Stuck in the Shadows of It's Inspirations Metroidvanias feel like the genre that AAA publishers left behind. Its different core ideas are seemingly part of every third-person action game but as cogs in a greater gameplay machine, rather than the machine itself. This made Prince of Persia the Lost Crown a big surprise to me when it was first revealed. Not only was it a new entry a long dormant franchise but a classic styled 2D Metroidvania. This coming from Ubisoft made it even more shocking. It was clear from the get-go though that this was not a 200 million-dollar AAA game and more of a small project for Ubisoft. Despite that, it was still intriguing to see a massive publisher tackle a genre that has felt exclusive to the indie scene for 10 years. Inspiration is key to any art, Ideas have to come from somewhere. Often those ideas are inspired by other pieces of art within your medium, leading to the formation of a genre within that creative space. It can sometimes be a fine line between copying a piece of work or being inspired by it and while I don’t think The Lost Crown is a straight copy of anything else, I have never seen the fingerprints of other games so clearly when playing. The fingerprints it has though are from some of the greats, Hollow Knight and Celeste being the most defined in the ink. This does however make it feel like the game lacks its own identity a lot of the time, as instead of seeing “Prince of Persia”, I am seeing one of the many other great indie games of the last decade. That's not to say that it does nothing unique to itself, but it's those parts that feel unique that often miss the mark. The Lost Crown is a Metroidvania in its purest and if that's what you are looking for it will be a fun time no doubt. With all the staples you expect and want, the ability-gated progression, big boss fights and platforming gauntlets. The moment-to-moment gameplay is this game's biggest strength with light combo and air juggling combat being its centerpiece. Your combat kit is what you would expect, a dodge, a parry and an omnidirectional attack. It's simple to learn but opens up a lot with the different abilities and the air juggling potential of it. It is at its peak in the boss fights. They are a true joy to fight and master, incorporating the use of your abilities in ways that always keep you on your toes. The number of times I would think that attack was impossible to survive only to realise that it could be done with an ability I had all but forgotten about, definitely triggered the right neurons. It's just a shame that there were not more of them. The regular enemies were fun enough but mostly required no thinking to overcome. I would have preferred if they reduced the grunts and gave us more of these big boss showdowns. Exploration is the second great pillar that a Metroidvania is built on. While still strong here it buckles a little compared to its combat counterpart. Two key things to satisfying game exploration are seeing cool things and getting cool rewards. The Lost Crown half-nails these. Its areas flip-flop between these samey “temple areas’ and time-frozen crashing waves. The unfortunate part is these more unique visual areas feel like the exception rather than the rule. While traversing these areas the item rewards you get for exploration leave a lot to be desired. They come in two forms, currency and amulets. Currency comes in three types, basic “shards” that are used for most purchases, tablets to be used for upgrades and Xerxes coins for higher-level items and upgrades. Shards are everywhere and the biggest issue with discovery. I was constantly let down thinking I had found some secret side path only to get 25 shards (which is not that much). Slabs are the most rewarding as they are key to upgrading your weapons and your amulets but are often found by spotting a hidden wall that is very obvious. Xerxes coins aren’t that satisfying as an item but are always challenging and fun to get due to the platforming puzzles that lead to them. Amulets are equipable and modify you in combat. The issue here is that they are often quite boring changes, the classic damage numbers go up. They can be upgraded which is an interesting idea however this has the effect that the base Amulets (the ones that you find) are not very good and don’t get you excited to find them. The exploration parts all work but never truly excite you, along with the fact that there is no real optional content (areas, fights, etc) makes that feeling of exploring a living world lacking. The last great pillar of this Metroidvania time temple is the platforming. This along with the combat is its great strength. It perfectly ramps up the complexity and difficulty throughout the game. Encouraging you to use all your new abilities as you get them. It feels so fluid to jump from wall to wall and the mid-air dashes in between. The later game gauntlets are some of the most platforming fun I have had in a long time. The Lost Crown’s story is where it tries its hardest to be something new. Metroidvanias are not really known for cut scenes and structured stories. More lore tablets and small dialogue boxes. This game still has the lore tablets but has a lot of full-voiced cut scenes that it puts front and centre. Those voices are not great and feel very emotionless, anger, and sadness both sound the same and this is across all the performances. This might have been okay if the writing was good but this story is just not engaging. It starts with an interesting set-up but quickly falls into simple cliches of one-note characters and a bare-bones plot. By the halfway point, I had tapped out and it never did anything to bring me back in. The presentation of this story is clearly inspired by anime. Its inspiration is only skin deep though as it takes all the parts that they think make anime exciting and hype, but misses the parts that get you to those feelings in the first place. It's not bad, just boring and that might be worse. The Lost Crown is a joy of a Metroidvania to play, even if it feels like you are playing a game you’ve played before. It might not always show you its best but when it does, it feels amazing to be in control. It’s the parts that try to give it its own identity where it falls short and ultimately stops it from joining the greats along with the games that inspired it.