I was at the Ubisoft presentation when the gameplay trailer for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was shown - its second trailer after its big reveal at Summer Game Fest last Thursday. When Sargon, the new PoP, uses his time travel powers to bash an enemy into his past-self and continue a lengthy combo chain, the crowd erupted with excitement. I got a chance to play The Lost Crown a few hours later, and every time I pulled off one of those flashy timey-wimey moves, I could still hear the whole crowd cheering in my head. 2D action hasn’t felt this precise and stylish since Ori, if ever.
Updated June 30, 2023: We've updated this feature to include a video discussion between Eric Switzer and George Foster. Excitement for The Lost Crown is high, and the two go over the highlights of the reveal, Eric's time previewing the game, and the feel of it so far.
The ability to rewind time is Prince of Persia’s signature, but The Lost Crown has a unique approach to this mechanic. Rather than rewind the game to a previous point in time, Sargon can only rewind himself - and only to a specific point in time that you previously marked. This may seem like a huge limitation, but it’s a perfect fit for The Lost Crown’s combat and platforming. The gameplay trailer shows how you can use this ability to dodge enemy attacks, avoid traps, and execute incredible combos. It can still be used as a pseudo-save state too, just as it was in past Prince of Persia games. Create a marker for yourself before attempting a difficult platforming challenge, and you can rewind when things go wrong. But, for the most part, you’ll be using the rewind as a way to teleport around the battlefield, confusing your enemies and avoiding damage.
It looks a little complicated, but it's even more technically challenging once you get your hands on it. The marker you create will remember exactly where you were in your current animation when you create it. So, if you’re in the middle of the third hit of your three-hit-combo when you activate the marker, whenever you eventually recall Sargon back to that moment, he will finish off the combo automatically. This is how you set up those amazing sequences where you unleash a string of attacks on an enemy, dash behind it, smack it backwards, then teleport back to your previous position and finish it off with a big combo finisher. It’s going to take a lot of practice and luck to pull off those kinds of moves, but it's so worth it when you see the whole thing come together.
The rewind is just one of many of Sargon’s abilities. He’s also got a bow and arrow, chakram that can be thrown and returned like a boomerang, two abilities that use a charge meter resource to activate - at the start I had a giant wave attack and a healing aura - and plenty of sword techniques. The trailer shows other abilities you’ll get throughout the game, like a grappling hook and the ability to rewind enemies to make them attack each other. There’s an unbelievable number of animations that all flow together seamlessly to make combat and traversal feel fluid and effortless. The skill ceiling feels incredibly high, but you’ll still look like you know what you’re doing even if you’re just mashing the attack button.
The devs I spoke to from Ubisoft Montpellier, best known for creating Rayman, described The Lost Crown as semi-open-world. There’s lots of exploring, alternate paths, and backtracking like what you would find in an Ori or Hollow Knight-style Metroidvania, but the level design also pays homage to classic Prince of Persia games too. There’s plenty of wall-jumping and pole-swinging to be found in The Lost Crown’s labyrinthine biomes, though what I saw in the opening half hour paled in comparison to the intricate level design of Ori. Ori and Hollow Knight have worlds that are begging to be discovered, but in The Lost Crown, I felt like I was just running through similar hallways trying to find the one door that would take me to the next story beat.
That said, The Lost Crown would still feel great even if the entire game took place in a single endless tunnel. Sargon’s fighting style has a balance of finesse and brutality that makes every fight feel complex and explosive. It’s the kind of game that’s almost as much fun to watch as it is to play, and despite its new direction, I think it will easily win over even the most hostile Prince of Persia fan once they get their hands on it January 18, 2024.