Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Injects Its Classic Roots with Metroid-Style Elements

The original Prince of Persia from creator Jordan Mechner is one of the most influential adventure games. Focusing on exploring a labyrinthine dungeon filled with traps, foes to fight, and a story inspired by Middle Eastern culture and folklore, the 1989 original made for a compelling action-adventure game, and in the following decades, the series went through many reboots to revitalize the core concept of exploring a mythological Persia. With Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, the series’ jump towards the popular “Metroidvania” sub-genre, which feels like an inevitable but fitting turn.

Returning to the series’ 2D roots, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown leans further into the exploration of a sprawling dungeon filled with supernatural threats and daring puzzle-platforming sections to overcome—but with a more stylized and action-focused twist. I recently played the opening hours of The Lost Crown and uncovered its re-envisioned take on the series mythos, and how the new Metroid-inspired design is so far making for a great reboot.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown presents its story as something of an interactive fable rooted in Persian folklore, which feels in line with series standouts like Sands of Time and the 2008 reboot. Taking on the role of a young warrior named Sargon, you must rescue the titular Prince following an abduction by a rogue group. Taken to a mysterious, sprawling city where time and space are in flux, Sargon and his allies explore the fallen kingdom and face off against the enigmatic forces responsible for the abduction and the strange magic corrupting the land.

As a game in the vein of the Metroid series or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, The Lost Crown is about exploring a massive, interconnected map filled with monsters to fight, secrets to uncover, and new abilities that push the protagonist beyond his known limits. One of the reasons why this type of game is so popular with players is how it provides both a satisfying sense of power growth and an increasing mastery of their environment. Both of those fit well with the spirit of the Persia series.

Cinematic director Joseph-Antoine Clavet from developer Ubisoft Montpellier—the creators of Rayman Origins and Legends—broke down the initial pitch for making Prince of Persia’s first Metroid-style game and how, despite the change in visuals and tone, The Lost Crown carries on the “DNA” of the original game.

“We do see The Lost Crown as a departure, but we also see it carrying on with what Jordan Mechner did with the original game’s sense of adventure and gameplay,” said Clavet. “The goal was to close this bridge with previous games and everything we love as creatives. We grew up with Metroidvania games, fighting games, the games that Jordan worked on, and the Ubisoft Prince of Persia games as well. So it felt right when the project started taking life, to merge all those elements that we love while sticking to the DNA of the series.”

While The Lost Crown doesn’t possess the grand scope of the Sands of Time trilogy, the reboot still carries a cinematic flair by focusing more on Sargon’s moment-to-moment actions in his journey through the fallen kingdom. Simply put, The Lost Crown is the most “videogame” entry of the series, with Sargon learning new skills, taking on side-quests, buying items from shops, and using his skills to beat down powerful bosses in large battles. It forgoes the cinematic storytelling of other entries for a more game-like progression, and honestly, aside from the somewhat lengthy traversal sequences that feel a bit overlong, it works out great.

As I got more accustomed to utilizing his combat skills and darting through puzzle platforming sequences, I got really into The Lost Crown‘s flow, which does feel more like a game that’s about fast action and quick reflexes compared to some of the more contemplative and narrative entries in recent years. And that’s OK, because this approach gives The Lost Crown a unique flavor I appreciated the more I delved into its world.

Stylistically, The Lost Crown is a departure from previous games. It goes for a more action-oriented tone that feels like a Japanese anime or other action-packed game like Devil May Cry or the original Ninja Gaiden. But what really captured my attention with The Lost Crown was its focus on building a world that is so richly influenced by ancient Persian culture and Middle Eastern folklore. Along with the familiar inspirations of One Thousand and One Nights and other folktales and mythology that are seen through the environments and foes you battle, the game is also completely playable with a Farsi voice-over option, which I kept for my entire preview of the game.

The Lost Crown showcases ancient Persia through the lens of a high-style action-adventure game, and from what I played, it works out well. The level of detail and depth to its world makes this turn for Prince of Persia feel like an incredibly stylized Middle Eastern fable. According to Clavet, the tone and setting of The Lost Crown took some time to craft. Still, the overall intent was to build a world that blended different styles to make a compelling take on Prince of Persia but also for a new Metroid-inspired game that had a style all its own.

“We wanted to tell a story that felt like a myth, but we never wanted it to be historically accurate,” said the cinematic director. “The Lost Crown‘s story is larger than life, so our goal was to take the folklore that we like but show it in a way that we feel is refreshing for the brand. For instance, we’re very inspired by anime, and we felt that style fit our desired heightened adventure. That anime style has this huge sense of power, and we felt it was a good fit with the ancient Persian mythology. It allowed for a great blend of styles that was refreshing in terms of the art direction and for the music with some strong influence and Persian rhythm drums and instruments but gave it a sense of modernism and those Ubisoft-style twists to it. For this game, it was not about changing the series’ direction, but rather wanted to play with the style we wanted to see in the game, which still feels like a Prince of Persia game.”

The Prince of Persia series has been reinvented and rebooted many times before—2008’s Prince of Persia still stands as one of the most underrated games of the series. However, my hands-on with The Lost Crown shows a level of promise that feels different yet more confident in its first steps into a new type of action-adventure game. The move to a Metroid-style structure could be a bold and exciting step forward for the series, and it’s one that I want to dive into again to see just how far the sprawling world goes.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is set for release on January 18, 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Alessandro Fillari is a freelance writer and content creator living in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can follow him on Twitter.