Prince of Persia The Lost Crown has given the 35-year-old series its second reinvention, but I still think it's better-suited to action RPG over Metroidvania

Jan. 18, 2024

Opinion | The Lost Crown has made Prince of Persia relevant again, setting its next steps up perfectly in the process

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You can read my thoughts in full in ourPrince of Persia: The Lost Crown review, but I think Ubisoft’s latest cavern-crawling caper – the series' first mainline outing in 14 years – is a watershed moment.

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For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Crown. I’m a sucker for Metroidvania games, and as noted above, I’m old enough to have played the almost-35-year-old original DOS version of Prince of Persia around release. Despite some clear push back from pockets of the series' fandom at reveal, I was sold on The Lost Crown’s 2.5D style from the outset – and in practice, when it wasn’t tripping over its convoluted story and force-feeding me its awkward narrative interjections, I’d go as far to say I loved it.

Following a 14-year mainline series hiatus, The Lost Crown has made Prince of Persia novel again – and while the Metroidvania genre may not have been the obvious route for doing so, it definitely fits the series' core themes of crypt-crawling, boss battling, and death-defying trap-dodging. Which is to say: all of the pieces fit here, but is this the path the series should continue down from here?

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d gladly take another Metroidvania in the style of The Lost Crown – but not at the expense of The Sands of Time remake and/or whatever strides the series might have up its sleeve moving forward”

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And why not, that’s not only Ubisoft’s prerogative, but it’s also, surely, what’s best for Prince of Persia moving forward. Don’t get me wrong, I’d gladly take another Metroidvania in the style of The Lost Crown – but not at the expense of The Sands of Time remake and/or whatever strides the series might have up its sleeve moving forward. For me, The Lost Crown is a palette cleanser ahead of the main course down the line. Until then, I say let Ubisoft cook.

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