The image is of the original remake “Prince of Persia Classic” (2007) developed by Gameloft.
“Prince of Persia” is a 2D action game for Apple II released by Broderbund in 1989. It is set in an Arabian world, and gained popularity for its harsh yet unique charm, including smooth animation and merciless traps.
“Prince of Persia 3D” (1999)
After the third work, “Prince of Persia 3D”, all of the main series have been developed as 3D action, and even after the rights were transferred to Ubisoft in 2000, almost all of them have been developed as 3D action.
Meanwhile, “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown”, scheduled to be released on January 18th, returns to its roots in 2D action for the first time in 31 years as a main series. It is being developed by Ubisoft Montepelier, which has previously worked on the Rayman series, and is being developed by a studio with solid 2D action know-how.
In this article, we will provide a 3-hour advance play report that was played at the media preview event held before the game’s release. Please note that the button notation in the article is for the Xbox layout.
“Pripel” is back as a thrilling Metroidvania!
This work is a Metroidvania-type 2D action game in which players explore a large interconnected map. The main character is Sargon, a young Persian warrior. In order to rescue the kidnapped prince, you must explore the cursed Calf Mountain, which is infested with unforgiving traps and powerful monsters. Calf Mountain has an intricate structure, and players will traverse various passages depending on their mission goals.
The previous 2D “Prince of Persia” was characterized by somewhat heavy action, but this work has changed to a light and stylish action. The terrain has height differences, and you can move acrobatically by jumping from platform to platform, climbing to the top with a wall kick, or grabbing a pole and flying upwards.
The map is full of deadly traps and you have to jump over narrow scaffolding, inheriting the spirit of the 2D Prince of Persia and reinterpreting it for Metroidvania. Coupled with the atmosphere of the Arabian ruins, there are some tricks that can be quite nerve-wracking at times, but when you can successfully overcome them in style, it’s a great feeling of exhilaration.
As is typical of a Metroidvania, there will also be areas where you feel like there’s something good, but you can’t do it with your current abilities. In such a case, the “memory” function that can be used under the direction keys is useful. If you use this, you can take a snapshot of what kind of mechanism is in place at the moment and link it to the map.
When it comes to hidden areas in Metroidvanias, I tend to think, “I feel like there’s a place I haven’t taken, but I guess it’s okay…” but with this feature, I can explore hidden areas even more.
The battles are also crisp, incorporating trends in the modern action game scene. The basic operations are relatively simple: attack with the X button and evade with the A button. In addition, the enemy emits a yellow light just before attacking, so you can parry by aiming for it and pressing LT. However, if it glows red, it is an attack that cannot be parried, so you will need to avoid it with the A button. You have to carefully watch the enemy’s attacks and think about what action to take.
In addition, there are also abilities. The gauge at the bottom right of the screen fills up with each attack and gradually charges up. Once you have the required amount of charge, hold down LT and press buttons such as X or Y to use special moves that deal great damage or the ability to spawn a disposable recovery area, giving you an advantage in battle.
Special moves are quite useful even against bosses, and can significantly reduce damage with low risk. If the enemy is strong and difficult to defeat, you can aim for it more quickly to finish it off faster.
Slashing with dual swords has a lot of weight, and it feels good just to attack, but if you parry well, there’s a special animation! The pleasant feeling that makes you want to aim for a parry is a good impression. Not only bosses, but even the most powerful enemies will require you to parry them fiercely, so you can enjoy the thrilling battles in many scenes.
The boss I faced at the end of the trial run was an extremely busy situation where I had to be careful not only of the boss’s attacks, but also of the lightning emitted by the orbs flying around in the air and the poisonous swamp that caused continuous damage… Even though my brain was in a mess, I was able to defeat it with the very best of my physical strength, and I felt such a sense of accomplishment that I couldn’t help but do a fist pump.
You either love or hate the experience of getting lost in a Metroidvania. There are some complex areas in this game that can make you get lost, but even if you don’t want to get too lost, you can turn on a function that displays a marker to the destination in the difficulty setting, so you can easily I want to enjoy it mainly! In such a case, it would be a good idea to enable it.
Not only this, this game also has a lot of difficulty adjustment functions. In addition to controlling parry reception time and damage amount in battle, there also seems to be support functions for the platformer part, so you can customize the experience in detail to suit your weak points. I fell in love with the game’s texture, but I also appreciate the fact that it allows anyone to play.
Although this work is a 2D revival work after a long time, it has returned with a solid Metroidvania style. I’m really looking forward to playing the retail version of Prince of Persia, which has a style from the past while adapting to the modern world.
“Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown” is scheduled to be released on January 18th for PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S/Nintendo Switch. It also supports the subscription service “Ubisoft+”.
