Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Welcome back to Persia!

(Nintendo Switch code provided by Ubisoft) 

By Sam Coles: 

Prince of Persia is a franchise that Ubisoft has had lying in dormancy for about 14 years, with the last game they released was The Forgotten Sands in 2010. Fans such as I have been asking for a new game, and here we are with The Lost Crown as side scrolling Metroidvania game. Not what a lot of fans would want, as they would want a game in style of the PS2 trilogy, but it makes sense to go back to the routes of the series from the 1980s, plus it is a great game, but I will get into that. After 14 years is this Prince of Persia game worth your time? Absolutely, so let's get into it.  

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown sees you play as Sargon, an elite member of the Immortals and for you history buffs out there (me included) the Immortals were a real-world special unit within the Persian Empire who carried out special missions as well as guarding the Persian Royal Family. It is great that Ubisoft, with most of their historical based games always pay attention to aspects like this, and The Lost Crown is no different. Anyway, Sargon is one the protectors of the prince, but one of his comrades betrays him, kidnaps the prince and takes him to an ancient and mysterious ruin with time altering magic. The story is compelling enough to keep me playing, with good voice work from the main cast, with well animated cutscenes for the major story elements but most of it is voice and scrolling text which isn’t bad for this genre of game as it is about the gameplay.

 

The game is a side scroller in a similar vein to its routes from the late 1980s, where you must avoid spiked traps, navigate difficult and narrow platforms but with the added Metroidvania twist. Let’s talk about platforming first as that is what most associate Prince of Persia with, and I have to say it feels fantastic! At first glance one would think it is your typical platformer, but once you start moving it maintains the speed and agility of the PS2 trilogy, where it requires quick reactions and timing with each jump. You get into a trance once you get the rhythm of the parkour, plus it feels more satisfying when you gain more platforming abilities like the dash to name a few.  

The combat is no different, it is simple but that doesn’t mean it is easy as it is fast and requires quick reflexes. You have your standard, light attack, heavy attack, dodge and parry but I found if you are too reckless with your swings and strikes you can be overwhelmed quickly. This is especially the case when you fight groups of enemies, you need to put plenty of space between the enemy and yourself as well as making sure you time your parry attacks because otherwise you die quickly in this game. There were moments where I felt I had a good feel for combat, for the game to introduce new types of enemies that immediately repurposed me as a windscreen wiper and smeared me onto the nearest window. Patience is key with combat, and when you get the hang of the fast pace of it, you will feel like a ninja in most encounters as you slice through enemies with ease.  

Like with most Metroidvania games you will slowly upgrade your character, you start off weak with limited health and basic attacks, but as you progress you can gain more health, new abilities and attacks and more through beating bosses or general exploration. You find check/save points in the form of Wak-Wak trees (no laughing at the back of the class), you can save, regain health points (outside of potions) as well as swap out amulets. Amulets give you a passive bonus, this can range from extra health bars, added damage when in the air or with perfect parries, standard stuff. However, it works in your favour when you get the right combination, and you will stick with the same loadout of amulets that works for you throughout the game.  

Visually the game looks good, I have seen a lot of flak for the game’s graphics online, but I think the more cartoonish and exaggerated look works in the game’s favour within its genre. Let’s not forget the old PS2 trilogy, and the later games on Xbox 360/PS3 had a cartoonish and exaggerated look they weren’t aping a realistic art style as most seem to think. They always had a stylistic tone with their visuals, and this game looks great with its colourful graphics and highly detailed backgrounds. I played this on Nintendo Switch and the game ran well, it runs at 60 fps during gameplay, however in a lot of cutscenes the game will drop to 30 fps but that doesn’t really matter as they are not gameplay focused. Visuals and performance wise, even on the Nintendo Switch it works perfectly!  

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great comeback for the series, it brings back its old routes of side scrolling platforming but injects a sense of speed into it. Combat is fast, fluid and requires quick reflexes and platforming requires the same attention. If you are looking for a game in the same vein as Celeste or the Ori games, then this is a game for you. It is challenging but not unfair, with a beautiful art style perfect for the Nintendo Switch I might add, I highly recommend this game.   

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Dragon's Dogma - Capcom's Skyrim (sort of).

By Sam Coles: 

It is hard to believe that 13 years ago we got Skyrim and nearly 20 years ago we also got the release of Oblivion, where many developers and publishers tried to copy Bethesda’s high fantasy adventure. If you grew up during the Xbox 360 era, there were lots of high fantasy RPGs, with games like Two Worlds, Kingdoms of Amalur The Witcher 1 and 2 and of course Capcom’s stab at the formula Dragon’s Dogma. As the sequel is coming out soon (at the time of writing), which took you 12 years really Capcom I was 19 when the original came out and I will be 31 when the sequel comes out, but I digress. Anyway, digressions aside I thought it would be great to go over the original for those who are unfamiliar with it, let’s get into it.  

Dragon’s Dogma’s story is a standard fantasy tale, where you start off in a seaside village as a lowly peasant, where your village is attacked by a dragon that rips your heart out of your chest (yes really) and you become the chosen one in the form of the Arisen. The narrative is something that we are all familiar with when it comes to a fantasy story, a nobody becomes a protector, or an almighty chosen one but that is not the reason why Dragon’s Dogma was fondly remembered it was the unique gameplay.  

You start off making your own character, which if you are like many in RPGs, you will spend about 30 to 40 minutes within said creator. Anyway, you have your standard warrior, rogue and mage classes which on the surface look typical of the genre but it is not until you get into gameplay that it differs from other games within the genre.  

For one, the combat wasn’t stiff, it was fluid and fast as the combat designers of Devil May Cry were on board for this game, and if you played as the rogue class, you felt the fluidity of that series. Combat was fast, it had impact and coupled with the over-the-top blood effects was fun compared to the stiff action of Skyrim. Not only that, but it was also fun to be a mage for once in an RPG, spells had a massive presence during battles with particles smashing across the screen, instead of the standard fire balls and lightning bolts typical of the time. All the classes felt unique, and honestly it didn’t feel like you were standing in place hitting each other with twigs, which I love The Elder Scrolls, but the combat always lacked impact even Skyrim.  

Also, boss fights felt like an epic encounter, bosses where big and grand and for once you were not just hacking away at their ankles. Like Shadow of the Colossus, you can climb on large enemies, aiming for their weak points. These moments were tense, especially if you decide to take on a dragon, because at any point the dragon could take off and then fly across the map dumping you in the middle of nowhere. It added an extra layer of tensity and unpredictability as you could use said climbing ability to your advantage, but so could your enemy.  

After the first initial combat encounters you are dubbed the “Arisen”, because you have power over an ancient race called Pawns, who don’t really have autonomy as they need someone to guide them. This is the online feature of the game, you are given the task to create one Pawn, where you then summon two more that others across the globe have created.  

These are your party members, which you can swap out at any time, they have different vocations which are the classes in Dragon’s Dogma, and some will have mixed vocations. If an encounter becomes too difficult, it could be that you don’t have the right mix of Pawns in your party. This is what is great about Dragon’s Dogma, it is mixing and matching different party members with Pawns, plus it can be rather hilarious with the different and unique characters that players have made across the world. You can change them out at any time when you find a summoning stone, you will have to give them a star rating out of five as well as sending an item back with them to give to their Arisen. Most of the time though, I would find nine times out of ten they would come back with a carrot or a useless rag as most players aren’t that generous.  

 

The enemy variety was different too, you had your standard Tolkien style monsters like goblins and dragons, but you had cyclopes, chimeras and many more that will jump you when it is dark in the world. The first time I saw a chimera in the darkness, I feared the challenge as they will obliterate you when you first start the game. The game takes more from Roman and Greek mythology with its enemy roster, with the cyclopes mentioned before, but also harpies, it just made encounters feel different compared to the other RPGs on the market at the time.  

The only real issues with this game, and which I hope are remedied in the sequel mostly boils down to dialogue and traversal. For one your Pawns don’t shut up, they comment on the obvious to mundane and trivial aspects of the world. You can have a conversation with your Pawn, telling him or her to stop talking, but this does not apply to the ones you recruit from other players. I remember this driving me up the wall back in 2012, so hopefully you can tell all your companions to put a sock in it in Dragon’s Dogma II.  

As I said, the other issue comes from travelling the world, now I understand exploration is key to these sorts of games, but this game lacks a traditional fast travel system. What do I mean? Well, you can’t fast travel to discovered locations like other games within the genre, instead you come across rare teleporting crystals, which only takes you to the capital city. It is a pain as traversal is only on foot and your walking speed is slow, and slowly degrades if you are carrying too much, hopefully Capcom adds a proper fast travel system or at least some mounts in Dragon’s Dogma II.  

Dragon’s Dogma was an interesting addition to the fantasy genre back in the day from Capcom, and finally 12 years later we are getting a sequel. As one of the few fans over the years, I gave up on the idea of a sequel, but now we are getting one in 2024 I am beyond excited, and I cannot contain myself. Stick around this blog for coverage near release, as I should be reviewing the game so stay tuned.  

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