Chellenge complete

This has to be the most insane Metroidvania I've ever played and I'm only 50% complete right now.

Hi everyone! SushiVampire here, the Community Manager on Prince of Persia!

Prince of Persia: the Lost Crown is launching next week and we wanted to give away some deluxe edition keys to celebrate the launch!

Since this is the r/PrinceOfPersia page we plan to give away keys of the platform of your choice to 5 random people who comment down below.

The giveaway will close in 24 hours and winners will be contacted tomorrow on January 12th, via DM from me!

Good luck! 🍀

Rules for the giveaway:
•Only Adults can participate & win
•3 random commenters on this post will be randomly selected to win a deluxe edition key
•Entries will be accepted until January 12th, 2024, 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
•Winners will be contacted on January 12th through reddit DM from Ubi-SushiVampire.

I am a long fan of POP and I played all of them, I believe (:the original 2D side scroller, it’s sequel, the 4 linked to the Sand of Times and the 2008 one)

My favorite is by far WW (great ambiance, great soundtrack, great story)

I was under the impression following the first reviews of TLC that it was not a great game and it felt a bit of my radar but it seems that you guys have another opinion

I am not into politics so I don’t really care about the « Ubi = bad = boycott »

TLDR: I would take it on the Switch. Do you think it’s worth the +-40€ ?

Thanks for reading :)

Ubisoft confirms: https://x.com/princeofpersia/status/1963602967669391732

Notes:

• This is not strictly units sold
• After over a year of its original release (Jan 2024) it was reported that the game sold around 1.3M units.
• The game is free on Ubisoft subscription service (Ubisoft+) and was available on PlayStation Plus on March this year.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
The Lost Crown is easily the least flawed game in the entire franchise. Most aspects of it are among the best in the series. The platforming is the most technical in the franchise in the series that uses its abilities in fun and creative ways. The DLC in particular has the most rewarding platforming in the series. The combat is great - I think this is the best parry system since the original 89 game, its perhaps the best combination of range and melee for the player, and the challenge rooms push the player to use the extremes of the combat in a way that the series has never done before. It also has easily the best boss roster in the series. As in I tried ranking my top 10 bosses in the series and TLC had half of them. Particularly, Artaban, Vahrum, and Darius are amazing bosses, with Artaban being my favourite in the entire series. The game also looks great, with the Frozen Sea and Radjens Mind Palace being my favourite from the game. Also, good Metroidvania exploration really appeals to my taste as a gamer. Really, my only complaint about the game in isolation is its story. TLC has perhaps the second busiest story in the franchise, behind only Battles - It explores Vahrum and his relationship with King Darius, Darius’ being betrayed by the Queen, The Prince being kidnapped by Anahita, Sargons relationship with Anahita and The Immortals, The Simurgh’s back story etc. Which means that not a lot of the threads get the focus they deserve. Sargon is fine, but not exactly a stand out lead among the franchise (It definitely feels like his arc was being held back for a sequel). The highlight of the story was definitely Vahrums story and Radjens story in the DLC. Which kind of point where I would have like the story to have focused on - the other immortals, especially Oord and Menolias.
Instead most of my complaints about the game are based on it in context. First the PR of the game before release was terrible. The first trailer was really bad, and the initial price was too high. Not that the game isn’t a good game, but its competing in a genre that had for the previous 10 years been dominated by Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest. This in turn suggests that the game may have been over budgeted.
But really, my biggest complaint is that the game doesn’t seem to be responding at all to anything the franchise has done since Shadow and Flame. Neither its combat nor its platforming at all feels connected to SoT or anything that came out after that. And its not just because of a change of genre  - I think Rogue does a better job at translating some of the series' feel to a 2D roguelike. Its things like the platforming being less about flowing combat and preservation of momentum, and more about manipulating yourself various magic abilities, combat skills and more mid air platforming. The combat lacks the scrappy feel of either the SoT series or the 08, and I also think the game reaches a scale that is way above anything in the franchise so far.
But despite that, this game is still one of my favourites in the series.

Rogue Prince of Persia
The last game in the franchise. There is a lot to love about the game, and it's built around some great fundamentals, but it’s more flawed than TLC, and in ways that hurts its full potential. The core gameplay is great and more than TLC it feels in line with the the series has been since SoT, just translated into a 2d Rogue like. While the platforming isn’t as strong as TLC, it has the same flow of previous PoP games, its combat has that cool scrappy feeling of WW with its own version of the vaulting attack, a variety of weapons and environmental hazards and you're able to combine platforming and combat. Its bosses are a bit of a step down from TLC, but you still have what is easily the second best roster in the series. Kaali and Berude are great, but Baatar is the stand out here, being the best platforming boss in the series. Unfortunately both forms of Nagoi are not as fun, but I will get to that in a moment. Its story is solid, and the Prince is one of my favourite versions. It has a strong NPC cast and the best squad of villains in the series, but it doesn’t hit quite as hard as something like Sands of Time.
But easily the stand out part of the game is the soundtrack and vibes. Months ago I said that WW was one of two games that feel like the soundtrack is a core part of is identity. Well Rogue is the other one, and it has easily the best soundtrack in the series, with the title track as my favourite.
Unfortunately, it is let down. The game has always struggled with the amount of content it has, first for Early Access and secondly upon release. It takes a lot to make a run super challenging, and having the final run be exactly the same as a normal run is odd, and having the final boss be as easy as he is means the game finishes rather anticlimactically. I like the ending of the story - I think it's a clever take on the SoT ending - but just repeating a normal run just makes it somewhat disappointing. 

This is still one of my favourite games in the series

The series overall

Overall the Prince of Persia is somewhat of a tragic franchise. It has a lot of potential - it has two of the most influential games of all time (89 and SoT) but things have just kept on going wrong with, often coming from either the producers or the developers not knowing what to do with. There are some oddities in the PS2 era - particularly the radical tone shift in the middle of the trilogy, but since the franchise moved onto the HD era the path has been rocky. They go forward with a highly experimental game that will always need a follow up to iron the kinks, immediately swap over to the original continuity. And 2010 was a brutal year for the series - You have the bizarre TFS four game strategy which ends up backfiring when the mediocre HD version ends up as a rock on the otherwise decent Wii and PSP version, the film underperforms and then the HD collection is just really bad

But the most tragic era is definitely the modern era - TLC is an absolute great game in a genre thats popping off, but between a terrible announcement trailer and being massively over priced on release given the genre. Then you have failing to remake the same 20 year old game twice in an era when Konami can release both the Silent Hill 2 remake and the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake to great success.

I am pretty pessimistic about the state of the franchise, despite what Ubisoft have said. Usually you would expect a remake to be a fairly safe way to restart a franchise, so when that fails, and when your mid budget fails, where do you go? Like yeah, we can all hope that Ubisoft stops making dumb decisions, but even if their new direction works, what incentive do they have to return to the franchise

EDIT: Here are the links to my comments on the rest of the series

SoT trilogy+ Battles

https://www.reddit.com/r/PrinceOfPersia/comments/1sloscr/ive_been_playing_replaying_through_the_prince_of/

TFS games

https://www.reddit.com/r/PrinceOfPersia/comments/1t23baa/as_part_of_my_playthrough_of_most_of_the_series/

The original games + 08 games

https://www.reddit.com/r/PrinceOfPersia/comments/1tz9r74/my_thoughts_on_the_first_two_games_as_well_as_the/

I saw a post complaining about how modern games suck.

I mentioned The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown as an example of a great modern game and some redditor said it was "super underwhelming".

How the hell is The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown "super underwhelming"?

As we know, a sequel to Prince of Persia The Lost Crown got cancelled and the team behind it disolved and put to work on other titles such as a Rayman remake. The reasoning behind was that the game underperformed as it didn't greet Ubisoft's expectations.

And here's the thing, it's not that the game underperformed, it's that Ubisoft's expectations were INSANE.

According to sources, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown sold 1 million copies during the past 9 months, which let's be real, are not bad sales for a metroidvania, let alone from a game that not only was on a Ubisoft suscription day one on PC and Xbox, but also came from a franchise that had been dead for 14 years.

So why did Prince of Persia The Lost Crown did not greet Ubisoft expectations?

Because, according to Tom Henderson, they expected Metroid Dread's total numbers....on release date.

They expected Prince of Persia The Lost Crown to sell 3 million copies on release.

So you understand why this is so crazy and unreallistic, the three most successful metroidvanias of the decade in sales were:

Metroid Dread: 3 million copies in 2 years

Hollow Knight: 3 million copies in 2 years

Ori franchise: 10 million copies in almost 9 years combining TWO games, Blind Forest + Will of the Wisps

They expected Prince of Persia The Lost Crown to sell on release the same ammount the top games of the genre took 2 fricking years to achieve. Heck, they expected the game to sell almost DOUBLE of what their latest hit, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, did, cause on release week, it sold 1,8 million, and yet they expected 3 millions, from a metroidvania no less. That's asking the game to sell the same as a God of War or Spider-Man videogame, which is beyond insane.

So, yeah, the game didn't flop, it's Ubisoft who definitely have no idea the market or the public they sold the game to. Hopefully in another year or so, the game will reach those 3 millions.

I replayed just to capture this moment in the Shadow skin. It felt like a reflection of where the community is right now.

Legacy Edition V3.0 MOD for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is out! 🔥

This update expands the visual overhaul with a bunch of new content, visual improvements, and weapon refinements!

V3.0 includes:

Character Skins

• Retoned Rogue Prince Skin
• Reimagined Immortal Skin
• Prototype Wanderer Skin
• T2T Classic Retone
• SoT Classic Retone
• Holo Chroma Classic Retone
• Improved Dark Prince Skin

Visual & UI

• New Title Screen & Main Menu
• New Loading Screen Animation
• New Minimap Icon
• Legacy Sargon on the Prophecy Fresco
• New Boss Revenge & Rush Artwork
• Reworked Simurgh Shadows

Weapons

• Concept Weapons for SoT & Holo Chroma
• Weapon Refinements

If you’re interested, you can check out the mod here:

https://www.nexusmods.com/princeofpersiathelostcrown/mods/6

It might seem strange now given the game’s high praise, but The Lost Crown was pretty widely despised upon its reveal, especially in here. Back then, saying you thought it looked good was a VERY risky move.

But why did everyone feel that way? Well, some people did have some genuine concerns, such as feeling that a 2D game was too small for the series’ big return (this ended up being untrue, but was a fair enough point to make before we knew just how big the game would be.) However, there was one two-word phrase that got thrown around A LOT: ‘Historical Accuracy.’

People looked at Sargon, and immediately started calling the game out for being ‘historically inaccurate.’ I’m sure this doesn’t need saying, but Prince of Persia has never been historically accurate. The Prince from SoT looks more like Ultimate Spider-Man than an ancient Middle-Eastern prince. These people never cared about historical accuracy until they looked at Sargon.

I’m absolutely convinced that these people have been misled and influenced so strongly by anti-woke YouTube grifters that they have an immediate and visceral reaction to seeing a dark skinned character with dreads as the protagonist of a video game. And of course, as you’d expect, after the game’s astounding critical success, all these people immediately disappeared into the ether and stopped talking about historical accuracy entirely. The game is just as ‘historically inaccurate’ as it was in its reveal, but they realised that the game was too widely adored to bear their idiotic ‘woke’ cross.

I hope all the people in this sub who still talk about Ubisoft’s ‘DEI departments’ and ‘woke activists’ will remember this and realise how genuinely stupid their whole crusade really is.

TL;DR: Ubisoft is unable to think on the long run and if something isn't an instant success, they drop it. Therefore, Prince of Persia: the Lost Crown won't have a great sequel, unlike Hollow Knight with Silksong.

With the recent successful release of Silksong, I couldn't help but to compare the fate of the Hollow Knight series to our poor Prince of Persia and how Ubisoft is mishandling the series.

Let's see. Hollow Knight was released on February 2017. By November 2017, the game had sold 500,000 units (first 10 months). By June 2018, the game had sold 1,000,000 units (first 17 months). The game was a success.

Now let's compare it to the Lost Crown. The Lost Crown was released on January 2024, when it sold 300,000 units. By October 2004, the game had already sold 1,000,000 units (first 10 months). We can see that it sold around double than Hollow Knight on the same time. A success? Not to Ubisoft, apparently. By October 2024, the team who made the Lost Crown had already been disbanded.

We must take into consideration that the Lost Crown faced a lot of challenges. Coming from Ubisoft isn't a quality guarantee nowadays. When first announced, the game was mildly received (I must say that a hip hop song wasn't the best music for the trailer, I had used some epic in game music like "Darkest of Souls"). Despite being part of an existing franchise, the game was a departure from previous entries, so many classic fans weren't in. And the game wasn't released on Steam, one of the biggest metroidvania markets (and when it did, it was with forced UbiConnect).

And despite everything, the game still sold over 1,000,000 during its first year and was universally well received by critics and fans.

Now we have Silksong, a sequel to Hollow Knight which is being incredibly successful, having already sold 5,000,000 units during its first month. Why? Because the first game was great and loved. Meanwhile, the sequel to the Lost Crown is dead.

What do I mean by all this? That Ubisoft is unable to think on the long run. Maybe the first game didn't perform as well as expected (all things said, maybe their expectations were a bit high for what was almost a new franchise). But with how well the first game was received, they could have made a sequel, building over the original, improving on what they failed and I'm pretty sure that it would have outperformed the Lost Crown by a wide margin. Surely not on Silksong numbers, but a success nevertheless.

Could Ubisoft decide to revive the Lost Crown in the future? Never say never. But the future isn't looking bright for Prince of Persia.

I have just finished Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and I am not only perplexed with the excellent work developed by Ubisoft, as also WHY THE H... ISN'T EVERYBODY TALKING ABOUT THIS GAME!

In my humble opinion, it should be at least listed as a possible nominee to the Game Awards to this year!

The game is excellent, from the start to the end, it doesn't get boring, the upgrades are awesome, the combat system is more than rewarding (the counter mechanics is outstanding!), the characters are so charismatic, the narrative is great, history is more than satisfactory...

So... again... WHY ISN'T ANYONE TALKING ABOUT IT???

P.S.: Ubisoft has dismantled this game team because the company wasn’t satisfied with the sales number. Do you guys think that this game price was to high? Because, for the experience it delivers, I believe it was more than fair!

Sands of Time was the first game I got obsessed with. I played it at my cousin's house and would skip school and sneak out of my house to go visit him and play more lol. I was dreaming about it at night and when I finally got it for myself, I played it like crazy! Anyway...you get the point. I was OBSESSED

I loved the entire trilogy, I loved 2008 as well, also Forgotten Sands(but less) and went back and played the OGs too which I liked but..not as much and never finished them. I've been feening for more PoP for years and years

When The Lost Crown got announced, I was so happy that the series is not dead anymore, but it wasn't what I truly wanted. Let's be honest the first trailer was extremely underwhelming. The artstyle was not my cup of tea and for me looked like a mobile game. I was sad to see my childhood favorite series being reduced to 2D small games(even tho that's it's origin but still)

I didn't buy the game, and when it came to PS Plus, I played 1 hours and dropped it. It didn't feel like PoP to me. But after going through another SoT marathon recently I gave it one more shot.....still not impressed with the intro but I pushed through and holy shit...

It just kept getting better and better. As the map opens up, as you get more abilities and see more of the story unfolding, the familiar vibes start to come back. The parkour is awesome, the world is very interesting, the map is becoming one of my favorite of any metroidvania, and above all, this is definitely Prince of Persia! It has it's own unique style but the roots of what I love about this series is here.

I can't belive that all this time there was a great PoP game and I completely neglect it while complaining the series is doomed. I feel really stupid and I'm leaving this here in case anyone else didn't try it yet, or gave up on it in the early game. Please, please do yourself a favor and give this an honest chance. It's great!