Brasil Game Show 2023 has been well under way for two days now and I got the chance to play the newest entry in the Prince of Persia, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown over at Nintendo’s booth on the show floor. An alternative location is Ubisoft’s own space, but I chose to play it elsewhere for convenience’s sake!
Anywho, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is pretty much my dream game come true, a platformer that, yes, has elements of Metroid and Castlevania, but that manages to elevate itself to something more than just another one of those by offering deliciously fast and precise movement, along with incredible and rewarding combat.
The demo itself is a very polished vertical slice of the game meant to show off everything that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has to offer in a very quick play session. That meant that in terms of story, there’s only a very brief cutscene that shows the prince and his band making their way to the ruins where the action takes place in.
Instead of slowing things down with dialog, the demo spoke volumes when it came to the gameplay. First and foremost, the prince handles nimbly and responsively. He can jump and bounce off walls quite naturally, and having the option of entering and exiting combat stances at any time felt like a callback to the original games that I imagine very few players will catch if they’re not actively paying attention. It was neat!
In terms of combat, it was handled well in the demo, in the form of a boss fight against a manticore, which was both huge and impressive to behold from a visual design aspect as well as in gameplay. The fight served to showcase how nimble the prince is not only when moving, but when switching from styles on the fly, which during this encounter came into play with ranged and melee attacks.
Outside of the two gameplay styles, platforming and fighting, the demo did a great job conveying the feel of Prince of Persia in terms of presentation. The prince character’s got plenty of personality visually, and with the game’s very saturated color palette, makes Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown appealing for a wider audience than previous iterations, with their more muted pastels.
I came out of the demo quite impressed with what I saw of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. It certainly felt like a worthwhile continuation of the franchise that’s both new and fresh and at the same time, revertial to what came before it in a way that’s sensible and unobstructive. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be out in a few months’ time on January 18th and you can be sure as a viper in the desert that I’ll have a review ready for you to gnawn on by then!
Thank you Eduardooooo T_T ❤
Thanks for the demo! =D