Topic: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

@JaxonH I typically only lower the difficulty when it's getting to a point of not being fun or if it feels unfair. Thankfully, none of that has happened as of yet. It's always been me missing the mark or not seeing the whole picture.

I think I saw you post earlier about the difficulty tapering. That's a huge W. In the event that I was more of a challenge than easy, I'll definitely fine tune it.

I just got the claw upgrade last night which is so cool. I'm finding myself using it all the time now. It also opens up so many pathways that were previously blocked off.

And my absolute favorite thing to do is run full speed and slide kick enemies into the air. Never gets old.

What a gem of a game to start the year. Unfortunately, I can see this being lower on people's list when GOTY nominations are going up, and thats a real shame.

@NintendoByNature
Slide kick is great. Movement is just fun in this game.

You've got most the map available to you now. Double jump, chakram teleport and lastly, the whip are the final 3 abilities you get, which completely bust open movement to the point you can go anywhere. But I think for not having any of those, you still have quite a bit of access at this point.

Beat the game.

I had one crash after obtaining the Key of Kings. Thankfully it auto saved after beating the boss so no real progress was lost aside from a minute of on-foot travel.

What a game. I'd be impressed if any game yet to release this year comes close to Lost Crown, but we'll see.

@jaxonh Sweet deal. I finished my session last night by opening up the pit at the bottom of the map and found a wak wak tree. So I'll dive in later tonight.

https://www.thegamer.com/prince-of-persia-the-lost-crown-fans...

Funny how I just mentioned Kiana is crazy tough. Looks like 1/3 of people have struggled with her as much as I have.

@NintendoByNature
That was SUCH as bad*** boss fight. One of the coolest of any 2D metroidvania to date. Granted, Dread had some killer bosses too. In fact Dread set the bar when it came to awesome bosses. But this one is up there for sure. Maybe not quite as good as the final boss in Dread, and I'm sure one or two others in Dread may rival it. But still, its up there.

I found the bosses were generally easier after Menolias. He was TOUGH. For me at least. Could just be my uber aggressive playstyle. But I struggled against him far more than any boss that came afterward.

Even the final boss, imo, was easier than the prior 6 bosses. But I had also just upgraded my sword damage to +4 AND had the amulet for sword damage +2 AND had upgraded my bow damage to +3 AND had the amulet for bow damage +2, on top of health parries, 6 attack combos, damage dealt AND damage taken building Athra... so I was stronger for that final showdown than I was for any prior boss. It was still epic though.

I don't get the people knocking the story in this game. Obviously it's not some great piece of literary art that belongs in the Smithsonian. But as far as video game stories go? For a 2D metroidvania? Shoot... easily the best story I've ever experienced for the genre. It was exactly what the game needed. DIdn't overstay it's welcome. Weren't too many cutscenes. But there was just enough story to keep things interesting and provide motivation for what you're doing. I personally loved it.

By the time I beat the game, I felt a real emotional connection to Sargon. I love him as a character. SOOOO much. Sargon is amazing. I really hope we get another follow up to this game with Sargon again. His character is too good to leave abandoned in this one game. And that's actually impressive given they don't do too much to flesh out his character in this game. The cutscenes and story provide enough that I felt an emotional connection. If I feel this strongly about Sargon without them really deep diving into his character, I can only imagine how much more I'd feel attached if they made future games further exploring Sargon. The problem is, his story is kind of already told, so it may feel artificial making another game featuring Sargon. But I still want it. He's too good to leave behind.

Perhaps, with time being such a focal point, a future game could explore what happens afterward. Perhaps he returns his Simurg feathers, but unwittingly gets sent through time and must resolve another crisis. Or perhaps he himself, from the future, comes to warn him of some calamity that awaits, and tasks him with averting that future. And so he once again sets out, without the powers of the Simurg, to once again reclaim them to avoid that future calamity. I'm sure the devs could think of something.

But for real, I LOVE Sargon. I feel as connected to him as I do Samus. I feel his character is worthy of becoming the new star of the 2D Prince of Persia series, similar to how all Metroid games feature Samus. Maybe one day they can change characters again. I'm sure the 3D entries will go back to their main characters. But for 2D, at least for another game or two, I'd like to see Sargon's advertures continue. I'm even down for voting "Sargon for Smash"

@JaxonH dude totally. It was such a tough as nails but fun boss fight..I think I went back and did some upgrades before giving it another shake and finally beating her.

Tbh, I feel like the story is just fine, If not, rock solid for a 2d metroidvania. I can't think of many other stories for the genre that are better. Maybe ori?

Sargon is definitely dope. I'd like to keep him as the main protagonist moving forward myself.

You guys should check this interview. Electric Playground got a sit down with Joseph Antoine Clavet, the Cinematic Director of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Being a smaller channel, it's a very candid and personal conversation.

LOVEEEE the animation of this games double jump. An aerial cartwheel. So dope. Getting that feather was a pain in the rear though.

Just took down menolias. Wow, what a boss fight. Seriously took everything outta me.

I'm reading this has 300k players (including Ubisoft subs), sounds like it's flopping about as bad as I'd feared. Hope it ends up profitable somehow, I get that it doesn't have a huge 3D open-world budget...

Even if that rumour is true, another recent ubisoft game, Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope did below expectations early on but ended up selling 3 million copies after a year. Prince of Persia came out during an awkward time of year (right after holiday money was spent) but reviewed very well so I expect it will keep selling. On this site there was a poll and the most popular answer was that people would buy Prince of Persia later on during a sale.

I wonder if this new pop could become a series? I'd be up for it! Loved all three sands of time games! The two later Wii and PS3 forgotten sands games weren't bad either. Shame so many people think those were tie ins with that awful movie. Couldn't be further from the truth.

@BookhouseBoy eh, I'd love to have both myself. I think this game rocks on every level. I can't think of one negative personally. I think I said it here before, but much like the zelda team does( or used to), it would be great to have the 2d metroidvania games along side 3d open world games. Perfect world I know, but that's what I'd love to see.

@BookhouseBoy
Ppl can want more than one thing at a time.

Just cause ppl want a 3D PoP doesn't mean ppl don't also want the best 2D Metroidvania in 30 years and arguably the best PoP game ever made. The Rayman Legends team created Lost Crown. It's not as if they were gonna make a 3D Prince of Persia but instead chose this.

@citizenerased
It definitely deserves to be a 5 million seller. This game is better than Dread, and Dread pulled 3 million on Switch alone. Why those 3 million players haven't bought this, a better game, is beyond me.

Switch gamers have impressed me most.of this generation supporting 3rd party games, but this is one instance in which I'm rather disappointed.

I think it's the fact most of the PoP fanbase are close minded AAA gamers who simply snub their nose at anything 2D, seeing it as a "lesser game". And Nintendo fans aren't buying it because it doesn't feature their precious Nintendo IP, so they also snub their nose.

Games like this really separate the wheat from the chaff. The close-minded who syay in their little bubble, and the gamers who genuinely know a great game when they see one, and play everything, from big 3D AAA to 2D metroidvania, platformers to puzzle games to JRPGs, strategy and everything in between.

@Truegamer79
It needs to.

I love Rayman, but this is better imo. If I had to chose one at the expense of the other, I'd choose Prince of Persia.

@JaxonH You’d think the 3 million+ Hollow Knight crowd who have been clamoring for Silksong (I’m among them) would be supporting this but maybe it’s Ubisoft’s reputation getting in the way, or the spreading by word-of-mouth just hasn’t really picked up yet.

On a more positive note, I’m in some of the more puzzle-y platform sections and they’re brilliant! Don’t have a ton of time to game but slowly making my way through it and having a blast.

I got lost once and when I got a tad annoyed I turned on Guided mode for a minute, then turned it off when I knew where to go. Absolutely love difficulty settings you can turn on/off whenever you want, this just makes me more annoyed at all the games that want you to restart the game from scratch to select a new difficulty.

I guess Souls games aren’t really relevant to the discussion here, but it also makes me annoyed at games that waste my time by making me backtrack to insanely tough boss battles. As I get older I notice games wasting my time become a bigger annoyance.

@Truegamer79 So nice seeing a shout-out to Forgotten Sands, that title became prophetic and the game is so easily dismissed and forgotten, but it was excellent. Coincidentally I’ve been replaying the 3D PoP series the past few years, Two Thrones is next. The 2008 reboot is the only one I haven’t played.

@BookhouseBoy fair enough. I think from the platforming sections alone, it does a great honestly at standing out. Some of those challenges to get xerxes coins are insanely tight platforming.

On a side note: I feel like I'm going to finish tonight. I've gone and cleaned up as much of the Map as I needed to. Upgraded a bunch more, found some collectibles, constallations, and Have all the power ups. Started doing the tower and saved it early on. Really want to tidy this up by tonight.

Did this game copy metroid dread or did metroid dread take from this games usual gameplay. Really good game hasn't been for ages except new sonic releaes

@NintendoByNature
LOVE those platforming challenges. I had 20 Xerxes by end game but it was never about the coins. That's when you know a game is great. I just did it for the fun of the challenge.

Heck, combat was so good in this game I couldn't resist fighting every enemy I came across. Just for the thrill of it.

But ya, the platforming and level design is expertly crafted. And tbh, tbe puzzles are some of the best I've seen, easily on par with Metroid puzzles which I've always regarded as the creme de la creme. Those 4 challenge rooms were legendary.

I never do 100% usually, but I finished the game with 83% which is pretty high. And that's just cause it was so much fun doing all the challenges and exploring.

Final boss isn't as epic as Dread's imo, but it's still fire. You'll like it I think.

@BookhouseBoy
I can't think of any metroidvania that really does anything different than other metroidvanias, thankfully, how entertained I am typically has nothing to do with how different it does things and everything to do with how well it executes the things it does.

@Ninfan
How would Dread take from this game's gameplay when it released several years before this game even existed lol

It didn't "copy Metroid Dread" as Metroid Dread didn't invent the genre. Like Dread, they both conform to a gameplay loop of exploration, puzzles, and upgrades unlocking new areas of the map. A genre blueprint started 30 years ago by the original Metroid and later Castlevania. Hence the name, "metroidvania genre"

All games in the genre share that basic skeletal structure. Where this game stands out, is it's insanely well polished and in simple-yet-deep melee and ranged combat (in Dread you only shoot and melee counter, so the combat loop feels different). And the abilities gained in this game are incredibly original. Sure, you get a double jump which most games of the genre include. But I've never seen a "go back in time teleport" or a dimensional claw to grab any item or enemy or a t
ranged weapon you can teleport to or a whip (sorry, "sash") that let's you not only grapple off points but also enemies, and even yank enemies to you or strip armor off.

One thing it does do similar to Dread though, is it absolutely nails the fluid movement. Just dashing around feels so satisfying I'd rub through environments double jumping and dashing because it was so fun.