The Rogue Prince of Persia Review (Switch 2)

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been the better part of a decade since the launch of Dead Cells, though its absurdly long stretch of post-launch DLC expansions and updates certainly helped to keep it in the average player’s consciousness. The original Dead Cells developer, Motion Twin, actually passed the buck in 2019 to a sort-of assist studio (Evil Empire) formed of former Motion Twin devs and new hires, which made the lion’s share of DLC updates, including the excellent Return to Castlevania. After Dead Cells was officially sunsetted, Evil Empire wasn’t quite done with some of its gameplay ideas, and built this roguelite entry in Ubisoft's franchise.

Billed as The Rogue Prince of Persia, this acts as a sort of spiritual successor to Dead Cells, carrying on many gameplay concepts while integrating some new ideas that help to build its own identity. I’m happy to report that Evil Empire clearly hasn’t lost a step in the transition to a new project - The Rogue Prince of Persia is an approachable and addictive take on the studio’s signature action gameplay and is absolutely something I’d suggest you check out soon.

In a bit of a deviation from the typical roguelite format, the story here actually features as more than just mere window dressing to get you into the action. You play as the titular Prince, a smooth and competent fighter whose confidence is inflated by a magic bola he’s had since childhood which instantly sends him back in time whenever he falls in battle.

The Prince is tasked with leading the defence effort to save his beloved city of Tisfun from an invasion by dark magic-powered Huns, yet after a brave but ultimately doomed initial effort, the Prince is revived by a mysterious shaman in a camp outside the city, from which he launches his endless attempts to defeat the Hun generals and save his people.

A key part of how the narrative unfolds is linked to the Mindmap, a sort of constellation that tracks major events, characters, and key items to help facilitate the locations you pick for runs. As you move through an area, you’ll often come across a character or environmental object with information that moves the story forward a bit, whether by unlocking a new area to explore in a subsequent run or giving you a hint to solve a puzzle.

There are many instances where progressing the story in one area first requires you to come back in a later run after exploring another area to get a key item or solution, incentivising replays while also keeping the Prince’s story moving. I thought this was a very interesting way of mixing storytelling with gameplay, as it makes each death and subsequent restart feel like a continuation rather than a setback.

Evil Empire's past experience with Dead Cells is immediately apparent in the gameplay, which is equal parts snappy, thrilling, and difficult. You begin each run with a weapon and a limited-use secondary tool, giving you enough options in combat to feel like you have a fighting chance, but not enough to get complacent. The Prince is a slippery and lithe combatant, effortlessly gliding across walls, jumping between beams, and vaulting over enemies as he cuts them to ribbons with his blades and tools. His agility is all the more important given that he’s quite ‘squishy’ if a foe happens to land a blow — the Prince may be able to dish out the pain, but it doesn’t take too many hits from even trash mob enemies to put him in the danger zone, if not sending him all the way back to camp.

A big part of what makes the combat so engaging is the sheer variety of weapons and enemy types, making encounters feel dynamic and fresh. Every weapon has a different feel and caters to a different playstyle, with each featuring unique special attacks and different conditions to trigger critical hits. Pair this with enemies that have clearly telegraphed (but tightly timed) tells and combat quickly becomes a deadly dance of weaving between danger zones, prioritising targets, and carefully managing your own movements to maximise the pain you can deliver. Skirmishes rarely last more than a couple of seconds, but each one feels invigorating, especially once you’ve gotten yourself into a nice rhythm and have mastered the attack animations of that area’s enemies.

This sense of free-flowing progression extends to the platforming, which manages to be challenging without being too punishing. As long as there’s a wall in the background, the Prince can get a couple of steps in on a wall run to help bridge the gaps between poles and ledges, which adds an interesting dimension where you constantly have to pay just as much attention to the background as you do the ground beneath his feet.

There’s a bit of a learning curve to the controls, but it doesn’t take too long before you’re able to effectively read the upcoming terrain and parkour through it with ease, calling to mind some Sonic games in how it rewards dexterity with speed. There’s even an in-game mechanic for this called Vayu’s Breath, which increases speed and grants other passive benefits if you can time various jumps perfectly.

All this comes together to make for a game that moves in a way that few other entries in the genre manage to capture. Defeating enemies, scaling obstructions, swiping rewards, and lunging between ledges leads to a wonderfully cohesive experience where it feels almost like you’re being pulled forward by an invisible force to the next objective. That polished moment-to-moment gameplay then helps to take the bite out of the inevitable deaths that you face — even if you have to reset, the game feels so good to play that you can’t help but rush right into your next run.

Despite the difficulty, there are a variety of metaprogression elements that offer both vertical and horizontal progress to take the edge off. In terms of vertical progression, every enemy and boss you kill earns you some experience, which grants you a skill point each time you level up to be invested in a collection of skill trees you slowly unlock. These can grant you flat stat increases like more max health or a higher health potion carrying capacity, or more passive buffs like the ability to break shields with a kick. As for horizontal progression, the soul cinders you slowly accrue throughout a run can be spent on new weapons, medallions, and tools that are all added to the loot pool for enhanced build variety in subsequent runs.

Between these things, it always feels like you’re making some sort of progress with each run, regardless of how far you actually got, which goes a long way towards making the gameplay loop so addictive. Not only do you feel a little more powerful, but there are very often rewards back at camp that are just out of reach and require you to do another run for resources needed to unlock another weapon or skill.

So great are these rewards that they can sometimes go a bit too far, making the game a little too easy in places. It should only take you about 10 hours to reach the initial ending, less if you’re experienced with games like this and pick up on the mechanics quickly. And while there’s a nicely rewarding take on the Heat System from Hades here to turn up the pain on subsequent attempts as you go for the true ending, I still couldn’t help but feel like some of my victories came a little too easily. Suffice to say, those of you hoping for something as tough as Dead Cells may be left a bit disappointed, as you’ll likely chew through all the content in this release faster than you’d initially think.

Visually, the Rogue Prince of Persia looks fantastic, with a somewhat comic book art style that focuses on various distinguishing colour palettes and set pieces for each biome. Whether you’re slipping down the cool waterways of the Ruined Aqueduct or dodging between sawblades and flames in the warm halls of the Grand Academy, each area is memorable and distinct from the next. The action also unfolds at what appears to be a smooth 60fps in both docked and handheld, with the resolution looking crisp in both modes, as well.