The Rogue Prince of Persia - Review
I like to think of myself as a Prince of Persia fan, I even like the cartoon themed one that Ubisoft made after the Sands of Time trilogy. So, when I got the incredible Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in 2024, I was satisfied, but getting another in The Rogue Prince of Persia just a few months later, I was ecstatic. However, that was only an early access release and now that the full game has finally arrived, how did it end up?
The story that is told here is that you are the titular Prince of Persia, well the eldest one and while your country is invaded by the Huns, you seek to stop things before they can get too crazy. Of course, things do not go to plan and the Prince is soundly defeated, but instead of dying, he is saved by the pendant he wears around his neck. Waking up at a small Oasis, he meets Paachi who explains that the bola he wears is not just a pendant, but one capable of sending him back in time upon his death. With this new information, the Prince sets out again to defeat the Huns and their leader Nogai. As a rogue game, the story will play out at a different pace to a more linear game, so you might encounter important folks within a few hours or after a few dozen.
The story is decent; the ending is satisfying but likely not what folks will think it should be. My real issue with the story is that the Prince gets worked up over most things, but then the gameplay doesn’t match. An example would be when he has to locate someone, there is no timer or any real sense of immediacy to the event. For things to have impact, there needs to be consequences and in a game about you dying and just having another go, it feels like there are none. Something else that I found weird was just that there are to many repeating phrases, the fights with Berude being a prime example. Each time you pass by Berude, unless you have a new story objective to complete, you get the same conversation each time. Now I am not expecting a million different conversations for the encounter combinations, but even the Prince saying he has no time for one and cutting them off would have worked better. I know that seems like it is a minor deal, but comparing this to Hades, which I have played for far longer and seen fewer repeating conversations, it bares mentioning.
Thankfully the gameplay is more than solid, so much so that not even repeating conversations can get in the way of the fun it offers. There are a few overlapping systems in play, with main weapons, medallions and upgrades. As you might expect, the first few time through the loop, you will likely find a weapon or two that works and you stick with it, but the game is fairly generous in how often it teases you with something new. Now I did try a few weapons, but I had one that I really liked, and just stuck with it, if it was offered. As a rogue-like game, you are randomly given a few weapons to choose from at the start of your run, an upgrade you can get increases the amount offered, but its only a handful at most. Your main weapon is not the only weapon, as you also get a secondary one as well, you get that at the start as well. As you play through, you might discover stronger versions of the weapon you are using, or other weapons you can swap with. Due to the random nature of them appearing, there are times you might feel like you are getting screwed with the offerings, and others where everything is coming up Milhouse.
The medallions are the other core aspect to the gameplay, as they can vastly change up how successful a run will be. There are different groups for the medallions, some of them are just basic buffs, like 10% more damage with a main weapon and others add elemental effects to an action. Some of them work in pairs, you get a small buff for one half, but if you have both, you get a larger one. As with the weapons, as you run around, you will find new medallions and you can swap those with your existing ones, some of them can be hard choices. What I liked was that you will occasionally be able to get upgrades in a run, the let you have more medallions, which does make a big difference.
Now, all that aside, this is a Prince of Persia title, so there needs to be something said about the movement, because its been at the core of the series since the very beginning. I am happy to report that they nailed it here, in fact it might be slightly better than The Lost Crown and I adored that. The big thing here is that you can run along walls, both vertically and horizontally, something which was quite common in most other games. I will admit that it took me a few moments to remember that I could do that, because sometimes there were jumps that were just too big to make, but there was a wall behind. That mechanic and the ability to vault over things, all comes together in the boss fights, as there is just something so rewarding about leaping over an enemy and attacking from behind. It is not 100% perfect though, as there were times when the game would have a lot of enemies for me to deal with and flipping over one enemy, would often leave me exposed to being attacked by another.
The last part of the gameplay is the exploration, which is just ok. Don’t get me wrong, exploring the stages is fine, but it’s the way the world comes together that I have issues with. This is very much a Spider-Man on PlayStation 4 scenario, where Peter Parker didn’t know New York, even though he had been the webhead for 8 years. The Prince of Persia should know the places around the palace, but whenever someone tells him about something happening at another location, he acts surprised about it and then the location is added to the map. From a story standpoint, I would understand, why they would not want you to visit one location early on, but from a world standpoint it makes no sense. There is a sense of satisfaction once your world map is filled out, I just it was from the outset, as that would make more sense for a character who has lived in that town their entire life.
When the game first launched into early access, it had quite the unique visual look to it and since then, the game has been given a very large overhaul. Well, that might not be the right term, refinement is a better choice, because you can still see some of the original elements in play in this final release. Of course, the most obvious change is that the Prince is no longer purple, and sure. I never knew why he was purple in the first place and honestly, I don’t care that he is not now, the character is the same story wise, just no longer purple. The world though is where that refinement comes in, everything looks similar, but just better. If you know animation, think of the launch version as the rough animation and now its fully done. Each location has a nice colour tone to it, meaning that you can understand which part of the town you are in, based on the colour scheme. The enemies, while they repeat over the game, are varied enough that it does not matter and with there being some special variants that appear, ensures that you will always be surprised. One of the weakest visual elements were the character profiles, that you see when you have conversations, there is just no life to them.
The games soundtrack is pretty fun though; it has a lot of life to it. One thing I did like was that when you paused the game, instead of just looping a track for however long it was paused for, the game would eventually start to play other music. Much like the visual look for each area, there is an acoustic element that matches, the sounds for the City Baths are different to Zargos Village. There are a few moments of zen in the maps and the music calms down to match, but on the opposite side when the action kicks into gear so does the music.
The Rogue Prince of Persia is a delightful game, it does not break new ground in the genre, but takes what has been done before and adds its own spin to things. Combat, stages and enemies are all wonderful and once you are lucky with your gear and medallions, you can feel invincible. The story is ok, it does the job, but there are just no consequences to your failing, which takes the danger out of the game. Fans of the Prince of Persia series will be delighted with this game and fans of rogue-likes will enjoy the loop.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Ubisoft
The Pros
Combat and movement blend together in some fun ways
If you get lucky with your items, you can feel superpowered
The Cons
The story has no consequences to you dying, which limits the urgency to things
Not being able to explore the city from the outset is weird
