(computer chimes) - [Jake] Hey, and we're back with another episode of "Before You Buy," that show where we give you
some straight up gameplay, and our first impressions of
the latest games releasing. As usual, it's me, Jake, and hello. This is the first
"Before You Buy" of 2024. Hope you guys are doing well, thanks for still coming around. Today, we're talking about "Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown." The "Prince of Persia"
franchise is back, sorta. You know, you're not the prince. This is an all new adventure
set in Persian mythology, and it's actually really great. A nice, welcome surprise for January. Like, a good way to start the year if you like classic "Prince
of Persia," or Metroidvanias. And just so you know,
before we get into it, we've been playing a
review copy from Ubisoft, and this footage here is spoiler free. Anything story you see here is just in the first few hours. And also, this footage
was captured on PS5, but our capture equipment
broke last minute right before making this video, so the quality is gonna be a bit lower. I apologize. Gotta love capture cards. I feel like they all
break, they're all faulty, especially from that one company. Anyway, this is an interesting game. I was skeptical, because
it looked like a spinoff, or a reboot into something else. You know, like I said, you're not the classic Prince of Persia. Here, you're an immortal, a kind of badass warrior avenger, part of a group, with the whole plot centered around Persian myth and fantasy. At first I was like, why this instead of a mainline
"Prince of Persia" game? Well, after playing "Lost Crown," I actually think this
can be a good direction for the series, gameplay-wise. It feels different than
your average Ubisoft game. It's not an endless open world, it's just an enjoyable,
challenging adventure that comes in at a lesser price, and'll take you like 20 to 30 hours, depending on how you play. Now, the main character, the
player character is Sargon, a young, powerful badass tasked with rescuing a kidnapped prince in an ancient Persia. It's a fantasy world. There are monsters, creatures, gods. He's superpowered. He can kind of go Super Saiyan. You just, you go with it. You navigate 2D planes,
progressing through a story, and unlocking abilities in
both combat and traversal that allow you to get
to new areas of the map, and journey further. The character is fast with
sprints, and slides, and dashes, and more you get throughout the game, and you can die in just a couple of hits, or falling into a spike trap, and it can all be nice and challenging. Thankfully, the game gives
you lots of difficulty modes, and accessibility options
to get the difficulty however you really want it. The freedom of choice is nice here, and the game can be nice and challenging, particularly with the combat. You could slide under characters, you could do strikes, charged hits, you could hit them up
in the air, juggle them, slam them back down,
use some ranged attacks. You can also build up
a kind of super meter, and spend it on two mapped
unlockable special attacks, like a healing bubble, a big powerful hit, a massive ranged blast, stuff like that. It all just feels incredibly
smooth and responsive. Like, not once did I
fiddle with the controls, or have any issues at all, other than just my own
skill, or lack thereof. There's like, one frequent
use ability mapped to R3, you know, or clicking the right stick, that felt a little weird. But otherwise, buttery smooth controls, and the gameplay itself,
super smooth and tight. And for those special
abilities you spend a meter on, there are some cool ones to unlock, but I did find myself kind of just taking the ones I liked early on, and stuck with them for a lot of the game. Oh, and you can, I buried the lead here, you can also parry certain attacks. The parry window is very
small, sometimes brutally so, but when you get it, it
feels so good and satisfying, especially because when certain
enemies do a special attack, if you parry that one just right, you'll get an instant kill with a really cool in-game
finisher animation. The clang of a parry, the flash, all of it is really well done, and ties into what I said before, super smooth, buttery gameplay. And you know, with those
finishing animations, and that stuff, this game oozes with style in the presentation. Now, on the surface, it
might look a little generic. You know, some of the characters, yeah. And the story, as a whole, didn't really do too
much for me personally. That might be a negative for some people, but at the very least,
when the action ramps up, whether it be a big cut scene, or the climax, or like a
mid phase of a boss battle, the presentation and style more than makes up for those drawbacks, the story drawbacks, for me. Like the way Sargon will shout, or start glowing blue and powering up, and how the camera pans, and speeds up as he flings into action. The background turns a solid color. The game uses all these
brilliant anime inspired tricks to really make things look and feel cool, and just like, exciting as hell. As for the Metroidvania
exploration elements, the base of it is what
you'd expect, you know? Lots of different kinds of
biomes you work through, some better than others, with their own dangers, and
enemy types, and puzzles. Enemy types, I really enjoy. Every enemy is dangerous. You have to pay attention, and the best ones force you to
move around the environment, and choose the proper attack direction, and the right ability for the job. The platforming, though,
I absolutely love, dude. It's like an old school "Prince of Persia" through and through. You're running, you're
jumping, you're dashing, you're avoiding booby
traps, and spike pits, and spinning blades. It's perfect, and
challenging, and satisfying. It gets even better as it
goes with more abilities, and time manipulation, 'cause this is still like
a "Prince of Persia" game. Some of the trickier platforming and environment puzzles in this game kind of pushed my simple
brain, and I really like that. I could see some people getting a little frustrated
with some of this. It can be a lot to wrap your head around, maybe it was just me, but like, some of the time manipulation stuff, in terms of planning things out, sequencing things out, while also trying to figure out a puzzle, and sometimes also avoid danger, or enemies at the same time? It can be a lot. I really like it, but just like heads up, there are some spots
here that had me like, ooh, squeezing my controller. And you're encouraged to explore, because a lot of times the game will like, make you go somewhere,
you unlock something, and then to get to the
next part of the game, you have to backtrack to
the beginning of the game, and open up a new area, you
know, that type of stuff. But on the side, you're
encouraged to explore and revisit in that Metroidvania style to find new stuff, hidden secrets. And also, there are some side quests. The side quests are mostly like, someone telling you to
go collect something, but usually they open up, and then you don't really
get to 'em until later on when the abilities and
the map really opens up. But still, they work. You're really just going
around to try and find stuff, and better your character, right? There are collectibles that
give you a better reading, and they weren't too exciting. But, there are also different currencies, and items of different
rarity to spend at a shop, and at a mythical weapons forge. So, you're increasing your
attack power, your capacities, you're buying different
trinkets that will help you, stuff like that. And as you progress,
you do find and also buy these charms for your necklace that can stack to give you
like a poison resistance, an extra hit in your melee combo, faster special attack charging. And some of these can
get really interesting. It's a little bit like
a light character build, because the capacity of your
necklace only has so much, and some of these little medallions will take up more slots than others. So, you have some options, and some of them can also
just help make the game a little bit easier, if
you're struggling too. And when you're exploring, there's a map that's pretty easy to read, and it's accessible quickly. You know, it's pretty instant, which is good, standard
stuff in a Metroidvania game, you need that. If you're used to the
map in the more recent, like "Metro Dread," there's that, but here, the game
gives you an ability to, at any time in a room, hit a button, it's like down on the D pad, that takes a screenshot
of the room, in game, and saves it to be highlighted
on that part of the map. So if there's like a hidden chest up high that you can't reach yet, hit a button, and then the game instantly saves a little screenshot
right onto your map that's easy to find later on. Like, you can hover over it so you can keep track of things. It's a really solid feature, and it sounds like it's not a big deal, but it's very cool and useful, and I think the Metroidvania nerds are gonna really like
how this is implemented. So really, if you can't tell, I have a lot of good things
to say about this one. It's a genre where there are definitely plenty of entries out there. There are a lot of modern
Metroidvania games, and I don't know if this is the best one, but it somehow just
feels simple and fresh. The story, again, really a
downer for me personally. Not bad, just a bit
forgettable in a lot of chunks. It has a lot of cool ideas, and it's clearly excited about its lore, but doesn't quite land with all of it. And I think that's the
big negative of the game, but that's just for me, you might enjoy it a little bit more. Sargon, as a character,
is pretty appealing so there's aspects of it, but yeah, the gameplay is the best
thing about this whole thing. It's buttery, smooth, fun, challenging. The action and platforming
is top notch, and I had fun. That's the bottom line. I'd love to see this style of game, like this style of gameplay here, this "Prince of Persia"
combat, this platforming, this movement continue moving forward. I'd love to see more "Prince of Persia: Lost
Crown" games after this. And that's a good feeling. And again, a pretty good
way to start a gaming year. But of course this is a "Before You Buy." You know how this goes by now. I give you some pros, some
cons, and some personal opinion. So, now I want to hear yours. I'd love to hear what you think about the "Prince of Persia" series, because a lot of people have a lot of love for those early games, whether it's the original Jordan
Mechner classic, of course, or "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time," which is one of my
favorite games of all time. But I know a lot of people
who came into gaming with "Warrior Within" or "The
Two Thrones," stuff like that. Let's talk anything "Prince of
Persia" down in the comments, because to be honest, the
franchise has been through a lot. A lot of revisions, a lot of updates, a lot of different attempts,
and I like this one. I think this is pretty interesting. So, let's see where it goes. Let's talk about this stuff. Let me know what you think. Thank you guys for being here. Hopefully, this helped
inform your purchase, or entertained you for a
minute, anything like that. If you get it, if you liked this, clicking the like button
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