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Try Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown for free on Jan 11th

Chuck Berry

Gold Member
Tried the demo. I think it’s boring as hell. Not a fan of the the style, the spongey enemies and I think the music is super fuckin drab. Reminds me a lot of that ol Strider reboot.

And as expected, all it did was make me want to play Symphony, Super Metroid and Dread. And now Strider.

Savin $50 on this and then $70 on Suicide Shit Squad. I’m on a roll 😎
 

bender

What time is it?
It controls really well but the presentation values are all over the place. Some of the animations aren't great and the menus and dialog boxes feel very cheap. And eve for a middle eastern, sand swept setting, it just looks drab.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
What is this nonsense? You mean, what is this reality. Did you just get into this hobby?

Ubisoft and most other major publishers don’t do “free trials” at launch unless they’re afraid the game’s going to perform poorly.

Unless you want to blow smoke up each other’s asses and pretend it’s the norm from big publishers.

The opposite is true...if you don't have confidence in the game then you want to hold back review copies until the last second with a strict media embargo. If you have confidence in the game then you have no problem letting the "cat out of the bag" so word of mouth can spread freely.

Strict review dates and late review codes are usually seen as a warning sign (what are they trying to hide before it gets bought in the early hype phase) whereas a playable demo exudes confidence in the product (you'll buy it because you played it, not despite it). A demo helps good games and hurts bad ones.

Not that that's the only possible reason under the sun to motivate a demo, but the notion that it's directly correlated with lack of confidence in the game is just silly.

Did you just get into this hobby?

I’m the one wearing pants btw.

78971.jpg
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Beat it on normal. Playing hard now. Feels more like the OG game on hard where having even 2 enemies flanking you feels substantial. The counter kill is the Sands of Time jump attack so thats a nice touch.

So far story seems worthless but the gameplay is super fun.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
They fucked it up.

In fact, it's exactly what you would imagine. You don't need to spend $50, you don't need to bother downloading it. Close your eyes and imagine what a modern Ubisoft Metroidvania would be like. Bam. You've played it, and you were whelmed.

- couldn't go 60 seconds in the demo without getting full page tool tips I had to mash through
- story that no ones cares about. waste of money on voice actors
- enemies are damage sponges yet not difficult in the slightest. just a slog to slice through
- Instead of just slashing as a classy person like Alucard would, every time you press X our non Prince protagonist backflips and arials into a break dance of attacks. Which seem not so impressive when you need to land 9 of them to take out a common skelly
- art is exactly what you'd expect. soulless. It might even have negative soul. Fornite WoW aesthetics throughout
- enemies explode into a confetti of colored shards. no clue what they do.
+ jumping feels good

Even if it was $15 I'm not sure it's worth your time when stellar genre darlings like Blasphemous 2 and The Last Faith are still fresh out of the oven. Both are dripping with lovingly crafted art and aesthetic.

I love the genre and I'd love to support a high budget release, but this ain't it.
This is closest to my experience with the demo, I only loved the fast-platforming bits like the long drop with wall spikes and rotating traps like Sands of Time. Combat’s a slog, visually it’s all over the place, a major regression from Rayman Legends in both style and density of detail.

I soon discovered several polish issues that could be unique to the demo. Motion is sporadically juddery, both in 120Hz VRR and 60Hz VRR, first I noticed it on the horses in the intro cutscene, thought it might just be their specific animation but even passing through the simpler interior areas there’s little stutters. Then I started moonwalking and found I could repeat it when running in one direction then immediately walking, gently pushing the stick in the opposite direction. Some of the UI art is very low res like the health flask, the first part in the demo where you can drop down through platforms the background art doesn’t look fully loaded and late in the demo there was an environment with ropes gently swaying… except at first they don’t sway, then they sway for a second and then freeze again!
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Beat it on hard and immortal. Guess I'm ready.

I will say that I do think presentation is a little drab. Its not simply graphic whores, but also just the art style generally. The color palette. The menus. The stills during cutscenes with meh art. Its a bit worse than I expected.

But the gameplay is top tier. The combat is great. The more I play the platforming, it feels like they got the momentum, run cadence and jump feel from Sands of Time and just really nailed it in 2D while updating the combat.

Considering I havent faced a boss yet, or gotten any time powers, or barely even gotten into the exploration since the demo is fairly linear, I'm sure its just going to get better and better.
 

sigmaZ

Member
This looks like a good one and done game which is all I look for in a game these days. As long and the controls are good and there is a good sense of progression I will be happy.
 

Barakov

Gold Member
Beat it on hard and immortal. Guess I'm ready.

I will say that I do think presentation is a little drab. Its not simply graphic whores, but also just the art style generally. The color palette. The menus. The stills during cutscenes with meh art. Its a bit worse than I expected.

But the gameplay is top tier. The combat is great. The more I play the platforming, it feels like they got the momentum, run cadence and jump feel from Sands of Time and just really nailed it in 2D while updating the combat.

Considering I havent faced a boss yet, or gotten any time powers, or barely even gotten into the exploration since the demo is fairly linear, I'm sure its just going to get better and better.
Kinda my feeling as well. It's rough around the edges visually but I really like the gameplay. I can see myself picking it up down the line.
 
The demo isn't bad but it's surprisingly...boring. It looks and feels just kind of limp. The music is inoffensive doodling somewhere in the background and doesn't create any atmosphere, the art style is as generic as it can get along with VERY basic and boring backgrounds and the combat is okay?

It majorly reminds me of the Strider reboot but I liked that better despite thinking it was ugly as well. It's all well assembled and functions smoothly but even a brutally overlooked gem like Axiom Verge 2 shined a lot brighter for me instantly. I think there's a bit of "first not-shit PoP game in ages" effect going on. I've played more interesting Metroidvanias in the past 6 months even, especially aesthetically. Shit, Blasphemous 2 looks incredible, you can't tell me Ubi don't have the cash for less "AI Video Game" looking art than this.
 

bender

What time is it?
Beat it on hard and immortal. Guess I'm ready.

I will say that I do think presentation is a little drab. Its not simply graphic whores, but also just the art style generally. The color palette. The menus. The stills during cutscenes with meh art. Its a bit worse than I expected.

But the gameplay is top tier. The combat is great. The more I play the platforming, it feels like they got the momentum, run cadence and jump feel from Sands of Time and just really nailed it in 2D while updating the combat.

Considering I havent faced a boss yet, or gotten any time powers, or barely even gotten into the exploration since the demo is fairly linear, I'm sure its just going to get better and better.

Good summation. I was a little surprised to see the asking price for this and for $50-60, I'd expect something closer to Rayman visually. A lot of the presentation feels like it was done on a shoestring budget.
 

TheDarkPhantom

Gold Member
I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed the demo, had zero interest based on the trailers. Looks good, plays buttery smooth, great voice acting, nice world-building, music that accentuates the action and exploration instead of overpowering it, I'm eager to see more.

I do think this is more a $30 title and it won't be day one since it's releasing a week before I plan on picking up Tekken 8 and Yakuza: Infinite Wealth but it's something I'd definitely buy down the line. Screenshot function is revolutionary for the Metroidvania genre, if nothing else Ubi deserves props for that. Parrying specials have a unique counter animation, cool stuff:

PFr5TnJ.gif
 
the “starting at” $60 price point (Epic Game Store since I’m on PC)
...the game isn't going to have a different price on egs vs uplay, there's no "egs tax" on games that have their own launcher, it's 50 on egs as well.
Now if you are using $, but you don't mean usd, but instead something like cad or aud, you should probably mention that...
 

Jesb

Gold Member
I’m not seeing the value in the price. A game like mark of the ninja and other indie games are likely way better and was nowhere as much.
 

drotahorror

Member
I’d say so.

If a major publisher is announcing a Play it for Free promo before release, it tells me they’re expecting it to bomb.

Doesn’t mean it’s not a good game. They just don’t have confidence that it’s going to sell.

Maybe you don't understand the meaning of "Red Flag". A red flag would be ubisoft NOT putting out a demo, or having a review embargo on release date.

This is Ubisoft marketing the game to get more sales. Who exactly is the red flag for if there's a demo and reviews are already pouring in ahead of release? For the consumer (who shouldn't care about sales) this is just marketing, word of mouth, getting people to talk about it. I don't understand where this 'red flag' is.

Every publisher, big, small, markets their product. Who is ubisoft cautioning about putting out a demo/reviews early? Just doesn't make any sense man. This thread is retarded.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Quick observations after playing the demo - standard enemies take way too many hits, the environments are forgettable and this definitely doesn't feel like an almost full priced game. Don't think I'll be coming back even if there's a sale.
 
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Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Played the demo just now. Great combat, fluid movement and animations is a HUGE plus.... BUT! Asking $49,99 for this when you can buy Blasphemous 1 and 2, The Last Faith and amazing Afterimage for much less and get MUCH more content and even better visuals (not a fan of GFX style in The Lost Crown at all)? They're effin' insane and stupid to ask $49,99, the game will flop cuz of this idiotic decision. I'm not buying the game until I can get it for $15.
 
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sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Fantastic demo! Played the PS5 version last night. It's pretty meaty too, but you can't save any progress so that kind of sucks if you don't want to do it all in one shot. Oddly, there doesn't seem to be any HDR in the demo, so i'm wondering if the final game will also be like that. It looks great without it, but its an odd omission IMO
 
I really liked it. It's awesome on the Portal. The lions take way too many hits if you don't use a super power, maybe that's be design for after you level up your weapons or get better ones? It feels a bit overpriced. I'd say $30 would have been a sweet spot, $40 is kinda reasonable, but $50-60 is a bit much imo. Sure Ubi may be thinking they're bringing back a somewhat popular IP and try telling side scrolling Mario or Metroid they're overpriced . . . this isn't Mario or Metroid. ha!
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Since I've seen a few people mention enemies taking too many hits, just thought I'd mention that you can kill a normal enemy with 2 charge hit combos (hit, hit, charge). You can kill an enemy with 1 super move usually. You can also try hanging back and waiting for them to use their glowing yellow attack, and if you counter that it's an instant kill. Also air combos do increased damage with one of the early amulets.
 
Since I've seen a few people mention enemies taking too many hits, just thought I'd mention that you can kill a normal enemy with 2 charge hit combos (hit, hit, charge). You can kill an enemy with 1 super move usually. You can also try hanging back and waiting for them to use their glowing yellow attack, and if you counter that it's an instant kill. Also air combos do increased damage with one of the early amulets.
At first I thought the yellow glowing attacks were ones you can't parry. Since I screwed it up the first few times. Then eventually I did it correctly later and was like, oh, you can parry those, and it's awesome.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
At first I thought the yellow glowing attacks were ones you can't parry. Since I screwed it up the first few times. Then eventually I did it correctly later and was like, oh, you can parry those, and it's awesome.
There's also a down + attack 2 hit combo that ends in a jump kick that can pretty much stun lock most low tier enemies or leave you with an opening for another charge attack.
 

TwinB242

Member
While the price seems like a bit much I don't think people here realize that you can subscribe to Ubisoft+ for $15 and play it through there. Thats what Im probably going to end up doing.
 

NewJohn

Neo Member
Is the Guided Mode turned off in the demo? I selected in the menu but there was no marked objective in the map?
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I tried this last night and was kind of bored 10 minutes in. I don't think the presentation helps, everything was so light brown and gray, but also the combat, it just didn't engage me and was tedious.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Just played the demo and there was no time abilities? Unless I somehow missed em
There are time abilities in the final game. They're showcased in the "gameplay commentary" trailer on youtube. You see time rewind being used in combat and environments to dodge attacks in pretty cool ways. The demo has some time rewind but only limited to that one section of the environment where the rubble rewinds to get repaired.
 

tommib

Member
Absolutely awesome demo and yes, it plays like Dread which is a perfect template for a new Prince of Persia. I just won't get it now because I'm drowned in games to finish really. Currently going trough a playthrough of Red Dead Redemption.

This is the new Prince of Persia we need, people.
 
I'm surprised this reviewed so well. It all feels very generic. The gameplay is tight, but the art style really takes it down a notch for me. Graphic stills with audio also feel kinda cheap for the asking price.
 

Flabagast

Member
I'm surprised this reviewed so well. It all feels very generic. The gameplay is tight, but the art style really takes it down a notch for me. Graphic stills with audio also feel kinda cheap for the asking price.
A lot of reviews are critizing the chara design but on the other hand they say that level design and gameplay are truly amazing.

Also it's seems the game has a great variety of different environments and biomes, some beautiful, that make up for the somewhat controviersal art direction in other parts of the game
 
Fantastic demo! Played the PS5 version last night. It's pretty meaty too, but you can't save any progress so that kind of sucks if you don't want to do it all in one shot. Oddly, there doesn't seem to be any HDR in the demo, so i'm wondering if the final game will also be like that. It looks great without it, but its an odd omission IMO

Such a shame as HDR would've helped the somewhat dull visuals so much. Wtf was Ubi thinking not including this?
 
Tried the demo. I think it’s boring as hell. Not a fan of the the style, the spongey enemies and I think the music is super fuckin drab. Reminds me a lot of that ol Strider reboot.

And as expected, all it did was make me want to play Symphony, Super Metroid and Dread. And now Strider.

Savin $50 on this and then $70 on Suicide Shit Squad. I’m on a roll 😎

Combat isn't spongey if you learn how to do it effectively. Same with most games people bitch about
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Just tried this game. It looks like shit in my opinion, and I really don’t care for all of the dialog and cutscenes, but holy hot damn it controls like a DREAM! Absolutely fantastic movement and traversal. A lot of options, a lot of speed, and just the right amount of complexity.

The biggest downside I see so far is that apparently the game is 22 fucking hours, according to HLTB. A game like this would be a PERFECT 8-hour, $30 experience. Hell, I’d probably pay the full $50 if it was only 8 hours.

22 hours for what seems to be a Metroidvania is way too much for me, though. And knowing Ubisoft, there’s probably a lot of padding in that 22 hours. Honestly, I might just play through the demo a few times instead. Or maybe I’ll grab it once it’s $20-$30. I highly, highly doubt I’d ever beat this game, though.

That said, I’m completely smitten with the gameplay, which is always the most important thing to me. Makes me wish this was more of an action platformer instead of a Metroidvania. I’d fuck this game up if it were like a 5-hour 2D action platformer. I’d probably beat it multiple times in succession.

Also, I do kinda wish it didn’t look like ass.

Edit: One annoying pet peeve is that you stop running after a screen transition, even if you’re holding the run button. So you have to dash again. Pretty stupid. May sound petty, but games like this live and die by their gameplay. I hope it gets fixed.
 
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Flabagast

Member
Just tried this game. It looks like shit in my opinion, and I really don’t care for all of the dialog and cutscenes, but holy hot damn it controls like a DREAM! Absolutely fantastic movement and traversal. A lot of options, a lot of speed, and just the right amount of complexity.

The biggest downside I see so far is that apparently the game is 22 fucking hours, according to HLTB. A game like this would be a PERFECT 8-hour, $30 experience. Hell, I’d probably pay the full $50 if it was only 8 hours.

22 hours for what seems to be a Metroidvania is way too much for me, though. And knowing Ubisoft, there’s probably a lot of padding in that 22 hours. Honestly, I might just play through the demo a few times instead. Or maybe I’ll grab it once it’s $20-$30. I highly, highly doubt I’d ever beat this game, though.

That said, I’m completely smitten with the gameplay, which is always the most important thing to me. Makes me wish this was more of an action platformer instead of a Metroidvania. I’d fuck this game up if it were like a 5-hour 2D action platformer. I’d probably beat it multiple times in succession.

Also, I do kinda wish it didn’t look like ass.

Edit: One annoying pet peeve is that you stop running after a screen transition, even if you’re holding the run button. So you have to dash again. Pretty stupid. May sound petty, but games like this live and die by their gameplay. I hope it gets fixed.
Wasn't Hollow Knight like 40h though (even more with DLCs) ?

And that is arguably one of the best metroidvanias of all times
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Wasn't Hollow Knight like 40h though (even more with DLCs) ?

And that is arguably one of the best metroidvanias of all times
Keep in mind what I’m about to write is a personal opinion.

I liked Hollow Knight because I thought the visuals were gorgeous (albeit not varied enough at all), the difficulty was brutal but fair, and the music is outstanding (on top of the gameplay being basically perfect). Plus there was really not much filler in that game. That being said, I have some significant (and unpopular) complaints about Hollow Knight, but I’ll leave that for another thread to be crucified in.

On the other hand, I have absolutely zero interest in Prince of Persia, nor do I like the art, setting, music, or story. It’s just not my jam. That’s definitely not a dealbreaker, but in my experience, it can lead to significant fatigue over time, which is why I probably wouldn’t finish it. (Same thing happened with Shantae, despite me loving the gameplay.) I’m also prejudice against it being a Ubisoft game, making an automatic assumption that the game length is padded by filler. (I don’t know if this is true, but you can’t blame me to assuming as much.)

As much as I love the gameplay here, there are plenty other Metroidvanias I still need to play that have just as good of gameplay, and are more at a length that I prefer. The demo did a great job of whetting my appetite, though. I instantly fell in love with that gameplay.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Just tried the demo, and it plays beautifully. I think it would really shine on a handheld as I would prefer to play it in short bursts.

Definitely something I’ll look into (like other Ubi games), when the price is right.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Just tried the demo, and it plays beautifully. I think it would really shine on a handheld as I would prefer to play it in short bursts.

Definitely something I’ll look into (like other Ubi games), when the price is right.
It’s on the Switch, and apparently runs at 60.
 
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Tried the demo. I think it’s boring as hell. Not a fan of the the style, the spongey enemies and I think the music is super fuckin drab. Reminds me a lot of that ol Strider reboot.

And as expected, all it did was make me want to play Symphony, Super Metroid and Dread. And now Strider.

Savin $50 on this and then $70 on Suicide Shit Squad. I’m on a roll 😎
What game are you referring to?
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Played the demo just now. Great combat, fluid movement and animations is a HUGE plus.... BUT! Asking $49,99 for this when you can buy Blasphemous 1 and 2, The Last Faith and amazing Afterimage for much less and get MUCH more content and even better visuals (not a fan of GFX style in The Lost Crown at all)? They're effin' insane and stupid to ask $49,99, the game will flop cuz of this idiotic decision. I'm not buying the game until I can get it for $15.
Don’t forget bloodstained !
 
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