So, I played the Prince of Persia the Lost Crown demo a few months back, I wasnt really into the aesthetic and saw the price was a bit heavy so I moved on as I was used to paying 20-30 for similar looking indie style platformers.
A work colleague kept going on about how great it is so they loaned me their Switch copy. I ended up playing about 2-3 hours, it seemed cool but I wasnt massively into the aesthetic still or the story, but man, the exploration and the way it handles dishing powers out is masterful. I started to find the Switch a bit cramped and outputting it to my TV it sort of looked a bit dogshit. I really wanted it on Xbox Series X instead as I do love the controller comfort, but I didn't want to RE play those hours. I then noticed that it has cross save, so I uploaded my Switch save, purchased it for the Xbox Series X (its £26.99 at the moment which is the right price in my opinion!) and then downloaded the save from Ubisoft onto the Series X. Worked an absolute treat and now im playing it at 120hz and it just feels even better. They also made a sale by being smart and not having dumb policies locking progress to specific platforms.
I would go so far as to say that I think it is really close to the quality and feel of Hollowknight, which I absolutely loved. It has some of the best quality of life features all wrapped in so you never feel lost or frustrated, if you fail on a boss you can choose to start at a save point or just from the beginning of the boss again, so no running back feeling annoyed. The character movement feels pitch perfect and the dash and later abilities just allow you to zoom across the huge maps, mopping up all the chests and other things you couldn't reach earlier. The combat has a really methodical feel and I am sure people must have come up with insane stun lock style combos by now as it is totally geared toward that, but if you aren't a huge combat fan you can happily get away with just mashing, but it does feel great to juggle enemies up in the air and such. There is also a really good little training section that teaches you some simple but effective combos that you can use throughout the entire game.
I am about 14 hours in now and I am absolutely loving it, I would be more than happy if there were 20 more hours as it just feels absolutely wonderful to play.
Please do check it out, and give it 2-4 hours to get some abilities which allow you to really go into a nice flow state. I scan read all the dialogue and some of the items as I am not really here for the lore/story but there IS one if you want it.
It's easily one of the best "metroidvania" style games out there and I do hope they get to make another one.
P.S you can smash barrels and currency comes out of them. I love being able to smash things as I go, just feels great.
I saw the game on sale after I'd finished the potter films, and then also saw that a photo mode had been released. That tipped it for me. I love photo mode in games.
