Did the Lost Crown save Prince of Persia? | A Video Investigation 

Have a happy 2024 deal using my link www.displate.com/ifinishedavideogame or my discount code IFinishedAVideoGame for 1-2 @ 22% OFF or 3 -@ 33% available until the end of February excl. Limited Editions and Lumino Surprise! I've been working on a video in secret! Given Prince of Persia was the video that catapulted this channel into the limelight I couldn't let a whole new entry pass us by - especially when it's in a genre I love! Hopefully you enjoy this little sequel video that continues the Prince of Persia story and takes us into strange new places! If you'd like to support the channel, here is a link to the Patreon which keeps the channel alive in spite of the crazed RU-vid monetisation polices - patreon.com/IFinishedAVideoGame

for me as an Iranian , the best thing about this game is the fact that it has a Farsi dub , which is also shocking because it is the first time ever that a game developed outside of Iran has Iranian voice actors to do an official Farsi dub for it.

Fun fact: The Immortals were a real Persian elite fighting unit, composed of 1000 fighters. Whenever one fell in battle, another immediately stepped in to take their place. This led to the name Immortals because they seemingly came back to life after being struck down in combat. Great video so far, boss. Love your channel. Fast becoming my favourite.

I love how, when it comes to the accessibility features, you can so clearly define what you think the essence of a metroidvania is thanks to the previous videos you made. You don't just know the history, you have activly played, summorized and reviewed them. Big props to your content!

"How can it be called Prince of Persia if the Prince isn't the main character?" [laughs in "The Legend of Zelda"]

Can we please get more major studios making games with more gameplay than budget??? This looks like a breathe of fresh air and I don't even play Prince of Persia games.

Hell yeah love seeing 'updates' on the restrospectives.

Genuinely, you are my favourite channel. Love your vids and I'm glad that these last 14 years have been so good to you.

I always love your videos. Your tone of voice is perfect. Your manner of explaining things. The way you always keep it at a certain level audio wise. I usually end up watching your videos dozens of times. The first time I'll sit down and watch it properly (In the case of castlvania I'll watch it over several days.), Then I'll put it into my sleep playlist. Or put it on in the background while I'm painting or drawing or playing games. They're perfect. Even when you go over stuff like Eternal Darkness or Parasite Eve it just feels so.. comfortable. Cozy, even.

Your videogame esssays are the best on youtube, and I dont say that lightly. Keep up the fantastic work!

This games is what i'm gonna use from now on when i tell someone "don't judge a book by its cover" because i remember how EVERYONE was saying this game was gonna be a insult to the franchise and now its probably gonna be a gateway to the series, i hope we get some dlc for this game too which is rare for me to say nowadays

Oh wow, this game flew entirely under my radar, am i ever so glad youtube started actively recommending me your channel after i watched your original prince of persia retrospective. You're doing a great job with these vids, lad, keep up the great quality.

When I saw that first Prince of Persia retrospective made feel like I'd stumbled onto something special. I subscribed right away and you have just turned out a wonderful combination of engaging, informative, smart, and wonderful series of videos. I'm so impressed and this video feels like a wonderful return/growth from that initial retrospective. Your careful research, passion, and attention to detail is matched only by your clarity of communication and talent for grabbing the attention of your audience. Congratulations again, I'm glad you're here.

I'm glad you made this video. I've been thinking of getting this game, but given the fiasco with Forgotten Sands I was hesitant. Your review solidifies it for me. I'll definitely check it out. I really appreciate your lengthy reviews and how insightful they are. You're doing the gaming community a service, my friend. Keep up the stellar work.

I love your videos, but I feel like you may have missed quite a few major metroidvanias when you're saying that a lot of fairly standard features aren't done in sidescrollers. That opening, cinematic, actiony level before the proper game is largely a trope of the genre, and is how Samus often loses her powers, and is how the loveletters to Castlevania that are Bloodstained and Timespinner both start out and they also both let you wander around and meet major characters at their bases shortly after that introduction. A lot of the games in the genre do all of the things you're saying are new. Especially the side quest bit. Rather than being alien to the genre, they're a staple of it. The game is very much just a very polished take on everything that is common in Metroidvanias these days, refining them rather than introducing anything new.

Your voice in this space is refreshing! I feel you understand games deeply; thanks for your work.

I wouldn’t mind seeing this kind of format more often doing long retrospective on just one single game. Keep up the good work

56:11 Hehe, "...sands of river...". Missed that one in the edit? Noticed but decided to leave it in? Or was it intentional to make sure we're actually paying attention? Whichever it is, I chuckled. Back to enjoying the video.

It's always great to wake up and see you've uploaded. Great video as always man!

Hell yeah! I was waiting on this vid after it came out. You do awesome work dude

This essay is so well written! I have known so many new and interesting things plus the whole video is very entertaining. Thank you very much.

Finished it! Man, I'm such a big fan of your content. Funnily enough the PoP retrospective was the first video I watched from you. Full circle moment!

Hell yeah, glad to see this! Your videos are always quality. Cheers, mate! Love the story about your personal history with the series. The journey has come full circle 😊

Your videos are so well done and well researched! You are one of my favourite sources of content on the platform. Funny thing is that, other than metroid, youve never covered a franchise I really care about either and yet ive seen all your videos and loved them! Keep it up

A video from you is a delight. Your voice is so soothing, and your detailed analysis is honestly great to listen to. Haven't even finished the video yet and i know it'll be fantastic

I really love your videos! I love your deep dives and introspective looks into games I would probably never play. I love how you dig deep into the history of it all. Keep it up, I’ll keep watching!

From its first trailer I was thinking "Oh this'll be a cool metroidvania" What i didn't expect was one of the best in the genre I've ever played. This game alone proves Ubisoft has the chops to make great games. I absolutely loved it.

This is really marvellous. I think having done your retrospective on the series, I think it heightens the value of this retrospective.

I've always love love love your videos, I started watching Castlevania and Mortal Shell and I keep repeating your vids whenever I work or want to sleep (i love your voice and writing) Your PoF retrospective is one of my favorites too, and I always get sad on the ending. Now finally there's a continuation 🥰

I have been wanting a video like this ever since looking a bit more into PoP: TLC a bit before it appeared but never at one point did i actually think of checking out your channel for it. Ironically, at some point i *did* come back to your channel to see if you had a new video essay and checked out the POP video to see if any interesting new comments had been left, saw that people were telling you of TLC... and then forgot about it again. I've watched it through in its entirety and thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially bits about the inspirations from real Persian mythology and history. Now to wait for someone to make a combat breakdown/analysis on every single boss in this game to analyze what makes them as great as they are. I haven't actually played the game, but King Darius and Orod have stuck with me the strongest. Here's to hoping that TLC, like many other games (a number of which i mentioned to other people in this comment section that you had replied to as well), will get more acknowledgment and support despite the more dumb elements of the climate surrounding them. Have a good one and take care.

I am so happy to see a new vid from you after watching your metroid video, yesterday yooohooooo

....so it's a DLC to your outstanding PoP retro? Love it

i wasnt sure it would happen but i was hoping you'd make a video on this. one of my favorite retrospectives of yours was this series!

Funny how I only just found your channel a few weeks ago, because of the Prince of Persia retrospective. Really good review that also reminded me that, to my shame, I forgot to go back and read codex entries that I didn't bother to read when I picked them up. Completely missed out on the Third Son reveal because I was very sleepy when I finished that quest and didn't read it.

What a surprise for valentines day! The prince of persia video of yours is one of my favourites from you, so this is a treat. Good job as always. Have you ever though of doing a retrospective on something like Tomb Raider or Sonic?

your pop retrospective video was the reason i subscribed. i was expecting to be disappointed by the lost crown when i first heard of it but to be honest it has a surprising amount of depth and it's one of the rare times where im happy with a new protagonist. keep up the good work, passionate content like yours is the whole reason i appreciate youtube as a platform.

Great video. I've been watching your stuff since your Lord of the Rings retrospective, and you always do a wonderful job. One of the things I really appreciate about your videos are the unique topics you choose, ones that I don't feel many other video essayists cover. It's always nice to see someone discussing things they're passionate about rather than chasing trends. I particularly enjoy your retrospectives that focus on licensed media (such as the aforementioned LOTR or Indiana Jones retrospectives) which see you cover a broad array of genres over extremely long time periods. It's a hell of a thing to remain so insightful when covering such disparate game styles, but somehow you manage it. Very impressive. I haven't had the chance to pick up the Lost Crown yet, but I'm hoping to do so in the near future. I love the Ori games and Metroid Dread, so I'm hoping this can scratch a similar itch. I love the game's art style and animation, and I'm a big fan of games with a unique sense of style and visual flair, so it seems to have that box ticked as well. I'm also a sucker for games that take heavy inspiration from real-world history and mythology, which this game seems to do. Sad to hear it may not be performing well sales-wise, but considering the likely low cost of production compared to a lot of other AAA titles, maybe it doesn't need to set the world on fire to be successful. Here's hoping. Regarding the initial backlash to Sargon, I agree that, sadly, a not insignificant amount of it was driven by racism. Personally, I have no issue with his design. Ignoring the fact that, as you said, the Prince of Persia games have never been particularly historically accurate (ironically, the Lost Crown seems to perhaps be the best in the series on this account, given it's utilisation of real Persian mythology and even going so far as to include a Farsi dub), in real historical terms, having a Sub-Saharan African man be present in ancient Persia is absolutely plausible, given the relative close distance between the two regions and the long history of interaction between them. That said, I wonder if SOME of the backlash, particularly that seemingly coming from actual Persian/Iranian people, has a bit more legitimacy to it. There's an unfortunate trend in modern media, much like with whitewashing, to cast black actors as real-world MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) historical figures. Examples would include the recent Netflix documentary about Cleopatra (which garnered enormous backlash in Egypt and an incredibly condescending, racist response from Netflix), or the upcoming film about Hannibal Barca (a Carthaginian general from North Africa) which will have Denzel Washington in the titular role. Personally, I don't see this as any different to the whitewashing in films such as Gods of Egypt, Exodus: Gods and Kings, or myriad others going back decades, as it denies MENA actors major roles and broader MENA communities representation. Not to mention that, intentionally or not, it implies that non-white ethnicities are somehow interchangeable, which isn't true at all and extremely racist to boot (I've even seen several comments here sadly echo that exact sentiment). I don't personally believe Sargon is indicative of this trend (unlike the others, Sargon isn't a real historical/mythological figure), but I do wonder if some people saw it that way, and so rejected what they perceived as another action in a racist trend. Those people I have some sympathy for. It's such a shame the discussion on a complex and emotive topic has been poisoned by racists. Anyway, thanks again for the excellent video. Looking forward to seeing where you go in the future.

This is such a good channel , I love the deep dives.

Probably first time I ever used a sponsor code for something off a youtube video. Thanks. Also a great video as always.

I just finished this game the other day and have been thinking about it constantly, both while playing it and after. I think it is a shining example of what a Metroidvania can be. One point of comparison which you didn’t mention in the video, but which I felt was closest to the way this game played, is the Guacamelee series. The combat arenas and quasi-masocore platforming challenges in this game are EXTREMELY reminiscent of Guacamelee 2 specifically, which is also one of the best Metroidvanias ever made. Just wanted to add that to the conversation; awesome video which I’m sure I will return to!

I am glad that your video showed up in my subscriptions right away. Some times it feels like RU-vid doesn't show me the updates.

Always a good day when we get another movie length critique from you! Been looking at playing this one.

I literally just finished your Prince of Persia retrospective yesterday, what a pleasant surprise lol

I want to contribute to your work so, I'm liking and commenting, but seeing as how I want to experience this game first hand, I'll have to wait until later to watch this. Love your work!

Nice surprise for sure! I bought this blind on release and the only other Prince game I’ve played was Sands of Time. Needless to say I wasn’t expecting such a nice metroidvania. Can’t wait to listen to this a dozen time at work tonight 😂

Thanks for the video! I just finished the game and loved it. Can’t wait for the next one…???? Love the Montpellier comeback

My godm m8 BIG THANKS for Sources and bibliography section. As a content creator myself it's REALLY USEFUL! Thank you! Probably i will use the same approach on my video for Prince of Persia: The lost crown. I'll 100% will mention you, cause u really inspired me!

These are great, homie. Keep em coming, for as long as you still enjoy it.

Ayyy grats on the sponsor man! Defo deserve it❤

Good Review - I just finished the game on immortal and I agree it is a fantastic game. I would like to add a thing regarding the combat in this game: As a big fan of action games like Bayonetta, DMC, Ninja Gaiden and Nioh I would like to praise this aspect a little bit more. Many action games or action rpgs made by western developers struggle with getting the details right, when it comes to combat. In the lost crown things like input buffering, damage of different combos, animation cancelling, knockback and staggers of enemies, I-Frames on sliding, sound and visuall cues, Athra build up on attacks and the multiple uses for each abillity were crafted very carefully. Metroidvanias are usually not known for deep combat and the lost crown is a great example of what you can do with a deep combat system and good enemy design to support it.

Cool video Matt. Who knew after getting Sands of Time all those years ago we'd get some minor salvation in the form of one of your wishes coming true--A Prince of Persia entry into the Metroidvania space that does the genre proud. I've never played either a classic or modern Metroidvania game but your vid here means I'm probably going to pick up the Lost Crown and give it a try. Keep up the great work,

Bro i waited for this all the month

Hey man, it's vBrad. Great to see you doing so well, loved this video - just finished the game yesterday and thought it was excellent.

BANGER video my guy! Thoroughly enjoyed it :D

Welp, was in the fence about getting this until I watched about half an hour of your video, but color me sold. I'll finish the vid once I complete the game haha. Great work as always

I was very excited waiting for something like this, Im half game now and I believe the same, good start, or lets say "good restart"

He really does reply to everything, great channel.

Man this is fantastic. Loved playing the small amount that I have and need to finish it. Loved your run through on everything and your style. Wicked that you decided to come back to a series that you covered before as well. Looking forward to next!!

NO FREAKING WAY!!!!! I just finished watching your other Prince of Persia video for the third time and thought, "Huh, his prophecy sure came true, huh?" I'm so stoked to see this one. Keep up what you're doing, sir! Your eclectic, witty, thoughtful dialogue on tons of games is a wonder to behold. (And it gets me through long workdays.)

The Lost Crown plays so nicely, like what I wanted from a Metroid Fusion 2 on GBA, love it, love the review. Hope we can get another Prince of Persia in 2.5D soon.

Ooooo now this is a surprise! Thanks for covering!

appreciate your hard work, pal

Not sure how I missed this when it dropped, but great video as always. I haven’t played a PoP game since PS2 days so it was nice seeing it evolve the way it did.

Take care of yourseld have a speedy recovery god bless bro please take care of yourself first

as I said last time: never change. You are great. Much love from Hong Kong.

I JUST beat this almost 100% yesterday! Let's go!!

Yesssss! Let's gooooo! Been literally checking RU-vid on and off since yesterday to see if this had been uploaded and now it is!

Really great quality video man. Loved it. And yeah TLC really is something the franchise needed. I loved my time with it and am excited for all the DLCs they've announced

I wasn't sure about buying it, but this video has convinced me to try it! I do think €50 on Switch is a bit steep so I might wait for that price drop.

Worm fan hears "Simurgh" - freaking out

Superbly done, excellent video, as ever. Loved the Bio bit at [ 1:28 ], and couldn't stop watching till the end. To think one of the first games I played on PC was the first Prince of Persia... man, what a ride. Love the fantastic gamedev and game mechanics analysis of "The Lost Crown" [ 48:54 ], which I never heard of until today: the way u describe it, and judging from the superb graphics and systems, seems to me an underrated masterpiece of a game, with almost infinite replayability. Just hearing you explain the different game systems and mechanics, the QoL ideas and your awesome edition of all that material, was a pleasure as always. Thnx for the great job you do, keep it up!

Solid vid my dude! I don't know much about Prince of Persia and that was a fun (not so) little dive into that world.

I'm just shocked I managed to beat this game before this video came out. lol Excited to see your review!

If there's one thing people should keep in mind it's that online outrage over videos games is almost always perpetrated by the terminally online that make up a tiny fraction of the population that plays video games. This game absolutely didn't deserve negativity prior to release and I'm glad it's receiving positive attention for its quality.

Awesome to see this spectacular video out!

ohooo what a pleasant surprise and a nice addition to your previous retrospective on the series, which was where I first became familiar with this channel. I'll add more in this comment once I've finished the video Edit: Took me awhile but I finished the video and now i'm gonna play it hahaha

The story makes a bit more sense than it first seems, it just requires a bit more digging and lore-reading than it probably should. Essentially, Thomyris's children kept getting offed, and it's implied that Vahram and Radjen are responsible for this. The Queen instructed Anahita to kidnap Ghassan and take him to Mount Qaf as part of a ploy to expose his would-be murderers, possibly hoping they would get trapped by the curse. And given that Ghassan isn't actually her son, I'm guessing she was willing to have him be sacrificed in order to expose the treachery within her court, only to then reveal that her trueborn son still lives. And Sargon opposing Vahram is less about him being the rightful ruler and more about him wanting to be the God of Space and Time. Really, the ending being so brief and not really exploring anything is my main problem with it. There is so little come down, so little closure. You never learn what happened to any of the other lovely, fun characters you meet on Mount Qaf, you barely address the fate of the Immortals and the titular crown, which is now known to have been held illegitimately for three decades. It just needed _more._

I'm a huge PoP fan and had no idea this game had come out. Thank you for this!

37:00 i strongly disagree. Hollow knight is much more then just a challenge. The atmosphere and the sense of discovery is what i enjoyed about it the most. A friend of mine who isnt a hardcore gamer once said that he would love dark souls if it was sort of a walking sim. He just wanted to discover the cool locations and enemies. Without the need to spend hours getting good or watching someone else play it. I think its a shame that people like him are missing out on great games even if its not the intended way to play. Just a personal thought. Great video as always.

Yes, in terms of gameplay and visuals it was phenomenal imho. The combat has a nice satisfying, crunchy feel to it and is perfectly complimented by the anime flair to it. I do enjoy how they really nailed using the powers you gain into not only the combat and a key to open certain doors, but were incorporated into actual brain teasers and well thought out platforming puzzles. That one were you time three versions of yourself pulling switches being just as memorable to me. There were plenty of puzzle rooms I'd come to, think I need a double jump or something else, and leave. Then coming back later after having used the other powers you get well before double jump and understanding their mechanics better, I'd get eureka moments knowing and kind of laughing when I found out I could have solved them much earlier when I had the power to solve it in my arsenal already when I found it in the first place. I agree about the story as well, if you don't look too closely at it, what with the PC actually being the true usurper's heir so he is the prince, one of the Immortals just disappearing, and the strange way that the vilkian is somewhat justified but still is jist evil because of being split kind of maybe? Yeah individually they're all cool ideas but there is no cohesiveness. Even the bit of character growth Sargon has about finding out what he is other than a mindless soldier wielding a blade feels like it just kind of happened while everything else just happened. Still if they could get some better writers in or hopefully took some notes from this I wouldn't mind seeing at least one follow up with this team. I beat the game once on normal difficulty just because I always do that for a first playthrough usually but I do plan on giving it another go on a harder custom difficulty. There were a couple bosses that wrecked me more than a few times before I could beat them but most went down in one or two tries. It is unfortunate though that most of the difficulty options come down to fairly binary changes like damage output for you and the enemy when a change in encounter variety is my preferred method of upping difficulty. Introducing harder mid game enemies in earlier stages, possibly progressing to harder enemies only seen in the late game of the hardest difficulty. All while changing what encounters you might be more familiar with, nothing too unfair but would test the skill of adaptability from players still fighting enemies they know just in a different configuration and from a higher leveled area than was previously. Great lengthy review! Like for many others it was your original PoP retrospective that was recommended to me, though it was well after it was uploaded. I have since enjoyed many of your other videos. You go into a depth that I think only a few others who do these game retrospectives go into as much. I appreciate all the work you put into making these.

After this game was released all I could think was how much I hoped you would drop a video 😊 I love every one of your videos and it feels great to see one of my favourites come full circle with a cheeky update! So glad you took the plunge into doing these and giving us something to enjoy and look forward to!

Comment for algorithm - back tomorrow!! HYPED for this

Man I love this channel

Just finished this on switch. I loved every second of it! Zero bugs! Please please please pick this up if you haven’t !

Man. I’ve been following you for a year now. I’m so grateful for your videos, they made me fall in love with video game history and video game making. I love how you try to understand the struggle of game development for every game. It helps humanize an industry that really needs it. Your videos motivated me to keep going in my video game making baccalaureate abs last week, I got an internship in game design with Ubisoft and this is partially because of your videos and passion. Thank you ❤. P.S. Also thanks for talking about a Ubisoft game, might be useful for my internship😅.

I was eagerly awaiting your video on this. After seeing your previous video on the series and pretty much every other video on your channel, you’ve become a RU-vid inspiration. Godspeed mate 🤝 can’t wait to see what you make next

I really saw the Hollow Knight influence in the Kiana fight. Her spear throws and dives brought me right back to the Mantis Lords fight.

Lets go!! Been excited for your next videk.

Good to see you also make bite sized videos!

Amazing work 🎉

If you enjoyed this game, look at Valdis Story: Abyssal City. An EXTREMELY slept on metroidvania with great combat and replay with alternate characters.

I played a bit of the demo and have to say I loved seeing Persian mythology. It www refreshing.

Something I think more games should have, is an endgame feature you can obtain that makes secrets more simple to find, even a map of secrets is fine, and it becomes a valuable treasure to obtain. It prevents the pain of pixel hunting for secrets and no more need to rely on guides and wiki to find the hidden stuff. Too many games make their completion a pain, sadly.

Another thing that hurted the sales of this game is the stupid statement that Ubisoft made 2 days before this game was released. Gamers should “feel comfortable not owning their games” So people did indeed get comfortable by not owning the Ubisoft game that releases the same week.

I'm so glad to see you talking about this game. I enjoyed it waaay more than I thought it would be, and I thought I'd like it a lot.

As a fan of Sands of Time and Warrior Within, this video alone has singlehandedly convinced me to (eventually) purchase this game and give the Prince another outing. While initially skeptical of The Lost Crown, because I've never played a side-scrolling metroidvania title, this coupled with the Metroid retrospective has got me really eager to try them out.

Your videos are always a treat, friend, keep up the great work.

Damn... i feel like Christmas is here, but when i go to open my presents from santa I suddenly find myself in the middle of summer. I want to go fully blind on this game, but i really like these videos... I listened up to minute 19.00 just to make sure I don't have even a visual spoiler... And I am afraid to go further. You have done a great job (at least for the first part) and given plenty of spoiler warning and I appreciate that! Will be back next month, hopefully I ll have bought and finished it by then... damn...

Look this is easily my favorite entry in the franchise. And I mean I loved WW and SoT. But man the Metroidvania itch I didn't even know it was gonna scratch was so fun. Absolutely recommend.

Can't wait to watch this in full!