Game detected Prince of Persia Completely new during the event Ubisoft Forward This year, it’s literally in a different dimension than gaming Sands of Time beloved. is developed Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown By the people behind Raymana 2D game that harkens back to the series’ platform roots.
To find out more about this unexpected return, we spoke to three developers from Ubisoft Montpellierwho told us how to relaunch Prince of Persia A game of the type ‘Metroidvania’ similar to the anime.
In this context, world director Christophe Beck said about the decision to return to 2D in The Lost Crown: “At Ubsioft Montpellier we have experience with 2D games with Rayman of course, so first of all we had the experience, for us it was natural to make this decision.” We also wanted to go back to the original Prince of Persia, because it also fits with the kind of structure we have and with the kind of controls and gameplay.”
“But it’s also in 3D,” he added. While we see the game in a two-dimensional perspective, the world is built in three-dimensional space, so the camera can take full advantage of that, as he added: “So when we have dynamic battles and we have specific (combo) moves, sometimes we control The camera and we provide a specific point of view (where the camera moves within the game world). So we want to have an immersive atmosphere, of course, and modern.”
As this special camera moves, the world changes hues from elegant yet traditional Middle Eastern colors, to bold, vibrant, anime-inspired design.
Art director Jean-Christophe Alessandri said, “We love modern pop culture, we love anime. We love comics, superheroes. This is an act of love from fans. We are fans and we wanted to put that into the world of Prince of Persia.”
He added, “I would say our own formula is to take some strong inspirations and references from mythical Persia, from history, which are not widely known. But they are very rich and very inspiring. And we combined that with more contemporary inspirations and references.”
Not only are the graphics bringing together ideas of different genres, the gameplay pays homage to a game Prince of Persia The original from 1989 and the trilogy Sands of Time Both, this element blends with the core concepts of the Metroidvania games.
“We tried to go back to the roots of the series. Because there are a lot of unique moves of the characters, trap clips, moves, etc., without forgetting what the 3D episodes built, because it is very important to respect each episode,” explained Mounir Rady, the game’s director.
The very important thing with this type of structure is player empowerment.
“Players who played the original game in some areas (in The Lost Crown) will find the feeling of the Arabian Nights with the grand palace, open areas, beautiful landscapes and everything,” Beck said. “But also like in the first Prince of Persia, there are places with lots of Traps, small hallways with traps and things that are hard to predict sometimes. And we have a lot of gameplay scenes that are clips from the first Prince of Persia game.”
In terms of the metroidvania elements, Ubisoft wanted to take advantage of all the classic games of the genre: an interconnected map, challenging battles, and powers that open up new opportunities.
About this, Radi said, “Our goal was to capture this feeling of isolation. To have a black box and to be smart.”
used Ubisoft term “black box” during series development Assassin’s Creedwhich refers to the task structure that we first saw in Unity Through which assassinations can be dealt with in several different ways. So it seems that The Lost Crown They are intended to allow players to resolve situations in a variety of ways.
“We have a lot of rewards and shortcuts that entice the player to come back with new abilities,” Beck added about the Metroidvania build. “The very important thing with this kind of build is to empower the player. It’s also very important when you come back that you have the ability to battle easily and access the treasures.” previously unreachable.”
You will have the powers of manipulating time as we are used to from games Prince of Persia. For example, you can create a shadow mark and go back in time, thus pulling yourself out of danger at the last moment. Or you can speed yourself up and dash through the hazards. But as wonderful as it is, it is very different from the forces of time in Sands of Time that you might remember, and that’s on purpose.
“We are playing around with time, and this is not a retrospective game,” Radi said. “Of course we use famous ideas and elements because we as developers when we start thinking about this new chapter Prince of Persia: The Lost CrownIt was very important to try to twist all of these things. So things like simple ideas: Imagine the time powers are back, the ones you know from the trilogy, but this time it won’t be in your hands. It will be in the hands of the main villain.”
It is currently unknown how many temporal powers will be available besides the shadow and the dash, but Beck promises that there will be at least one more that has the power to change your approach to almost everything.
Where he said: I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but later in the game you will unlock a certain ability that will allow you to take a completely different approach, even in battles, puzzles and everything. It’s a combination of abilities that gives players a lot of creativity.”
While that The Lost Crown It’s a traditional Metroidvania game in many ways, you decide Ubisoft Montpellier Not using the light narration style in the stories that this genre is usually famous for. So you can expect 3D animated cutscenes as well as 2D dialogue scenes, and a focus on character growth. It all begins with your hero, Sargon: a member of a superhero-like team called the Immortals. This means that you will not play the role of the same Prince of Persia. Instead, you will search for it.
We didn’t want to play for example with something like Son Goku rather b Vegeta.
“When you have to deal with a game Prince of Persia This, it is very easy to prepare the same recipe. And that’s kind of the same with every idea we have. I talked about simple ideas. The idea was not to play the prince this time. You will not be alone but part of a group. Why did we do that? The reason this time was to create a closer connection with the player. I don’t think we have many princes among our audience and we wanted to make sure every player felt a connection to Sargon. And that was very important to creating a story that allowed the player to grow up with Sargon. This is a story about growing up.”
He went on to say, “We took a lot of inspiration from anime, we didn’t want to play around with, say, something like Son Goku rather b Vegeta. We wanted this because it was a matter of making him grow throughout his journey. It can not be Vegeta… He’s a prince, of course! But we wanted to have someone tougher. We took a lot of inspiration from the history of Miyamoto Musashi, because this is Sargon’s journey to understand what it means to be strong? What does it take to be strong?”
Since Sargon is very much an anime hero, it was important to capture his power through the game’s visuals. So Ubisoft Montpellier examined many art forms, from anime and comic books to street art, to convey what Sargon looks like when he fights.
Alessandri added, “When our main character Sargon unleashes his superpowers, we wanted to give an epic feel by creating an image with impact. So we use vibrant colours, trendy patterns, fonts, bold colors, everything to offer players an unforgettable moment.”
scheduled for release Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown On January 18 next year on PC Switch And PlayStation And Xbox And Amazon Luna And the calculator. For more details on the series’ return, read our post-game impressions. You can also find out everything else that was revealed here during the event Ubisoft Forward here.
