Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

[00:00:00] . Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren, and I'm joined as always by Jacob Price. It's February 20th, 2024. We're back to talk about video games. Jake, lots of news and stuff happening in the world of games.

[00:00:30] Let's kick it off diving right in to talk about I was ready to burn my Xbox and in effigy to have a sacrifice my Xbox to the gods, to have a ceremony to say goodbye to my digital library, which would immediately be deleted.

[00:00:54] That's what they were going to announce. But oh, actually, you know what happened? Pretty much nothing pretty much nothing happened. I got to say camera, though, I'm super lucky that the garbage truck didn't come before I could go fish my Xbox out of the trash.

[00:01:10] You know, lucky, lucky times there. Yeah, folks, I don't know. This was a huge nothing burger. And honestly, like watching that podcast episode made me think, you know what? They're actually just to actually coming through on what they've been saying

[00:01:28] for the past few years throughout the whole FTC case, even with the Activision Blizzard stuff, you know, Phil Spencer and crew Xbox had repeatedly been saying that they'll be looking at games. This even with the Xenomax question, they'll be looking at games at a case by case basis.

[00:01:46] And it seems to be that the pattern is is that big multiplayer games and smaller double A titles are going to go to other major platforms to kind of add more to that long tail of people purchasing those games

[00:02:05] and that the big that the tent poles will remain tent poles. And so I came out of that thinking actually none of this is interesting with a few random tidbits, a little business knee, you know, nuggets that that everybody sort of revealed that's going on.

[00:02:24] Other than that, it's pretty much like, hey, we're actually doing what we said we were going to do several years ago. Sorry that it's happening and it's bothering you. And they actually didn't sound apologetic at all, to be honest, which I which I kind of appreciate.

[00:02:41] Yeah, I mean, we had these Xbox influencers who obviously got rumors that were a lot of them wrong to straight up wrong. And it was all and this is just the nature of the Internet now.

[00:02:56] And this is why probably our podcast will never be huge because we don't because that's the algorithm feeds off. Hate and. And complaining and anger and like toxicity. I mean, that's just the bottom line. Like if you want to get engagement with your stuff,

[00:03:20] you just bait people into arguments. That's like literally that's what the algorithm is fed off of now. It's not quality of content. It's not like quality of source. It's just about how well you bait people. How can you get people engaged?

[00:03:33] And the best way to get people engaged is to piss people off. Yep. And so that's what you do. And that's what the Xbox influencers did and they were mostly wrong and they were stupid and the people who are literally showing

[00:03:48] their receipts at GameStop of like turning their Xboxes in because like, oh, the ecosystem is going to go away. Or we're just idiots in the first place. Like this Microsoft is never going to get rid of their ecosystem. This is much too large of a business for them.

[00:04:02] They're simply figuring out ways to make more money off of the existing player base and content that they have, which makes 100 percent sense. And they're going to continue to do this on a case by case basis.

[00:04:16] And they didn't say the four games because that made people mad as well. But they didn't say that because they have marketing things in place. They did this podcast to respond to all like the vitriol on the internet.

[00:04:27] But we could pretty much sniff out what those games are. It's Hi-Fi Rush, Pentamin, Sea of Thieves and Grounded. What's the last one? And Grounded and those will go on multi platform, which completely makes sense. Yeah. 100 percent makes sense.

[00:04:44] And I have zero problem, nor should anyone have any problem with those games going on multi platform. It's only good for more people to be able to play those games. Yeah, one of the little nuggets that I think is crucial to understanding

[00:04:57] what Xbox is doing is what Phil Spencer said, which is there are two ways, right, to keep making money. You charge your player base more or you expand your player base, right? So I to me like all of this is in response.

[00:05:16] And, you know, recently we have this episode talking about layoffs in the industry. Folks, the triple A industry is crashing like it is struggling. And I think the the absolute worst symptom of this is Embracer Group. Like Embracer Group buying up all those studios and imploding,

[00:05:38] canceling 39 different projects is going to show that like when it comes to the the upper end, what I mean by that is like the big budget players, like they are struggling. And what I took away from this Xbox Business Podcast

[00:05:55] update is that Xbox is trying to be proactive in responding to this giant crash. They're not total idiots. They realize that they just dropped 70 billion dollars on Activision Blizzard, right? And so they're thinking, OK, how do we not turn into Embracer Group?

[00:06:14] And more probably more importantly, maybe not more importantly, but more specifically, I think that Xbox is looking at the the streaming companies, right? Xbox sees it like Apple Games and Netflix Games as competitors. And I think they see Amazon as competitors, not just Sony.

[00:06:39] And they're seeing all these streaming giants crash and burn. So yeah, I think that there's trying to be proactive. And how do we as we've developed a subscription service, how do we respond proactively so we don't crash with everybody else?

[00:06:55] And I'm like, great, if this is what it takes for you not to crash is if this is what it takes for my digital library to survive and for all the money that I have dumped into Xbox to keep having value, then do it.

[00:07:09] Yeah, it's this all 100 percent makes sense for the business. Totally makes sense. And I'm not surprised at all. And that's why we said, I think initially that it's pretty much a nothing burger. This is this is what they've been saying for years

[00:07:25] that they want to do and that they're trying to do. And if they could put Game Pass on PlayStation, they would. So. And that's never going to happen because because PlayStation is going to want their cut and their margins on Game Pass wouldn't make sense on PlayStation.

[00:07:44] So that's why that will never happen. But if the margins did make sense, then they would, but they're not going to. And I know. Yeah, this sounds like Cameron and I are defending Trillian, you know, Trillian Dollar Company here.

[00:07:56] And listen, folks, obviously, Xbox has lots of room to grow and there's a lot more assurances that they could do for their customers. But I just think when you look at like Xbox as a business, not as your buddy, because they never were your buddy, right?

[00:08:10] This totally makes sense. And Cameron and I were actually talking about this the other day with this new sort of PlayStation report that's come out, right? About PlayStation, you know, they're changing the forecast for how many PS5 consoles are going to sell.

[00:08:29] Sony making this big switch, a big bet on a lot of different live service games and PlayStation not having any big first party studio games coming out for the rest of 2024. It it just makes me wonder, OK, we know exactly how Xbox

[00:08:49] is adapting to a shifting market to an extremely outdated business model, which would be the console wars. Phil Spencer himself has already said that that is dead and gone in Xbox's mind. The Xbox one was a nail in the coffin during the console wars.

[00:09:05] And so they're done with that. And I think probably the smarter way of thinking about this is that it's no longer no longer. Sorry, I can't speak apparently. It's no longer the console wars. Some new type of warfare is beginning.

[00:09:20] And we have yet to give it an adequate name to describe what it is. And I think the Xbox Series X and the PS5 generation is the starting point of a new type of video game industry and business plan for these massive gaming companies.

[00:09:38] Yeah, the people who have tied their identities to a console or a corporation like that first off was there. There's some serious like mental health challenges going on. So I just, you know, I'm just reaching out to you guys. Like it's time to grasp on some.

[00:09:55] Maybe tie your go find something tangible, touch a little bit of grass, reach out and go touch something, you know, a little bit more tangible in your life than your ties to an Xbox console. Because guess what? Xbox lost the console war. And so what?

[00:10:12] Because look at Sony, Jake just said it. That news to me is actually way bigger than what Xbox announced, which is the fact that, yeah, Sony has made all this money, but their operating margin dropped. 14 percent. Yeah. Year to year, which is usually at 20 percent.

[00:10:32] It's an at 6 percent. They have zero first party games coming out in all of 2024 until eight at the soonest April 2025. They dropped their PS5 forecast by 10 million units and they lost $10 billion of value. So so what PlayStation? Sony's like Xbox actually has a stronger.

[00:10:53] I actually feel way more bullish and confident in Xbox's business plan than I do Sony and granted, obviously these companies are all doing well. They're doing fine. So this is all, you know, talking about. No, this really matters at the end of the day.

[00:11:08] These companies are going to figure it out. But what I'm saying is like, actually, Sony is actually in a bit more of a precarious position over the long horizon in my mind than actually Xbox ironically. So yeah, it's super interesting.

[00:11:21] And I and that's the thing, you know, Xbox and PlayStation just engage with the community so differently. Xbox is very, you know, they have these personalities that people like it feels like their buddy buddy. Sony is relatively, you know, got tight lips on a lot of these things.

[00:11:40] And so Xbox has basically been telling us for the past two to three years, hey, the landscape of the industry is changing. The economy is different. We're taking cues from these streaming services, but we're trying to do it differently.

[00:11:54] Whereas with Sony, we're not really, we don't really know what's going on. All we know is what isn't happening, right? Which like we don't need to go through the list again, but everything Cameron just said about all this news that has just come out about Sony.

[00:12:08] And so of course, Sony and PlayStation are going to adapt. They're not going away and they're going to figure out a way to kind of venture into this new era of the game industry. But the fact of the matter is that we have no idea what it is.

[00:12:24] And I really hope it's not banking too much on live service games because that piece, that pie is so hard to get a piece of. But we'll just, I guess we'll just kind of have to wait and see what Sony delivers on. But yeah, console wars are over.

[00:12:42] They died years ago. Phil Spencer himself admitted that. So like Cameron says, we it doesn't matter anymore. Talking about consoles wars is outdated. But I do strongly believe that we're in a new type of video game industry.

[00:12:58] If you want to frame it as a war, which I think let's not. This is a great opportunity to frame the video game industry as something else and to not tie our identities to specific brands like we have in the past.

[00:13:09] But something new is there's new stuff on the horizon. And I think a lot of it is Xbox saying that hey, our competitors are no longer Nintendo and Sony. They are also Amazon, Apple games, Netflix games, these other subscription services.

[00:13:26] And they just happen to have a several year head start with Game Pass, which I think is going to serve them pretty well in the next few years. Absolutely. Jake, we're getting an Elden Ring trailer tomorrow morning. Super last second drop on social media.

[00:13:47] They literally announced this like late this afternoon today for tomorrow morning, I believe during the Pokemon presentation. So they're like F you, Nintendo, we don't care. OK, so I've got all my times jumbled, right? Because when I first saw Elden Ring, the Elden Ring Shadow the Ertree trailer,

[00:14:06] I thought it was 8 p.m. our time. And then I looked at it and I was like, no, it's a no, no, no, it's a.m. Right. The Nintendo one, I believe is an hour before. Maybe. But the Pokemon one, shoot, when is that?

[00:14:25] I want to say the Pokemon one is actually next week. Sorry, folks, I'm pulling this up on my phone. Like I said, I got all the dates jumbled, so I couldn't quite figure this out. OK, yeah. So the Pokemon one is February 27th.

[00:14:39] We're recording this on the 20th. So we have Nintendo Direct and then we have Shadow of the Ertree. Um, Info, it's a three minute trailer. And I don't know, people are just going ham. They're going wild. They want to know if it's a shadow drop.

[00:14:57] They want to know when it's coming out. And here's here's my problem is that I really want to play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and I really want to play Dragon's Dogma 2. But if Shadow of the Ertree comes out within the next month, I'm not playing either of those games.

[00:15:15] I'm sorry, I've been super excited for both of those games, but I'm not going to play. Actually, I opened Elden Ring last night for like half an hour just to walk around. So was it prophetic? It must have been. It must have been. Why don't you pull up?

[00:15:31] That means you need to pull up in Bloodborne. You need to pull up Half Life. What are these other games people are waiting on? I mean, I basically open I keep it. I've kept it installed on my Xbox this entire time. I haven't uninstalled it.

[00:15:45] And it's only because like I'm like, OK, Shadow of the Ertree is coming out. Like at some point, I need to like remember how to actually play this game because it's so complex. But then every time I open it and I think,

[00:15:58] I'm going to kind of push on this play through a little bit. I'm like, oh, man, this game is like really deep. Like, I got to you really have to kind of stop and think about what you're doing. And like you're thinking about builds.

[00:16:11] And I'm like, oh, man. And it makes me wonder how they're going to set up the DLC. Is it going to be like, OK, you should you should roll like a new character and it's in the middle of the game. Is it going to be one of those?

[00:16:22] Or is it like, is it a pure end game thing where it's like? And then if that's the case, am I just grabbing my old character who's for most people like their old characters going to be way overpowered? How's that going to work? I don't know.

[00:16:34] I feel like in the past, let's see, from software games, if you were to play, for example, Dark Souls 3 and their DLC, you can access it mid game. And I think in Dark Souls 1, I'm trying to remember if that DLC you can access a mid game Dark Souls 2.

[00:16:54] I'm pretty sure you can access it mid game. I think that's that sounds like the right way to do it, right? Because that encourages people to re-roll and play it again. Yeah. But then experience like the DLC. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of what I'm assuming.

[00:17:10] Now, Die Hard from Software fans correct me if there is a DLC that you cannot access without previously beating the game in from software history, but I don't think that's the case. So yeah, I think, yeah, that's a thing.

[00:17:25] I've been thinking about that for the past hour or two hours that I've seen this tweet is, ooh, if I start a new Elden Ring run, what kind of what kind of build am I going to do? The best tweet was that the PC version of Horizon. No.

[00:17:47] I know where you're going with this. The PC version of of of not Horizon Zero Dawn, but Horizon. Forbidden West. Forbidden West comes out like March 21st and they're like, well, guess we know the release. Oh my gosh. Because Elden Ring is a horizon just gets screwed over

[00:18:07] by some other open world release every time. Yeah, every time. Although that's also pretty close to Dragon's Dogma. So it's pretty much same story there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I just saw a rumored tweet that it's coming June 21st.

[00:18:23] That would make sense to me because it gives time to release like, you know, you want to you obviously want to have your ultimate edition where you're combining Elden Ring with the DLC and kind of pick up sales

[00:18:36] on that way. And then, you know, obviously your hardcore players are going to buy it day one. Obviously, I don't know. They're going to want to have that marketing cycle. So I doubt that it comes. I think the soonest that would have come is the end of March.

[00:18:51] And so they have a nice month that they hype up the marketing and then they release that, you know, Platinum Edition or whatever it is. But yeah, I could see it being a few months away for sure. But I don't know. Who knows?

[00:19:02] Well, I guess we'll find out in the morning. We'll find out in the morning. There's a whole lot of there have been a whole lot of rumors circling about it. But yeah, we'll find out soon when you're listening to this episode, you will actually already have the answer.

[00:19:15] Yeah, you already know. So this will be irrelevant. Now, Nintendo Direct is a partner direct. Is there anything that you're interested related to that could be coming there? Uh, I don't think so because if it's typically, I mean,

[00:19:34] unless they're doing like we're not going to get more silk song trailers at this point. Right? So if you all remember with me, Hollow Knight Silk Song was supposed to be a Switch console exclusive.

[00:19:47] And then Xbox dropped, I don't know how fat of a check, but a big one. I would love to see that number. I would love to see how much money Xbox paid to be able to get Hollow Knight Silk Song day one game pass.

[00:20:01] So I kind of assume now that all Hollow Knight Silk Song potential news is probably coming from Xbox. I wonder if they bought like marketing as well. Marketing rights. And probably not through Nintendo. So I think that the chances of something

[00:20:20] and maybe I'll be eating my words tomorrow, but I think the chances of Hollow Knight Silk Song being showcased tomorrow at the Nintendo Partner Showcase less than 1%. Yeah, like super. Yeah. No, I figured that I'm on that note. I don't think there's anything that could give me super.

[00:20:36] I'm looking forward to obviously first party Nintendo stuff. Yeah. That's the other piece of news is it sounds like we're not going to get switched to until 2025. Yeah. According to some rumors that have been put out there, which I mean, I can buy that like Q1 2025, like March 2025,

[00:20:54] which would line up with how they did the switch one. And then that gives them time for like a fall marketing cycle. They do the official announcement in June and, you know, you've got. I don't know. But I don't know about it.

[00:21:08] Part of me still thinks why not announce it in June? And then you hit that holiday season super hard and you pick up you got a new 3D mark. I don't know. But we'll see. I don't know. That really screws me over in fantasy critic.

[00:21:22] Yeah, I'm with you. I am more interested in first party Nintendo titles right now. They could push something this holiday season. I don't know if this holiday season is going to be crowded with mid-gen refresh hardware from Xbox and PlayStation as well. So who knows there?

[00:21:41] Last bit I want to get in real quick is the I what did I post? I posted something super tongue in cheek and self deprecating in our discord because that's just who I am. But let's see. It's I said this. Yeah, Pokemon presents announced for February 27th

[00:22:00] for my fellow Pokemon fans who blindly sustained Pokemon's cash flow so they never need to evolve their formula. So all the other life for Pokemon fans. I so I made the prediction in our predictions episode that Pokemon would announce two games, a new legends series

[00:22:21] that takes place in Johto and then Gen 10, which would take place. It would be sort of an anniversary revamped with all the new Pokemon back in the Kanto region. And I think that that new Pokemon Legends game in the Johto region will be announced on the 27th.

[00:22:40] And I would not be surprised if it slated for Pokemon's big release this fall. Here to hear first predictions made predictions made. Supposedly I didn't find this, but I read some article saying that

[00:22:55] there was a teaser for Pokemon Gold and Silver, which take place in the Johto region somewhere along with that Pokemon announcement. So I don't know, but I'm feeling confident that's what's going to go on. Well, there's lots of fun stuff going on.

[00:23:12] The final thing to mention is obviously Hilldivers 2. Since the last time we talked has taken over the Internet. It's it's the newest hotness in the gaming space. It's taken over for Powell World, surpassed player concurrency records. It's currently the most played game on Steam right now

[00:23:33] and probably PlayStation and so much so in fact that they capped the servers. Yeah. And they cannot fit any more people. Yeah. And yeah, it's it's a really fun game. It's a super fun, just very straightforward co-op experience. We've been playing it a little bit over here.

[00:23:52] And yeah, it's it's a good time like it definitely deserves the accolades and I hope they can get a handle on the server so I can kind of keep humming because it's it's a good time for sure. Yeah, what an awesome smash success from from Arrowhead.

[00:24:10] Hats off to you. Congratulations. Well, with that, Jake, let's dive into our game of this episode. And today we are talking about Prince of Persia, the lost crown from Ubisoft. Jake and I have been playing this the last several weeks.

[00:24:28] Jake, how are we going to break this one down? We will be talking about Prince of Persia in our four normal categories that we do for episodes like this. So first, we'll be talking about the narrative. We'll be talking about just storytelling, what happens,

[00:24:46] who's who and what they're doing and what interesting narrative themes are present in the game. Next, we'll be talking about mechanics. So this is essentially the different systems in place through which you interact with the game, right? Essentially how you play the game.

[00:25:02] And so we'll be discussing there's a whole lot of combat. This is a Metroidvania. We'll be discussing a whole lot about that genre here in that second category. Third, we will be talking about the gameplay loop. And so this is like the bigger system overall

[00:25:17] that kind of what might define a play session or essentially how those mechanics align to keep you engaged while you're playing Prince of Persia, the lost crown. And then finally, impact on the industry here. We speculate. We talk a little bit more about Prince of Persia

[00:25:37] fitting into, you know, just gaming in the industry, but also just in 2024 releases. This is a game that came out to a very strong start this year. And yeah, so we'll just be talking about sort of the wake of Prince of Persia, the lost crown

[00:25:54] and what we kind of think will happen to it post launch. So that brings us to our first category, the narrative. Cameron, did you enjoy the story of Prince of Persia, the lost crown? You know, I did. I did. I think it.

[00:26:13] It takes a little bit to get going. It has definitely has a teeny bit of pacing issues. But yes, I did. It has some twists that I can't reveal. I actually have some kind of crazy twists that I can't reveal because it really would spoil the whole game.

[00:26:35] But it has enough of those in there that it's just a. They have fun with it and they have fun with it in a really good way. Basically, the premise of the story is you are not the Prince of Persia, but you are

[00:26:50] which you couldn't tell from the title of the game. But yeah, so what this is is like a because that because this is not like a mainline Prince of Persia game, but it's just using the IP to have this group of warriors called the immortals.

[00:27:04] And you are, dude, I'm so horrible with names. The main character's name. What's his name? Sargon. You play Sargon, who's like a. I mean, you know, they really go for the. He's a street rat in Arabia, who turns into a warrior in Persia, no less.

[00:27:30] And he joins this group of warriors called the immortals. And the beginning of the game you fight this battle and you save the kingdom of Persia. And then one of your home girls, home boys, people, a part of your crew

[00:27:45] captures Prince Hassan and takes them off to this sort of ancient ruined kingdom. And then you enter that kingdom and you start to unravel the mystery in your search to try and save Princess on. And that's kind of the premise of Prince of Persia. Yes.

[00:28:03] And yeah, I really enjoyed this. I think just giving kind of my quick thoughts. I don't know that there's any like there's some definitely some interesting messages here in terms of. They play with, you know, sort of motivations between good and bad

[00:28:24] and like what that means and kind of who's the good guy and who's the bad guy and motivations behind that. You know, what it means to be loyal and have an allegiance and like, you know, having trust in people.

[00:28:40] And then it does a lot of things playing with time travel as well in some very interesting ways that actually make for a pretty compelling like it doesn't always nail the writing. It doesn't always nail sort of the moment to moment sort of cinematic

[00:28:57] feeling of it to get you invested in it, but it has enough like cool moments in there and cool plot devices that I did actually quite quite enjoy the narrative. Yeah, I agree with you. The pacing is is too wonky, I think in this game.

[00:29:15] It's a little wonky. Yeah, it's. It's a little wonky. It takes a little too long to get into the more interesting part of the story, and I for some people that I've talked to about this game,

[00:29:30] they just fell off of the story because it kind of took too long to get things going. But like you said, like the deeper you get into the game, the more things start coming out and the more there starts to be

[00:29:43] some sort of a change in the game. So it's super popular, I feel like in a lot of narratives now, like you said, like, OK, let's take the morality system that we've created where we decide that things are good and bad and let's

[00:29:57] kind of start poking that and see if we're wrong. And if that needs to change and then the other big theme which you brought up as loyalty, right? Loyalty to a crown like to when do you humbly, you know, to a ruler and when do you not?

[00:30:17] But like you said, I don't think it's saying anything profound necessarily about these themes. I think if you're looking for just like a good action adventure story, this is it. And I feel like that's what kind of Prince of Persia is known for.

[00:30:30] It's like, OK, let's have a good action adventure story with some sort of twist related to time and slowing time or like time travel. And that so I feel like you get what you really want out of a Prince of Persia game, narratively as you're playing this.

[00:30:47] Now, I do think that it's just I don't know, it's tough when you have bigger casts, so like the immortals, I want to say there's like six of them, maybe and you have a room of six people talking to each other.

[00:31:02] And the purpose of that conversation is to present exposition like into create world building and to ground your audience in exactly like what's happening and why it happens that way. Dude, it is tough. It is really tough when you have a big cast of characters to do that.

[00:31:20] And this is why a lot of times, especially in film, but this is present in video games as well too, when exposition happens, usually it's two or three characters. Usually it's the player character and they're given some sort of reason for their ignorance about what's going on.

[00:31:37] And then you have a character that is, you know, deeply immersed in the story and they're knowledgeable and the wise and they as they're explaining this to the player character, they're also explaining it to the character

[00:31:49] or in the case of film as they're explaining it to the character. They're also explaining it to the audience. And I just feel like you start with a big group and you you have to balance a group conversational dynamic with exposition. And that is just crazy tough.

[00:32:05] That is really tough to do. And it's there's a reason why not a lot of people choose that to provide exposition. So if you feel like you sort of entered the Prince of Persia, the lost crown on shaky ground, I would say that's why.

[00:32:20] It's because you're trying to trying to juggle that and it's it's crazy difficult. Otherwise, I mean, I like Sargon as a character. I don't think there's a single character that I was like, oh, I don't like or they're poorly written and, you know, I'm not shaking my face

[00:32:34] angrily at the screen at all for anything narratively. But the narrative definitely faded into the background pretty early on for me. Yeah, I would agree. It fades for so. And what you're talking about that doesn't last very long. That's true. It really doesn't last very long.

[00:32:54] And it is sort of weirdly in service to this game being a video game and kind of flips it flips the whole thing on its head without giving away too much. I'm even being like a little bit spoiler. Are you saying that?

[00:33:09] But it flips the whole thing on its head. It's sort of one of those things that exist only in video games to serve like a narrative device that serves the loop of the gameplay. Yeah, basically. Yeah, right.

[00:33:23] Because there's other more interesting ways that you could have done it. I think probably but because it's a video game, like you kind of have to do it the way that they did it. But again, yeah, that doesn't last very long.

[00:33:33] And the pacing issues like you you run into him fairly quickly because there's a long stretch in the first. I want to say 40 percent of the game. There's a long stretch of time where nothing happens. Yeah.

[00:33:48] And then the back half of the game, it's like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it and it feels like they push the pacing way back towards the end and then they kind of slow you down a little bit. But it's actually not too bad.

[00:34:04] And in the very end is just story, be sorry, be sorry, be sorry, be like after you know, and it's like really, really fast. And man, like I could see why a lot of people fall off in that sort of first 40 percent here because literally nothing happens.

[00:34:19] Yeah, it's kind of fascinating because after you get through like the initial exposition of the game, you go to Mount Kaaf Kaaf. Shoot, I don't know. I had the I had the I had the Farsi in the background and then I had the

[00:34:33] subtitles in English and I could not pair the Farsi with the with the written word that well anyway. Part of it right. I wonder, I feel like there's like to evoke the sense of being lost because

[00:34:47] you suddenly realize not suddenly you slowly realize a Sargon that you kind of trapped on this in these ancient ruins. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that's why they don't give you a lot of narrative, but I did ask myself, wait, where am I going here? You know, like why?

[00:35:03] Why am I here? Where am I? Anyone who plays this game, you reach a point of like, what am I doing again? Yeah. And that's that happens to that. Well, if that doesn't happen to you, like your brain works differently because I think that happened.

[00:35:15] Anyone who plays this game, like that's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. So there's not much more I want to say about narrative, just kind of to summarize, it takes a little too long to get the players super invested in the

[00:35:29] story, which, you know, in this game, it's a shame. I wish that that wasn't the case. But the mechanics, dude, that is what gets you like excited about this game easily. You know? Yeah, I said this on our discord, but I'm not shy about saying that this,

[00:35:50] I think is my favorite Metroidvania of all time. That's my praise. Short of maybe if you classify like Jedi Fallen Order as a Metroidvania, which maybe you do. You probably do. They do. Some people do it's more of like a 3D, but this is more like a traditional,

[00:36:12] you know, 2.5 D Metroidvania, you know, very on the it's purely a Metroidvania. Right? This is my favorite one. And I think it's because it just feels so dang good to play like everything you do just feels great. It just feels so good.

[00:36:32] Like the combat, the swinging the sword, the jump doing a jump kick and then kicking the guy up and then you can bounce people in the air and like juggle them with more hits.

[00:36:42] And then as you go through the game, and this is another thing that's like sort of paced a little bit weird, but you unlock obviously like you do in most Metroidvania games, you're unlocking various abilities like in any of these

[00:36:55] games as you go through and as you unlock more and more and more, it just gets even better as you go and feels even better. And the best thing I liked about this game combat, I felt was super fun and super satisfying and just felt good.

[00:37:14] Like the loop of combat had just enough challenge. You know, things like felt weighty and difficult enough where it felt like worthwhile to engage in the combat for sure. But then also you run into these platforming sections that kind of remind

[00:37:32] you of something like Celeste, like these really tricky like you got to be on the ball platforming sections that I got pretty addicted to. Yeah, like they were just really addicting to figure out, man, like I'm so close, I can do this.

[00:37:48] And since it feels so good mechanically to play, I rarely got frustrated in those super difficult platforming sections because they just felt so good to pull off. Yeah. And that's just man, it was it's so good in this game.

[00:38:04] Yeah, I got to say the mechanics here are just super phenomenal. I don't know if it would I would say it's my favorite Metrovania that I've ever played. Obviously Cameron and I have differing opinions here. But I would say that if you liked Metroid Dread,

[00:38:16] but you did not like the Emmy sections, then you have to play Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown. I'm a that being said, quick comment on the Emmy section, there is one area in this game that is a call out to the Emmy section.

[00:38:34] Just just a fair warning, right? But yeah, I agree. I think combat felt slick and importantly and probably more importantly, platforming felt really good, just traversal. And like Cameron said, you can tell that the people who made this game,

[00:38:50] first of all, this was made by the studio who did the Rayman series. So they've got plenty of experience, I would say, making platformers. But they're definitely taking notes from games like Celeste. I think you pointed out like the B side cassettes that you could get in Celeste,

[00:39:07] similar difficulty in the platforming and just kind of echo to echo what Cameron says here. Yeah, I mean, it feels good. And I feel like part of the reason why they're so addicting is like each

[00:39:18] attempt you make just a tiny bit more progress and then you learn, OK, now I need to do this. And so you kind of build in your mind this memory, you memorize like a chain

[00:39:28] of inputs that you need to execute in order to get across some of these more difficult sections. And what's fantastic about this game is that you're pretty well rewarded for for going out of your way to do this stuff. So the game is beefy.

[00:39:42] There's actually quite a lot going on, but the game is well rewarding. Like it rewards you for for going off the beaten path. Let's see, I was playing this game on this game is like six difficulties. I was playing on like is whatever is between normal and hard.

[00:40:00] And actually felt like that was a really good setting that that setting. Did you play one level up? I just did normal. I think I played one level up. I need to pull up the difficulties now because combat gets combat is pretty tough.

[00:40:16] Like, yeah, there it scales up as the game goes. And so I was playing on normal and I hit some bosses where I was like, oh, boy, this is like and you can if you to your point about like being rewarded. If you explore,

[00:40:33] you definitely are rewarded with more materials and more things so you can upgrade. And there is a huge amount of upgrades and even their builds in this game. So you get amulets that will give you certain bonuses. Yeah. And if you combine those amulets in certain ways,

[00:40:48] you can 100 percent make like different builds that optimize different ways of doing combat. Yeah, that amulet system, I think is definitely calling back to Hollow Knight Silk Song. Like I seriously feel like you have this really great team of developers,

[00:41:04] you know, people who did Rayman and then they took notes from all the best metroidvania that have come out in the past few years and they, you know, just kind of shape that into what they wanted Prince of Persia, the lost crown to be.

[00:41:17] So like the amulets, the build crafting that is involved in that as well. I got really into the parrying so I had a build based around parrying. I had a parrying so far. Parrying is so good and so rewarding.

[00:41:31] And I feel like it was just generous enough, right? Where like compared to a Souls game, for example, Souls games, they're really punishing when it comes to parrying. Whereas here it was just generous enough that you could I feel like land more parries than you would miss.

[00:41:50] But yeah, I mean, I think they just absolutely nailed this part. It is so fun to go into combat. Really good bosses, for example, I think in probably the hallmark of the Prince of Persia, the lost crown is just the sheer amount of creativity in a 2D space.

[00:42:09] You know, when it comes to the different puzzles, when it comes to the different bosses, because a lot of 2D metrovanias don't follow like typical logic. It's like, well, I could just run around this guy or, you know, it's a 2D space, it's a room.

[00:42:26] Like why am I stuck on this one side of the room or whatever it is? But I kind of feel like there's just a huge amount of creativity in this game and level design in particular, which is just so incredible. I don't know, loved it.

[00:42:46] Yeah, I I love the boss fights. The platforming sections were super addicting combat was fun and like continue to grow and get more challenging over time. I had fun like kind of creating, you know, just a super overpowered melee build as I got into the end game.

[00:43:07] But yeah, I think that takes us into the gameplay loop and if you played pretty much any metroidvania, like you you know what this loop is. It is ripped straight out of any of these other games, Metroid Dread,

[00:43:21] Hollow Knight, like you're very familiar with this, if you played any of those. Proceed through the game, do a lot of exploration, you'll hit bosses. Those bosses, you beat those and they will open up new objectives,

[00:43:35] which with your new abilities, you're now able to get to by returning to places that you've been before and then unlocking new areas and then defeat a new boss, get a new power, rinse and repeat. And that's kind of how it goes.

[00:43:48] And then throughout that, obviously you're gathering resources. And if you're doing a lot of exploration, like you're doing platforming puzzles to get to unlock chests, which will have new amulets in them. And then you can use those to further upgrade your guy.

[00:44:04] And then you kind of do that. And a lot of the new objectives that you get are like, hey, here's these five things in the six different areas of the map or however many they are.

[00:44:15] Go do those things and then that's going to open up the next thing. And that's kind of how it how it rolls. Yeah, the gameplay loop follows the tried and true formula of metroid manias, like to a T.

[00:44:27] And I'm really trying to think if there's anything that in which it like differs, I would just say that like exploration is a huge part of this game. There's a ton of different nooks and crannies. There are a lot of different currencies.

[00:44:40] I didn't find this to be a problem. And I really just found it to be like, OK, more currency that just felt like the game was rewarding me more. I think I think I did a good job of that. Yeah, fast travel points.

[00:44:56] I mean, that I mean, that's really it. Right. Like you explore an area thoroughly, you find a resting spot and then you keep progressing through until you find a boss and then you defeat the boss and then you go back and explore the whole map over again.

[00:45:10] Now, my biggest maybe complaint about this game is that this game is beefy. Like there it's big. It's a really big game. And folks don't get me wrong. I don't think this is a bad thing. Really. I just think I was going.

[00:45:25] I go into like every Metrovania now thinking that it's going to be a 15 hour experience max in Prince of Persia, the last crown, the further I got into it, the further it lost me in the sense that I came into it with expectations

[00:45:41] thinking that it would be over much quickly than it was. So I think if you are looking for a Metrovania that is beefy and you want lots of really good Metrovania, well, Prince of Persia, the last crown is going to fire hose you with Metrovania.

[00:45:55] You're going to get plenty of it. Yeah, I mean, in fairness, I think Hollow Knight, if you explore the whole map, ends up being like a 60 70 hour game. So I mean, they kind of went for it on this, right?

[00:46:09] It's a $50 game and it more than justifies its price in terms of content. There is a lot of content here. In fact, I got to what I thought was the final boss beat that boss. And it turns out there was like a whole another chapter.

[00:46:25] And I don't even know of that. I'm like barely getting to the end of that. So I think I'm really close to the end, really close. I mean, I have to be at this point based on the context of the story. Right. Anyways,

[00:46:41] yeah, it probably overstays its welcome a little bit too long, which is evidence by what we mentioned in that sort of longer ish section. Again, like that first sort of 40 percent of the game where you kind of don't know

[00:46:54] what's going on, feel like they probably could have shorted that up or shorten that up in some way. But, you know, I get, you know, they're trying to give the player a lot of value and they definitely deliver that, right? It's it's there's a lot of content here.

[00:47:09] Yeah, plenty of content here for me. My play sessions were getting further and further apart because they're just other games coming up that I was really interested in playing. And so I have no idea how far into the game I got, but I haven't beaten it yet.

[00:47:25] So I'll be totally frank. Typically, if we haven't beaten the game, we're pretty straightforward on about that. But every time I come back to it, it's the combat that keeps me like super stoked. So I know I'm going to beat this game, right?

[00:47:40] It's just it's just going to take me way longer than I thought it would. Yeah, I don't know. That's that's what I've got for gameplay loop. You have anything else to add there? Now let's move into

[00:47:55] impact on the industry and I'll start off this part of the conversation by saying, man, this game was really well like critics critically received super well. I think it has a ninety two or ninety three on Metacritic very well deserved. I made the prediction

[00:48:14] that Ubisoft would have a breakout year this year. And I think this was the start of that. And I honestly think that they will. And I think that this was the start of that. That being said, it looks like this game has only sold 300000 copies,

[00:48:30] which that's it's not enough. It's not enough. And that really sucks because this is a really quality product. This is one of those instances where like I'm not sure why I didn't do that well, the only thing that I could maybe point to is perhaps for the visual

[00:48:46] style that they went for with the art direction, which I actually like. And I think this game, by the way, I didn't mention this. I think this game has some incredible animation work in this like so like mind blowing animation work.

[00:49:03] But sometimes that art direction they went for sometimes it can look a little flat sometimes, but it's weird because it like fluctuates between. Wow, this is this animation is incredible. I am this is insane to like, oh, that's just kind of a little bit flat right here.

[00:49:21] So I think maybe in the way that they showed it off potentially that combined with maybe the $50 price point, maybe they need to lower the price a little bit. I don't know. I can't tell you why this like didn't do that well,

[00:49:35] especially because it was very well critically received. But it's definitely not selling what it needs to, which is unfortunate because it's really great. Yeah, I'm actually so I totally agree with you. I was really mixed on the art direction. I think the animations are awesome. They're stellar.

[00:49:52] They look super cool. Now, the backdrops like the background, that stuff is awesome. That is amazing. I love all the way that the different environments are portrayed. But unfortunately, you don't play looking at the background. You play looking at the foreground. And I'm with you.

[00:50:12] The foreground art direction does feel a little flat. And is that? Yeah, the other thing to the $50 price point. It's it's a shame because I think probably a lot of people nowadays are maybe too many people nowadays associate Metroidvania's with indie. And so they assume indie game budget,

[00:50:35] whereas this is a Ubisoft production and it's going to cost more. So I don't know. I saw a lot of people on social media being like, why isn't this game 25, 30 bucks? And the answer to that, please go listen to our layoffs episode.

[00:50:51] It's because video game development is crazy expensive and they need to make money back. And so it's interesting. So supposedly this game was in development for about three and a half years and it's sold 300,000 copies, I think within the first week. Is that about right?

[00:51:09] Yeah, it's definitely sold more since then, but that was like the initial. And Ubisoft games typically within, you know, less than 60 days after release will massively drop in price. I could totally see this game picking up a lot.

[00:51:24] Like this game could absolutely pick up a very long tail in terms of sales, especially because during the holidays, this and during like sales, this game is going to drop immediately to 30 and during the holidays will drop into the 20s, which will be a huge bargain buy. Yeah.

[00:51:42] And that's what it really has going for it with that long tail, right? Is that it is so well received. It is right. It's the critics. Yeah, great critics. I think that when this game is on sale, it is going to be plastered.

[00:51:54] It is going to be the poster child for whatever that sale is. I do think that we're probably going to see it show up on some sort of subscription service, whether that be a PS Plus or Game Pass.

[00:52:05] So I'm sure Ubisoft wants to make sure that the game is profitable. But I'm with you, man. Like, is it the release date in January? Would it had sold triple the units if it was only 40 bucks? I really don't know.

[00:52:21] And it's in its a shame because, you know, in the gaming industry, we need more games like this. I think we need more triple A studios, you know, green lighting, double A projects and getting those out there. Shorter compact, extremely well done gaming experiences.

[00:52:43] And they don't fall into the trap of like live service or launching with a ton of bugs or taking, you know, six to seven years in development to make. And so I really, really want Prince of Persia,

[00:52:57] the lost crown to have a positive impact on the gaming industry. But this industry is a business. And at the end of the day, what does all the talking in a business? It's money, you know, and this game initially just did not put up the numbers.

[00:53:12] I think for a lot of for all these sort of hopes and dreams surrounding these types of games to continue to come out, if you're a gamer and you're sick of companies making bloated. Open world games and

[00:53:32] live service titles and you didn't buy this, then like, I don't know what we're doing here. And look, I totally want to play not to say like, it's not for everybody, right? It's not all games are for everybody. And it shouldn't be that way.

[00:53:47] But people vote with their wallets, right? So if this game doesn't end up being financially successful at the end of this fiscal year, they're not going to make games like this again. Yeah. And that's just what happens. This is the type of game, however, that could that probably

[00:54:08] would do really well on Game Pass. Yeah. And maybe a service like Game Pass allows this to come alive. And actually, I would be not surprised at all of this comes to Game Pass in the near future. I know Ubisoft's own subscription service.

[00:54:23] This is this was day and date on their subscription service. I think that's the first. I think it might be the first game in their Ubisoft subscription service that was day and date release new and then on the service at this on the same day, I think.

[00:54:39] And so I believe they're testing those waters, although that was not marketed very well at all. So who knows how well that's doing? But yeah, I mean, people vote with their wallets. So if nobody buys this, then yeah, we're just going to continue to get

[00:54:54] the stuff that makes the most money, which it makes sense. I hope that that's not the case and that this game has a really long tail. And then and then, you know, Ubisoft can continue to do interesting projects like this because this is

[00:55:09] frankly the best game that Ubisoft has put out in a long, long time. Yeah, it's earned its recognition. It's earned its stripes, but it hasn't earned it with money, unfortunately. So that I mean, just to kind of wrap up this conversation,

[00:55:25] that brings us back to all of the the ongoing conversation about the state of the video game industry. And man, I really want to see more projects on this kind of production level get out in the open and yeah, this reception is just not not super.

[00:55:45] Let's see indicative that that will be the case. I think, though, however, in terms of the game in the metroidvania genre, I'm there are a few tiny bits of like quality of life innovations or improvements or inclusions that I think have to be the standard.

[00:56:06] And first of the first and foremost is that in this game, you can take a snapshot of an area and put it on your map of an area that you want to revisit later, which I think for a metroidvania is a godsend

[00:56:24] because then you could just pull up your map and you think, oh, what was this thing over here that I marked? Oh, it looked like this. Oh, now I know that I need this ability to access that area. And guess what? I have that ability.

[00:56:35] So instead of spending an hour checking areas you've been to to see where it is that you can use your brand new ability to find your way forward, you could just you could just go. And what I think is cool because that because I know some people like

[00:56:50] having like the 100 percent mystery exploration sort of model in a game is that you can also toggle on and off whether or not you want indicators for where you should go next. So you can entirely like build your own map with these screenshots

[00:57:05] or you can build your map with these screenshots in conjunction to having like an indicator of where you should fulfill your next objective. And I just think having that kind of flexibility and choice for a player is amazing.

[00:57:19] And I would love to see that feature specifically show up in Metroidvanias. Absolutely. It made and this is probably it's probably why it's my favorite one because it does such a good job of those quality of life things that like really

[00:57:36] respects your time, it keeps track of a lot of things for you. And you just you don't feel lost, which is nice, which is really nice. Yeah, I hate games that like

[00:57:49] make you like make you feel lost or like you have to pick up the threads of where you were and I died will just drop off those games. I just I don't have time for that. Yeah. Yeah. Check any other thoughts on Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown.

[00:58:06] It's good. It reminded me why I liked the Prince of Persia games. Man, I can't remember the first one that I played, but it was forever ago. One of the one of the first ones.

[00:58:17] What was what was the name of like some of the really big Prince of Persia titles? Sands of Time, the Sands of Time. OK, so that's like the big knowing. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, that's the one that I'm thinking of.

[00:58:30] It may it reminded me that Prince of Persia is a cool franchise, you know, which I think is good because they want to do the Sands of Time remake that's coming eventually. And so I feel like it was able to sort of scratch that itch for a universe

[00:58:45] of franchise that I had I hadn't visited in a really long time. I agree. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode of the Period of Bonus podcast talking Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown, Go Play It. It's a fantastic game. Triple A Metroidvania from Ubisoft.

[00:59:05] I'm sure it'll be on sale extremely soon for, you know, in the 30s, which is just an absolute steal for this title. So it's already 50 bucks retail. So go check it out. It's great. We thank you so much for listening to the show.

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[01:00:19] Master Games, creator of Spirit T so you can listen to that that came out last week. Thank you so much for listening and have a great night.