Oh, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. What a lovely little surprise you were, right at the beginning of the year. Without a doubt, one of the best metroidvanias in recent memory, and one of Ubisoft’s best titles of the past couple of decades. It, alongside games like Hi-Fi Rush, Assassin’s Creed Nexus and Helldivers II, showcased what I hope it will eventually turn into a trend of big name publishers focusing less on overbudgeted AAA experiences, and more on mid-tier gems meant to cater to a specific audience with no unnecessary monetization schemes on the side.

I played The Lost Crown to death when it first came out, but I kept thinking about it long after beating it. I wanted to know more about its development cycle. I wanted to discover how and why its developers decided to revive a long-dormant franchise, whilst turning it into a 2D metroidvania. Luckily, I was able to do just that. I was able to have a quick chat with two members from Ubisoft Montpellier, who were kind enough to answer some of my questions: Mounir Radi, the game’s director, and Abdelhak Elguess, its producer.

 

 

WayTooManyGames: So first of all, congratulations on the amazing achievement that is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. With that being said, that game almost showed up from out of nowhere. After more than a decade without a new Prince of Persia game, what made you decide to bring it back to life?

Abdelhak Elguess: We are passionate about this brand, and we too wanted to see it reborn. We found ourselves in a position where it was possible for us to make a proposal, and here we are!

 

Prince of Persia was originally conceived as a slow-paced “cinematic platformer”, and then migrated to a 3D action platformer setting. The Lost Crown takes the franchise to a new direction, as a metroidvania. What was the decision behind this genre change, and did the team fear for a negative public reception due to the drastic changes at its reveal?

AE: For us, it seemed a pretty natural choice to be able to bring together combat, platforming, puzzle and storytelling in a deep way. After our first prototypes, we felt that we had something promising in our hands. Of course, we knew that some of the players might have become disappointed, so it was an even greater obligation for us to deliver a quality game to convince them of the contrary.

 

We’ve noticed some movement similarities with your previous title, Rayman Legends. How much of an inspiration was this game during the development of The Lost Crown?

AE: Our work on Ubi Art Framework has been our biggest inspiration. Our goal was a working philosophy, which allows us to change quickly, to deliver a quality game. This experience allowed us to make strategic decisions. Our experience on Rayman also taught us how strategic 60 frames per second is, and how hard it is to achieve it.

 

 

Prince of Persia games have always featured monsters and magic, but The Lost Crown goes deeper with mythological creatures, monsters, and even references to legendary figures of Antiquity. What made you decide to follow this more supernatural direction?

AE: We were fascinated by Persian mythology, and we wanted to pay homage to it, because it has universal lessons. It was also a chance to give players big thrills and immerse them in a new setting.

 

In the same vein, the game felt a lot more, uh, “Persian” than previous entries, with nods to Zoroastrianism, the Simurq, real-life royals, Mount Qaf, and so on. Was this a deliberate decision to make the game stand out from previous Prince of Persia entries? How did the team decide which elements to pick from Persian history?

AE: Yes, it was a very strong desire, because it is so rich and fascinating. There is so much to discover. We made our choices, without looking for depicting things realistically. We took element that inspired us and could serve the journey that we wanted to offer to the players. We called on mythology experts to avoid bad interpretations as well.

 

 

Previous Prince of Persia games had a huge emphasis on time manipulation, whereas The Lost Crown had a bigger emphasis on handling the complete opposite, space. What was the decision behind forgoing the series’ then traditional “magical” elements for something completely different?

Mounir Radi: As you may know, one of the challenges of the metroidvania genre is to offer tools to the players, allowing them to master space, so that they can expand their playing field. It was therefore important to define new abilities addressing this need while connecting our players to the time powers fantasy.

Another goal was to surprise existing fans of the series. We decided very early on to give the iconic powers from the Sands of Time trilogy to the big villain, which allowed us to draw a plot where the concepts of Space and of Time oppose each other.

 

What were the struggles when designing boss battles in 2D, after the series had been 3D-exclusive for so long?

MR: It’s not so much the heritage of the series that was a challenge, but more the demands of the genre. Generally, a good boss fight is supposed to validate a player’s mastery, for them to advance towards new challenges. It was therefore necessary to expose the player to topological challenges, allowing them to be trained sufficiently before a boss, to ensure they had all the skills and weapons to confront it. And doing this well, in the most elegant and immersive way possible, takes a lot of iterations, especially since it’s quite easy to forget that an ability exists. It is therefore necessary to regularly create small game-flow forcing the exploitation of an ability in order to validate it during the Boss fight.

 

Did your team contain anyone who had previously worked on other Prince of Persia games? If so, how did they help out with development?

AE: As a creative on Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, I was deeply involved in the choice of the old city of Babylon, a city in the south of Mesopotomia. I was immensely inspired by all the literatures of this period, and shared my passion with the creative team during the conception of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Interestingly, the belt in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones initially started as a scarf for stealth approach, gifted by Anahita. In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, we reintroduced Anahita in a different way, and I played a significant role in advocating for the inclusion of the scarf element during development discussions.

 

 

Could you tell us a bit more of Gareth Coker and Mentrix’s work in the soundtrack, especially the contrast between the soothing exploration music and the heavy, adrenaline-fueled boss battle themes?

AE: Music was really a great challenge to take on in this game. And we’re really proud to have brought together Mentrix and Gareth Cooker. We started with Mentrix, to define the color of the music. It was important for us to anchor the music with Persian instruments and bring a contemporary dose. Mentrix was ideal for this approach. This creates captivating atmospheres throughout the game, sometimes with very nice musical surprises! With Gareth, we went for the epic side in particular for the Boss fights. He is a great professional and he knew how to adapt to our universe and bring his great touch!!! There are some incredibly epic moments in the game!

 

Did Jordan Mechner (the creator of the Prince of Persia series) have any say or involvement during the game’s development?

AE: No, Jordan was not involved in the game’s development. But we know him, and he lives in Montpellier. We showed him our progress quite regularly… and his eyes often sparkled!