After 13 years of deafening silence from , is finally coming back. The Lost Crown, a new side-scrolling adventure from the team behind Legends, looks set to reinvigorate the series in a way꧋ we haven’t seen since 2009’s🍎 cel-shaded attempt.
With the Sands of Time remake sch♛eduled for launch… well, whenever it’s ready, it’s clear the Prince is coming back in a big way. With the series finally showing signs of life again, I reached out to Jordan Mechner, the creator of the original Prince of Persia, which was originally reܫleased in 1989 for the Apple 2.
Since that first game, Mechner continued to be involved in the series, helping Ubisoft revive the series with The Sands of Time and writing the early draft of the screenplay for the infamous Jake Gyllenhaal movie.🍷 Mechner is less active these days, having just released his graphic novel memoir about the Prince of Persia series, REPLAY, but he is glad to see it going back to its 2D roots.
“It has been a long time,” Mecher says. “After 13 years, I’m thrilled to finally have a new Prince of Persia game, especially from such a great team that’s been given time and resources to make sure it will be deep, balanced, and a ton of fun to play. 2D makes sense for the series at this momen♓t for many reasons - Assassin’s Creed obviously being one. You only have to look at AC: Mirage, which is literally set in Persia, being shown at the same Ubi Forward event, to realize there’s no way that a second triple-A game in Persia with realistic AC-style production values can exist alongside🥃 that. Fans who prefer that more realistic style of POP should understand that The Lost Crown is not the right time or place to do that.”
That’s not to say that there haven’t been attempts, however. Footage from a gritty triple-A project called Prince of Persia Redemption leaked out a few years ago and proved that revival attempts had been in the works, but Mechner also confirms that there has been more than one over the past 13 years, including some that he himself has been involved in. Those won’t see the lig♈ht of day, but Mechner says that he’s happy that The Lost Crown is the only one t♚o have “gone the distance” because of the amazing work that Ubisoft Montpellier has done with it.
He also touches on the Sands of Time remake, having been involved with Ubisoft India’s attempt, including providing design documents from the 2003 version, before Ubisoft Montreal took over. “I don’t know how much of the first team’s work the new Ubisoft Montreal t♛eam will (or can) re-use,” Mecher says. “I do know that they bring a lot of triple-A experience, and they’ve been given the time and resources to hit a much higher bar of production values than the India team had. I expect it will be a very different SoT remake than the one that almost shipped in 2020. I hope Sands of Time fans will find it worth the wait.”
Despite Mechner’s high praise for The Lost Crown and the developer’s pedigree with Rayman, The Lost Crown was🦩 met with a lot of backlash when it was announced due to the Prince’s skin colour, which has sadly overtaken the conversation around the game. Following the reveal angry fans took to social media, even prompting a🧸 response from Ubisoft Montpellier itself.
Although Mechner does not agree with the outcry and supports the idea of a Black Prince, it’s not someth🦄ing that surprised him either. He says he can understand fans feeling attached to “their version” of the Prince.
“I think the fact that the initial fan reactions were s💎o wildly divergent, with some being excited and others being triggered by different elements, is oddly a validation for the franchise,” he tells me. “The backlash feels massive because the PoP fan base is so massive and so diverse. That first teaser trailer unleashed the pent-up energy of 13 years of waiting and dreaming about what the next PoP game could be.
“When you say ‘Prince of Persia fans’, you’re talking about tens of millions of people of all ages and genders, different backgrounds and languages across the world. They’re not all going to ag🐲ree. No possible new PoP game could simultaneously match everyone’s first choice of what they’ve been hoping for. I’m glad the fans areꦗ so engaged and passionate about PoP, and I’m happiest when they stay polite with each other”.
This reaction to the Prince’s skin colour is especially confus🌌ing considering that, ignoring the fact that Prince of Persia is a fantasy game that deals with time travel and mythical creatures, Persia was historically a large, multiethnic, multicultural empire for over a thousand years, making it clear that the backlash towards Sargon is nothing but racism and an unwillingness to accept someone who isn’t Yuri Lowenthal’s Prince.
“The games so far have at least four different protagonists, each embodying the role or idea of the &lsquoﷺ;Prince of Persia&rsqu꧃o; in their own way, and potentially in different places centuries apart,” Mechner says. “They’re not claiming to all be the same person. Sargon is a new character. If The Lost Crown is a great game with good storytelling, a coherent fantasy, and fun gameplay then players will form that kind of bond with Sargon, and he’ll become another beloved PoP hero to take his place alongside the others.”