One of the questions that fans of the Prince of Persia franchise have been asking since the reveal of The Lost Crown is whether it was related in any way to The Sands of Time or any other Prince of Persia game ever released. Well, a team of developers have now answered the question and the answer is NO!
On 16 January 2024, two Ubisoft devs who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown held a question-and-answer session on Reddit. The session allowed fans of the franchise to ask the development team any questions about the game.
The developers in the spotlight were the world director of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Christophe Pic and senior game designer Rémi Boutin. Pic has worked on popular titles like Rayman 2, Rabbids Go Home, Tintin, and Ghost Recon (GRAW 1&2).
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Fans of the Prince of Persia franchise finally got the opportunity to seek answers to one of their biggest questions. A user with the handle u/AesalanAhmed13 asked if The Lost Crown was related to the Sands of Time and if the two would at some point meet.
“Does Prince of Persia The Lost Crown take place in the Sands of Time universe, or is it completely separate from the past Prince of Persia games?” u/AesalanAhmed13 wrote.
In response to that question, Pic said, “It’s a completely separate game! This is a new original adventure within the franchise, without any connection to previous games. That being said, there’s a lot of cameos scattered in the game.”
One of the reasons why gamers ask if The Lost Crown is related to any other game in the Prince of Persia franchise is to know if they need to play a different game to better understand what is happening in The Lost Crown.
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That view was echoed by u/-DEATHS-ANGEL- who asked, “So, I’ve never played a Prince of Persia game before, would it be useful looking at synopsis/walkthroughs for previous games in the series to get the full experience for this game in terms of story and lore? Also, please tell me there isn’t any missables in the game.”
In response, Pic wrote, “No, it’s a completely separate story! And if by ‘missables’, you mean ‘are there any collectibles that you can miss by progressing in the main story’, then: no. You can progress safely, be reassured!”
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown drew inspiration from Hollow Knights, Street Fighter, Dark Souls, more
It is always interesting to read about the inner thoughts of developers. Looking at some games you can’t help but wonder what inspired the character or world. Having this knowledge often guides the player on how to approach the game and what to expect. Perhaps, that is why lots of gamers invest in video game art books.
After thanking the developers for creating time to interact with the community, u/Spark11A asked what inspired The Lost Crown considering the fact that it was the first Metroidvania game since the Sands of Time.
“Actually, we didn’t start by a Metroidvania structure,” Boutin wrote in response. “We first focused on the core pillars of Prince of Persia’s game, platforming, puzzles, and acrobatic fight, try to understand them. The idea of the structure came more when we started to think about new powers of Sargon. It was natural that we have to move to Metroid structure.”
In terms of what inspired the world, Boutin said the team took “inspiration from Hollow Knight, Dark Souls…” because of the way the games created surprising shortcuts. The team also borrowed from Metroid Prime which they said had a mastery of “managing the pacing and the difficulty in an open progressive structure”.
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In terms of the combat, Boutin said they “aimed for the spectacle you can find in VS fighting games like Street Fighter but keeping the elegant design of 1 action = 1 button”. The characters in The Lost Crown were inspired by games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.
However, the developers smartly avoided every question about the future of The Lost Crown. That may suggest that Ubisoft is unsure of where the game will go next. Perhaps, an exceptional commercial performance may inspire the studio to push the story further. When u/Spark11A asked about the future of the Prince of Persia franchise, Boutin gave a rather sarcastic response.
“For the future of the franchise, use your time powers to see what will happen,” he wrote.
