Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown launches tomorrow, January 18, for Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PC, and is out there now with a Ubisoft+ subscription or for purchasers of the Digital Deluxe Version. Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is an journey impressed by Persian mythology and the Metroidvania style, by which gamers step into the boots of Sargon – the youngest member of Persia’s most elite warriors, the Immortals – and courageous the hazards of the mysterious Mount Qaf on a journey to save lots of the kidnapped Prince Ghassan. Wielding acrobatic parkour talents, mystical time powers, and fluid, combo-driven sword abilities, Sargon discovers a world shattered by a time curse, the place he’ll battle sand zombies, screen-filling monsters, and even alternate variations of himself.
Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown was developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, the studio behind Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends – and a few of these video games’ DNA persists in Sargon’s journey, significantly with regards to platforming. Like Rayman and crew, Sargon has a sure rhythm and bounce to his actions that helps make exploration a blast, and lots of his time is spent navigating deviously designed platforming sequences that dare gamers to string their means by way of gauntlets of spikes and traps with more and more much less room for error. To search out out extra about this connection, and the way Ubisoft Montpellier’s expertise on the Rayman video games helped form Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown, we spoke with Recreation Director Mounir Radi.
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Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends, and Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown are clearly very totally different video games, however is it truthful to say the Rayman video games have been a place to begin or reference for The Misplaced Crown?
For the platforming facet, sure; not for the fight. These two issues are fairly totally different, however for the platforming facet, the stream, we’re speaking about find out how to convey the burden of your character and the musicality. Once we are speaking about degree design and the way in which you progress by way of ranges, I like to check Rayman and Prince of Persia to musical partitions, and that is the place we used our experience probably the most in mastering the stream of development.
Some builders have a tendency to construct a sport earlier than a toy, and we took lots of time to make a toy first. Earlier than having Sargon and his animation, we labored with only a capsule. Sargon was, for one 12 months, a capsule – and sure, it was tremendous bizarre! However if you happen to set up a superb weight, a superb stream, and a superb really feel with the capsule first – after which convey the animation, the VFX, and the background, you possibly can improve this really feel in phases. If it’s the opposite means, you may miss one thing.
We took lots of time after that to attempt to determine find out how to convey Sargon’s weight, and to consider his physicality. The burden, for me, is the entire thing, and we took lots of time determining the lengths of particular animations to convey it – typically it was nearly one body. One body, I swear it! We have been like, “One body! No, take away this body!” We have been leaping, bouncing. And it was super-important, as a result of whereas this strategy is super-demanding, it pays off ultimately.
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Talking of weight – what do you’ll want to do in another way to speak the burden of a cartoon character like Rayman, versus a extra anime-inspired hero like Sargon? What must be totally different about how they transfer?
You recognize, once you cope with a personality who has no arms and no legs, you aren’t uncovered to the uncanny valley. Your mind can settle for all the pieces; Rayman is utilizing his hair to fly, and that’s OK. However when you’re taking part in with Sargon, you might be in semi-reality. You expect particular issues from his actions. Typically you possibly can trick gamers, however it’s a must to do it step-by-step, and use particular references that gamers might know, to allow them to settle for new issues.
Sargon is an Immortal; he’s a part of a particular world-building logic. Even when it’s mythological, individuals have weight, so after we have been working with our animators and VFX staff, and even with the 3D fashions, we took lots of time to search out the correct stability. It’s throughout particular talents, like once you parry, when you’re utilizing fancy executions, and once you use your Athra Surge talents, that you just attain the very best level of spectacularity, of superheroic capability. Throughout this, we usher in these flashy colours, which is our method to point out that you just simply unleashed a brilliant capability, and also you carried out it the correct means – as a result of these aren’t one thing you possibly can carry out with out a problem. To carry out an execution, it’s a must to parry; to carry out an Athra Surge, it’s a must to construct up your gauge.
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So we used combating video games as a reference, like Tremendous Smash Bros. or Avenue Fighter, as a result of in these video games, there’s purity within the stability between every assault; one assault, one perform. That’s why there’s one button in Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown for attacking.
Musicality within the Rayman video games and Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is one thing you’ve spoken about beforehand, with the concept platforming has a transparent rhythm. How does that have an effect on the form the extent design takes? How do you discover a beat that works constantly?
It’s about foreshadowing the trail for the gamers. We used the digicam to make sure that the trail is super-readable, and made certain that the blocking components of degree design current a particular selection. Think about that you just’re on the bottom and it’s a must to go upward; in some video games, you’d bounce thrice to rise three ranges, so it’s hitting the identical button thrice – pam, pam, pam! The identical button triggers the identical sound, the identical animation, the identical VFX. That may trigger fatigue, and we tried to handle this fatigue – to convey quick notes, lengthy notes, and to make sure that gamers have the power to create a partition.
Stage design presents other ways to create totally different partitions, and it entails lots of iteration, as a result of typically you’ve friction. Wwhen you see individuals being uncovered to a problem for the primary time, and that they’re within the zone, and they can go the problem, that signifies that you bought it proper. That signifies that you took sufficient time to coach them earlier than, in order that they might soak up the mechanics – and that now, with their reflexes, they will predict the trail. They’ve the power to remain within the stream.
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One clear callback to the Rayman video games is the Xerxes Cash, which echo the Cranium Cash in Rayman Origins and Legends. They float in midair near hazards that may usually be very difficult to navigate, and gamers needn’t solely to seize the cash, however to land safely so as to declare them. Have the builders at all times had that affinity for this sort of very tight “splatforming,” or is it one thing that developed over time?
It was proper from the start. While you’re speaking about exploration, persons are free to experiment with totally different talents on this world. So typically, when you’ve a particular path and also you give gamers some instruments, you can not management how they beat that path, even when there’s a particular problem. By providing them Xerxes challenges, we have been extra in management. We have been saying, “it’s a must to beat it like this, to play it like this, so as to play as meant.” That was our method to get gamers to play particular notes in a spot the place they’re conscious of the composition. They’ll use the identical assaults, they will use the identical amulets, they will use the identical talents to progress, however after we use Xerxes challenges, we’re telling our gamers to play with these particular situations or components.
Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown has a number of superficial similarities with Rayman by way of fight – the texture of the aerial slam assaults, for instance – however The Misplaced Crown’s fight is way more elaborate and responsive, in a means that’s uncommon even for Metroidvanias. How did that new strategy take form?
Initially, earlier than even going into the Metroidvania style, we wished it to be a Prince of Persia sport. In Prince of Persia, once you enterprise into the world and struggle towards enemies, colliding with enemies just isn’t a hazard. In lots of Metroidvanias, enemies are obstacles: if you happen to contact them, you’ll take a success. However that was not what we wished to attain right here, as a result of for me, Prince of Persia is about experimentation.
Within the earlier video games, and even within the Sands of Time trilogy, the choreographic facet of the fight was animation-driven: You press a button, you execute an animation. Typically it’s a flowy animation and an execution, however there’s a stability between execution and spectacle. To make it possible for this new choreography is within the arms of the participant, we wished to make sure that the sport is super-responsive. So the choreographic facet is again, however now it’s the participant doing their very own choreography with the toolsets we give them.
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This can be a new strategy, and one meant for equity – but in addition as a result of if a participant makes use of a defensive mechanic like a parry, dodge, or perhaps a bounce, it might cancel any animation. And that was the start, as a result of that is much less a vertical strategy to sport design, and way more of a horizontal strategy to sport design: Give them toolsets, amulets, and particular talents, they usually can compose their very own playstyle. I feel that’s a part of the legacy of Prince of Persia, of respecting gamers’ cleverness. That is authored gameplay, and gamers are free to compose, to create, to construct their very own choreography.
Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown launches on January 18 for Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PC – and gamers with a Ubisoft+ subscription, or who buy the Digital Deluxe Version, can begin taking part in Sargon’s journey instantly. Secrets and techniques and hazard abound all through Mount Qaf – together with loads of alternatives to push your fight and platforming abilities to the restrict – so get able to discover, battle, and see simply how warped a time-cursed mountain citadel can develop into.
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Prince of Persia The Misplaced Crown
UBISOFT
$49.99
Pre-order to get an unique in-game Warrior Inside outfit!
Sprint into a classy and thrilling action-adventure platformer set in a mythological Persian world the place the boundaries of time and house are yours to control. Play as Sargon and evolve from sword-wielding prodigy to extraordinary legend as you grasp acrobatic fight and unlock new Time Powers and distinctive tremendous talents.
UNLEASH YOUR INNER WARRIOR
Use your Time Powers, fight, and platforming abilities to carry out lethal combos and defeat time-corrupted enemies and mythological creatures.
LOSE YOURSELF IN THE PRODIGIOUS MOUNT QAF
Uncover a cursed Persian-inspired world crammed with larger-than-life landmarks and discover quite a lot of extremely detailed biomes, every with their very own id, marvel, and hazard.
LIVE AN EPIC ADVENTURE
Immerse your self in a Persian mythological fantasy by way of an intriguing and unique story as you employ your wits to resolve puzzles, discover hidden treasures, and full quests to study extra about this corrupted place.
This sport leverages Sensible Supply permitting entry to each the Xbox One title and the Xbox Sequence X|S title.