Developed By: Evil Empire Studio
Published By: Ubisoft
Category: Action
Release Date: 12.16.25
Price: $29.99
*Game Download Code graciously provided for the purpose of review
The Rogue Prince of Persia was my first attempt at completing a Prince of Persia title, and I was immediately addicted. Seriously, if all the Prince of Persia games are like this, I need to go back and play them all. But I do have a word of warning, I paid no attention to the story. It’s a simple story about the war between the Persians and the Huns, and the Princes attempts at saving his people.
The story is drip-fed as you complete levels, but I didn’t pay attention to the story after the first two or so levels. I was just having too much fun with the gameplay itself. I kept coming back to play the game over and over just because of the gameplay. It’s a 2D Sidescrolling Platformer with insane parkour mechanics. You can run and jump like normal, but you can also dash and climb the background.
Mix and match these movements to literally fly across the map seamlessly. Movement is incredibly smooth and satisfying. You can time your parkour movements with attacks on enemies to create such satisfying combos. Sometimes I didn’t even bother with fighting enemies or looking for secrets. There were times I just wanted to race across the map, and I would have so much fun.
But this isn’t just a parkour game, it’s a Roguelite too. Every time you die, you restart at your little hub world and have to do all the levels over. Your weapons and items change with each run, and you can find, buy, and upgrade them as you explore each level. But obviously everything you earn in a run is lost once you die. The only thing that rolls over is a certain currency called Soul Cinders.
In between runs, when you’re in the hub area, you can exchange Soul Cinders to unlock new weapons and items. As you fight enemies, you also gain levels, which unlocks skill points. You can exchange these in the hub worlds for a bunch of cool perks across multiple skill trees. The great thing about the game is that the randomness of loot makes it impossible to plan for a perfect run, meaning even after you unlock everything, there will still be lots of replays.
Honestly, there isn’t much else to say. The controls are smooth, the gameplay itself is so much fun, and the different loot mechanics are satisfying. It’s the most fun I’ve had with a sidescroller in years. Fans of Prince of Persia will love the game, but everyone else should enjoy it too. It’s a bit pricy at $30, but it’s still a fun game.
9/10