The MetroidVania roguelike is seeing a big surge in recent years thanks to games like Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells pushing the genre forward in new and exciting ways.
Another game looking to take a stab at this genre is The Rogue: Prince of Persia, developed by Evil Empire, the same developer who took on support for Dead Cells after being passed the baton from Motion Twin.
As Dead Cells development has ramped down with its DLC journey finished, Evil Empire’s next project is The Rogue Prince Of Persia.
The Rogue Prince of Persia continues on with the familiar Dead Cells formula, an action roguelike as you control the prince himself as he tries to save Persia from the Hun invasion, traveling back in time with each death.
People familiar with roguelikes will be immediately familiar with this gameplay loop, each run has you travel throughout the city and its various areas, picking up weapons and talismans that offer various boons for your run. Along with a persistent currency that helps you unlock certain items to help you progress abit further each time.
The Rogue Prince of Persia released into early access on Steam on May 28th, but before this release, I was granted access to an alpha build, this had the intro, and 2 biomes leading to a boss.
This offers about 2-3 hours dependent on your skill level but provided a good overview of the games formula, combat and how the game will play as it reaches its early access release.
Gameplay
From the beginning, The Rogue Prince of Persia felt immediately familiar,
A simple to grasp, hard to master combat system is integral in game such as these and the Rogue Prince Of Persia presents these systems well.
A main attack that changes in speed, effects and damage depending on the chosen weapon along with a kick to stun, this kick can push enemies into each other creating breathing windows, along with a ranged weapon with limited uses. Combined with wall running and dodging to get out of harms way fast.
This straightforward simple setup clicks within the first few minutes which is key to a game in this genre. Nothing felt unnatural and everything felt responsive and great.
As I journeyed through these levels, I ran into a varied amount of enemies requiring different approaches. In between enemy groups, there were platforming sections where I had to navigate through thing such as your usual spike labyrinths or closed doors, some off the beaten path areas with more difficult platforming sections rewarded me with chests with the possibility to enhance my character. Simple formulas that we have seen a lot now in this genre but a good starting block.
Along your many runs in Persia, you will come across various talismans offering boons, for example, kicking an enemy into another will cause a poison cloud to appear, causing further damage. You can have up to 4 talismans and getting these talismans also has a puzzle slot element, placing one boon next to another may increase the boons effectiveness on the left, offering another level of experimentation and careful consideration of what gear you should aim for.
As you travel, you will also pick up stronger weapons, a persistent currency that you can bank at various shrines to go towards permanent weapon and trinket unlocks. A shop where you can use gold that is not shared between runs for one off items that may help you get that little bit further along with various other potential encounters that i won’t spoil here. As you progress through a level , you will run into various shrines that lets you teleport between them in that biome, letting you travel back to a shop or area before proceeding to the next.
All of these systems are familiar if you’ve experienced one of the many roguelikes in recent years and if you haven’t, all of this is presented over time and has a good introduction to the many mechanics.
Combat was straightforward to learn but as enemies became more varied, it required me to utilize my various move sets and approaches. Once I was weaving in between foes with a well timed kick felt great. Combat never once felt unfair, many enemy attacks are telegraphed with various visual indicators and being getting hit was due to me being too greedy or not paying close enough attention.
Further through these 2 levels, there was a boss that combined everything i had learned so far, resulting in a tense battle. This boss had a unique design, great music and was actually quite difficult, which gives me a lot of hope for the rest of Rogue’s enemy and boss design.
Some parts of levels did feel like there were long gaps of emptiness abit longer than usual or shrines were oddly placed too close together with nothing much separating them. This is a caveat to procedural generation and creates an odd flow to an otherwise strong roguelike combat system but something that can be tightened over the course of early access.
Story
The story approach in Rogue Prince of Persia, feels very reminiscent of Hades, the story will be told over time as you meet characters during runs, adding interactions, new characters and expositions.
From what i saw, interactions were limited but took a backseat to the gameplay given the alpha’s limited playtime so this is one aspect I couldn’t gauge fully.
Audio Design/ Music. Voice Performances
Evil Empire have stated there is no voice acting at all in The Rogue: Prince Of Persia but the music more than makes up for this. Each track feels like a great blend of historic Persian influences injected with a modern bass touch , with heavy bass thumping as your weaving through enemies and utilizing your many tools all felt great.
Combat with enemies all feels like it has a good sound response and more sound effects will be realized as it reaches its 1.0 but the soundtracks are already in great shape.
Graphics
If you haven’t noticed already, The Rogue: Prince of Persia has a unique art style that provides a very unique flair and visual identity. The game is great to look at as your running through Persia, animations are well done as your running along walls, the game ran smooth and I noticed no issues at all. This art style is a nice change and helps The Rogue: Prince of Persia separate by its aesthetic alone in a genre that is getting very crowded in recent years.
All of this, the combat system, looks , great music and its familiar loop (if abit too familiar) results in a great package, and it will be great to see what The Rogue can do to make it stand out even more.
Evil Empire have stated that The Rogue: Prince of Persia may be in early access for about a year or so as they work on the game in conjunction with the community. Based off what we have seen so far and their previous experience working with Dead Cells, The Rogue: Prince of Persia is in very good hands and I will be keeping an eye on its journey as it makes its way to its 1.0 release!
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