''The Rogue Prince of Persia'' is an upcoming

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most ro ...

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

developed by French studio Evil Empire and published by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

. Part of the ''

Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two ga ...

'' series, the game was released in May 2024 in an

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

state for

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. It is scheduled to be released in August 2025.

Gameplay

''The Rogue Prince of Persia'' is a 2D side-scrolling game focused on an unnamed character known simply as

the Prince ''The Prince'' ( ; ) is a 16th-century political treatise written by the Italian diplomat, philosopher, and Political philosophy, political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli in the form of a realistic instruction guide for new Prince#Prince as gener ...

. The Prince has access to a number of

parkour Parkour () is an athletic Training#Physical training, training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from one point to another in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment ...

moves, such as wall jumping, wall running, swinging and jumping off poles, and more. Combat involves melee and ranged attacks, kicks that send enemies backwards, and dodging by vaulting over enemies. The prince is armed with a primary and a secondary weapon, and his loadout can be changed freely even in combat. As players progress in the game, they will collect Medallions which can be further used to augment the Prince's weapons. Levels in the game are also

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

. The game also features

elements. The Prince has a mysterious artifact that allows him to

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

, enabling him to avoid permanent death and return to a hub area named "The Oasis" where he can restock potions and upgrade his skills and weapons. Enemies will drop coins, which can be used to collect new weapons and restore health items during combat, and chests containing new weapons can be found during gameplay. The game also features a "Memory Board" which tracks the Prince's interactions with the game's cast of supporting characters, some of whom will provide additional information on a level's layout and secrets.

Plot

The game takes place in and around the city of

Ctesiphon Ctesiphon ( ; , ''Tyspwn'' or ''Tysfwn''; ; , ; Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified July 28, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/58.) was an ancient city in modern Iraq, on the eastern ba ...

. After the Prince provokes the Hun army, their chief, Nogai, sends an army of possessed soldiers to destroy the city, which the Prince is tasked with preventing.

Development

''The Rogue Prince of Persia'' was developed by

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

-based Evil Empire, the co-developer of ''

Dead Cells ''Dead Cells'' is a 2018 roguelike-Metroidvania game developed by Motion Twin and Evil Empire (company), Evil Empire, and published by Motion Twin. The player takes the role of an amorphous creature called the Prisoner. As the Prisoner, the pla ...

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

packs. The studio pitched the project to license owner

during the alpha stage of the development of '' Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown''. While the game had no connection to other ''Prince of Persia'' games, the team identified the key gameplay pillars of past games (namely fast traversal, acrobatic combat and trap-filled environments), and sought to recreate them in a

game. The team was also in close contact with the developers of ''The Lost Crown'' to ensure that the two games were distinct from each other. The team briefly experimented with a mechanic that allowed players to briefly unwind time to undo smaller mistakes in combat or transversal, similar to the '' Sands of Time'' trilogy, though this feature was scrapped because the team felt that it broke the rhythm of combat. The combat in the game was designed to be challenging but accessible for players who are new to the gameplay format.

Release

The game was officially announced during the Triple-i Initiative showcase in April 2024. While set to be released through

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

program on May 14, 2024, the surprise release of

Supergiant Games Supergiant Games, LLC is an American independent video game developer and publisher based in San Francisco. It was founded in 2009 by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon, and is known for the games ''Bastion'', ''Transistor'', ''Pyre'', ''Hades'' and '' ...

' '' Hades II'' on May 6 led Evil Empire to push back the release of ''The Rogue'' to later in the month, stating "We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that, and we truly believe that this short delay is the best decision for us and our Early Access journey. We also want to give Hades 2 a head start before we start running, it's only fair." The early access version included only one of the three acts planned for the final game. The second act was added as a part of The Second Act update in November 2024. Evil empire announced that full release would happen in August 2025 at the PC games show

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogue Prince of Persia Early access video games Evil Empire (company) games Historical fantasy video games Persian mythology in popular culture Platformers Prince of Persia games Roguelike video games Side-scrolling platformers Single-player video games Ubisoft games Upcoming video games scheduled for 2025 Video games about time travel Video games developed in France Video games set in Iraq Windows games