The Rogue Prince of Persia Review

After a long, 14-year break, we can finally say that the Prince of Persia franchise is back!

It was first brought back into the limelight by 2024’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, an unexpectedly good metroidvania that surprised everyone by going back to PoP’s 2D roots, mixing incredibly solid platforming with engaging gameplay and boss fights. Now, in 2025, we’re getting the “roguelike entry”, The Rogue Prince of Persia, developed by Evil Empire. This is the development team behind Dead Cells, so I had no doubts that they would be more than competent do develop a great game. As expected, they managed to do so!

In The Rogue Prince of Persia, you play as an unnamed Prince who is fending off a Hun invasion over the kingdom of Persia. Aided by a time-manipulation talisman that can rewind time if the Prince dies, he brashly attacks the Hun army, only to be defeated by their leader Nogai, who wields an unknown form of black magic. The Prince is now stuck in a time loop, where he wakes up three days after the Hun army invades the kingdom and has to not only save the city, but also escape the time loop.

The now iconic time altering shenanigans make the most sense in a roguelike setting. During each run the Prince gathers resources, blueprints for new weapons and, most importantly, knowledge of the enemies that he will encounter in each biome. After each run, successful or not, the Prince is sent back to the Oasis, a safe hub, where he can prepare for his next runs.

The first thing that struck me is the artstyle in this game. The developers tried to design the game in the style of old Persian paintings, from the colors and background to the Prince’s features, who looks like an actual Persian royalty of old. This makes the game unique compared to its predecessors, The Rogue Prince probably being the most “authentic” main character out of all Prince of Persia protagonists.

However, I feel that this setting wouldn’t have worked nearly half as well if it wasn’t for the music. Composed by Daniel Asadi, the soundtrack mixes traditional Persian tunes with modern trap music. This isn’t a mix I would ever have expected, but makes up for a fantastic soundtrack, rivalling even Sands of Time as one of the best soundtracks in a Prince of Persia game.

The first level’s OST

The Rogue Prince is everything you would expect from a Prince of Persia protagonist: he is fast, nimble, can run on walls, vault over enemies, dash mid-air and perform all the acrobatic feats every protagonist had throughout the franchise’s history. I have to applaud the developers here for managing to create one of the most fluid gameplay loops ever seen in a Prince of Persia game. The game’s controls are impeccable and there’s rarely a moment where you are stopped in your tracks. There’s even a mechanic in the game that rewards you for seamlessly linking the various platforming elements, called Breath of Vayu: If you manage to jump the moment you touch a wall or a pole, a small yellow bar fills up. When the bar is filled, you gain a significant speed and damage boost for a short while.

And you will want to be as accurate as possible in your platforming, because this is a Prince of Persia game after all, which means the levels are filled to the brim with traps! Spike traps, circular saws, poison pools, even an entire level filled with wall darts and floor spikes. The entire game will aim to inflict damage in one way or the other. Granted, the levels are not as demanding as the ones in Lost Crown, but they can still be rather challenging.

A unique mechanic in this entry is a fast travel system. In each level you can find various portals that allow you to easily travel from one point of the level to another – useful if you missed a side path or forgot to buy an upgrade. Since backtracking these levels can be quite painful at times, this is a welcoming addition, especially because it allows you to skip the platforming sections that you already completed.

As a roguelike, this game does not disappoint. The gameplay loop is interesting here as well, The Prince being able to slowly get stronger and better with each subsequent run. As you play, you unlock various blueprints for weapons and medallions that you can unlock in your camp. Your equipment consists of a main weapon, such as swords, maces, claws, daggers etc., a tool, auxiliary items like bows or chackrams that have limited usage and are good as support, and medallions, that enhance your abilities such as damage, critical damage, or kick distance. All of these items have their uses, but currently the best weapons by far are the small ones, like the daggers or poisonous claws. These can dispatch enemies incredibly quickly, especially if they’re combined with powerful medallions. The larger weapons, while powerful, can be cumbersome, especially if you get overwhelmed by enemies.

The game sports a large roster of enemies, from the usual grunts with axes or claws, to bomb throwers, possessed scarabs, archers, summoners and those annoying mages that love to run around and shoot you through the walls. By themselves the enemies are nothing special, but the game loves to mix and match them in such a way that you can never feel too confident. In later levels the melee units will be constantly backed up by rangers or summoners who will do their best to make your life as miserable as possible.

During a run, you can find weapons and items either from treasure chests, treasure rooms or several vendors that can trade in their items in exchange for the gold you collect from the fallen enemies. Although there are medallions to enhance the gold drop rate, you will have to choose your upgrades and purchases wisely, otherwise you will be severely underlevelled for the hordes of Hun warriors that await you.

If the enemies can be a real nuisance no matter the run, the bosses are incredibly intimidating at first, but become absolute pushovers once you learn their basic mechanics and how you should upgrade your gear. The boss design is intimidating and all of them have a diverse array of moves, with one of the bosses even featuring a platforming section. However, once you learn how they work, they’re nothing more than bumps in the road. I feel that other roguelikes like Hades or Curse of the Dead Gods had a more challenging roster of bosses in comparison.

Where bosses shine however is the moment you attempt the numerous challenge runs and trophy runs available in the game. There are trophies that require you to defeat each boss without taking damage, and that’s where the real difficulty kicks in. Some bosses really love to hitbox trap you between a summoned enemy and a projectile, forcing you to restart the fight. These no damage fights really amp up the difficulty of this game.

If the game turns out to be too easy – fear not! You can add modifiers to your runs, so-called Awakenings, which add an extra challenge to the game. Enemies can gain shields, drop bombs when killed, weapons gain durability and can get broken etc. This is similar to Hades’ Heat system, where the challenge can be dialed up to 11.

The rewards that you get are well worth the trouble though! You receive a massive boost in dropped resources, useful to unlock more weapons and medallion packs, as well as various suits and costumes from the Weaver’s tent. In fact, most of your resources will go towards this cosmetic store, where you will be able to customize your Prince and even make him wear the equipment of his past iterations.

At the moment of writing, the game is still being ironed out – the Platinum trophy is unobtainable at the moment and there’s several bugs still, which are being reported and fixed. Considering the reputation of Dead Cells however, I have no doubt that this game will continue to be improved and upgraded as time passes.

In conclusion, this is a must-play for the fans of both Prince of Persia and the roguelike genre. It makes me happy to see that this franchise is still being loved and respected after all this time. And for those unfamiliar with Prince of Persia, the game is currently free on Xbox Gamepass and PS+ Extra subscriptions, so that should be another motive to give this game a try!