It's about time I leave my review! I think I know it enough to give a proper review and the day "The Second Act" update come out it's the best time to do it.

Current playtime: 225 hours

If you played the game back in may/june, forget about it. Now you have:

• 3 new biomes
  
• 2 new bosses
  
• 25 enemies in total
  
• objectives per enemy
  
• platforming side quests
  
• difficulty modifiers
  
• 20 weapons, 9 tools
  
• new artstyle
  
• metaprogression

And we're so far from the end of the early access.
There's for sure work to do, but the game now is so great.
It's the perfect time to start playing it. And join the Discord, you got to do it.


I started playing The Rogue Prince of Persia on May 27th because I decided to wait the full release of Hades 2. I wasn't playing at that time any game, I casually saw this game from Evil Empire (I knew them for Dead Cells, which I liked but I'm not like a superfan of it) and I decided to tried it to fill the gap. The best decision of 2024. Oh I never played a Prince of Persia game, but I'm really into roguelikes, so that's why I decided to buy it.

The best 20€ I ever spent.
When you buy a game in early access you know there could be bugs, even big ones. You shouldn't expect a perfect product. As a programmer I know that if something is under active development, it can break, it can have parts those have to be polished etc. That was the state of the game back in May. It was a really promising title, with a lot of contents to be added.
At that time, we hadn't meta progression, we had only 9 weapons (RIP Falcata), no skill trees.. When you unlocked all the weapons and medallions, well you were done. Actually the content was not so much.

Anyway, I fell in love with it. The great movement, the fantastic music really hooked me. I just start playing over and over. At the beginning I struggled with Berude and then Baatar (yes, I'm not a fast-learner gamer) but then I started knowing those guys, all the enemies (at that time were not so many) any biomes. It was simply good.

The best decision at that time was to join the Discord server. I didn't know at that time, but this is allowing me to constantly be in touch with Evil Empire themselves and other fellow players. We actively discuss about the game, what can be improved, new mechanics to be added and so on. And that's going on since day 1.
The incredible thing is that Evil Empire are actually listening to what we're saying. They care about their game. For example, they saw the old medallion system wasn't clear enough to players, so they took the risk destroying the system and rebuilding it from the ground up. Guess what? They nailed it. It can be improved for sure, they're aware of that, but this is much better than before.

During the past months, Evil Empire released a lot of updates, introducing difficulty modifiers through the Awakenings, new weapons, meta progression with skills trees.. I don't even remember everything they added.
Difficulty modifiers are really good and required since the game was too easy and boring after a while. Now there are difficulty modifiers very interesting, like the damn Invincible Scarab that can make the Berude's fight (the first boss) a real nightmare with the wrong build.
The weapons now are 20 (excluding tools) and are quite different from each other. They have some special attacks and critical conditions that make they're use really fun. Also, in the new update they changed the level system for weapons and they damages, making more appealing the weapon's change when you reach a new biome.
Skill trees haven't been reworked since they second version, but they're still great. You can unlock many abilities that affects your playstyle, from energy build to elemental ones, to one that's more focused on economy (so collection of cinders for example).

For sure, they added a lot of new enemies to diversify the bestiary. Speaking of which, they added also the Book of Heads, where you can find a lot of Objectives for each enemy that'll give you a reward.

This is one of the Pillars of the game. Even from day 1, this game had one of the best soundtrack I ever heard for a game. It fit perfectly with the game, each biome has its own theme that's completely different from the others.
This is by itself a reason to buy the game, it's too good to not check it.

Now let's talk briefly about this update.
If it wasn't enough, in this update they added 2 new fantastic biomes with new soundtracks, 2 bosses that are really interesting and they introduced a lot of smaller updates those make the game even better than before.

Everything now is more polished, the new artstyle, the 5 new enemies are so good. The new narration, that was completely reworked from the ground up, now is sooo great!
I can't even list everything here. What I know is that this completely changes how you feel about this game.

I am in love with this for a long time now, but I'm pretty sure this is the right time to try it again (or try it for the first time) if you stopped playing it.
You will find a fantastic game wit a lot of cool mechanics and a welcoming community ready to introduce you to this masterpiece.
Yes, to me The Rogue Prince of Persia is already a masterpiece. It can be improved a lot (and considering the dedication Evil Empire proved in the last months, they will), but this is already a great game, these is not only "a staring point" and with this in a far future we'll see something cool. No, the day is now.
Today The Rogue Prince of Persia is worth your wallet. Today, this game can stand still and doesn't have to be shy in any way.
The early access process for this game is being a great journey and I highly suggest you to not miss it, since it's really something special.

Is this game worth the price? Absolutely. So, go buy the game now and have fun with it, I'll wait for you on the Prince of Persia's Discord with my other fellow players.
And if verything I said wasn't enough for you, I will link here my YouTube channel where you can find a lot of videos talking about the game that will prove you everything I wrote here. Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGamingRoguelikes

Early access but really fun to play after work

Just tried the new update. The game looks much better but there's still something off about the gameplay. The game feels like it's supposed to play smooth or fluid but there's always this awkward delay to every action. Almost like an input delay that never goes away with your jumps and attacks. It just needs to feel smoother. Animation locks don't feel right, early enemies have too much health. Upward attacks on perched enemies feel jank. I genuinely dig the vibe of this game but the moment to moment gameplay just needs something.