Rogue Prince of Persia Review – WGB

Sometimes it feels like you can’t move five feet without stumbling into another roguelike these days. At this point I’m basically stuck in one, endlessly starting new runs. In fairness to The Tyrant Prince of Persiait’s actually a 2025 game, but it just got a virtual console release on PS5, Xbox Series X and Switch, which is why I’m here to play it now.

Ferocious hunters, using some kind of destructive magic, have invaded Persia and plundered the land, so our noble Prince opposes their leader, Nogai. After being kicked in the ass, the Prince wakes up in the Oasis on the morning of the third day of the attack. It turns out that the Prince has a magic wand that brings him back to this level every time he dies, so now the Prince needs to save his family and stop the invasion of his homeland by banging his head against the metaphorical wall known as roguelike progression.

That means dying a lot and you gradually grow in power by spending XP points to permanently upgrade health, give yourself a death curse and various other small upgrades. Soul Cinders are harvested from Huns you decide along the way and must be saved at the start of each new biome or lost over time, and those can be used to unlock new weapons and trophies for future runs. Everything is top notch at this point, too The Tyrant Prince of Persia doesn’t bring much new to the table in terms of sequels. Although I appreciate this spin on a classic Prince of Persia time control items.

The best feature of the game is undoubtedly parkour, because what a Prince of Persia game if you can replicate The Office parkour meme? It’s not like the game offers a bunch of tools: wall run, dash and jump. But it’s the implementation that makes it special. The controls take a little getting used to, but once you get the hang of it it’s surprising how smooth and fun they are. You can wall run at any angle to the back walls, then jump, dash and climb to the side wall, jump again to the back run and chain it all together endlessly. Throwing a nail in time increases the Prince’s breath meter, making him faster and increasing his damage output, so the game moves you from running smoothly into combat like a stealthy monkey falling from a tree into an unsuspecting sucker.

Combat is a little less fun: hit things with one button, dodge with another and perform special moves by holding attacks. Oh, and you can kick fools in the face, too, and there’s a tool button that releases bows, grappling hooks and whatever else you have equipped at the time. It’s not bad and flows well enough, and there’s a good selection of weapons on offer, but compared to parkour the combat didn’t hold my interest as much. That’s a problem in a game like this where you’re driven to kill everything to grab XP for progression points forever.

I like how the level system works. As you explore you will find labeled doors that lead to the next level of the world, and more will be revealed gradually as you progress through the story. Usually, you’ll need to go to certain places, and sometimes you’ll need to grab an item first and move it to another location, which takes up your tools. It’s by no means a startup plan, but it sounds like it’s going well. In fact, the whole game is going well. Sometimes roguelikes can be pretty dark, though The Tyrant Prince of Persia it’s fast-paced in both its gameplay and overall progression, so there’s almost always a new place to explore or aim to reach.

All in all, it only took me 6-8 hours to beat the big boss the first time. Then the grinding is put a little bit because to achieve the real ending you need to find and beat the bastard 7 times, and do a few other things. About 15 hours if you’re a decent player like a rogue, longer if you have the survival skills of a conflicted dodo.

I tip my hat to the presentation as well. It is a hand drawn ligne claire style with bold outlines and bold flats. Sounds artistic, right? To put it simply, clean lines, bright colors and a Saturday morning cartoon vibe. And that’s mixed with a banger of a song that combines modern electronic beats with ancient Persian instruments like a set. The result is a bouncy, punchy song. It’s pretty shit. Hey, it’s probably one of the few times I consider picking up a song by itself and listening to it without playing the game.

A really solid effort and a fun spin on a classic IP. The parkour system is smooth, building on the kind of sharp movement design Evil Empire honed while working on Dead Cells. Other than that, though, there’s not much here that’s really surprising. The story is forgettable, the combat is very serviceable, and the progression sticks close to rogue-like convention.

The Wicked Prince of Persia doesn’t rewrite the rulebook, but its smooth pacing and stylish presentation make it worth a run—especially for die-hard fans of the genre.