Recently, I’ve been coveting those remakes of ‘dead’ franchises, like the upcomingSilent Hill 2, and the maybe-not-so-upcomingPrince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I first took screenshots of the Sands of Time remake when it was leaked some time before it was officially announced back in September 2020, and couldn’t contain my delight at the time. Rumors spread about the remake’s existence a while before the announcement, so when the screenshots were leaked, it really hit home thatthis is actually happening.
Fast-forward to now, and we’re nearing the release of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown—a 2.5D Metroidvania-style return-to-the-roots entry in the franchise. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but feel a little cold on this. It actually doesn’t look all the bad, but feels like a distraction from the Sands of Time remake we were teased with a couple of years ago.
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Fun fact:Assassin’s Creed, in a time long gone, was meant to be a Prince of Persia spin-off titled Prince of Persia: Assassin. Reportedly, it was going to be about a female assassin on a quest to rescue the prince. It took Ubisoft some time to figure out that it would be better off being something else, separate from its ‘father-IP’. In the last Nintendo Direct, it was revealed that Sargon—the playable protagonist of The Lost Crown—is on a quest to save the prince.
The Lost Crown could’ve been a separate brand-new Metroidvania title, and it probably wouldn’t have been weighed down by the expectations we have from the Prince of Persia IP. Apart from some Zoroastrian imagery here and there, Its setting and art style barely evoke Persian culture, for a start. It’s more of a generic antique Middle-Eastern setting with weirdly chiseled structures, so I can’t see too many people complaining that it didn’t lean on the Prince of Persia IP (in fact, some people, like me, are bothered that it does).
Further, the setting doesn’t prompt me with a sense of time either; it’s visually pre-Islamic, although the noticeable use of blue is more prominent in Islamic structures. But even in Ancient Persia, it’s a somewhat broad category, so which style is this? It feels like a blend of many things that aren’t Persian, and some don’t even belong to that era. But, to the game’s credit, they borrowed some symbols and characters from Zoroastrian tradition, like Zoroaster—the founder of Zoroastrianism—and mythology, like The Manticore, and presumably more.
The Sands of Time has always been close to my heart, containing all the stuff I held dear as a kid: clever time-travel elements, a historical setting, an engaging story, and, of course, Yuri Lowenthal’s Prince, which I assumed iconic and timeless—I was right. And while I don’t hold grudges against Assassin’s Creed, I do believe its success overshadowed the Prince of Persia franchise, leading to a 13-year hiatus for the IP.
The Sands of Time was Prince of Persia’s first reboot. The game itself had been challenged to restore the community’s lost passion for the franchise after the mixed reception of Prince of Persia 3D. And it was up to the challenge. The decision to expand on the fantasy aspect of the game by including a dagger that could manipulate time fostered industry-wide affection from OG fans and new players alike.
The Sands of Time wasn’t the first game to utilize temporal manipulation as a feature, as games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Max Payne debuted before The Sands of Time. But it was, undoubtedly, the defining feature of the game.
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After acquiring the dagger, the prince could rewind, slow, or stop time while keeping his memory of the future. So, the prince could revive himself up to 10 seconds before his death. But reviving isn’t all that the dagger could do; it could also be used in combat and stop time for targets for 10 seconds, rendering them unable to move. The prince could also see the future at certain spots, which helped in the platforming puzzles as some stages required some intricate moves at precise timings that would’ve otherwise taken time to figure out.
Although some elements didn’t stand the test of time, like the combat—another reason why we desperately need that remake—I still love replaying the game. The Sands of Time was one of the first and few games that fulfilled my childhood fantasy of being in a ‘1001 Nights’ story. Before knowing The Sands of Time, the closest I could get to that feeling was a 2000 game called ‘Aladdin in Nasira’s Revenge.’
So where’s that Sands of Time remake at? Well, after many delays, it’snot officially canceled, apparently. The trailer of the remake, released on September 10th, 2020, was comically miserable in terms of visual fidelity. Ubisoft India came forward to address the trailer controversy by saying “it was meant to be this way,” but clearly the top dogs at Ubisoft disagreed (or bowed to fan pressure), because the remake was eventually taken out of India’s hands andreassigned to Ubisoft Montrealin May 2022. A year later,Ubisoft Montreal announcedthat the development was rebooted and that they’re currently at the conception stage.
Judging by the condition of projects that are still in development at Ubisoft, the status of the remake is worrying to say the least. In January of this year alone,Ubisoft canceled three unannounced titlesand pushed back the release ofSkull & Bonesyet again. So it’s understandable why anyone would be pessimistic about anything from Ubisoft for now.
I would love to see more of Prince of Persia, and the remake seemed like a good starting point for Ubisoft to be more comfortable to greenlight future entries. And I’m not sure a new entry that doesn’t feel like it belongs to the franchise is the way to go about a comeback. Hopefully, Ubisoft understands that nostalgia alone can’t sustain the legacy of Prince of Persia.
