Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is one of 2024’s most underrated games. It’s been a year full of creatively diverse games, so this Metroidvania from Ubisoft has flown under the radar since its launch in January. It still stands as one of my favorite games of the year, as it features some of the best 2D platforming action since Celeste and utilizes features like Memory Shards to make a daunting Metroidvania feel approachable. I returned to it to check out its Mask of Darkness DLC and fell in love with it once again.
Mask of Darkness is a challenging DLC meant for players who have mastered the complexities of The Lost Crown’s silky-smooth platforming. It fleshes out the backstory of a character the main game mostly ignored and features some of the best art in the entire game. It celebrates almost everything good about The Last Crown and provides another reason for people to check out this great game once again.
The main story of The Lost Crown follows a group of Persian heroes called The Immortals as they try to save a kidnapped Prince at the time-bending Mount Qaf. Through a series of betrayals I won’t spoil here, player character Sargon ends up fighting many of the Immortals he formerly called his friends. One Immortal who briefly appeared in the main game, but wasn’t fleshed out much, was the assassin Radjen. Mask of Darkness is all about her, as Sargon is trapped within her mind palace after attempting to confront her.
Throughout Mask of Darkness, Sargon learns about much of Radjen’s backstory and grapples with the fact that Radjen will never be able to escape her trauma. I thought The Lost Crown‘s narrative was one of its weaker aspects, but for what’s technically a sidequest, this DLC features some of the game’s best writing yet. The mind palace premise also lets Mask of Darkness play with trippy visuals and send Sargon through memorable backgrounds during his descent into Radjen’s psyche. I hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of Sargon and this take on the Prince of Persia universe.
Although the story is solid, the real reason to pick up Mask of Darkness is the platforming challenges it provides. It’s similar to Celeste’s Farewell DLC in that way. While you can technically play through the DLC before finishing the main story, it’s definitely designed for experienced The Lost Crown players who are returning to the game months after release. Mask of Darkness is a stark reminder of how tough The Lost Crown’s platforming can be at times, but that’s exactly what I love about it.
You can beat Mask of Darkness within a couple of hours, but these are some of the most fun two hours in the game. Many of Sargon’s later-game upgrades are stripped away when he enters Radjen’s mind palace, so its platforming obstacles emphasize abilities like the bow, air dash, and shadow copy abilities. Mask of Darkness also introduces scenarios nowhere to be seen in the base game, like platforms that appear and disappear every time Sargon jumps off them or a giant eye that chases the player like the sun in Super Mario Bros. 3.
Even in the wake of Astro Bot, I still think The Lost Crown‘s platforming feels better than any other game released this year. The core mechanics of movement feel great, and the level design often finds clever ways to string several obstacles together in ways to test players’ mettle. Mask of Darkness is a bit more linear than the vast Metroidvania adventure of The Lost Crown, but still offers some choice in what platforming challenges players want to tackle first. And if players go off the beaten path and endure some particularly grueling challenges, there’s often some sort of reward or ability to get back for doing so.
I’ll admit I hadn’t played The Lost Crown in a few months and was rusty when I first picked Mask of Darkness up, but by the end of the adventure, it felt like I never left. And if you are truly struggling to get back into the game through this DLC, The Lost Crown features plenty of fantastic difficulty and accessibility customization options to make even this hardcore DLC feel approachable. Mask of Darkness is the perfect kind of DLC for a game like The Lost Crown, and it adds yet another reason for people to pick up this wonderful Metroidvania.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is available across PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. Mask of Darkness is on all of those platforms and only costs $5, so definitely buy it as well if you decide to check out the full game.
