The Rogue Prince of Persia

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The Rogue Prince of Persia
The Rogue Prince of Persia cover art.jpg
Developer(s) Evil Empire
Publisher(s) Ubisoft
Director(s) Lucie Dewagnier
Producer(s) Jolan Reynaud
Artist(s) Dylan Eurlings
Composer(s) Daniel Asadi
Series Prince of Persia
Platform(s)
ReleaseAugust 20, 2025
Genre(s) Roguelike, platform
Mode(s) Single-player

The Rogue Prince of Persia is a roguelite platform game developed by Evil Empire and published by Ubisoft. Part of the Prince of Persia series, the game was released as an early access game in May 2024, and was released in full for Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S on August 20, 2025, and will be released on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 sometime in 2025.

Contents

Gameplay

The Rogue Prince of Persia is a 2D side-scrolling game focused on an unnamed character known simply as the Prince. The Prince has access to a number of parkour moves, such as wall jumping, wall running, swinging and jumping off poles, and more. Combat involves melee and ranged attacks, kicks that send enemies backwards, and dodging by vaulting over enemies. The prince is armed with a primary and a secondary weapon, and his loadout can be changed freely even in combat. As players progress in the game, they will collect Medallions which can be further used to augment the Prince's weapons. [1] Levels in the game are also procedurally generated. [2]

The game also features roguelike elements. The Prince has a mysterious artifact that allows him to time travel, enabling him to avoid permanent death and return to a hub area named "The Oasis" where he can restock potions and upgrade his skills and weapons. [3] Enemies will drop coins, which can be used to collect new weapons and restore health items during combat, and chests containing new weapons can be found during gameplay. [4] The game also features a "Memory Board" which tracks the Prince's interactions with the game's cast of supporting characters, some of whom will provide additional information on a level's layout and secrets. [5]

Plot

The game takes place in and around the city of Ctesiphon. After the Prince provokes the Hun army, their chief, Nogai, sends an army of possessed soldiers to destroy the city, which the Prince is tasked with preventing.

Development

The Rogue Prince of Persia was developed by Bordeaux-based Evil Empire, the co-developer of Dead Cells ' downloadable content packs. The studio pitched the project to license owner Ubisoft during the alpha stage of the development of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown . While the game had no connection to other Prince of Persia games, the team identified the key gameplay pillars of past games (namely fast traversal, acrobatic combat and trap-filled environments), and sought to recreate them in a roguelike game. The team was also in close contact with the developers of The Lost Crown to ensure that the two games were distinct from each other. The team briefly experimented with a mechanic that allowed players to briefly unwind time to undo smaller mistakes in combat or transversal, similar to the Sands of Time trilogy, though this feature was scrapped because the team felt that it broke the rhythm of combat. [4] The combat in the game was designed to be challenging but accessible for players who are new to the gameplay format. [5]

Release

The game was officially announced during the Triple-i Initiative showcase in April 2024. [6] While set to be released through Steam's early access program on May 14, 2024, [7] the surprise release of Supergiant Games' Hades II on May 6 led Evil Empire to push back the release of The Rogue to later in the month, stating "We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that, and we truly believe that this short delay is the best decision for us and our Early Access journey. We also want to give Hades 2 a head start before we start running, it's only fair." [8] The early access version included only one of the three acts planned for the final game. [4] The second act was added as a part of The Second Act update in November 2024. The game is set to be released in full in August 2025. [9] It was revealed that the game will be released on Nintendo Switch 2 later in 2025. [10]

References

  1. Ogilvie, Tristan (April 11, 2024). "The Rogue Prince of Persia Is Bringing Dead Cells Back to Life". IGN . Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  2. Donlan, Christian (April 10, 2024). "There's a lot of Dead Cells in The Rogue Prince of Persia". Eurogamer . Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  3. Donnelly, Joe (April 11, 2024). "The Rogue Prince of Persia is an unlikely roguelike slant on the 35-year-old series from one of the best genre developers in the business". GamesRadar . Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Hilliard, Kyle (April 10, 2024). "We Played The Rogue-lite Prince Of Persia From The Co-Developer Of Dead Cells". Game Informer . Archived from the original on April 10, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Fillari, Alessandro (April 11, 2024). "Ubisoft wall-runs onto the roguelike bandwagon with The Rogue: Prince of Persia". Game Developer . Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  6. Makuch, Eddie (April 10, 2024). "The Rogue Prince Of Persia From Dead Cells Dev Announced, Launching In May". GameSpot . Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  7. Wilde, Tyler (April 11, 2024). "The Rogue Prince of Persia revealed: a slick 2D roguelite coming to Steam in May". PC Gamer . Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  8. Harris, Iain (May 10, 2024). "Dead Cells dev's Prince of Persia roguelike delayed to dodge Hades 2's surprise Early Access launch: "We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that"". GamesRadar . Retrieved September 2, 2024.
  9. Romano, Sal (June 8, 2025). "The Rogue Prince of Persia launches in August". Gematsu. Archived from the original on June 9, 2025. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
  10. Romano, Sal (August 20, 2025). "The Rogue Prince of Persia now available for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC; coming to Switch 2 and Switch in 2025". Gematsu. Retrieved August 20, 2025.