Metroidvanias come in all shapes and sizes these days, and at this point, it's better to think of it as a set of design sensibilities rather than a genre. There are countless ways to make a Metroidvania, but there are a few characteristics they all share. Perhaps the most important is the way exploration and progression is gated by the acquisition of upgrades. In other words, finding new powers gives you access to more of the world. That power can be a weapon that opens barricaded doors, a visor that lets you see invisible platforms, or in its simplest form, the ability to double jump.
The double jump is the most ubiquitous Metroidvania upgrade of all time, and it's easy to see why. For Metroidvanias that feature platforming, it's the most straightforward way to create barriers to unexplored areas, build verticality into the level design, and give the player a reward that immediately feels a significant power upgrade. Metroid, Castlevania, Ori, The Messenger, Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Shantae, Guacamelee, Journey to the Savage Planet, Devil May Cry, Shadow Complex - name a Metroidvania, and it probably has some version of the double jump upgrade.
It’♒s such a common upgrade in a genre that’s considered overdone, that it’s now become a cliche. The conventions of Metroidvania have been so thoroughly covered over the years that it’s become hard to surprise people anymore, and easy to fall into tired, overdone game design. It may even be risky to include a double jump at all now, since it invites comparison to so many beloved games. The newest Metroidvania, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, dares to follow in the footsteps of Metroidvania giants with its double jump, but it does it in the most elegant and thoughtful way possible: by burying it towards the end of the game.
Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown Is Much Harder Than You're Expecting
One of the best things about Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown📖 is its surprisingly high difficu🌠lty.
The problem with a genre as well-established as the Metroidvania is that everyone has been there, and we've all done that. It's difficult to design progression that surprises players, that gives that intoxicating hit of dopamine and makes them feel empowered with new abilities, when they've learned to anticipate every single beat. The worst way to introduce a double jump in a modern Metroidvania is to show the player a ledge that's too tall to jump to right at the start. Back in the day, this might have inspired people to wonder what was up there, but these days everyone will just roll their eyes at the obstacle. We already know the double jump is coming, so the barrier feels like more of an inconvenience than a challenge to overcome.
One of my favorite things about Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is that up until I unlocked the double jump, I didn’t know that was going to be one of the game’s upgrades. Part of me expected it, because it's such a staple of the genre, but it comes so late in the game, and I had accomplished so much without it, that I didn’t think I actually needed it. The brilliance of the way The Lost Crown buries the double jump is the way it convinces you that it’s unecessary, but then quickly reveals how important it is once you have it.
It’s not that there aren’t any tall ledges blocking unexplored𓆏 paths before you get the double jump upgrade, I’m sure there are plenty, but like the best Metroidvanias, The Lost Crown’s world has as many dead ends as optional paths to follow. Upon getting the ability I didn’t immediately run to some out-of-reach platform that had been taunting me, but I did find myself re-exploring the places I’d already been in a new way.
You get the double jump, called Gravity Wings, after defeating a snake boss called Azdaha in the Pit of Eternal Sands. This is the lowest biome in Mount Qaf, and it's no accident that this is where you earn the double jump ability. As you exit the pit and travel up the tall corridor that connects it to the Sunken Harbor, you’ll find yourself in one of the main thoroughfares that you’ve traveled through many times while collecting the keys to access Azdaha. There isn’t anywhere new to go here - the next step is to explore the four corners of the map with your new power - but as you exit the pit you’ll feel the power of the double jump immediately.
After going up and down the corridor several times, you’ll now see how quickly you can get around, your path changed by the platforms you no longer need to jump to. Before, you’d have to use the walls on the sides to jump up to ancillary platforms, but now you can take the straightest, quickest path to the top. As you start to re🔯trace your steps through the world, you’ll constantly find new ways to get to old places faster, which is far more satisfying than just being able to access new places that you couldn’t jump to before.
It was very clever of Montpellier to make the air dash the first upgrade you find, because it satisfies the need for an early mobility upgrade, and makes you forget all about the double jump until you finally find it much later. The combination of air dash and double jump is also where the platforming in The Lost Cro🌟wn hits its peak, and the game gives you plenty of time to get comfortable with air dashing before in🐼troducing the more complicated relationship between the two abilities.
In contrast, the last power, Fabric of Time, is a grappling hook that tries to recreate what the double jump does for platforming and exploration, but it doesn’t land nearly as well. ඣYou see the grapple points all over the world long before you earn the ability, which telegraphs the upgrade in an obvious way. You can also only use the ability on these grapple points, so you don’t get the same kind of ‘aha&rsqu♏o; moment from using the power that you do the first time you get to test out the double jump. Fabric of Time is a typical Metroidvania upgrade handled in a typical way, which just makes the Gravity Wings stand out even more as an expertly implemented mechanic.
There are a lot of wrong ways to do the double♊ jump, but luckily, Prince of Persia: The Lost Cro🅺wn does it right.
