The Prince of Persia roguelike had to change its story because of the Prince of Persia metroidvania - and was forbidden from using an iconic weapon

The Prince of Persia roguelike developers had to change some aspects of the game to avoid clashing with the Prince of Persia Metroidvania that came out a few months ago.

Speaking with Edge Magazine, Lucie Dewagnier, game director on The Rogue Prince of Persia, says her team had to make sure it didn’t get in the way of the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, a metroidvania spin-off that was being worked on at exactly the same time as the roguelike. While The Rogue Prince of Persia is out today, The Lost Crown only launched in January.

In her interview, Dewagnier explained that that did cause some minor issues early in development, when both games were being made at the same time and the roguelike’s story ended up with a similar setup to the Metroidvania. “We needed to change things,” the game director explains, “but in the end it was for the best.”

Ubisoft owns the rights to the Prince of Persia franchise, but The Rogue Prince of Persia is being developed by Evil Empire, best-known as the developer of acclaimed roguelike Dead Cells. Even though the indie developer and publishing juggernaut had a couple of minor clashes over narrative, however, Dewagnier says that Ubisoft let Evil Empire craft its own take on this iconic character – with one exception.

“We cannot use the Sands of Time daggers because they belong to that trilogy,” Dewagnier explains. In the end, that was just fine, because Evil Empire “wanted to do something unique” anyway. The roguelike emphasizes the Prince’s “acrobatic side,” the director points out. “He’s not a big hero with big arms and great strength – his main characteristic is agility, and we want to [emphasize] that with everything in the game.”

That approach is aided by the Prince’s limited magical abilities. His bola, which serves as a replacement weapon for those daggers, is the only magical item he automatically has at his disposal, although other weapons can be claimed from his enemies. Dewagnier says that’s because “we’re trying to make the game plausible,” so “the only characters that use magic are the Huns.”

Along with the game itself, our The Rogue Prince of Persia review is out now.

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