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The dashing prince receives his very own roguelike: The Rogue Prince of Persia is a fun spin on the genre for both newcomers and veterans.
After being almost completely ignored by Ubisoft for several years, the Prince of Persia series has been revived with two great titles: the metroidvania The Lost Crown and a roguelike developed by Evil Empire, appropriately called The Rogue Prince of Persia.
Both of these games proved that the IP has still a lot of potential and is fit for games different from what people would expect. With The Rogue Prince of Persia, for example, very few people would expect that a roguelike mechanic would work so well with the dashing prince, but thanks to the excellent work of the developers it feels like it was always meant to work this way.
Concept and storytelling are quite similar to what you’d see in a game like Hades: every time you get defeated, or you manage to complete a full run of the game, you get sent back to the beginning and you’re able to use what you’ve learned to unlock new skills, develop the story further and try again. This will not only make any new run potentially unique, but it also gives you a purpose to keep playing even after defeating the final boss of the campaign, as you’ll be encouraged to discover every hidden secret and uncover the whole story.
In every run you will get a secondary mission, which will encourage you to look out for certain NPCs, memorize their locations or just simply access a new level to start your run in. The game will often offer you several ways to progress the story by letting you discover a certain hint in different locations, making sure you never truly risk softlocking yourself by not taking certain paths.
Combat is also really satisfying, as even if you don’t have a lot of moves at your disposal, the Prince is acrobatic and agile, allowing you to use different movement options to approach enemies in the right way. The downside of this mechanic is that the only way your opponents can ever feel threatening is when there are too many of them and once they end up surrounding you, but you can always reposition yourself to make sure to get a proper advantage. Every weapon, both melee and ranged, feels unique and allows for several playstyles, and an extra layer of customization comes from the medallion system, which is a variation of the “boon” systems from similar games. You can only equip a limited number of them, forcing you to choose the buffs you want carefully.
The game also encourages you to explore as much as possible, instead of just entering the next level as soon as possible, by adding certain “checkpoints” you can easily fast travel to, allowing for certain strategic decisions to occur. For example, if you find a shop and you don’t have enough coins to buy the upgrades you want, you can go explore the rest of the level and defeat several enemies until you’re actually able to purchase your upgrades. Or if you find an exit, you can always go back and see what secrets you missed hoping to unlock boons that will make your run easier. Another option is to make sure to get the item that will replenish your HP a bit later, when you will actually need it. These are just a few examples of how fast travelling can help you plan your routes during a run.
A complete playthrough, whether you survive or not, is with an average of 45 minutes also really short and encourages “pick up and play” sessions, as a run won’t require much time and effort, which is definitely a positive trait of a roguelike aiming to be as unique as possible. Once you actually complete a run, you will have to choose a way to make your next playthroughs more difficult or to make them feel more random, in order for the game to not feel too easy while you’re still able to completing every story quest.
The game can run up tp 4K in docked mode and in 1080p in portable mode on Switch 2. Even with a lot of action, I didn’t notice any proper lack of performance, neither in docked or portable mode, so it seems pretty well optimized for this console. Even the loading doesn’t take too long: each level of a run requires about 5~10 seconds before fully loading, with a similar amount of time passing once you get teleported back to your camp after a death or an ended run.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, The Rogue Prince of Persia is a fun game to experiment with if you enjoy roguelikes or just 2D style adventures. While combat is not as well refined as The Lost Crown, it’s definitely more acrobatic and easier to play, making this also a solid choice if you don’t have much experience with the genre.
We’ve played the digital Nintendo Switch 2 edition of the game (released on December 16th, 2025) for the purpose of this review, but from today you can also purchase the physical edition of the game for PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. The Nintendo versions come with game-key cards. In addition to the Standard Edition you can also get the Immortal Edition, which includes a steelbook with a protective sleeve, a double-sided poster and art cards with artwork from the game.
Giveaway
Let us know your favourite Prince of Persia game in the comments below alongside your preferred platform, and you’ll have the chance to win 1 boxed PlayStation 5, and 1 Nintendo Switch copy of the Standard Edition of The Rogue Prince of Persia. The giveaway ends on Monday, April 13th, 2026 at 20:00 CEST. The winners must provide a postal address within Germany, Austria, or Switzerland (DACH region) after the giveaway has concluded.
By participating you confirm that we can use your e-mail address to notify you regarding your entry in the competition and deliver the product in case you’ve won anything and you also confirm that you’re at least 18 years old. Winners will be chosen by random (random.org). Since we don’t know how many people will enter the competition, we cannot guarantee that you’ll win anything. Additionally by participating you also confirm that you’ll only take part in the competition once. Once we learn of an infringement upon this condition, we reserve the right to exclude that person from this giveaway and from future competitions. If a winner does not provide such a postal address within 24 hours from being notified via e-mail, another winner is randomly chosen. We trust that our partners have provided us with products that function as expected, and we provide no liability/warranty/exchange for them. Thanks to U&I Entertainment for providing the games.
U&I Entertainment provided us with a Nintendo Switch 2 copy of the game for review purposes. The screenshots are based on Ubisoft’s original release of the game for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S back in August.