All of those little systems stack up to create quick and varied battles with a lot of room for creativity. There’s an impactful parry system on top of all that, which allows Sargon to block most attacks with a press of the left trigger. Sargon can spend energy to perform some special attacks, which seem like they can be customized (I could cast a healing circle by spending two bars of energy, for instance). Hold down the arrow button and Sargon releases a boomerang-like chakram that can hit an enemy again on its return. That’s just a small taste of what’s possible with some basic attacks, but the system goes even deeper. Once they hit the ground, I can chase them down with a slam attack. From there, I can juggle them by following up with a few arrow shots or air-dashing over to them and unleashing an aerial combo. If I use the left stick while attacking, Sargon can fling a grounded enemy up into the air. It seems simple at first, but those two functions are deceptively complex.

The lead hero, Sargon, can perform some basic sword attacks on one button and fire arrows with another. What immediately pops out is its excellent combat system, which goes much deeper than I anticipated after first seeing it. Even with those tweaks, I was still able to get a sense of exactly how The Lost Crown works, and that snippet left an incredibly strong first impression.

The demo I played came from an early build of the game that blocked off some pathways and gave me a few powers sooner than I’d normally have them.

Download Prince of Persia Classic