Prince Of Persia - Accessibility Review

Ubisoft and accessibility have gone hand in hand these days. In each of their franchise, they have created standards the industry is starting to follow. But what does accessibility look like in a series like Prince Of Persia that’s almost as old as video games themselves? Let’s find out.

I remember growing up playing the first Prince of Persia on my cousin’s computer and thinking that I had no idea why I was playing a Prince jumping across dangerous spikes, but I had fun with it anyway. Sadly, I never played the series' reboot with Sands Of Time. I don’t remember why, I think it might have been because I knew I wouldn’t be great at the platforming, so I just didn’t bother. However, when we got the surprise announcement last year about Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown, I knew the time was right when I could finally play a Prince of Persia game but with the modern, accessible game design Ubisoft is known for. Now, while it is not the perfect fully accessible game for some disabled players, there are new innovations that are highlight-worthy and can be seen as new standards for accessibility in the industry.

I’ll go through what the game plays like and areas of accessibility I’ll highlight, but if you’re looking for a full list of accessibility features, Ubisoft has a list of what’s available, I’ll link to it in the description below. Sadly this game doesn’t offer menu narration or a native screen reader for blind players. It also doesn’t have navigational assistance, at least in a navigable way without sighted assistance. What makes it easier than other games is that this game is completely in a 2D plane, so you can only go left or right. The map has two modes available. One is an exploration mode where no waypoints or icons are displayed, like in the original Metroidvania style; you have to know where each area you want to get to. But there is also a mode with permanent mission waypoints and icons for points of interest that can be useful for blind players. There are large icons with a legend, so you always know what they are. But there is also a sound effect each time your cursor hovers near one. It’s not ideal navigational assistance, but it does offer some help. For those on the lower vision side of the blindness spectrum, there is the ability to increase the HUD size to fit your needs. As well as a high contrast mode, which is the first time Ubisoft has implemented this feature that isn’t just for UI. You can set three different presets with different colour schemes, as well as have the ability to turn on or off a desaturated background if you prefer. All the footage of the game I am showing you in this video is the High Contrast Mode in action. Which I really like and recommend. I would’ve maybe liked the ability to adjust individual colours instead of just the three presets available, but for a first attempt at this, Ubisoft has already done 85% of what’s currently available in comparison to games that have already been working with High Contrast in their games for a while. It has helped me out a ton, especially in the hard boss fights, which I will get to in a minute.

For deaf/hard of hearing players, there are subtitle options. Also, all main story dialogue is in the style of interactive novels where the artwork of the character, along with a dialogue box, pops up. Think of Hades as an example. But sadly, there is no visualization of sound effects if an enemy is nearby. There’s even one large enemy in one section of the map you have to keep an ear for because you can’t really take them on, and if they catch you, you’re transported to another area of the map. You can hear them when you enter large areas of the map, and when they do appear on screen, there is a bubble that surrounds them to let you know not to get too close to them otherwise, they will spot you. But if you don’t hear the sound effect of them growling in the room you enter, you may stumble upon them without a warning.

For motor-disabled players, you can remap the controls. Even ones that within the story, you don’t know the function of them as of yet. They just label them as Unknown Ability. This can have some negative effects as motor-disabled players may need to change their remapping preference multiple times once a new ability is unlocked after they have already gotten used to a control scheme that works for them. But if you are familiar with fighting games and their style of combat, it pretty much has the same type of combat with its combos, parries, and dodges. So if you are a motor disabled player and like fighting games, this may be worth a try. There is another way that motor-disabled players as well as other disabled players, can adjust their experience for areas that remapping or other settings don’t account for, and that’s the ability to adjust the difficulty of the game. The game comes with several difficulty options, but it provides the ability to create a custom setting to adjust enemy and player health and adjust the parry timing window from normal to long so a player can have a bit more time to land a parry. It’s honestly a pretty robust set of customizations to adjust the difficulty. More than I expected, actually. I found the normal “Warrior” difficulty to be really difficult for me personally. Mostly has to do with the timing of my attacks and dodges. If you have watched my videos before, you know that is common with my disability. However, this game was harder to play for me than other games I’ve played, especially for the bosses. I constantly would die because of missed parry timings or missed dodges from heavy, un-parryable attacks. But after adjusting the parry and dodge timing, I was able to defeat the bosses I’ve encountered so far. I wish we had more granular control over those windows, but what is available in the game is playable for me, and I can adjust what I need.

Where I think the game shines is its newest feature in the Metroidvania genre, which is HUGE for cognitively disabled players but also players in general. In a Metroidvania game, memorization is needed to identify areas you want to remember to get back to later when you have gained new abilities to unlock those areas or just a general point of interest you want to remember. Ubisoft has created a Memory Shard system where if you want to remember an area you are in, hold down on the D-Pad, and the game takes a screenshot of what’s on the screen and pins that screenshot to the map screen. So you can always reference it later. This is a really cool design concept and opens up the Metroidvania-style gameplay to more people. I think this should be adopted by other developers working on Metroidvanias in the future. This is one of those times when you design for accessibility, and it can benefit everyone, not just disabled players. It’s really cool stuff.

Another additional cognitive accessibility feature that’s worth highlighting is that some of the amulets you unlock can be used for accessibility. Especially one you unlock at the beginning of the game that is called the “Prosperity Bird,” where a bird will fly with you and will chirp if a treasure or hidden path is nearby, and if it’s on the screen, the bird will fly to that spot for you. It does take up one amulet slot, so you have to pick and choose which amulets you need if you don’t have enough slots, but it was a cool idea that helped me a ton.

EDITORS NOTE: I wasn’t informed until after the review went live that the “Prosperity Bird” amulet is only available in the Deluxe Edition of the game. It is not available to get even as a shop item in the standard edition.

Especially for hidden paths, I would’ve missed if it wasn’t for the bird chirping at me. There are also other smaller design details that help a ton. at one point, you find a child named Fariba, and at a certain point, she will show up in a permanent safe area where you can pay 50 shards to get a hint of where to go next if you’re stuck. There’s also any time you are near a Wak Wak Tree where you can refresh your health, and they act as checkpoints. There is a subtle wind that shows the direction of a Wak Wak tree whenever it’s nearby. And these Wak Wak trees are important to find as if you die you will go back to the previous Wak Wak tree you visited. Again, little subtle design stuff that “just makes sense.”

Overall, I am fully enjoying my time with Prince of Persia. There’s an interesting story there fused with a more fantastical version of Persian history. But also it being accessible even with it’s missing areas of disability spectrums, is still a game I would recommend for disabled players to give it a try. It is the first big game release of 2024. I hope this shows a trend for more amazing accessibility in the coming year. I give Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown for accessibility a 3.5 out of 5.