The Prince of Persia series made its grand return last week with The Lost Crown, an excellent Metroidvania that learns from and improves upon some of the genre’s best games. It’s got an entertaining story to boot, which plays around with the concept of timelines without defaulting to a contrived multiverse story like Mortal Kombat 1. All its time travel and frequent flashbacks can make the story hard to parse at times, though.
Considering The Lost Crown can take 20 hours or more to beat, you might have forgotten some important story details by the time you rolled credits. Whether that is the case or you’re just looking for a concise summary of its narrative and ending, here’s a thorough recap of the events of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
How does Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown begin?
The Lost Crown begins with a battle between Persia, led by General Anahita, and the eastern Kingdom of Kusharn, led by General Uvishka. The tide of battle turns in Persia’s favor when an elite group of Persian warriors called the Immortals shows up. Players control Sargon, the youngest of the Immortals. Throughout this opening battle, players are introduced to the other members of the Immortals, namely the bow-wielding Menolias, heavy hitter Orod, and leader Vahram.
Sargon defeats and kills Uvishka, a massive victory for Persia. They return to Persepolis, where Queen Thomyris lives. Here, Sargon is introduced to her son, Prince Ghassan. He leaves the throne and catches up with Anahita, who points out that Persia is barely surviving under Thomyris’ rule despite their victory. Sargon goes on to celebrate with the other Immortals, but these festivities are cut short when the group learns Ghassan has been kidnapped.
Sargon pursues and quickly discovers that Anahita has betrayed Thomyris and the Immortals and is taking Ghassan to Mount Qaf. The Immortals, led by Vahram, pursue but quickly separate as they continue the search for Ghassan. Very quickly, it becomes clear that time doesn’t flow normally in Mount Qaf. What feels like minutes for Sargon can be days for other Immortals. Eventually, Sargon catches up to Anahita, and a twist redefines the story of The Lost Crown.
Who betrays Sargon in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown?
So far, it seemed like Anahita would be the main antagonist of The Lost Crown. But when Sargon confronts her with Ghassan at Mount Qaf, he’s interrupted by Vahram. Instead of helping Sargon, Vahram stabs and kills Ghassan. He then tries to kill Anahita, but Sargon intervenes and fends off Vahram. It’s a fight Sargon ultimately loses, and he’s tossed off the bridge where the fight takes place.
This doesn’t kill Sargon, though. Instead, he awakens in The Depths of Mount Qaf and is assisted by an old man who tells him that Ghassan can still be saved in a past timeline. Sargon believes him because he’d fought an alternate version of himself from an alternate timeline earlier and absorbed their powers. To travel through time, he first needs to get the help of a giant snake named Azhdaha. On his quest to access the Pit of Eternal Sands, where Azhdaha rests, Sargon learns that Vahram has framed Sargon for Ghassan’s death, turning Orod and Menolias against him.
After an exploration-focused bit of the game where players gather the abilities needed to break the glyphs blocking the entrance to the Pit of Eternal Sands, Sargon confronts Azhdaha. After coming out of that battle victorious, the foe implies that both Sargon and Vahram are of royal blood and tasks Sargon with contacting four Celestial Guardians, which are spread around the different corners of Mount Qaf.
As Sargon completes these tasks, he must fight and kill Orod and Menolias, who both forgive Sargon before their deaths. Anahita reveals that she kidnapped Ghassan under Thomyris’ orders and tries to offer Sargon her help, but he refuses. Sargon also encounters a boy who’s a younger version of Vahram multiple times. Eventually, with the help of the Celestial Guardians, Sargon can travel back in time to moments before Vahram kills Ghassan.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s ending
Sargon steps in before Vahram can kill Ghassan, much to the former’s shock. Ghassan survives, but Anahita is fatally wounded defending Sargon from a killing blow. Sargon and Vahram face off once again, and during the fight, Sargon learns that Vahram is the son of Darius, the previous ruler of Persia. He brought Vahram to Mount Qaf to be blessed by the Simurgh, a time-bending bird god that can name new rulers of Persia.
Before Vahram could be named a worthy successor to Darius, Thomyris attacked them. This results in Darius’ death, the Simurgh’s disappearance, and Thomyris’ ascent to the throne. Vahram bided his time and became leader of the Immortals, but ultimately used Ghassan’s kidnapping to recover the Simurgh’s powers for himself and ascend to godhood.
After merging with the past version of himself, Ghassan tells Sargon that Vahram will be after the Heart of the Simurgh. To gain access to where that rests, Sargon fights a resurrected version of King Darius, who asks Sargon to save him soon after defeat. This gives Sargon everything he needs for his final confrontation with Vahram at the Hall of Divination, which rests at Mount Qaf’s summit.
When Sargon confronts Vahram, the traitor explains his intent to use the Simurgh’s powers to reshape the world and asks Sargon to give up his powers one last time. Sargon refuses, so Vahram destroys the heart and Sargon’s timeline. In a void outside of time, Sargon gains a final blessing from the Simurgh, and Vahram and Sargon have their final battle. Sargon wins and tries to save Vahram, but Vahram sacrifices himself to restore the Heart of the Simurgh and the universe.
The Lost Crown ends with Sargon revealing what Thomyris did to the people of Persia and fellow Immortals Arteban and Neith taking care of a young version of Vahram that survived. If you complete an endgame challenge, a lore document reveals that Prince was seemingly swapped at birth. Based on this and banter from Orod earlier in the game, it seems that Ghassan and Sargon were switched at birth, technically making Sargon the true prince of Persia.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Amazon Luna, and Nintendo Switch.
