The Rogue Prince of Persia’s new update is a big improvement

This has been a good year for both early access games and the Prince of Persia franchise. The Rogue Prince of Persia is right at the center of that Venn diagram.

This roguelite, which was externally developed by former Dead Cells developers at Evil Empire and published by Ubisoft, entered Steam early access in May. I already thought it was a very entertaining and satisfying roguelite then, even if it did have clear room for growth and improvement. Today, Ubisoft and Evil Empire released early access Update 10, deemed “The Second Act update,” which overhauls The Rouge Prince of Persia in some significant ways. That makes now the perfect time to give this roguelite a shot if you just can’t wait for its 1.0 release.

Goodbye purple

If you need a clear indication that The Rogue Prince of Persia has changed, just look at its player character. Previously, the Prince’s skin color was purple, playing into a very vibrant, comic book-like overall aesthetic. Although The Rogue Prince of Persia retains its colorful art direction, the Prince’s color is now a more natural-looking skin tone. There have also been plenty of other small touch-ups to the art to make it even prettier.

These artistic improvements mean the intro cutscene has been replaced with one more relevant to the story. Update 10 fleshes out the narrative a bit, as the new sequence shows the Prince losing a fight against Nogaï, the king of the Huns invading Persia. He’s then saved by a mysterious figure named Paachi, who brings the Prince to an oasis that doesn’t move forward in time.

Thanks to a bola the Prince is wearing, he can repeatedly set out to discover more about the Hun’s invasion and take Persia back, as he’s sent back to the oasis every time he dies. Then, on runs, there are plenty more new conversations to be had as he meets family, old friends, and new allies. The story content available upon the early access launch was light, so seeing more meat on its bones here is great. Although the story isn’t complete (it’s impossible to do a full run yet), The Rogue Prince of Persia is headed in a positive direction on this front.

Overall, the amount of content has impressively increased through the game’s early access period. The Rouge Prince of Persia now sports nine biomes, 20 main weapons, six secondary tools, four boss encounters, 50 medallions, and 24 unique traversal challenges. The core gameplay is mostly the same. It’s a lot like Dead Cells, with players hacking and slashing any enemies that get in their way with various weapons.

The Rouge Prince of Persia emphasizes movement; the Prince can even run on most background walls. Since launch, Ubisoft has doubled down on that with a new mechanic that gives players a speed boost if they perfectly time enough parkour moves together. That freeform movement system makes The Rouge Prince of Persia ultra satisfying to play and only gets enhanced further as new biomes like the Mines and Artisans’ District are added.

Polished combat

Combat also still feels very polished, and several new enemies and bosses will test your skills in new ways if you haven’t played The Rogue Prince of Persia since its early access release. The Medallions system, which gives the Prince mid-run buffs, has also been simplified, so it’s easier to create powerful builds without worrying about the positioning of each Medallion in your inventory.

On a meta-progression level, there are also many weapons, medallions, and skill tree upgrades that players can now earn in the oasis  with Soul Cinders. That sort of meta-progression felt lacking upon the early access release, so it’s good to see the foundation of this game’s structure get stronger. While many of these changes may be small individually, cumulatively, it’s clear that The Rogue Prince of Persia has come a long way in just six months. If you’ve been putting off checking this game out, Update 10 is a perfect time to dive in.

The Rogue Prince of Persia is available in early access on PC. There’s no release date for the 1.0 version of the game yet, although Evil Empire says Update 10 marks the midpoint of the early access phase.