Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog Book Club. We are here to chat about the early moments of Prince of the Lost Crown up until our return to the Haven from the forest. Reminder, we do go into spoilers here and there, so if you want to avoid that start of the previous episode, play along and come back to this one once you’re caught up.

First off, Alex, what platform are you playing this on?

[00:00:20] Speaker B: I’m playing this on PlayStation 5.

[00:00:23] Speaker A: PlayStation 5 Pro, I’m assuming.

[00:00:25] Speaker B: Oh, yes, PS5 Pro. Yes. To be more.

[00:00:28] Speaker A: Not more specific. Not. Not that I. I’m sure this one doesn’t require all that muscle, but. But that’s all good. Yeah, I’m on PS5 on standard launch. PS5 and a little bit on the Portal, but I probably will use it a bit more moving forward.

[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I’ll probably be. I haven’t used. I didn’t use the Portal for this section, but I’ll probably.

[00:00:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s. I. I do enjoy playing Metroidvanias in handheld. Not all the time, but, you know, a portion of my play times usually. I play a lot of Metroidvanias on Switch, but anyway, for reference to anyone joining us at this episode and not our previous expectations episode, Alex, this is really your first committed foray into the Metroidvania genre after starting a couple others, but getting distracted. Any first impressions of this style of gameplay?

[00:01:10] Speaker B: It’s been. I’ve actually found it really fun and difficult, even though I’m on the. I think it’s called. I don’t know if it’s Warrior level. It’s whatever the default setting is, but it’s still been slightly difficult for me. Died a few times. But I will say, compared to, as I said, very briefly dipped into other Metroidvanias, this one seems a little more forgiving on like safe areas or where you can get to sort of rest, I guess.

[00:01:36] Speaker A: Rest areas, but like checkpoints and safe Checkpoints.

[00:01:39] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, checkpoints. But. But I’ve actually. Yeah, the first part of it, I actually. I kind of flew through pretty quickly. I was kind of really enjoying my time.

So.

[00:01:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was only a couple of play sessions, if I’m not mistaken.

I did the same. Yeah. I also chose Warrior, the standard difficulty, but depending on how much or how little dying I end up doing as we progress, I might bump it up to Hero. I am also very intrigued by the custom difficulty setting as well, where you could mix and match because something like making the parry difficulty or the dodge window more difficult sounds like fun. We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes going along.

And yeah, I mean, I guess that that helps to kind of set the stage a little bit more and you know, you’re fully committed to finishing this one, which is great.

[00:02:28] Speaker B: Oh yeah.

[00:02:29] Speaker A: Did you choose exploration or guided, which I think was more related to kind of movement and exam or discovery of the world?

[00:02:39] Speaker B: I think it just exploration, right? I think, yeah.

[00:02:42] Speaker A: Good. That is, that is.

There’s no right or wrong when playing any video game, but there’s in a Metroidvania. The exploration is a very large part of why so many people enjoy it and are obsessed with the genre. So I’m glad you chose that. Guided, I’m sure is just fine for others and it probably gives you some degree of, you know, trademark Ubisoft style map points that you can follow along, but we don’t need that here. What about language?

[00:03:13] Speaker B: Oh, I did it all and okay, I didn’t even think about that, to be honest. That one didn’t even come to mind. It’s just in English with subtitles like I usually do.

[00:03:21] Speaker A: Nope, that, you know, is reasonable enough. I was very excited to see. I generally flip through and I was excited to see Persian was actually an option here in the spoken language list. So just like I do with choosing Japanese with subtitles when playing JRPGs that aren’t final Fantasy or anime art style games.

And the Ghost of Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei, I did the same here. I chose Persian with English subtitles. It just felt right and it brought back many memories since a friend of mine growing up spoke Farsi with his parents and so I heard the language live in person quite a lot many, many years ago. So it was.

It’s cool to hear it here. Very different and not something you see in video games all that much.

No maybe at all. I don’t know.

[00:04:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, definitely not.

[00:04:09] Speaker A: Well, well, right off the bat I would say I can state that this is a damn epic soundtrack.

[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah, the music, yes, it’s been good so far.

[00:04:19] Speaker A: No surprise to me. You know, I ended up popping in the while driving and whatnot, listening to the soundtrack, primarily composed and performed by Gareth Coker, who did the music for both Ori games too. Two other Metroidvanias which also have fantastic kind of orchestral soundtracks. The main theme set the tone and I was immediately ready for this musical ride we’re embarking on as well, which is a great way to start a game.

And to start off, I felt the storyboard cut scene that establishes the world we’re in was great. I like the idea of being one of the seven Immortals. Almost makes it feel like a team up movie a little bit.

[00:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it does.

[00:05:01] Speaker A: If it weren’t for the fact that it would have required way too many complexities. It could have been cool to make all seven Immortals playable characters and either swap them out or play through sections as each one. Or like that series Trine, which I don’t know if you heard of, or you can play it in co op. And then each one of them has their own advantages and disadvantages and abilities.

[00:05:24] Speaker B: But yeah, when you said that like playing, my mind went to the, like, original Gauntlet games, that type of game.

[00:05:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Gauntlet Legends.

[00:05:32] Speaker B: Like Gauntlet Legends.

[00:05:33] Speaker A: Gauntlet Legends on arcade. And I want to say I played it on N60.

[00:05:36] Speaker B: I played N64. And then there was one on GameCube as well that I played.

[00:05:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And the. But you can’t beat the arcade. Yeah. Except for the fact that you’re wasting way too many quarters on it.

[00:05:50] Speaker B: True.

[00:05:51] Speaker A: I’d say also that two and a half D is put to great effect here. Early on, I really enjoyed crossing that first battlefield with the fights going on in the background and the foreground.

[00:06:02] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:06:03] Speaker A: Really immersive. Which honestly, I haven’t played many 2.5D games yet. But I’m loving it after this week.

[00:06:09] Speaker B: No, same. It was. It was cool. I’m not going to lie. Semi confused me of like, am I supposed to hit these people or not? Yeah. Who am I fighting? But yeah, no, it was. Which is really cool.

[00:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you. So you don’t do that here in this opening scene, but you. You can hit the pots along the way and get some currency out of it or help. So some of the foreground background stuff is useful.

[00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.

[00:06:33] Speaker A: How did that first tutorial boss treat you?

[00:06:37] Speaker B: Not very nicely.

I think I might have missed. I don’t remember it being in the tutorial, but I think I missed the part of like, you can dodge.

So I was trying to just like jump away and his attacks just. I think I died like four or five times. And then once I realized I did have the sort of dodge mechanic, like not just sliding, but also just. If you just press. I think it’s just circle or whatever.

[00:07:01] Speaker A: Just.

[00:07:01] Speaker B: Or whatever.

[00:07:02] Speaker A: No, R2.

[00:07:03] Speaker B: R2. You just dodge. So that. Actually once I did that the first. The first time I was using dodge, I was able to just dodge most of the attacks and I’d.

[00:07:10] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. So to my memory, it didn’t explicitly call it a dodge. It called it a slide. So it was a way to teach you to. To go underneath a low hanging barrier.

[00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:07:22] Speaker A: So I didn’t dodge. So. But you use it as. It doubles as a dodge. So you kind of just have to intuit out that or do it by accident and realize it.

But. So now that you’ve figured it out, I’m sure the combat is a lot more fun.

[00:07:38] Speaker B: Oh yeah.

[00:07:39] Speaker A: Instead of getting crushed by the same boss.

[00:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. No, then I was just using it. It really helps in just combat where you can kind of just dodge through to the back of an enemy and take him out from behind and.

[00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah, certainly a lot more useful than jumping in most cases.

[00:07:52] Speaker B: Oh yeah.

[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I was able to kill it on the first try. I used my one potion, but it wasn’t terribly difficult. But so you, you get.

You finish off this battle. You end up back at the palace and after receiving the sash from the queen and chatting with Prince Cassan, you have a word with Anahita, your general that the one that taught you everything and keeps you humble. And then you go to banter and party with your fellow immortal crew. Side note. Or rod wielding a giant double edged anchor is so badass as a weapon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. It’s so random, but I’m a fan.

[00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it was sick.

[00:08:32] Speaker A: And then there’s Radjin who looks freaky deaky like Voldo in Soul Calibur.

Not sure how familiar you are with

[00:08:40] Speaker B: that series, but no, he also kind of looked like that’s the sort of ninja with the mask.

[00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah, right, the one with the mask and the one.

[00:08:48] Speaker B: It sort of looks like the mask semi remind me of like a Death Eater from the Harry Potter series.

[00:08:53] Speaker A: Okay. I think I’ve only seen that from the ride, but I hear you.

But yeah, you know, just hops down out of the shadows to alert you that the prince has been kidnapped. So right away we’re on the hunt.

And then as you’re kind of trying to catch up to the kidnapping, they introduce you to the Athra meter and Athra surge, which I had seen mentioned in the settings menu and wondered what that meant. But quite like that, this feature that mechanically functions as basically Kratos’s rage mode in God of War or many other similar chargeable meters. That it had a cultural explanation that Athra is the sacred energy that burns in every living being. Touch. More interesting than. You’ve avoided damage long enough. So here. Go crush them.

[00:09:36] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

[00:09:40] Speaker A: And yeah, so I guess I had this whole spiel written down in my notes about how I had a gut feeling that something was telling me in this day and age of twists being practically a requirement in most dramatic media, that either the kidnapping was an inside job, or someone we already know was behind it for XYZ reason and was hoping that I would be pleasantly surprised if by the end of the game, it’s actually just the pre established enemy nation that did the kidnapping. But no, they don’t even hide it for more than a few minutes.

[00:10:10] Speaker B: Nope.

[00:10:10] Speaker A: Which I suppose I guess the twist was that there wasn’t really a twist since they revealed it so fast.

[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yeah, they did.

[00:10:19] Speaker A: And yeah, you immediately catch up to Anahita, who is behind it all walls you off with some mystical magic dance moves, and then peaces out and leaves you with people to fight.

[00:10:29] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:10:32] Speaker A: And okay, so off we start on the journey. Once we’re in this kind of long forgotten citadel of Mount Ka, even though it previously housed a wealth of knowledge about the world, we see the weird ways that time dilation is occurring right away, with the falling statue suspended in the air, and the long dead and decomposed member of Artaban’s army, despite the fact that they just barely arrived before we did.

[00:10:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s a. I don’t know. I’m excited to see going forward how that’s where that plays in with the story.

[00:11:04] Speaker A: Yeah, they’re trying to establish something here as far as an unusual occurrence going on related to time and the way that it moves or doesn’t. But yeah, after all that, even though this is not a horror game, the immortals just inexplicably pull the first mistake of all, horror, and immediately split up.

[00:11:25] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:11:27] Speaker A: So yay us. We get to take on the zombies we didn’t know existed at all by our lonesome. At least. They’re just the basic fodder enemies here. Mm.

[00:11:36] Speaker B: They weren’t too, too bad.

[00:11:38] Speaker A: In your exploration, did you come across the Lore Tablet about the Simurgh?

[00:11:45] Speaker B: I bel. Yes, I did. Yeah. I came across a couple.

[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Right. So it sounds like the Simurgh is basically the one that always selects the next ruler.

I love that they incorporated real elements of Persian mythology here, since the Simurgh is a benevolent bird that protects people from evil and is the God of time. But it left Mount Kaf, so time is all out of whack.

So I suppose that’s the initial description of it. But I guess the real bottom line is why did it leave everyone here to their own devices?

Time to keep exploring. And even in just this very early section of the game, like any good Metroidvania, I already discovered at least four areas I couldn’t reach. But we’ll have to go back to sit.

[00:12:33] Speaker B: Yep, same here.

Yeah, there are a few areas that I noticed. I was like, one of them specifically. I was like. It was just a pit of spikes and I could see the platform. I was like, I might be away. I, like, don’t know if I hit the spikes if it doesn’t kill me fully, like, if it’ll bounce me to that platform.

[00:12:51] Speaker A: This looks like you can basically. Yes, most likely. So it’s a common ability and I don’t know, I just kind of went for it most of the time. Unless it was a wall that I clearly couldn’t open or a gate or a door or whatever those cases, I just kind of marked it down and then moved on. But the ones that looked like they were spikes, I at least gave it a shot to see if I could get there. There’s the big obvious gaps that you can’t jump across.

[00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:13:17] Speaker A: But some of them. There was a sort of way to platform and wall run and wall jump and whatever. Whatever to get around. And so I guess to answer your question, if you land on the spikes and you have full health, it knocks off some of your health and respawns you where you were when you jumped.

I haven’t done it with my health. Low enough to die because of it, but it will kill you. Can pretty much guarantee that.

[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:13:41] Speaker A: So at least you can give it a shot if you’re like 50. 50 on whether you’ll make it or not. Um, yeah, but considering the advanced moveset, in terms of maneuverability, I feel like most of these things you can at least kind of acrobatically arrive at the next platform. So worth. Worth a try if you’ve got the health.

[00:14:03] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, definitely.

[00:14:05] Speaker A: So even with these four sections, and I knew previously, I mean, we had talked about it last time, but the screenshot feature didn’t even get provided to us by the time I found all these areas because I didn’t have the map either.

But then right after that, I found my first wokbok tree and Fariba right after that, who gives you the map? So obviously I went immediately backwards to chart all the places I needed to revisit before I forgot about them.

Did you do the same?

[00:14:34] Speaker B: I think so, Yeah, I did. Yeah. I went back.

I’m not gonna. I gotta get better at. I know the. Whatever it is down on the D pad where you can chart. I did some of them.

[00:14:44] Speaker A: The time when I was trying to heal in a boss fight, I was just taking screenshots or map screenshots. So I gotta get out of that habit. But because it’s just the other direction.

[00:14:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it is. So I gotta go back to a few places and take screenshots right where I need to go.

[00:15:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s, you know, it’s important. It’s important to remember. And at least it also has a pin system. So if you don’t remember to screenshot, you can still use the map, pull up the map and do the pins.

But I do very much suggest that you try that out. And honestly, I think it looks like you get is it three or four screenshots per biome or per section?

And then you have to, you know, use your pins, which you can kind of just assign your own understanding of what those icons mean. Yeah, but I, yeah, I would definitely, definitely suggest kind of abusing that feature because otherwise you’re gonna have to literally run around the whole map trying to find secrets or potentially the neck, the next main section of where you’re supposed to go. I did notice if I went the. Not the wrong way, but the other direction. There’s that kind of slowly flowing, you know, air river looking thing that’s gold that kind of tries to guide you to where you’re supposed to go.

[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw it. It’s usually, I feel like that guy comes up when you’re close to a wac wack tree.

That’s the gold.

[00:16:06] Speaker A: Yeah, the gold of the leaves. I thought that’s what it was.

No, I guess you’re right. Yeah, it gets you to the next whack whack tree.

[00:16:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s kind of telling you like which way is the next quack wak tree.

[00:16:16] Speaker A: But there was, I want to say there was an. Okay, it may still be that, but there was one that was. That guided you over to the cliff edge where Aurad jumps across a cliff.

[00:16:25] Speaker B: Oh yeah.

[00:16:26] Speaker A: And then it went back the other direction but went more vertically up. So I think it’s partially next objective. And in many cases the next objective will be the next whack whack tree.

[00:16:37] Speaker B: Yep.

Yeah.

[00:16:42] Speaker A: But yes, finding.

Finding the haven was pretty useful, obviously. Did you do any of Artaban’s trainings in the Haven before heading off to the forest?

[00:16:51] Speaker B: No, I did not.

[00:16:54] Speaker A: And you haven’t done them since then?

[00:16:55] Speaker B: I haven’t done them, no.

[00:16:57] Speaker A: You should do them.

[00:16:59] Speaker B: I saw your, your Comment on our discord. I’m gonna. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do when I get back in.

[00:17:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I, I did. I did the first one. Basically, I was doing them because I opened up the menu and looked at what was there because I saw I was just short enough on cash for the additional health potion from the mage.

And then so I did a training thing and bought that. And then I realized there were enough training modules available that I could even afford an extra upgrade as well. So I just did all the ones that were available right away, and then there was an additional one that unlocked by getting the bow. And so I went back and did that too, because it, you know, it helps to buy your upgrades when they’re available.

Almost. Almost better. I don’t know if I consider upgrades or the teachings actually more valuable here because he teaches you a number of things you don’t get otherwise in terms of skill sets, specifically certain combos and button presses.

[00:17:59] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:18:00] Speaker A: So if you, like, if you hold up, up attack. If you hold the up and attack together, it does like a launcher. And if you’re in the air and hold down an attack, it kind of does a slam attack. And it seems like you can do a lot of, like, juggling and things like that. So it’s.

The training gives you a bunch of options that you wouldn’t have expected otherwise. I mean, most likely I would have. If I didn’t do them, I would have just continued just mashing square and dodging occasionally.

[00:18:29] Speaker B: I, I kind of found out while playing that you could, you could do some of those. Yeah, you could throw people up by, like, hitting up. It’s kind of like Super Smash Bros. Yeah, that’s.

[00:18:39] Speaker A: That’s exactly what I was gonna say.

[00:18:40] Speaker B: I was Link.

[00:18:41] Speaker A: After going through the training, I felt much more like the combat here takes on a bit of that Super Smash Bros element with up and down attacks and launchers and. And basically smat, like charged smash attacks and obviously the mobility and being able to dodge and kind of roll through. And I wonder if you asked the Dev team if they used Smash Bros as a.

As even a small degree of inspiration.

[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yeah.

For the combat. Yeah.

[00:19:12] Speaker A: And then. Okay, so we. You wander through the forest. Camille sure as hell looks a lot like Mimir from God of War.

[00:19:22] Speaker B: Yes, you’re right. Yeah. Trying to think who. Yes. Okay.

[00:19:26] Speaker A: It’s just like a floating.

Floating sprite, like, foresty sprite head.

[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yep.

On one of the Wack Wak trees.

[00:19:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And he. And he kind of. It looked like it was no I thought for a second it was growing out of the whackrack tree, but it sounded like it lives there, but it was just a disembodied head, at least the way it was animated. So I don’t know. But the character is kind of just as quirky as Mimir, so you gotta love him.

[00:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I.

[00:19:51] Speaker A: You know, obviously we’re gonna see. See him again somewhere. Maybe see some other figures like.

Like him too. So curious what elements of the lore that presents. And also, you know, Fariva, the little kid that’s running around and provides you the map and provides you kind of a hint system when you get back from the forest.

Like, I wonder if that goes much further beyond that.

[00:20:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I’m curious on if she, you know, if she has anything more to do with,

[00:20:25] Speaker A: like, it seems. It seems like the thing that you could take advantage of to build out the lore in the world a lot.

But they could have just done it as, like, an intro to some details and then call it a day and just have it be a hint system, which I guess some people will use. I kind of have the kind of dislike of seeing notification markers, like, on my phone and all that, so I always just kind of go through and read everything and finish it off. But then there’s the hint thing that she pops up in her menu, and I don’t like seeing it, but I don’t want to look at the hint either, because I don’t want to know. I want to figure out myself.

[00:21:00] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I get that. Yeah.

[00:21:03] Speaker A: So you wander through the forest, right? You’re fighting these kind of praying mantis things and some bugs and some enemies that are straight out of Metroid, but you reach this giant, gigantic, colorful wild boar.

[00:21:17] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:21:18] Speaker A: How was that boss, for you?

[00:21:20] Speaker B: Easier. I beat it first try without taking any damage.

[00:21:25] Speaker A: Okay, that’s solid.

That’s a big change from before.

[00:21:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I kinda. On the way there, it kind of really mastered the. The parry system of, like, timing.

[00:21:37] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.

[00:21:38] Speaker B: Parry off the text.

[00:21:40] Speaker A: So, yeah, I’m sort of halfway there a lot of the time. I’ll see the yellow glint or whatever and immediately hit L2 and then be too early.

[00:21:49] Speaker B: Too early. Yeah, yeah, I get that. I mean, I’m not still perfect, but on this one, yeah, because, like, he does, like, it’s pretty easy. He kind of telegraphs everything. So when he was getting ready to charge, the second I saw he was like. The second he was, like, right up against me, I just hit it, and then boom. I’d knock him back. I’d run up, hit him a few times, hit him a few times.

He kind of would spit stuff out at you. And I just knew to, like, dodge backwards. And then he’d do the. It again. His charge, and I just knock him back. And I just kept doing that until I got him all the way down. And then I used.

Yeah, the. What we called it. I forgot now the special attack.

[00:22:28] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, you get the othra. I think it is.

The author attacks. So do you. Do you. There’s. I think I have three of them unlocked. I imagine you do too.

[00:22:39] Speaker B: Oh, no, I think I only have two.

[00:22:40] Speaker A: There’s the one where you, like, spin your swords and then stab straight in the line through armor, which you get the first one you learn. There’s one where you charge up for a second, then you basically do like a link from Zelda with the master sword when you have full health and you can sort of slice and it launches these beams out. Do you have that?

[00:23:00] Speaker B: No, I don’t have that. I have the. I only have two. So I have that one where you kind of. Yeah, you take your swords and you

[00:23:05] Speaker A: just go do the giant stab.

[00:23:08] Speaker B: Yes, giant stab. Then I have one that does, like a heal.

[00:23:12] Speaker A: Yes. Okay. It’s like the aura thing where you.

[00:23:14] Speaker B: Yeah, the aura.

[00:23:15] Speaker A: Slam the ground and it gives you a healing aura. Slash, explosion.

Like the back off explosion. Yes. Okay. So the one that I found. I guess I must have found it in one of those areas. I kind of went off and did some random platforming. It’s. It’s useful. I feel like the. The first one that you get is more damage probably.

But this thing is. It’s. Yeah, it’s basically just you swipe your swords and then you launch, like, three kind of just walls of energy out. And it has a pushback, which is great, and does some damage along the way, so it’s like a good way to get some space.

[00:23:52] Speaker B: Okay. I’m gonna have to.

[00:23:53] Speaker A: Don’t remember where I found it. Don’t remember what it’s called, but if you’re curious, I can look it up and let you know.

[00:24:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I might be. I might. Yeah. I’ll see if. If I can’t find it by myself. Kind of quickish. Did you find it before the forest or after?

[00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah, before. Well, it might have been during the forest, but it was before this boss.

[00:24:14] Speaker B: Okay. Because I think there might have been a section in the forest that I didn’t.

[00:24:19] Speaker A: Yeah, there’s a couple. Yeah. I would need to look at where Exactly. It was. But I guess this is also our psa. And the PSA for the listeners that there are Athra abilities hidden in random corners of the world.

[00:24:32] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:24:33] Speaker A: So not a movement ability, like, you know, the standards, but attacks. So yeah, I was going to say that. To explore every corner.

[00:24:41] Speaker B: Yeah. If you guys are.

Whoever’s playing along with us, if you. If you find it as well, you want to enter into the discord, if you want to keep it from everybody, we can obviously put it as like a little like spoiler, like mark it out. But then for people who want to. Yeah. Read it and figure out where it is, we can do that. So. Yeah, totally.

[00:25:00] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, what did you think of some of the other kind of mini bosses along the way too? There’s. There was the guy with a giant shield. There’s like some brute type enemies with big swords. Yeah.

And then there’s the other guys with shields that you can like bust down by using a charge. Your regular charge attack, like the hold square attack.

[00:25:20] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I don’t.

[00:25:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that was one of the other things that like that was in those trainings.

[00:25:27] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. I haven’t used a charge attack on a person or on an enemy as much.

[00:25:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And that’s. That’s just a simple hold square.

[00:25:37] Speaker B: Yeah. On those I can. On those I like usually again, I can parry them and then hit them so it knocks them off balance or I just find the split second where I can maybe dodge through them, like slide to the other side and then from the back. So.

[00:25:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So you mean back to the giant boar.

I’m still kind of iffy on my parry ability and I did die to this one, I think once. And so I’m more, I guess so far more on the dodge slide approach for a lot of cases, you know, except there are some where you can’t dodge through them. Like those shield guys. I think you can’t dodge through them.

[00:26:14] Speaker B: No, no. I like Harry them first and then.

[00:26:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh yeah.

[00:26:19] Speaker B: And then I could dodge through them.

[00:26:20] Speaker A: So. Yeah. Yeah. I especially was. You mentioned that the attack where it kind of launches poison at you from its mouth. So I would always just. I basically just kind of a bit of a souls like trick too is just always be behind them as much as you can.

So I was dodging through a regular attack, attacking in the back, dodging again. Then he would do this poison spew, dodge it again to the back and then get an attack in. And then if you weren’t quick enough, he would look backwards and do this kind of hind leg kick.

[00:26:51] Speaker B: What?

[00:26:51] Speaker A: Okay. You didn’t see that attack at all.

[00:26:53] Speaker B: No, because I didn’t get. No, I didn’t get behind him.

[00:26:55] Speaker A: You were kept him in front of

[00:26:56] Speaker B: me to parry him.

[00:26:57] Speaker A: Yeah, this hind leg attack and I was like you’re gonna do that, aren’t you? So but this, sometimes I’m like either stuck and I can’t cancel out of it of an attack that I’m doing into the move. So I’d get smacked against the wall with this giant kick. But anyway, still fun. Nice kind of early boss fight to get your get you warmed up and a good final kind of boss of this section of the game. And after you beat him, you come up on what looks like eerily like yourself, but really messed up, I think probably dead. And Menelaus bow. So you know, boo on the first part and woohoo on getting the new weapon.

[00:27:32] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

[00:27:33] Speaker A: Yep, it’s yeah, I I.

And then when you finally find Menelaus, he teaches you how to use the chakram, which is basically a hybrid boomerang weapon and gear spinner for solving puzzles. I mean that’s a pretty diverse bow if you ask me.

[00:27:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.

[00:27:50] Speaker A: I think that leads to my question of where is the revelation of our dual blade’s hidden secondary powers though.

[00:27:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I know that has to be.

[00:27:59] Speaker A: Can you turn them into helicopter propellers and fly over the map?

I suppose that’s unlikely. But there’s gotta be something extra to them. Maybe something attach them at the hilts and then turn it into a double bladed sword.

Well, I guess we’ll see. Maybe there’s nothing. I do also love some of the creative platforming puzzles in this already that make you utilize a lot of your tools and especially mid air maneuvers that you have to do.

But also Alex, welcome to the world of buzzsaws.

[00:28:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

[00:28:32] Speaker A: I’m not entirely sure I understand why, but for whatever reason, Metroidvanias love to place buzz saws all over in their platforming sections.

[00:28:42] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:28:44] Speaker A: I suppose there aren’t that many ways to make jumping more dangerous than buzz saws and spikes. Although pits and fire and electricity seem like good options. And I guess to also go on the briefest of tangents. While not a Metroidvania, Super Meat Boy’s blood saws were everywhere and hilarious every time you hit one because you blow up into a puddle of blood and it stays there the next time you go through. Did you play Super Meat Boy?

[00:29:10] Speaker B: I’ve played.

[00:29:11] Speaker A: You played Celeste, which I think is the closest.

[00:29:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I played him.

[00:29:15] Speaker A: Are there buzz saws in Celeste?

[00:29:16] Speaker B: No, it’s just not that I can remember. I think it’s just all spikes, so.

[00:29:21] Speaker A: Spikes are no fun either.

[00:29:22] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:29:24] Speaker A: Buzz saws have this habit of spinning and then following you around though, so your mileage may vary. But buzz saws will be here a lot more, if I had to guess.

[00:29:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I got. Yeah, I encountered a few of them. I think I got killed a couple times. Well, not killed, but damaged by. Yeah, damaged. But so far they haven’t been too complicated. I know they will get that. I know they’ll get trickier. So as we go along.

[00:29:53] Speaker A: Yeah, Yep, that’s safe to assume.

So before we started playing, I had planned to ask at the end of the section because I’ve played some 2D games in CO op with you and figured I already knew the answer or whether you had been playing with thumbstick or D pad for movement.

And then I tried to use the D pad for movement and it didn’t let me.

[00:30:17] Speaker B: Oh, did it not? I didn’t even try. Yeah, I just used the thumbstick on this.

[00:30:21] Speaker A: And I think it’s partially because of the kind of more acrobatic all directions movement that they wanted to include and also because they decided to place the heal and the screenshot feature on up and down on the D pad. And that crushed my soul a little bit when I was going through the tutorial because I love D pad when playing 2D games.

I know some are designed with this kind of thumbstick intended, you know, like Ori or Wakamele, but many give the option of either or. This, sadly does not.

No, I did finally get used to it, of course, but just kind of shrugged in disappointment half the time because I’m not totally used to that yet. And obviously it doesn’t take away from the quality of the game.

It’s still so much fun.

[00:31:08] Speaker B: No, it is. And I feel like it’s actually pretty responsive as well.

[00:31:11] Speaker A: Very much is.

[00:31:11] Speaker B: Very much so on the stick. So the only issue I have, not issue, but I’m still getting used to is obviously with the bow, you kind of use your left stick, which moves you as well to aim the bow.

[00:31:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s more or less. You got to stay in place when you’re shooting. Yeah.

So like the jump and shoot in midair thing is a little tricky too.

[00:31:31] Speaker B: But yeah, somehow I got that on one. On the.

[00:31:33] Speaker A: Yeah, some of those to figure out. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, you know, based on. Because we played what cuphead and you were always using the thumbstick. Right. Even in those platforming areas.

[00:31:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it was.

[00:31:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I was using D Pad and then switching to the thumbstick for the flying sections.

[00:31:49] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:31:50] Speaker A: Just because that seemed a bit more mobile. But anyway, I’ve. I will have to move past it and you know, I think kind of final thoughts from this first play section. The Memory Shards screenshot feature is. Is fantastic. I freaking love it.

[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah. As I said, I’m going to have to go back through, use a couple. I only used a few and then I got to use a few more because there were definitely sections I need to go back to. So.

[00:32:11] Speaker A: And I did end up on. I think it’s. I think you start with three and I ended up unlocking either one or two more. So I’m at five screenshots per section. I hope you unlock more through time because they’re just so valuable to have. And you know, the most recent Metroidvania I played was Hollow Knight Silksong. And while I absolutely adore that and its predecessor for countless reasons, the PIN system that it and many other Metroidvania is use is just plain inferior to this in world.

Sometimes it probably doesn’t make all that much sense and you buy physical maps in Hollow Knight, for example. But hey, sometimes I can suspend disbelief for this degree of a quality of life improvement.

Also, I guess in lore, like, okay, you don’t have a camera, Sargon doesn’t have a camera. But the screenshots on the map reminds me of photographic memory, so I believe that I have it. I can remember exact things that I’ve seen, the configuration of them in the real world. And it applied in many useful and also useless ways, like noticing if something is missing or moved from the last time I saw it. But this reminds me of that because, you know, Sargon’s seeing something and he can remember exactly the way it was. Yes, just way better.

[00:33:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it is.

[00:33:25] Speaker A: But yeah, it was a fairly brief segment here. Obviously a bit of the tutorial was attached to it. So we’ll hopefully see the challenge kind of ramp up a little bit here and explore some more. Cool biomes. I thought the forest was great. I’m curious to see more of the depths, which I kind of ventured into a corner of and some kind of sunken ship graveyard or something like that. But yeah, I don’t know if we’ll be going there next or further along.

[00:33:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I don’t know. Oh yeah, there was like a. There was like a sewer system that I got into and then I got to a part that I got stuck at. I couldn’t go any further.

[00:33:57] Speaker A: I think that was the depths, which is. Yeah. Which you see Rajin in there saying, yes, yeah, Something.

[00:34:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And then I couldn’t go any further.

[00:34:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And there’s like, the poison enemies. There is a.

An upgrade you can buy from the mage that reduces the amount of poison you take damage.

[00:34:15] Speaker B: So, yeah, I know.

[00:34:15] Speaker A: Once we know that we gotta go there, it’s time to buy that upgrade. I haven’t done it yet.

[00:34:20] Speaker B: No. I have three amulets on me, but one definitely does like my attack up bow gives me more shots.

And there was one other, so.

[00:34:32] Speaker A: And I think I might have unlocked actually an extra slot for amulets too, because they have, like a node system with a number of.

[00:34:40] Speaker B: Yes, I think I did. Well, I don’t know. I don’t know if it was starting with two or three. I don’t know. I either can do. I have three on. I don’t know if I can do four or.

[00:34:48] Speaker A: Right.

[00:34:49] Speaker B: Yeah, but I know what you mean, because I saw that as well.

[00:34:54] Speaker A: Well, we’ll just continue playing and hopefully unlock a lot more.

[00:34:57] Speaker B: Yes, we will.

[00:34:58] Speaker A: So for next time, play until you beat the boss of the Sacred Archives and arrest at the Wak Wak Tree. Then, you know, obviously you’ve saved but quit and hang on for the following episode.

[00:35:10] Speaker B: Yep. And thank you everyone for listening, and hopefully you’re enjoying your time as well in this Prince of Persia Metroidvania, just like us, and excited to continue going and explore every nook and cranny. So thanks again for listening.

If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of Mave games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club Podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music, or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram account under the same name. Thanks.