Hello!
This has been a long time coming, but we're stoked to finally present to you The Second Act!
Check out the gameplay trailer and see what's up...
Here's the TLDR if you just want to go and play the game, but if you want the full lowdown then read on!
- Big art upgrade
- 2 new biomes
- 2 new bosses
- New story act + tons of polish on Act 1
- 5 new enemies
- Difficulty re-balancing
- Many Quality of Life additions like multiple save slots & spirit cinder/gold automatic pick-up
- German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish localisation
- Development continuing into 2025
- Price rise after Steam's Winter Sale
If you prefer to listen/watch we've done a VLOG for this update too:
Big art upgrade
Let's cover this first - it's the most visually impactful change we've made, and more importantly you'll be wondering what's going on with the gifs in the rest of the post if you don't know what we've done ^^'
We've basically changed the art of everything - the background, foreground, character designs, character portraits - everything.
Why did we do this?
We've had quite a lot of negative feedback about the art direction since launch - stuff like it's too simple, too cosy, too cartoony, looks like a flash game and so on.
While 'art' is subjective and we could write an essay about the reasoning and debate we had around changing the style, the simple way of putting it is that we just weren't hitting the right production value and 'action game' notes that we should. We believe this stopped a significant number of people from trying the game. Obviously we want people to play our game so... we changed it.
This is an Early Access game and we're big believers in using this phase to make significant changes to our existing content if needed, not just for adding smaller features and tweaking some elements.
So, we've added much more detail, more visual storytelling, reworked the colour palettes and plenty of other things that go over my head. We've kept the same 'hand-drawn' inspirations from before, but we've just turned the dial more towards a darker 'war-torn' style that fits better with the story, setting, genre and Prince of Persia as a whole.
We're really happy with the result and we hope you are too! If you preferred the old style we are very sorry, but we believe that this change is the best choice for the game.
Also yes, the Prince is no longer purple. The reasons for this are essentially the same as for the general changes, and also just because he looked weird in contrast with the new art direction. RIP brave warrior (Rest In Purple).
However, there may or may not be a skin coming in the future for any purple lovers out there...
Now, let's get stuck into the actual gameplay!
2 new Biomes
Golden Mines
Introduced as a new first biome (alternative to Zagros Village and Hun Camp), these beautiful but deadly mines offer a new challenge to the Prince.
Tight mine shafts channel you into groups of enemies, then open up into huge caverns where the only way to traverse the space is to scale the scaffolding and platforms left behind by the miners. You'll need to adapt to fighting in these two different environments as you progress through the biome.
But explore these pits with care as they've been weakened by the Hun's activity - ceilings threaten to collapse and poles will snap at the lightest touch...
Craftsmen's District
This alternative biome to the Flooded Gardens will see you sprinting and vaulting high up on the rooftops of the Craftsmen's District.
Watch your step, as falling from these heights will hurt... a lot. But a long fall isn't the only danger under your feet. Acidic pools left behind from the craftsmen's labours will viciously burn if so much as a drop touches skin.
Yet acid isn't the only elemental danger in this District. Wall-running past hanging pots of chemicals will cause them to fall and burst into flame, setting vast swathes of the ground alight with fire.
Of course, new biomes also means new bangers for the soundtrack by ASADI, so turn that volume up!
5 new enemies
New biomes need new enemies and we've introduced some tricky buggers...
Digger - Lurking in the Mines, the Digger will pop out from the ground to strike you, so keep an eye out for moving earth!
Assassin - Will stab at you with a spear - seems basic, but watch out! If you get too far away they'll teleport directly above you and slam attack.
Skystalker - A strange floating collection of Bombcrawlers that follows you everywhere, regularly ejecting a Bombcrawler that flies at you and explodes!
Trapper - Sneaky mob that leaves bombs on the ground that only explode when walked on, whether by you or someone else...
Ranged Lookout - As if Lookouts weren't annoying enough, there's now Lookouts with crossbows that can shoot in 360°!
2 new Bosses
I don't want to give more information about these than what's shown in the trailer, so I'm going to let you discover these powerful Hun Generals on your own...
If you want to test yourself against them then just get through each of the two new biomes ;)
I'm gonna say it again - new bosses means new bangers from ASADI, so turn that volume up!
Happy hunting!
New story act & narration polish + new saves
We've added a whole new second story act for you to discover, but the existing first act has also been tweaked and all the dialogue has been rewritten. This was another source of negative comments at launch, so we've listened and made changes!
We strongly recommend that you port your save to a new save slot to experience the new story as it changes some things - this 'save port' is done in-game, so there's no need for you to mess around with save folders (you will get a prompt in-game about this, it's much simpler than it sounds).
You will lose all narration progress, which means you'll have to unlock the access to biomes, Sukhra's forge and The Awakening again, but don't panic, all your other unlocks like weapons, skill points, medallions, Soul Cinders and Awakening stones will be transferred over to the new save slot.
NOTE: If you continue with a 'legacy save' then we can't guarantee the stability of your save with future updates.
You also now have 3 save slots if you want to try out new things or let someone else play their own runs!
Difficulty re-balancing
We've felt for a while that the difficulty progression through a run is pretty flat, but we had other fires to put out first. Now this fire is getting a big ol' spray from the game design fire extinguisher.
Before today, the challenge of a run didn't really increase as you progressed further, especially if you got a good build early. As a run can take 30-40 minutes, we were concerned this could get boring, and being boring is the greatest sin in gaming!
With this update difficulty will now be boosted after defeating a boss - it's time to git gud!
This was done with some behind-the-scenes number tweaking, but we've also made some adjustments with which enemies spawn in which biomes, so prepare for some surprises.
Extra languages
This one is very simple - we've added German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish localisation to the game! The Rogue Prince is becoming Mr. International...
The Future
That's everything about this update, but we also want to talk a little bit about the future of the game.
For this, we need to take a quick look at the past - this is a list of all the content we've added in the 6 months since launch (doesn't include the content of this update!):
- 1 biome (Temple)
- metaprogression through skill trees
- 21 weapons (7 of these were reworked but are effectively new)
- speed boost (Vayu's Blast)
- difficulty modifiers (The Awakening)
- 50 medallions & complete system rework
- projectile reflect with kick
- 7 enemies
- critical damage
- Rescue missions
- Bestiary (Book of Heads)
As you can see, we've added lots of features in a short amount of time. Now we need to revisit them and perfect them both individually and as a whole. Looking at you, medallion bag...
So for the immediate future you can expect us to be polishing the hell out of a lot of existing content, while mixing in some extra spice of course.
We also need to finish the story, which means a final boss and some biomes, so you don't have to worry about us focusing just on polish and not adding chunky new content.
We don't have a 2025 roadmap yet, or even know if we'll release one, but we'll be back with more information on this ASAP. For the moment the devs need to have some well-deserved R&R :)
Price going up after Winter Sale
Finally, to reflect the new level of content in the game, the price will be raised a bit in January - we'll give more details in December about the exact date and amount.
In the meantime, there's a discount right now and then the Autumn and Winter sales are coming up, so there's plenty of time to get the game at a lower price before it rises!
Phew, that was a lot... Thanks to everyone who's been playing and giving feedback since launch, and a big shout-out to the technical beta testers for all your help with this mother of all updates!
Cheers,
Matt and the EE team