Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown senior designer says ‘accessible design is good design’

Ubisoft has revealed an array of accessibility options that will be available to players in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

In an ‘accessibility deep dive’ video released yesterday (January 4), senior game designer Rémi Boutin explained that the team’s approach to the upcoming metroidvania game “was to be accessible by design.” Elaborating on this, he explained that the game doesn’t feature color-based feedback or quick time events (QTEs) and will feature a large text size by default. “I think accessible design is good design,” he added. 

Other than the elements that were built into the game by default, players can choose from a selection of settings to improve their gaming experience, too. For example, the high contrast settings can be used to remove the background color and add bright colors to things like the player character, enemies, and traps. In addition, the screen shake can be turned off, and the heads-up display (HUD) size can be adjusted.

As for combat, beyond the different difficulty settings, players will be able to freely adjust individual difficulty parameters such as the amount of health enemies have, or the protagonist’s dodge window to tweak the experience to their liking. They’ll also be able to increase the amount of aim-assist on weapons that require aiming, and melee targeting assist can be switched on to make the player character face toward enemies automatically. 

For exploration-based elements, players can turn on ‘platforming assist,’ which will provide the option to skip past particularly difficult platforming sections. Additional highlighting can be applied to interactive elements in the world to make them easier to spot, and ‘guided mode’ can be used to show map icons with objectives, as well as whether paths are blocked or not (this can be freely switched on and off). 

Beyond that, players will also have the option of attaching screenshots to their minimap to help remind them of certain obstacles they may have encountered during their adventure. 

“One of the defining aspects of the metroidvania genre is the principle of taking mental notes,” Boutin said. “There is a blocked path, and you need to acquire a new power or have a new tool and come back later. Historically, you had to memorize that path. It can be a cognitive load – it can be difficult to remember what you tried to achieve.”

Boutin added that he thinks the feature to pin screenshots “really pushes the boundaries for the genre,” and that he hopes other games will use it, too. 

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is set to release on January 18 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It’ll be available from January 15 for Ubisoft+ subscribers and anyone who buys the Digital Deluxe version of the game. If you want to check out the full list of all accessibility options, you can find them on the Ubisoft website.

Looking for something to play while you wait for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown to release? Be sure to check out our lists of the best PS5 games and best Xbox Series X games for some recommendations.