The Rogue Prince of Persia, the aptly named Prince of Persia roguelike from longtime Dead Cells steward Evil Empire, is gearing up for its Second Act update, and it’s probably one of the biggest updates I’ve seen for any game all year. The “game content will double,” Evil Empire says, and the core art style, which once rendered our titular hero as the glorious Prince of Purple, is getting an overhaul.
“We’re giving The Rogue Prince of Persia a glow-up!” the developer says. The “big art upgrade” does more than de-purple the prince; environments are noticeably more detailed, and the whole world looks a bit sharper and higher-contrast.
“The most obvious change of this update is the art direction where we’ve changed the color palettes. had much more detail added and just generally ‘improved,'” a Steam post reads. “You’ll also notice that the Prince is no longer purple – this change was made as the purple tone just didn’t fit with the new direction. We’ll go into more detail about why we made these changes next week, but we find that the art direction is now a much better fit with the game’s genre, setting/story and the Prince of Persia series as a whole.”
If you’re gutted by the loss of the Prince of Purple, Evil Empire has good news: “there may or may not be skins coming in the future,” per a YouTube comment. I’m down with both styles, personally, but I do agree with the fans pointing out that the new look is more recognizably Persian.
The Second Act short list includes more biome, bosses, story content, enemies, and localization options. “This update will mark a point where we’ve effectively doubled the game’s content from launch,” Evil Empire clarifies. “All the roguelite markers are present – gameplay loop, metaprogression, builds, difficulty modifiers and more – and we’re not finishing here with development continuing into 2025!”
Our Rogue Prince of Persia review praised its slick combat at launch, but the game was crying out for updates and improvements, so it’s good to see it chugging along.