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Tuesday May 07, 2024

The Lost Crown: Prince of Persia's Farsi version celebrates Persian culture, Iran

Prince of Persia franchise which draws on Persian mythology and Iranian culture is set to be translated into English to accurately depict and respect Persia and Iran

By Web Desk
January 15, 2024
The poster for the game Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. — X/@shinobi602
The poster for the game Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. — X/@shinobi602

The Lost Crown, the first new iteration of the beloved computer game Prince of Persia in 14 years, is the first in the series to be completely voiced in Farsi, according to the BBC.

The franchise which draws on Persian mythology and Iranian culture is set to be translated into English to accurately “depict and respect Persia and Iran.”

Sam Mandi-Gohmi, a fan of the game from the United Kingdom said it was "brilliant" that representation was being taken more seriously.

Mandi-Gohmi said: "I grew up in England to an Iranian father, and often when I was younger we'd play games together, as it wasn't something that was significant in his childhood. I rushed to show my dad it - he laughed and translated alongside in disbelief."

Mandi-Gohmi stated that previous games in the series, released in the UK in the 1990s and 2000s, did not feature fully Iranian characters. He noted that while representation in media is important for developers, there is still minimal Iranian representation in Western media.

The game is the first in the series to be made by Ubisoft Montpellier, a subsidiary of Assassin's Creed developer Ubisoft.

"From the start, we wanted to be able to depict and to respect Persia and Iran," said the game's designer Mounir Radi. "It was natural for us to say, if we are going into this culture, we have to be true to this culture, we have to do this."

The makers of the game, the first in the series since 2010's The Forgotten Sands, attempted to modernise it by updating the graphics, drawing inspiration from Sony's animated hit Into the Spider-Verse.

They also made the game more authentic by incorporating elements of the Zoroastrianism religion, founded in present-day Iran, into the gameplay.