Publisher: indie.io
Developer: Permanent Way Game Co.
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: Not Rated
I kind of feel sorry for The Land of the Magnates. I don’t know how long it’s been in development, but I assume that Permanent Way Game Co. started on it sometime before 2024 – and, what’s more, that when they started on it, they’d have no way of knowing that their game would come out the same year as not one, but two Prince of Persia titles.
To be sure, even though it’s a game about a prince of Persia – specifically, a prince named Shahbaz trying to reclaim his lost throne in Land of the Sun – it’s hardly just trying to be a Prince of Persia rip-off. It’s a 2.5D platformer that basically borrows from any number of other games that fit that within that genre, without taking so heavily from one game that it could be described as derivative.
In fact, in some ways it’s even got something close to an identity of its own. Music plays a huge role in The Land of the Magnates. Every time you fire off a weapon, it comes with its own distinctive note. To beat enemies, you need to play the right notes. To open up new passages, you have to sit down and play a rhythm minigame. The Land of the Magnates is obviously not the first game to do any of those things, but the way they’re blended together here – along with the obviously Middle Eastern tinge of the music – makes the game stand out a little more.
Which is a good thing, because otherwise the gameplay is pretty generic. The platforming is seldom difficult, save for the odd moment where the camera abruptly switches perspective and you have to take a moment to figure out where you’re looking. You definitely move faster in The Land of the Magnates than you do in many other platformers, but that’s hardly something that makes the platforming feel distinctive.
That lack of strong identity really works both ways. The Land of the Magnates borrows from so many games that you can’t accuse it of being a clone of anything. On the one hand, it makes it feel like innumerable other 2.5D platformers. But on the other, it means that you can’t go the lazy route and say it’s imitating Prince of Persia. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement, but you could probably do a lot worse.
indie.io provided us with a Land of the Magnates PC code for review purposes.
