(I discovered this game thanks to PS Plus and decided to give it a try. I finished it on PS5 in 20 hours.Rather than a typical review, this is more of a guide-review hybrid.)

First of all, this game isn’t for everyone. It combines puzzle-solving and rogue-like elements. I started without any guides or prior knowledge, and during the first day, I could hardly figure anything out. The game takes place inside a mansion, and its owner wants us to reach the 46th room. While this is initially shown in a cinematic, the story unfolds more as you progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK-6qPBhMCA&list=PLhlHjE5P3IOSC6qm3WrCLDYDz6inzQOvM&index=1

The place called "The Murmur" presents you with doors to the left, right, and center. In the center, there's a blueprint schematic. Your character picks it up, and the journey begins. Each time you click on a door, you are given 3 random room choices. It could be a corridor, a bedroom, a living room, or even a bank vault — your goal is to build your path and keep heading north toward the 46th room.

While the basic concept seems simple, beyond the heavy note-taking and attention to detail required for the puzzles, the game also features several key resources.

Gold (money) is used to buy items if you create shop rooms. If you happen to find the ultra-rare casino rooms, you can gamble to multiply your money. Later, when the exterior room mechanic unlocks, you can also donate gold to a mystical statue for daily buffs — such as increasing the chance of encountering rare rooms after using fruit three times.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3472564622

Then there’s the diamond (gem) resource. When drawing rarer rooms, you may see a cost of 1, 2, or 4 diamonds below the choice. Diamonds are primarily obtained by creating specific rooms that grant them or by unlocking permanent upgrades. For example, solving mysteries in certain rooms grants buffs like starting each new day with +2 gold. Once the exterior mechanic is unlocked, there are even perks that change diamond costs into "energy" (steps).

Each room you visit costs 2 steps.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3463569488

At first, you might think you’re just walking endlessly, but even exterior areas always consume 2 steps per room. If you equip sneakers, sometimes you can move without losing steps.

You can also solve major puzzles like the apple orchard to permanently boost your step count. Because once your steps run out, you’re forced to "call it a day" and move to the next day.

Unless you visit pawn shop rooms (where you leave an item for the next run) or freezing rooms (which store your wealth for your next run), you basically start over from scratch every time.

Thus, you have to plan carefully to make lasting progress day after day.

There are upgrade disks you can find that let you open computer rooms and convert useless corridors into green rooms. In green rooms, if you have a watering can, you can water plants for diamonds, or see flowers growing diamonds inside pots.The game is full of these strange, creative mechanics.

If you open a pool room and somewhere else open a pump room, you can even transfer water between locations. Draining the pool can reveal hidden areas below.

I’ll leave the rest for you to discover.

For example, the dining room automatically prepares a big meal every day after some time.

If you opened the corresponding bonus room, the meal grants you 30 steps; otherwise, 20 steps.

The salt shaker item can enhance this bonus even further — just like how a coin pouch gives you a bonus gold every time you collect 5 gold.

There are also countless useful items:

A metal detector to find more gold

A big hammer to break open locked chests

A lockpick to open low-rarity locked doors

A compass to help you draw non-dead-end rooms (because you can easily get stuck when you run out of diamonds or keys and can't draw the right rooms.)

And if you’ve unlocked the workshop room, you can combine these items to create a more useful single item. For example, a shovel with a metal detector. This can be especially helpful since the pawn shop in the game only lets you leave one item at a time.

Each run feels like trying a new tactic or being forced to end the day due to bad luck.

You get better with experience, and learn how to guess room layouts and design the house to progress more efficiently.

Understanding the Antechamber doors properly also becomes crucial. (I deliberately won't spoil what they are.)

Technically, the game looked pretty bad on PS5 Pro despite the lack of a Pro patch.It’s noticeably worse compared to the PC version.

On console, there’s even a permanent mouse cursor stuck on the screen.It definitely needs a console patch.Still, the intentional retro aesthetic and simple drawings fit the game well and don’t ruin the experience.

One of the game's undeniable highlights is its incredible music.It’s a strange blend — very deep, grim, and building up like the soundtrack from the first Joker movie.The moment I heard it, I thought, "yes, this is one of those games."

By mixing puzzles with rogue-like elements, offering extreme replayability, and challenging mysteries (if you don’t rely on guides), The Blue Prince became not only my indie game of the year but possibly my game of the last several years.

The feeling its finale gave me was something I hadn’t experienced since a masterpiece from year 2013.

If you have patience and fully engage your mind — exploring everything and solving hidden mysteries — you’ll see just how brilliant this game really is.

+Extremely creative, genre-defining approach
+The story opens up over time and blends perfectly with the theme
+Fantastic music
+A finale (and postgame) full of mysteries to discover
+Everything you see has a purpose and meaning
+The gradual sense of progress enhances the feeling of reward

-Progress can sometimes rely too heavily on luck
-Visual quality is poor on console

Review Score: 100/100 🏆

having finished the game, it feels worthwhile to add my 2 cents

This is not a game for everybody, but if you are the kind of person this game is for, it will be your GOTY.

This game is described as a puzzle roguelike, but this does not paint the full picture imho , which causes imho so many people to feel misled.

Puzzles , on their own, are a weird thing to review or recommend in the context of videogames. You can solve a puzzle ,feel very clever and love the game where you found it, or not solve it, have to look for the answer or give up altogether and have the experience ruined in some way. The puzzle stays the same and both experiences are ultimately valid.

The questions for the prospective player at this point are: would you resent the game for not spotting a puzzle or not finding a solution?

Would you resent the game for actively hiding QoL features, lore and ways to progress, behind those hidden puzzles, instead of actively signposting their presence?

Heck, would you hate a game that actively makes figuring out how it should be played properly one of the hidden puzzles to solve?

If you said Yes to one of those questions, you will have a hard time with Blue Prince, because this game does not just contain simple puzzles but a lot of puzzle boxes.

A puzzle box is by design made to look inconspicuous and banal. You only know that you are supposed to be able to open it, but you will have to find and decipher every single step completely on your own.

As already said,Blue Prince is full of these kind of puzzle boxes, keeping as many of them as hidden as it can, to actively give the observant player not only the joy of solving a puzzle but even the joy of figuring out that there was a puzzle there to begin with.

Blue Prince is also a roguelite, a genre that famously refuses to let the player win, unless they have knowledge and a bit of luck on their side.

It is fair if you find that a combo from hell, but if you get it, this is already one of the greatest games of the year

The gift that keeps on giving

This above would be the very best short description I can give to Blue Prince.
Another, a bit unserious but maybe more direct and easy to understand would be Endless puzzle simulator with roguelike elements.

Without spoilers, Blue Prince is a game where you try to reach a certain room in a house, while solving puzzles here and there. You'll need to create (and find) the route to that room by yourself, by continuously drafting rooms. The roguelike element comes from the fact that after your remaining steps become zero (basically a fatigue system) your day will end and you will start from scratch the day after, new rooms, new items, new patterns.
This premise alone is pretty unique and makes Blue Prince a one of a kind game.

Being one of a kind does not mean almost every player will like the game though. To me, Blue Prince is a masterpiece and objectively speaking we could write a 5000 words essay about the things this game does correctly but still, like the developers themselves also stated, it's not a game for everyone.
Fans of puzzle games will probably find heaven once they delve into Blue Prince, granted they don't stop at its surface and try to really master the game mechanics.

Since this is one of those games you really need to experience completely blind I can't really write much more but I can give a tiny hint to players about to start playing: a pen and paper to write down notes and prepare to take lots and lots of screenshots.