This is a game for absolute puzzle degenerates. When you are considering whether you want to buy Blue Prince, you really need to look within and determine if, deep within your soul, you yearn for obsessive note-taking, screenshotting, and putting up a corkboard with a lot of red yarn and crazed theories. If the answer is yes, Blue Prince is here to sate your hunger like nothing has for years, and you're going to be raving about your GOTY. If not... you can still learn to love that, but it's not a sure thing.

I have made it to room 46 and seen the credits. I have, in collaboration with a group of friends who also picked up the game at the same time, done a lot more than that. (Incidentally, I think this is best played collaboratively. There is so, so much here that it will take incredibly long to find it all yourself. But that's personal taste). So I'm going to be breaking this into sections: Pre-46 and Post-46.

Pre-46 is where Blue Prince is at its most roguelike. You have your goal of getting deep into the house, even if it's not *entirely* clear how you're going to get there. You will quickly realize that this is not a puzzle game in the way that , say, The WItness is a puzzle game. It's much more about exploration and learning. There are smaller metapuzzles in this period, giving you access to some permanent upgrades to make your house-delving easier. Every run you're encountering rooms you haven't seen before, uncovering mechanics you haven't run into yet. It's exciting!

As time goes on, you're going to start getting annoyed with the "roguelike" portion of the game. It's going to feel like it's getting in the way of what you're trying to do. You can see so *clearly* what you're trying to accomplish, but the game isn't letting you just *do* it. Maybe it's running into one too many locked doors when you've almost reached the antechamber, maybe it's the specific room you're trying to find just. not. spawning. Maybe it's a string of drafts where your only non-dead-ends are gem rooms, and your reserve runs dry. Maybe you run out of steps just short of your goal. And it's frustrating. Why does the game need these mechanics anyways? Couldn't it just be like Myst or Riven?

And then things start to open up again. This is more post-46 than pre-46, but eventually you've piled up enough permanent advantages that they start to snowball. And yes, the game is getting more... exacting with some of its asks, but you've got the resources to make this... not trivial, but tolerable. And without the pressure of that Obvious Goal, a day that doesn't accomplish anything--and that's actually rarer than you'd think--is easier to shrug and move on from. And more than that, as you start to get this more zoomed out view, it starts to become clear: no, the game really is built around this--both mechanically and narratively. And it is woven very, very densely. This game is clever.


Most likely, you've got more than a few loose-threads from your pre-46 days. And now you have all the time in the world to follow up on them. And you'll do that, and then you're going to reach the end of those threads. But it's clear that you're not done. And so begins the Scouring.

Blue Prince does not trade in red herrings. If something stands out to you, it is probably part of something, even if you don't know what. Somewhere in here you probably transcribe your notes into a new, more organized format, because you're tired of trying to search through your notes for that one thing you noted earlier that this new thing reminds you of. You start trying goofy stuff with your drafts, and it turns out that uncovers new stuff, too. If a run in here doesn't pan out for one particular goal, it probably works for another, or at the very least, you can work on setting up future runs.

And the story and world are going to slowly come together, and time and time again you are going to be impressed by just how well everything fits together. And you're going to hit a point in a metapuzzle where you get some new big reveal, and everything will feel worth it. And "metapuzzle" is an important word here. There's more metapuzzle in this game than non-meta puzzle, I'm pretty sure.

I won't say that you won't still sometimes get annoyed by a draft--I do wish that rerolls were just little bit more available than they are--but... it's core to the game. There's a reason that it's there, even when it's frustrating. And that's not to say that you're wrong if you dislike it! That's a valid view! Blue Prince is not for everybody! It is a game for Puzzle Degenerates specifically! Those guys who have been scraping puzzle resin off of the depths of Steam have just been given a solid brick of pure uncut Metapuzzle. That's why you see some people reviewing it so highly--they've been waiting for this for ages, even if they haven't known that.


Blue Prince is an absolute paragon of its underserved niche. But it is niche, and... kind of got mislabeled a bit, honestly. Not that I begrudge it any success--it absolutely deserves success. But it's important to know what you're getting into when you start, I think, and I hope this review can help with that. (Also, sincerely--I do think it's better with friends so you're bouncing ideas off of someone else).

[h1]The Short Review:[/h1] This is a game for absolute puzzle degenerates. When you are considering whether you want to buy Blue Prince, you really need to look within and determine if, deep within your soul, you yearn for obsessive note-taking, screenshotting, and putting up a corkboard with a lot of red yarn and crazed theories. If the answer is yes, Blue Prince is here to sate your hunger like nothing has for years, and you're going to be raving about your GOTY. If not... you can still learn to love that, but it's not a sure thing. [h1]The Long Review:[/h1] I have made it to room 46 and seen the credits. I have, in collaboration with a group of friends who [i]also[/i] picked up the game at the same time, done a [b]lot[/b] more than that. (Incidentally, I think this is best played collaboratively. There is so, [i]so[/i] much here that it will take [i]incredibly[/i] long to find it all yourself. But that's personal taste). So I'm going to be breaking this into sections: Pre-46 and Post-46. [h2]Pre-46[/h2] Pre-46 is where Blue Prince is at its most roguelike. You have your goal of getting deep into the house, even if it's not *entirely* clear how you're going to get there. You will quickly realize that this is not a puzzle game in the way that , say, The WItness is a puzzle game. It's much more about exploration and learning. There are smaller metapuzzles in this period, giving you access to some permanent upgrades to make your house-delving easier. Every run you're encountering rooms you haven't seen before, uncovering mechanics you haven't run into yet. It's exciting! As time goes on, you're going to start getting annoyed with the "roguelike" portion of the game. It's going to feel like it's getting in the way of what you're trying to do. You can see so *clearly* what you're trying to accomplish, but the game isn't letting you just *do* it. Maybe it's running into one too many locked doors when you've almost reached the antechamber, maybe it's the specific room you're trying to find just. not. spawning. Maybe it's a string of drafts where your only non-dead-ends are gem rooms, and your reserve runs dry. Maybe you run out of steps just short of your goal. And it's frustrating. Why does the game [i]need[/i] these mechanics anyways? Couldn't it just be like Myst or Riven? And then things start to open up again. This is more post-46 than pre-46, but eventually you've piled up enough permanent advantages that they start to snowball. And yes, the game is getting more... exacting with some of its asks, but you've got the resources to make this... not trivial, but tolerable. And without the pressure of that Obvious Goal, a day that doesn't accomplish anything--and that's actually rarer than you'd think--is easier to shrug and move on from. And more than that, as you start to get this more zoomed out view, it starts to become clear: no, the game really [i]is[/i] built around this--both mechanically and narratively. And it is woven very, very densely. This game is [i][b]clever[/b][/i]. [h2]Post-46[/h2] Most likely, you've got more than a few loose-threads from your pre-46 days. And now you have all the time in the world to follow up on them. And you'll do that, and then you're going to reach the end of those threads. But it's clear that you're not done. And so begins the Scouring. Blue Prince does not trade in red herrings. If something stands out to you, it is probably part of [i]something[/i], even if you don't know what. Somewhere in here you probably transcribe your notes into a new, more organized format, because you're tired of trying to search through your notes for that one thing you noted earlier that this new thing reminds you of. You start trying goofy stuff with your drafts, and it turns out that uncovers new stuff, too. If a run in here doesn't pan out for one particular goal, it probably works for another, or at the very least, you can work on setting up future runs. And the story and world are going to slowly come together, and time and time again you are going to be impressed by just how [i]well[/i] everything fits together. And you're going to hit a point in a metapuzzle where you get some new big reveal, and everything will feel [i]worth[/i] it. And "metapuzzle" is an important word here. There's more metapuzzle in this game than non-meta puzzle, I'm pretty sure. I won't say that you won't still sometimes get annoyed by a draft--I do wish that rerolls were just little bit more available than they are--but... it's core to the game. There's a reason that it's there, even when it's frustrating. And that's not to say that you're wrong if you dislike it! That's a valid view! Blue Prince is [b][i]not[/i][/b] for everybody! It is a game for Puzzle Degenerates specifically! Those guys who have been scraping puzzle resin off of the depths of Steam have just been given a solid brick of pure uncut Metapuzzle. That's why you see some people reviewing it so highly--they've been waiting for this for ages, even if they haven't known that. [h2]In Conclusion[/h2] Blue Prince is an absolute paragon of its underserved niche. But it is niche, and... kind of got mislabeled a bit, honestly. Not that I begrudge it any success--it absolutely deserves success. But it's important to know what you're getting into when you start, I think, and I hope this review can help with that. (Also, sincerely--I do think it's better with friends so you're bouncing ideas off of someone else).