https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3506777736
There will be a TL;DR at the end.

~

We’ve all seen it.
Buddy has a new girlfriend; when you meet her, you get why he’s so head-over-heels:
The girl looks amazing, she presents herself with eloquence, she seems sophisticated and host to a deep, rich history, and when you talk - she’s smart and has a great deal of charm as well as friends to back her up.

Things change when you see your buddy later - how he’s always spending time with that needy new girlfriend, behind-closed-doors the conversations can be grating and unkind, how she keeps secrets, even mistreating your pal by showing great disrespect. She is always making him prove himself worthy, giving him the runaround.

The worst part is whenever you talk to him, he’s always so incredibly happy and feeling lucky to be with her. His eyes are swollen from tears and a lack of sleep, he is mentally drained, and there is a deep pain that lingers behind his genuine words of praise. No matter what you say to him, he will always go back to her - return to that pretty girl that keeps running him in circles. He loves her, he enjoys delving into her mind and unraveling her story slowly, he isn’t afraid to put in the effort for it - and yet here you are screaming at yourself behind an assuring smile that he needs to turn around and run… because this isn’t healthy - and he’s clearly holding on like he cannot find anything like her elsewhere.

This is the experience of playing Blue Prince

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3506778367

You build rooms on a grid that are chosen and filled randomly to happen across combinations that forward a plot of secrecy, discovery, and empowerment! Every single asset in the game is dripping with charm - hand crafted and breathtakingly gorgeous. The initial premise is very charming and invites you in with constant little discoveries and combinations that reward further exploration - letting you learn more about the story, puzzles, and give clues for ones to come later on!

Just when the game gets its hooks into you, almost like a live-service experience, it strings you along forevermore.

Blue Prince is:

1% - Notes and piecing clues together
2% - Discovering new stuff!
4% - Solving (the exact same) mini-puzzles
8% - Choosing what to build
16% - Backtracking for something
69% - (nice) Walking around the same repeated content ad nauseum

It is 2-4 hours worth of content stretched out across 20-40 hours through RNG - with some folks sinking hundreds into this game!

There are lots of things to discover, but there is very little actual correlating direction between them - you simply STUMBLE BLINDLY with what you are given until you happen across enough information to piece things together … or luck out with aligned stars to access something important.

You may have to make a few leaps in logic to solve some of the meta puzzles in the game. They aren't impossible, but there is very little hand holding as the game progresses.
Folks that are enthusiastic about the game and go into it with the right mental tools say that it can be solved handily in 24 hours. If you’re not an apex quizzler, it can take you four to five times as long. Either way, you’re going to be walking through the same sort of rooms for days of your IRL life.

That’s because, Blue Prince isn’t really a puzzle game, it’s a gambling experience where RNG dictates what you can and cannot discover today - where you can and cannot go - if you will get any progress towards finding new things or get 4 dead ends again.
The stars have to align to get what you need - even when you don’t know WHAT you need.
Prepare for:
Tons of gold without any shops to spend at / or / good shop inventory and no gold spawns
Draft the room you needed to continue but lack the gems to buy it
Get the first room you needed for a powerful combo but the second room never drafts
Getting the room you needed in draft, but building it would doom your run with a dead end
Make/find something awesome right before the day ends and it's gone forever
Passkey, but then no keycard doors spawn
Special key but ONLY keycard doors spawn
Finally learn how to solve a room’s puzzle, then it’s never drafted
Get 2 upgrade disks but no rooms with computers
Get a key for a safety deposit box for a Vault you don't draft and don't get Closet Check so bye bye safety deposit key.

What a monumental waste of my time and energy - which is sad because I’m invested enough to continue, but I’m aware enough to know that I’m throwing myself at a puzzle where the pieces are attained through a slot machine.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3506777092

Everyone loves this game, and it’s no wonder why!
It’s wicked smart, very creative, nuanced, novel, gorgeous, refined, approachable, fun, and has a lot to invest in!
But just like that toxic relationship, you see the venom between the lines.
Here on Steam the reviews give thumbs up recommendations, but are loaded with poison and excuses.
They are almost all the same:
“It turns into hell later.” - “Prepare for burnout!” - “The game does not respect your time.” - “I had to call it after I realized that it’s a massive waste of time!” - “The game overstays its welcome by a lot.” - “This game becomes completely unplayable later if you don’t use a guide!” - “Don’t even try it, you’ll be frustrated!” - “The game is 55% filler” - “Eventually… I decided to stop playing, glad that I did.” - “There is nothing interesting in the later parts of the game… just drop it once you (inevitably) get bored.” - “If you are not the kind of person with a bulletin board that has red string handy - you probably won’t enjoy this game.”
And it all reads with that same tone you’d hear your friend cry into your shoulder about how horrible things are in their love life, and then they turn around and defend it!?
“They just had a bad day!” - “They can’t help it!” - “I have to be strong for them!”
You just want to politely let your friend know that they are trying to cope with the fact that they are with someone who is very pretty, very smart, very prosperous, and full of adventure - but that same person is absolutely no good for them and a complete waste of time

If you are a fan of “obnoxious, puzzle-filled walking simulators!” you may be able to get into this game and truck along for hundreds of hours until you’ve randomly seen all the content you need to solve the puzzles by sheer chance alone.
Otherwise, you're gonna get your expectations up and be left waiting for a release that you know will never - ever be given to you. The game doesn’t love you - it doesn’t respect you - it isn’t here to go on an adventure with you. You are here because you’ll never find another one like it, and it knows it.

We all feel pity for that friend - but after playing this game - it’s going to be you.

~

3.5/10
Blue Prince is a Flawed puzzle game.
Starts out with a great bout of chemistry and potential that ignites your dream and makes your heart sing - but then it all goes downhill and you’re powerless to make things right again.
Make up all the excuses you want about how it’s so pretty and smart and couldn’t possibly mean to hurt you or waste your time - that what you had was real.
In the end, it will run you around in circles and make you trudge through the same routine over and over until there is no other option but to walk away.

日本語話者に向けてお勧めしない側のレビューを書こうと思います。
100時間近くプレイし、エンドコンテンツ的なのはクリア済です。
ネタバレは極力避けます！

・要求される英語力
　スクリーンショットをAIに読ませて翻訳が推奨されます。
　そもそも、スタッフロールを見るまでなら、そこまで多く訳さなくてもいけます。
　問題はその後。このゲームをフルに楽しむなら、スタッフロール後もプレイしたいところ。
　しかし、やり込むとかなりテキスト量があるため、作業量が多くしんどいです。
　また、かなりの語彙力 (英検1級相当の単語が答えに含む) が無いと解けないような謎も含まれるので、
　類語辞典とにらめっこする等の時間も必要になるかもしれません。

　ただ、どちらにしても情報整理が求められるゲームです。
　スクリーンショットを大量に撮りたくなるのはネイティブでも変わらないはずです。
　言語の壁については、マイナス評価という印象はありません。
　むしろ、AI便利だな―ってなるので、ここはあんまり恐れないでも良いかと。

・七面倒臭さを楽しめる？
　大きくマイナス評価なのがこちらでした。
　このゲームの謎、例えるなら錠前と鍵がランダムで出たり出なかったりするので、
　運良く引いて特定の操作をしよう、というノリが非常に多いです。
　例えば、
　・アイテムAとアイテムBを組み合わせて部屋Xで使う
　・部屋Xと部屋Yを両方引いて謎を解く
　といったもの。
　序盤は手がかり自体を探索したり、複数種の謎解決を狙ってプレイできたりするため、気になりにくいです。
　しかし、ある程度やり込んで謎の数が少なくなると、特定の謎解決を狙うしかありません。
　こうなると中々に運要素が牙を剥きます。
　謎が解けるか検証したいのに、鍵と錠前が揃わず何時間も試すことすらできない。
　万が一間違っていたら、また運頼みで引くしかない。
　この点、結構辛いです。
　最初にXの部屋を引くまでリセット、なんて不毛な作業、終盤のあるあるだったりします。

・ユーザビリティに欠けるデザイン
　本気でRoom 46を狙おうとすると、ユーザビリティの悪さで七面倒臭さを感じてきます。
　有利な状況を得るため、毎朝数十秒は歩いてから部屋を引かせられます。
　クリアまでの20～40日、クリア後の100～200数十日程度、ずーっと。
　やらなくてもいい行動ではあるのですが、やらないと不利になるので気になるといったデザインです。
　このほか、Room 46クリア直前ですと毎朝の日課が数十秒から数分程に膨れます。
　他、細々とした演出を毎回見せられる等、数秒ではありますがチリツモで時間を浪費させられます。
　あらゆる手段でプレイヤーの時間を直接的に奪ってくるタイプです。

・その労力に見合うか？
　端的に言って、結構な苦行を要します。ただ、それに見合った報酬があれば話は別。
　スタッフロールまでであれば、達成感よく迎えられたなーで済む領域かなと思います。
　ただ、そこまでですとボリューム的にちょっと微妙。価格的にも、もっとプレイしたくなってしまうはず。
　じゃあスタッフロール後を頑張る価値があるかというと…
　心打たれる人も、絶賛する人もいて、それ自体は頷けるような内容でした。
　ただ、私は与えられた苦痛の割にこれで終わり？　と裏切られた気分でした。
　人による部分だと思うので、期待値コントロールとして。

総評：少なくとも万人にお勧めはできない
　メディアの評価が高いからといって、軽い気持ちで手を出すゲームでは絶対に無いと言えます。
　「脱出ゲームだー謎解きしよー」といったくらい人も、ボドゲ的要素がかなり強いので、要注意です。
　相当な苦行があったとしても、それに見合った報酬がなくとも、謎解きに挑戦したいんだ。
　そういった、ちょっと変態的なレベルでの謎解き好きに捧げるタイプのゲームです。
　…変に評価されなくて、ニッチな人気がある、という形だったら納得感あるんだけどなあ。

ゴールは示されるけどそこに至る道筋はゲーム開始時点ではほぼ見えないため、最初は手あたり次第に屋敷の中を進んではすぐ詰まるということを繰り返していく。そのうち屋敷内を進むのに慣れてくると新しい要素が見つかり始め、徐々に謎解きが進み(もしくは運よく謎が勝手に解決し)、進むべき方向が見えてくる、というところが気持ちの良いゲームだった。
日本語対応はおそらくされないのではなかろうか。