I highly recommend Blue Prince as a slow-burning hardcore puzzle game. This review was written after finishing the surface-level main objective after 39 in-game days and 24 hours of gameplay (within 36 real life hours of getting it- I'm hooked.) For context on my review, I’m a fan of obnoxious puzzle-filled walking simulators like The Witness and Lingo, and I heavily dislike RNG.

While Blue Prince has some roguelike elements, it is first and foremost a puzzle game. If you love complex puzzles, have lots of patience, and are a meticulous notetaker with great attention to detail, please submit your resume within.

If you want fast-paced gameplay, action, or a roguelike you can mindlessly play until you win off of RNG, we will be moving forward with other candidates at this time.

Blue Prince has an excellent balance of language, math, and logic puzzles. It also seamlessly weaves in the context of the story and overall setting. Every single aspect of Mount Holly is linked to a puzzle ranging from small to overarching, and all of those puzzles are baked together into a tantalizingly complex 46-layer puzzle lasagna. The payoff to every puzzle is very satisfying and proportional to the amount of effort it requires.

Even after completing the primary objective, it feels like I’ve only scratched the surface of the world and there are still countless puzzle loose ends to tie up. From the pacing so far, I expect it would take at least another 40-60 hours to uncover the rest of the game.

Now let’s address the two primary complaints other reviewers have brought up: RNG and the story.

While some runs will be duds from the start, it in no way takes away from the overall game experience. Playing with the strategy to beeline for Room 46 every time will result in the exact disappointment that comes across in most of the red reviews. Be willing to adapt your plan for the day to whatever you draft- not just playstyle and room selection, but your overall goal. Pivoting unlucky runs to focus on discovering, unlocking, and setting up for the next day is heavily encouraged. Furthermore, lack of key items can occasionally be circumvented with alternate items, routes, or even knowledge gained simply by observing. Go into each run looking to learn as much as possible. Remember that while in-game resources reset each day, what you have discovered does not. Basically, treat it like a puzzle game and not a roguelike and you’ll be fine.

As for the story, if you are incapable of understanding a story unless it’s handed to you explicitly by an extradiegetic narrator, please go back to high school English and work on your media literacy before coming back to play this game. Clues to what is happening are drip fed in a slow but satisfying manner, and you are left to connect them as you work your way through the house and its grounds. Some things are only intimated or implied, but you are heavily rewarded for chasing the whispers. If you like having to figure things out for yourself, this is a plus. If you don’t, why are you reading reviews for a puzzle game?

If you do decide to play this game, go in blind. Also, have a document, journal, or bulletin board with red string handy to take notes on everything you come across. If that sounds lame, then you probably won’t enjoy Blue Prince. If you’re the brand of nerd that already has a puzzle notebook, you’re going to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love this game.

Its a great puzzle game, I've enjoyed my time with it. It is unique, insightful, clever, enjoyable, and sadly it does not know when enough is enough and massively overstays its welcome. I truly am a Blue Prince, with how sad I am that I don't feel compelled to complete this game's post game series of puzzles.

The good in the game is obvious, so I'm going to voice my only gripe. The "Late Game / Endgame" secret hunt is just miles upon miles of rng layered, obscure reference puzzle hell that only rewards you with clues towards more puzzles, and hardly even gives you hints of where to go next. The utter lack of payoff and massive lack of respect for the player's time have soured me on the endgame and despite my love and recommendation of the game, I will not be following these Endgame puzzles through to their conclusion. It feels like an addict begging me to "just let me give you one more puzzle man then I'll reward you I swear." There's far too many hidden puzzles in the late game grind just leading one into the other, with absolutely zero reward outside irrelevant consumable upgrades for drafting the house and more vague hints towards puzzles that reward you with more vague hints towards the next meta puzzle.

This is a lovely game, it is a masterwork - The only one of its kind. get it, play as much as you feel satisfied with, and be comfortable putting it down unfinished because it does not respect your time as a player.

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.