Blue Prince

Very fun puzzle game, hampered by frustrating drafting mechanics, that only get worse as the game goes on. The game is too RNG heavy, and the developer should have really put hidden mechanics to increase the likelihood of relevant rooms appearing, or a pity timer, to prevent the potential of you going 10+ runs without any progress due to the specific combination of rooms not appearing.

A unique game. I really enjoyed exploring the mansion, seeing all the effort put into the art and the puzzles and the story you unlock about the family and the world history. The pacing gets a little off at some points, but I used hints online when I was really stuck so you don't have to grind much to unlock the story and the new rooms. Truly, this game is art and I'd recommend for anyone who likes puzzles and mysteries to try it.

This generation's puzzle game

Too RNG heavy.

A Gacha Game in Puzzle Clothing I really wanted to like Blue Prince. A puzzle game in a procedurally generated mansion? Sounded right up my alley. The music, art, and presentation are fantastic. Unfortunately, the game makes too heavy use of its rouge-like mechanics. Many of the puzzle solutions rely on having a combination of not only the right randomly generated rooms and items, but also enough keys, gems, and steps to solve before you run out. Far too often, I'd know what I needed to do in order to advance multiple puzzles, but the house simply wouldn't deal me the combination of rooms and items to solve them, or I'd get the pieces late enough in the day that I didn't have enough steps remaining to backtrack and put them together. Worse, the game does a poor job of flagging when certain changes to the house are permanent. More than once, I burned up a run trying to re-solve a puzzle I thought I needed to open a path, only to find e.g. the elevator in the foundation stays unlocked on every subsequent run once solved the first time. Given each run can take 30+ min with no way to save, Blue Prince often felt like an exercise in frustration. The game does give you tools to manage the randomness, but they aren't effective enough and are doled out far too slowly, often, again, being dependent on getting the right combination of randomly generated rooms and items to unlock. I think the most instructive comparison here is Tunic, a similarly puzzle-themed game that I adored. When I was stymied by a puzzle in Tunic, it was almost always because I needed to think harder about the solution, or I would come back to it later with more information and see something new. In Blue Prince, I'm almost never stumped about what I need to do in order to solve a puzzle, I'm stymied from doing so by the game's roguelike mechanics.

Impossible pour moi de recommander le jeu. Alors oui faut un peu de préparation, y a une logique et patin couffin... Mais si t'as pas un minimum de chance, le jeu devient juste une corvée. La RNG est une torture et je trouve pas que tout le reste soit assez passionnant pour pouvoir passer outre. Je suis pas le public.

Above this review, you will see something along the lines of "247.3 hours at time of review." But this does not come close to describing the degree to which Blue Prince has captured my attention and become my obsession. I have dozens of pages of handwritten notes for this game. I have created entire spreadsheets to keep track of patterns, clues, and hints. Even when the game isn't running, I can't help but ruminate over this game's many puzzles and mysteries, and I have a feeling that I will continue to do so for a long, long time. Solving Blue Prince's many puzzles has been a challenge, but more importantly, it has been rewarding every step of the way. Every thread can be pulled, every stone can be turned, and perhaps even every mystery can be solved. It is so rare to find a game that so thoroughly rewards curiosity the way Blue Prince does. This is without a doubt, my favorite game that I've ever played. If you love puzzles, if you love mysteries, if you love games that reward you for obsessively keeping notes on every seemingly meaningless detail you notice... get this game. You won't be disappointed.

Some aspects of this game are a bit frustrating or underwhelming - be it the random nature of the each run or narrative that is only told through notes and hints. However its a game that is like no other, a puzzle rougelike that does not get old. Really recommend if you're into both these things. And don't be afraid to check stuff on the internet if you're not hardcorde about reading every note throughly.

The game opens on a lie: "I want you to start fresh every day and not rely on previous successes" There is in fact a lot of meta progression, but a lot of it relies on random chance, or absurdly cryptic puzzles. I like the tactical housebuilding and I like at least half of the puzzles that I've seen so far, but it still makes for a frustrating experience when you know what you need to do, but the house refuses to cooperate for over 5 runs. There are 2 good games here and they are strangling each other.