The Prince is (a) Blue(print): Review

How long is too long before something “gets good”? The first few episodes of a TV series? 50 pages of a novel? What about 5-10 hours of a ~30-hour game? At what point do you give up on something, not sure if it is you or it?

That was my dilemma in playing the highly lauded Blue Prince, a 2025 indie puzzle “roguelite” game from developers Dogubomb. I had heard good things, and even if I don’t play much in the puzzle genre, it had some familiar mechanics (roguelite, strategy, deck drafting sort of). So I was excited to have a review copy. But it just never landed for me, never making it to something I wanted to see through. And really, I dreaded a run ending to start a new one, the opposite of what any run-based game needs. I was waiting to get over an early hump to see the game open up, but I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, make it over.

Drafting a room, with red ones generally a negative, but at least the Chapel gives you a path forward. You can’t rotate the placement. (Screenshots are all from the Steam Deck.)

In browsing the community a little, I found I wasn’t alone, if a clear minority. And that doesn’t make it a “bad” game by any means. More like one that didn’t hit for me, because of me (and the genre?) and its own missteps, I would say. There’s a lot that is well done, new, and intriguing in Blue Prince, that I might one day try again. Right now, though, I don’t want to walk through the random corridors of Mt. Holly, not to unravel a mystery, not to unlock more of the game, and not to see if it really gets that good. It has had my time, and I’m not getting that back.

“3 hours” lasted much longer, and I didn’t see enough of 5 hours to push through.

In Blue Prince, you play as the heir of the Mt. Holly estate, with the stipulation that you must make it to the mysterious Room 46. The layout changes each run (Day), as each time you open a door, you have 3 rooms to pick from. Once you run out of the limited number of steps you have or can’t open any more doors, the day ends, and it all resets. There are sometimes keys or gems needed, the usual deck-building type stuff (items or rooms that change the drafting), puzzles both within some rooms (logic like which box has the gem in it) or between them (a room might work differently if you provided power from another), some meta-progression that you unlock to give you starting resources for instance, and clues to the overarching narrative background.

Mt. Holly, where you must find your way to Room 46.

In practice, it means you are walking between rooms, trying to balance making a path to the room at the end of the map while having the resources to do so. For instance, drafting bedroom-type rooms will grant you more steps so you can literally continue walking. There are some variations of these, like a kid’s room with toys or a guest room, but the variation isn’t high for the common ones you see. You do need to check if there is a random item drop, so you can’t just ignore looking around. Some rooms, like a closet, will contain items you need, but are dead ends themselves. Maybe you want to try drafting green rooms (Gardens, Terraces) because an earlier room you drafted made them not cost gems, and you have a shovel to dig for items in those types of rooms. Other rooms might cost you extra steps or money each time you go through them, like the Chapel (gotta tithe!), or are rarer with special features (a Garage or Security Room, your great uncle’s Office, and so on).

This randomness and interconnectedness is also often a weakness. Maybe one run you figured out a combination of rooms that will progress a puzzle, or you want to see what happens with certain rooms together. For example, a room needed power to open a path, or you see a reference to what one room is meant to do to another (being vague here to avoid mechanical spoilers). Well, like in any in the (all too broad) genre/feature “roguelite”, you are at the whims of RNG. Being forced to explore and work with what you get isn’t necessarily bad, but I think it works more against a mystery or puzzle game than an action one, of course, always depending on balance. In an action game, the moment-to-moment action carries a lot of what is fun, rather than just making it further in a run. While in a mystery, it is often more about the progress and seeing something new.

The Parlor has a simple logic puzzle to solve for gems.

The pace of Blue Prince is meant to be slower, I think. Yet again, I think this also works against it at times. A leisurely stroll while thinking about the puzzle of the game is nice, but when many of the rooms hold nothing to see or do but be doors to the next draft, I find myself spending too much time effectively not playing. Depending on how you choose your rooms, you may not need to backtrack much to go down a new path, though occasionally you’ll get a room that will spread out items (or a room that instead causes them to be collected). Thankfully, there is a toggle run option, but not to skip the short intro to the entrance of Mt. Holly each day or the end-of-day summary, nor to always show the current map when drafting, or to save mid-run. Oh, and every time you get an item, the first or hundredth, there is the large image and description that you need to dismiss. I want to draft quicker and go through runs to keep discovering stuff, not walk empty rooms while also checking if there is sometimes an item in there, point-and-click style.

There are also mechanics you need to discover by exploring, like a room that let’s you combine items.

I might have a run where early on I do well and have some luck, getting keys and gems to allow me to continue drafting later. But then RNG turns against me and I can’t get rooms that keep me progressing further. Or the opposite, where I can get deep into the mansion but never find enough resources to make it past the more expensive and locked doors that finally bar my way. Sure, some is skill, but some is luck, and some is having figured out or seen earlier the knowledge you need later. I found myself frustrated more than reveling in something new, groaning as I realized my day went nowhere and not looking forward to starting over.

(The meta-progression I saw was rather limited and not easy to come by, but there’s also an achievement for finishing on the first day. You definitely need some luck there, besides the knowledge/skill.)

At the end of the day you can see some brief stats before you start over. And the title given to the house you built reflects what you were able to do (a bit too many “cozy” ones in my case!).

Yet the overall design and mechanics are different and meaty, promising much. I love environmental storytelling, in this case finding computer terminals or notes, and elsewhere finding the password or advice on what to believe. There are hints about the staff, your family, and how it might all fit together, eventually. The puzzles in individual rooms are not very complex, but part of the main challenge is figuring out what rooms you need or how they interact. And then, of course, getting them in a run.

While minimal in options and some quality-of-life features, as mentioned above, everything runs smoothly. Perhaps not as lightweight as you might expect (set a lower FPS limit on the Steam Deck or else it will only last a couple of hours). The graphics are clean, sort of an illustrative style, and everything is polished. I played both on the Deck and on my desktop with a keyboard and mouse; occasional pointing and looking around is a tad easier on a mouse, of course, while walking is comfier on a stick. Both work well as there isn’t much you need to do control-wise, really.

I was intrigued by the promise and design of Blue Prince and the first runs were full of (good) questions. But the pacing, lack of immediacy or seeing what needs to come together, and not feeling like I was really interacting with the mystery or strategy, left me on the outside. I didn’t get to a point where I wanted to see or do more to push me past the early game. I wanted to like Blue Prince, but I just kept running into closets rather than ballrooms.

(Blue Prince is on Steam; a key was provided for review.)