In puzzle roguelike game Blue Prince, you play as a young boy named Simon who has inherited his great uncle’s estate. However, Simon’s inheritance is predicated on the notion that he’ll discover the fabled Room 46 – the very existence of which is doubted by others. What follows is a surreal adventure like no other, one that’s filled with mystery not just because of how the environments are designed, but also due to all the cryptic notes and hidden secrets that you discover along the way.

The gargantuan manor that you find yourself in has a 9x5 grid-like layout – nine rows and five columns – and you have to place rooms in each slot. You might think that the best way to do this is to just plop down hallways with straightforward connections to the Antechamber to the north, but that’s not the case.

That’s because Blue Prince uses concepts similar to deck-building games except, instead of cards, you draw from a set of three rooms, each with its own pathways and unique effects. Some have items or documents lying around, while others cause debilitating penalties or lead to dead ends. Because draws are randomized, you’ll never know what you’ll get. You could have a decent run where you make it halfway through the mansion, only for the next set to contain rooms with no exits. That, or the rooms themselves are locked or they require you to find gem resources first.

Instead of health, you have steps in Blue Prince, which can be replenished by entering bedrooms or eating food lying around. If you run out of steps, the day ends. You’ll have to start back at the Entrance Hall as room slots and items are reset.

The architect of rogues

Within the first few hours of playing Blue Prince, I was already engrossed. While it’s a game in which I can feel like an architect, placing down rooms wherever I want, there’s also a deep strategic layer to it. Numerous thoughts crossed my mind each time I ventured into the manor.

For instance, before placing a Walk-In Closet, I debated if this dead-end room was worth it – sure, it had four items, but I’d block off that section rather than having an open pathway. Conversely, whenever I drew a Hallway – which has three exits – I wondered if I should be using it so soon or if I should save it for later when I really needed it.

This strategic layer also coincides with the aforementioned steps mechanic. If my placement of rooms isn’t optimal, I could end up backtracking so often that I’d waste dozens of steps just to get from Point A to Point B.

There was even one moment when I debated where I should place the Foundation, a room that has an elevator that leads to the underground section of the manor. Unlike most other options, the Foundation’s placement does not reset each day/run. Since I needed it to progress further, I decided to plop it down next to the Entrance Hall for easy access. Had I drafted it closer to the end, that would’ve meant relying heavily on randomness (and the RNG gods) just so I could make a path to it.

Randomness is even more impactful in the game – at one point, I was so close to Room 46, only to draw room cards that didn’t have connections to the only open doorway. In another attempt, I was planning to open a locked deposit box in the Vault, but the key never appeared in any of the areas I checked. These instances were frustrating, of course, but it’s par for the course in roguelite titles. The challenge itself makes achieving the goal even more rewarding.

Perplexing puzzle perfection

Blue Prince encourages you to plan your attempts carefully and, while you’re at it, you’re bound to stumble upon puzzles that are meant to stymie you. Some even gradually become more difficult the more you complete them in successive runs.

For example, a math-based Darts Puzzle involves looking at the colors on the board and performing algebraic operations – i.e. addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Little did I know that dozens of successful completions would cause migraine-inducing equations that involved exponents, fractions, negative numbers, and symbols that I’d never seen in my life. Thankfully, I found a means of upgrading rooms with perks, and I was able to revert the Darts Puzzle to simple addition. I’m terrible at math anyway.

There are also puzzles that go hand-in-hand with exploration, such as the Chess Puzzle. You see, there are certain rooms that have chess pieces, like the pawn, rook, queen, and king. To solve the Chess Puzzle, I had to remember where I placed those rooms on the manor’s grid-like layout, and then I had to move the corresponding pieces on the chessboard based on their locations. Oh, and the chess board itself was in a distant section of the estate, too, which meant I had to carefully retrace my steps just to arrive at the correct chamber.

Other brain teasers are equally perplexing. For those who’ve read Maze: Solve the World’s Most Challenging Puzzle – a book that helped inspire Blue Prince – you’ll be glad to know that the author, Christopher Manson, actually designed the Gallery Puzzle. It has four abstract paintings, and you have to choose one word that best represents each illustration. Speaking of illustrations, there are pairs of paintings in every room. At first glance, you might think they’re just there for design purposes until you realize that they’re part of an elaborate puzzle, too.

All in all, the puzzles in Blue Prince are nothing short of outstanding. That unique spark of creativity is showcased, as what starts out as little hints and clues transform into bigger arcs and intricately woven threads that I was eager to follow. Even the unremarkable tidbits might be part of a broader and stranger enigma. No pattern, item, or fixture is there by accident; everything has a purpose.

C’mon gang, we’ve got a mystery to solve

Blue Prince astonishingly goes beyond traditional puzzle rooms and objectives-based tasks as the story slowly unfolds. Simon is the only person in the estate, but the rest of the narrative, including background information on other characters, is all told by way of documents, notes, books, and, in some cases, emails.

There’s an arc about someone being blackmailed, which then led me to several red envelopes stashed within safes (and, of course, I had to figure out the passcodes). There’s another about a missing author, with hints that are found in plain sight, albeit inconspicuous at first glance. At one point, I even had to browse several books to find a visual cue, piecing together a hidden message, which then allowed me to find an item in a specific spot even though there was no icon telling me that something was there.

It’s this facet that truly sunk its claws into me, pulling me further down the rabbit hole well past my arrival in Room 46. The story developed and unraveled organically the more hints I came across. There were riddles upon riddles and secrets within secrets, that I was finding new things hours later in areas that I’ve frequented numerous times.

Perhaps my only complaint is that the game does not have an in-game journal. Even if you’ve already read a letter, there’s no system that keeps track of the information in-game. You have no other choice but to take a screenshot, jot down notes, or hope that you can draft the room again in the future. In fact, as of the time of this writing, my Blue Prince screenshots folder has well over 3,000 images already, all organized per room and theme. This was hard to manage even for me – and I write guides for a living – and I’m sure it will be problematic for those who don’t commit too many details to memory.

Even with this qualm, Blue Prince still remains a spectacular offering from developer Dogubomb. What I said before about the Antechamber and Room 46 are just your initial goals. The biggest surprise in this game is the fact that traditional progression is just the tip of a continent-sized iceberg.

Fair warning: Blue Prince will occupy every waking moment of your life just like it did mine. You won’t be saying good night to this sweet prince anytime soon. It’s that damn good.

Should you play Blue Prince?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility

Sadly, Blue Prince features no accessibility features whatsoever. Let alone specific features like colorblind modes, the game doesn't even allow you to alter subtitles in any way or even customize controls. A disappointing element of such an otherwise fantastic game.

How I reviewed Blue Prince

I played Blue Prince on a TCL P755 TV at 4K resolution and maximum settings. My gaming PC has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, Intel Core i9-10900K CPU, and 32GB of RAM. I used a Razer Viper Mini mouse and a locally-made keyboard, as well as a Logitech F710 wireless controller.

My progress as of the time of publishing this review is around 70 hours across a week or so of playing. I was able to reach Room 46 several times, as well as explore various locations in, out, and under the manor, all to discover numerous secrets along the way.

First reviewed April 2025