No major spoilers ahead.
In my dreams, I began to see puzzle clues and shapeless antagonists. I would clock out of work in the evening, and sink into another day inside Blue Prince, drafting a series of ever-changing rooms inside a blue-hued mansion to uncover more secrets. Offline, I began to see the game in everything. Grass seemed greener, a patch of soil full of mystery, a man’s blue birthday crown offered up by a sushi restaurant appeared to scream “Blue Prince” so much that I chuckled and snapped a quick photo.
Such is the lure of Blue Prince, an unassuming puzzle game that seems to have arrived at the perfect cultural moment, where we all could use an endless escape from the uncontrollable chaos to somewhere where we can start to piece together some order. Like so much in the current zeitgeist — Severance, Squid Game, and Balatro, — Blue Prince doesn’t have to ever end. I found myself lingering in its halls, of an always changing house, for more than ninety hours. Eventually, I had to pull myself away, if only to file this review.
In the game, you play as a 14-year-old boy named Simon, who’s been tasked with solving a wide-ranging number of puzzles by his recently departed grand-uncle. There’s a legacy you’re walking into, an untold number of mysteries left behind by family, in empty rooms, barren of other characters or combat. You get to decide what rooms are built behind each door you enter, and often the house layout depends on the luck of the draw. The rooms reset each night before you begin a new day. Immediately, the game grounds you in a strong sense of atmosphere and story, and it does a lot with what would have only been mere scenery and background images in another game. In Blue Prince, the setting is the character, the stage, and the point.
Simple and Clean
At times, the storytelling and lore elements of Blue Prince shine so brightly you can often forget that you’re role-playing as a pitiable teen boy who’s spending days, perhaps weeks or months, alone in a sometimes eerie villa, deciphering the artifacts left behind by the dead. But as my playtime ballooned into several dozen hours, and my journal filled with real-life hand-written notes, I tired of trudging through repetitive doors, circling aimlessly for rewards that would only evaporate overnight. That’s when I finally rushed toward completing the game, bringing the tale somewhat to an end. Still, even when the game feels frustrating, it appears intentional and well-crafted.
Though the game is largely bare bones, its few cinematics and voice acting are sprinkled appropriately throughout, punctuating the adventure as needed. Tossing a coin to a fortune teller can grant you a few vague prophecies. Holding a magnifying glass over scraps of newspaper clippings may provide useful knowledge for later on. And when the world-building comes together, there’s a marvelous sense of what this town and estate represent.
There are few games where each hand-written note and letter can be savored like a tantalizing extra chapter to a story. And Blue Prince is so unassumingly small at the start, that when it unfolds like an accordion across dozens of maps, and rooms I haven’t even drafted yet, it’s a marvel to behold. It doesn’t feel like a big-budget game, but its story rivals the greats, just because it focuses on doing one thing very well. Its gameplay mechanic has been sharpened to the finest and is kept minimal and straightforward. From great simplicity springs the fun.
An Unusual Set Of Requirements
Blue Prince isn’t just about mystery and discovery. Resource management, a calm attitude, and cleverness with planning enough doors and placement of dead-end rooms are key to survival. Run out of footsteps, and you’ll have to rest until a new day. The game recommends that you keep a notebook on hand in real life, as important notes and clues you come across aren’t automatically saved for you in the game. So like with Elden Ring, I prepared a journal and started doodling. I now have, by my count, 44 pages of notes. At first, I didn’t know what to note, so some of my more elaborate drawings were just a fun excuse to make some art, but by the end, I had created some extensive maps, diagrams, and even indexes of what I saw throughout the experience.
Blue Prince also requires real mathematical thinking. One particular room, the billiards room, contains a new math puzzle each time you encounter it, and the difficulty notches up slightly after each solve. By the 40th time, well fortunately it didn’t go much past a middle school level — but it was refreshing to dust off the cobwebs. I am one of those weird nerds who actually doesn’t mind surprise math, but this challenge could be more than a little frustrating to certain literary types.
On the flip side, Blue Prince also has its fair share of logic games, the now-canceled section of the law admissions exam. It’s a simpler version of what’s usually tested, but less forgiving than the math, as it’ll only take one answer input before locking you out for the day. Avoiding these logic games could also prove fatal for gameplay, as you’ll later desperately need the rewards they dole out to unlock the more extravagant rooms in the house.
Part of the joy of Blue Prince is how the lore is woven together with the setting, so that each letter you uncover and read feels climactic, and every action you take matters. Still another way Blue Prince manages to charm is in the thoughtful layout of each room, making each choice reminiscent of placing down a particular Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic The Gathering card. I circled around the house aimlessly for dozens of hours, but because I was slowly piecing together a grand mystery, I stayed motivated. There are rooms in the house that drained me of literal hours, as I sat there pondering how to solve them. Hours after I’ve rolled credits, I still have reasons to return, a final list of unchecked boxes to explore. By now, my character is a wealthy teenage boy, with an abundance of every resource the game asks you to manage.
It is an age-old adage that all good things must come to an end. But perhaps we are trending toward video games that resist this inevitable fate, serving us endless reasons to return. A line item in a secret shop (plus all the rave reviews) hints that there will be more Blue Prince content added in later. An unlocked corridor, an apple left on a teacher’s desk, secret entrances unmarked on the map provide the fuel for bottomless intrigue. There’s a lot of bottled magic in Blue Prince, and it reminds me of the best reasons why fantasy still captures hearts today.
Deep into my Blue Prince playthroughs, I began to dream I was the game’s protagonist, having to dodge my foes and leave clues behind for my allies. My car wound up in a ditch, and I had to finish up my journey on foot instead. A wide courtyard stretched out ahead of me, full of verdant greens and rosy pinks. I would not get to solve all the mysteries in time, this time, again. But knowing that only made me want to revisit the garden and stay a little longer.
10/10
Blue Prince launches on April 10 on PC, Xbox Series X and S, and PlayStation 5. It is on PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass. Inverse was provided with a PC key.
INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.
