I had a different blog ready today until late Tuesday evening. This would be a Quick Thoughts blog post, where I discuss my experience with Blue Prince. But I lucked out on my 28th day in the game. It wasn’t easy, and I must admit, I feared I wasn’t going to find that elusive room. But against the odds, I did. For the most part, I don’t have to change too much of this post from its original version. In the end, this was quite the experience.
Find that 46th room
The concept behind Blue Prince is ingenious. Your character is about to earn a hefty inheritance, but there’s a catch. To get it all, they have to find the location of a secret 46th room in a manor that contains 45 rooms. This isn’t your standard mystery game because this isn’t any ordinary home. From the outside, the home looks massive. Once inside, you start to see the mystery that the mansion has to offer.
Upon entering the main foyer, you get a letter explaining the scenario. You have a set number of steps to use, and the layout of the home changes every day. From the entrance, you have three doors where you can begin to branch out. As you approach any door, you get to choose from three possible rooms to design. How you pick your rooms dictates your next course of action.
That’s where the challenge of the game comes into play. With the randomization, moving through all 45 rooms might not be possible. Some rooms may lead you to a dead end. Others might only open if you have a key and/or a certain number of gems. At first, the rooms are random, but it is possible to ‘sway’ room designs depending on earlier actions or finding key items during your run.
Dealing with the randomization
This randomization is both the game’s best and worst aspect. Since everything is random, you can’t use a specific strategy. There are more than 45 different room types, so you can’t always guarantee that you’ll get what you want or need. As you progress deeper into the manor, the room types become more obscure. Which again will help or harm you. Also, you’ll need to be smart with your usage of keys and gems because they are in short supply.
There are ways to prolong your run. There are rooms with puzzles that may grant you more keys, gems, or other items to help you progress. At the same time, some rooms penalize you. One that I hated getting takes half your steps away as you unlock it. Even if you have no reason to go into the room, you immediately lose half the steps you have.
You can try to plan your route. Rooms don’t repeat, so once you draft a room, that’s it. You’ll never see it again. I can’t tell you the best strategy because I don’t think there is one. Even when I go into a day thinking about what I want to do, that strategy might go up in flames. Getting a few rooms that don’t work in your favor will ruin a run. There is nothing you can do when that happens. Yet, it’s always best to play a run until you exhaust all outcomes. You should take the time to see what you might discover. Something you learn about a room will help you in later attempts.
Knowing what to do is understanding the uncertainty
It’s not clear if you need to fill out every slot of your blueprint. The key to success is that you have to do a handful of minor things to get where you need to go. Once you’ve completed a major puzzle, it is complete for all later runs. For example, there are a few bonus areas around the manor that are very helpful. Once you’ve opened those areas, you don’t have to do them ever again.
That’s also true for some of the rooms inside the mansion. There are a few puzzle rooms that are always there. I enjoyed the dartboard math puzzle. It takes a bit of time to understand the arithmetic. Once you understand the system, it’s very easy to complete. Yes, there are also some difficult puzzles. But again, once you grasp what they need, they become easier to solve.
What frustrated me early on was the uncertainty of things. I could never tell if I was making meaningful progress. There are points where you think something is necessary, but it might not be the case. There are plenty of red herrings. Things that seem important but might not be. Sure, they could serve a purpose, but they aren’t mandatory. There are many ways to progress. The game wants you to experiment. Yet, if you’ve been struggling for a while, you may get too annoyed and give up.
Frustrated at times, but grateful to see a conclusion
When I saw the credits roll, I did feel a sense of relief. However, I’m certain I missed out on a lot of things. I know I didn’t find everything. There are aspects to the game’s lore I missed. I know there are areas both inside and outside that I didn’t discover.
When you finish the game, you can still go back and start over again. The game encourages you to explore. While navigating the final few sections of the manor, I unlocked a few new rooms that I’m curious about what they do. Not to mention, I also skipped a few puzzles. For example, even though I drafted the Laboratory a few times, I never bothered to do the puzzle in the room.
There are also rooms that I don’t quite understand their purpose. There may be something hidden in them that I missed. As I mentioned before, the game likes to misdirect you. I enjoy that kind of trickery, but I can see it frustrating others who don’t have time to waste.
Accepting this won’t be for everyone
Over the last week, even when I wasn’t playing Blue Prince, I was thinking about it. As it stands, it’s one of my favorite games of 2025, but that list isn’t very long right now. Yet, I completely understand why the game’s reception has soured lately. It was annoying feeling like I wasn’t making progress. I didn’t enjoy having runs end because I didn’t get the rooms I wanted or needed. There are a lot of elements to juggle. But, in the end, I’m glad I kept at it. If you’re willing to accept failure, then the reward is worth the effort.
