Blue Prince

Genre: First-Person Puzzle / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Blue Prince, released in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and then in 2026 ported to Nintendo Switch, is a First-Person Puzzle game with Roguelike elements that has players taking the role of the beneficiary of a will who has been given an unusual 45-room mansion in the wilderness contingent on completing one task: finding the mansion’s secret 46th room.

The catch here is that the mansion’s rooms change every day, with each door leading to the player’s choice of one of three randomly-selected rooms. Players only have so much time to explore the place, represented by “steps” that decrease each time you enter a room. What’s more, as you proceed, you’ll be collecting keys, jewels, and coins, along with other more unique items, and with some rooms requiring players spend one or more of their items to select them.

Run out of “steps”, and you’ll need to retire for the day and start over again with a new layout and no items. Be blocked off by rooms with no doorways to continue through the place, and you’ll need to retire and start over the next day. Be locked out of progress by doors you don’t have keys for and… you get the idea.

In addition, as you progress through the rooms, you’ll occasionally find other puzzles, like a take on the classic “one door always lies and one door always tells the truth” puzzle using locked jewelry boxes, a dartboard where you need to figure out how lit sections correspond to the numbers you need to select, and so on. There are also more challenging puzzles requiring you to deduce how the different rooms interact or what various cryptic messages mean. And then beyond this there’s all sorts of hidden lore and worldbuilding stuff for players looking to dive into deeper meanings behind things.

Conceptually, I really like this idea, where players need essentially to plan out how the building’s rooms fit together to strategically explore them all, while avoiding too much wasted wandering due to the step limitation. In practice, though…

Here’s the thing. I’m not convinced that Blue Prince should have been a first-person game. While some of the game’s rooms are interesting, most rooms aren’t very interactive, either containing nothing to interact with, or simply having players pick up items that have been left laying about. There’s not much here that really requires a first-person view.

This is important to note because the actual wandering around the house can be slow-paced, and when planning out rooms you’ll often want to refer to the map anyway, so why not just play most of the game through the map screen? I feel like it would save a ton of time, making it less frustrating when you get blocked off or run out of steps and need to start a new run.

I’m also puzzled at this game’s release on Nintendo Switch 2. Blue Prince’s presentation uses cel-shaded 3D visuals that look decent enough, but absolutely don’t seem like they should be anywhere close to pushing the Nintendo Switch 2 to its limits. And yet despite this, I still noticed some slowdown in parts. It’s not enough to hinder the gameplay, but it’s pretty disappointing when a game that looks like it could probably run on the original Nintendo Switch with a lower resolution still has framerate issues on Nintendo Switch 2.

There is one other bonus of this game’s Nintendo Switch 2 release, and that is the inclusion of dynamic Mouse Mode when playing the game using Joy-Con controllers. It’s not really necessary, as this game lets players take their time with their choices, but it’s nice that the option is here for players who prefer it.

Having said that, I think Blue Prince is a clever idea that could really use a better execution. Having to arrange random rooms in a mansion so you can proceed through it is a clever idea, but the way this game tackles that idea slows down the pacing, making for too much tedium. I think if you’re a Puzzle fan you still might find this worth a look, but I don’t think this game will be for everyone.

tl;dr – Blue Prince is a First-Person Puzzle game with Roguelike elements that has players exploring a mansion by spawning a selection of randomized rooms and trying not to block off their progress. It’s a clever idea, but the first-person perspective slows down the pacing and doesn’t seem necessary for most of the gameplay. fans of Puzzle games may enjoy this game, but it won’t be for everyone.

Grade: B-

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