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[DragoonKain]

So this was a game I was considering. I absolutely adore puzzle games. They've become like my favorite genre now. Talos Principle, The Witness, other puzzle based games I love like The Entropy Centre. From looking at the reviews though this doesn't seem like what I'm looking for. I absolutely loathe roguelikes. And I heard some people say this is a game that moves really slow and requires a lot of replaying rooms and trial and error.

So, I love puzzle games, but I hate roguelikes, I'm impatient and not in the mood for a slow methodical experience right now or redoing the same shit over and over.

Should I pass on it or would you recommend it anyway due to my love of puzzles?

 

[calico]

I'm impatient and not in the mood for a slow methodical experience right now or redoing the same shit over and over

90% chance you won't like it unfortunately.

I don't think it's as RNG heavy as many make out, but there is a time tax involved in almost everything you do. After figuring out what you need to do, it still might take you an hour or so to actually implement it (early on you have a lot of different things going on though, so it's not like you're only working on that one thing).

Consider 'The Return of the Obra Dinn' if you haven't played that.

 

[MSduderino]

Consider 'The Return of the Obra Dinn' if you haven't played that.

How does the story compare to Obra Dinn? I absolutely loved the nonlinear story of Obra Dinn.

 

[calico]

How does the story compare to Obra Dinn? I absolutely loved the nonlinear story of Obra Dinn.

Here you are also trying to piece together events which have already happened, but it's mostly in the form of letters, and it's concerning generations of your family history and coming to understand the wider setting. It's not particularly dense and is drip fed very slowly, but what there is is done well enough to make me want to keep going.

I don't think Blue Prince is one to play just for the story alone - the volume of gameplay in between is far too great to put up with it if you don't also enjoy that part.

 

[Orbital2060]

Unlocked room 46 again on the next day after the first clear. Got the blue crown and first sanctum key but then realised Id wasted too many steps on just goofing around before going into room 46. So I gotta do that again I didnt know there was something in there, and it would just end the game there. Behold, a whole other dimension of puzzles to solve!

34 soil patches dug up lol

But its a lot easier now with the basement doors permanently unlocked. This time I went down the elevator in the foundation and opened room 46 before the ante chamber door was even open. It only costs a few steps to pull that sanctum lever from there, and youre set.

Got to make the power hammer and smashed the broken wall in the Secret Garden. Whats up with that sigil?

Spoiler: Secret Garden mystery

 

[calico]

Unlocked room 46 again on the next day after the first clear. Got the blue crown and first sanctum key but then realised Id wasted too many steps on just goofing around before going into room 46. So I gotta do that again I didnt know there was something in there, and it would just end the game there. Behold, a whole other dimension of puzzles to solve!

36 soil patches dug up lol

But its a lot easier now with the basement doors permanently unlocked. This time I went down the elevator in the foundation and opened room 46 before the ante chamber door was even open. It only costs a few steps to pull that sanctum lever from there, and youre set.

Got to make the power hammer and smashed the broken wall in the Secret Garden. Whats up with that sigil?

Spoiler: Secret Garden mystery

Did you

Spoiler

light the four blue flames

yet?

 

[Orbital2060]

Did you ||light the four blue flames|| yet?

3/4 flames lit

I think I know where the last one is, so hopefully just a matter of time and luck

 

[Orbital2060]

Made it to room 46 again, and opened sanctum door #1 (black realm) with a few steps left. Also got all flames lit and read up on the sigils. I guess they are not directly linked to each sanctum door, since I entered the values from the sigil in the Secret Garden, and it worked. So any sigil works with any sanctum door?

So now its a bunch of different threads going on and I need to sort out what goes where. Chess puzzle should be doable, for starters.

 

[calico]

So any sigil works with any sanctum door?

If you look by each Sanctum door there is a core (realm) symbol on the ground. In each room you will be solving the sigil for that core. You just happened to open the door for the full sigil you already had. A couple are easy, most of them require a bit more deduction from various sources.

 

[Orbital2060]

If you look by each Sanctum door there is a core (realm) symbol on the ground. In each room you will be solving the sigil for that core. You just happened to open the door for the full sigil you already had. A couple are easy, most of them require a bit more deduction from various sources.

Yeah I figured that was the case, after posting. Got lucky with the door and sigil.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

I'm in the mid 20s and finally unlocking some real progression items and rooms. It took a long time to get going but now it's a lot better. I still think it's unfair to put the experience so much in RNGsus's control.

 

[NeonDelta]

Played for an hour earlier on gamepass pc. Think im going to buy it on steam. Definitely my type of game and perfect for steamdeck (I assume it runs fine on deck anyway)

 

[TropicanaTwista]

I decided to shelve this after getting to room 46. There are puzzles that require specific combinations of rooms in specific locations to connect them to power supplies, and that's going to take countless aborted runs.

There's no reward for getting to room 46. After getting there they should at least give you the showroom item that lets you rotate rooms, and the option to redraw or walk away from a door if you don't get a good selection. I'd play it again if there was a mod for that.

This was me. Game is interesting and more stuff I wanted to explore. But I found out there are MULTIPLE rooms that I still needed to do to get power from the boiler room and that's too much of a pain.

And agree 100%, you should get a massive reward for getting to room 46. Some type of awesome permanent upgrade. Seems pointless to have to continue following the same rules after you beat the main objective of the game.

 

[Orbital2060]

I'm in the mid 20s and finally unlocking some real progression items and rooms. It took a long time to get going but now it's a lot better. I still think it's unfair to put the experience so much in RNGsus's control.

Good you are making progress. It really is about keep playing and learning.

 

[Demption]

I feel like this game doesnt respect my time, which for gaming, is rare.
Is that the case with outer wilds? Might have to start playing that. I am huge fan of puzzle games but this aint my type of game, at least nowadays when i have a child and time for gaming is more rare.

 

[calico]

I feel like this game doesnt respect my time, which for gaming, is rare.
Is that the case with outer wilds? Might have to start playing that. I am huge fan of puzzle games but this aint my type of game, at least nowadays when i have a child and time for gaming is more rare.

Outer Wilds has a broadly similar structure (hopefully learning something on each run, and then applying it to the next run), but there is no real time tax baked into each run like there is with going through the building process in Blue Prince.

There is however a skill requirement involved (piloting of the ship can be difficult for some, and there is occasional annoying platforming) with Outer Wilds which doesn't exist in Blue Prince. It's not a very high skill requirement, but you will probably have instances where it takes a few attempts at a run to achieve what you were trying to achieve. The successful run itself will rarely take more than 5 minutes or so, but how much time you wasted will obviously vary depending on how many failed attempts there were.

 

[SaiyanRaoh]

So this was a game I was considering. I absolutely adore puzzle games. They've become like my favorite genre now. Talos Principle, The Witness, other puzzle based games I love like The Entropy Centre. From looking at the reviews though this doesn't seem like what I'm looking for. I absolutely loathe roguelikes. And I heard some people say this is a game that moves really slow and requires a lot of replaying rooms and trial and error.

So, I love puzzle games, but I hate roguelikes, I'm impatient and not in the mood for a slow methodical experience right now or redoing the same shit over and over.

Should I pass on it or would you recommend it anyway due to my love of puzzles?

I am asking the same question. I am considering the game but I'm the exact opposite of this poster. I love roguelike and I can't fucking stand puzzlers. I just recently refunded a critically praised VR game called Ghost Town because the puzzles got too frustrating.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I am on day 10 and need to take a break. First game in a long while I have needed a notebook of scribbles to help out.
The game is sometimes doles out lots of items only to give junk near the end when redrawing rooms.
Kind of amazing how big and envolved this game is. Randomly so.

Edit I mean 10 hours. I can't remember what day I'm on.

 

[calico]

First game in a long while I have needed a notebook of scribbles to help out.

I used my ipad to 'screenshot' anything that seemed like it could ever possibly be useful. Every letter, every page of every book etc. Very useful to have everything documented so you don't have to retrieve it in game again later if you need it (you will definitely need it).

 

[MSduderino]

I enjoyed this game but i feel it could've benefited from more story hooks and reasons to keep coming back. It's fun piecing everything together and I don't mind the backtracking and slow discovery/start over gameloop, but once I got to the 46th room, I'm just done. Kind of curious about the red envelops and rest of the story I didn't piece together, but not enough really to keep playing. I haven't started another run yet, so maybe I should to see what happens next? I'm just not that motivated to draft all the rooms or get all the books in the library if that's it.

 

[calico]

I enjoyed this game but i feel it could've benefited from more story hooks and reasons to keep coming back. It's fun piecing everything together and I don't mind the backtracking and slow discovery/start over gameloop, but once I got to the 46th room, I'm just done. Kind of curious about the red envelops and rest of the story I didn't piece together, but not enough really to keep playing. I haven't started another run yet, so maybe I should to see what happens next? I'm just not that motivated to draft all the rooms or get all the books in the library if that's it.

Getting to credits is barely scratching the surface. Get back to the 46th room a second time and see how it goes from there?

 

[Orbital2060]

I enjoyed this game but i feel it could've benefited from more story hooks and reasons to keep coming back. It's fun piecing everything together and I don't mind the backtracking and slow discovery/start over gameloop, but once I got to the 46th room, I'm just done. Kind of curious about the red envelops and rest of the story I didn't piece together, but not enough really to keep playing. I haven't started another run yet, so maybe I should to see what happens next? I'm just not that motivated to draft all the rooms or get all the books in the library if that's it.

Congratulations on completing the tutorial!

j/k well done

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

Decided to give this a go on game pass because I've seen it get so much praise

I must be missing something. How is this possibly a GOTY contender? Granted I've only played for about an hour, but I'm pretty sure I already figured out the gameplay loop given that it's a roguelike. I'm having fun and find it sorta relaxing, but it isn't blowing me away

Maybe the game will open up more the more I play

 

[UniformDeliverance]

Decided to give this a go on game pass because I've seen it get so much praise

I must be missing something. How is this possibly a GOTY contender? Granted I've only played for about an hour, but I'm pretty sure I already figured out the gameplay loop given that it's a roguelike. I'm having fun and find it sorta relaxing, but it isn't blowing me away

Maybe the game will open up more the more I play

It doesn't. The whole time I played I kept thinking it was going to open in some grand way or lead to some transformative moment.. it doesn't. From start to finish it is exactly what it seems at first, a repetitive puzzle game with a heavy reliance on RNG and replaying and redoing sections.

Theres depth to it, and I see why people enjoyed it, but the praise it got earlier this year was painfully inflated in my eyes.

 

[calico]

I think the RNG criticism is overblown, but it depends on the approach the player has to the game. Early on, if you can be content with achieving or learning 'something' on a run rather than having one exact thing in mind and viewing anything else as a failure, you will have a better time. RNG might prevent you doing the one exact thing, but it's very rare it will prevent you making some kind of progress.

Over time the RNG should diminish to a negligible level (as you have so many tools, upgrades and ways to manipulate the game at your disposal), so you can become more focused on one thing. It is still time consuming though.

 

[Orbital2060]

You can overcome a lot of the RNG by keep playing and learning laterally. As you keep playing, you unlock upgrades to the rooms, and more allowance so you can buy the whole shop from the start. Fx the Break Room upgrade to the billiard room gives you the security card on the next day, and the Electric Eels make the aquarium into a power room with a 3 tile power radius. Solving the chess puzzle opens up another layer of options to axe the cost from some of the more expensive 3-5 gem rooms, or have more power over what kind of of rooms you draw.

Im on day 55 now with 4 sanctum keys solved. Got all of the stuff with leading the power around, and working the pump room to access the underground stuff, left to solve.. Im building up towards it, hoping for some luck with the power cabling.

Oh I also got the Kennel from the drafting room, thats gonna come in handy.

 

[MSduderino]

Maybe the game will open up more the more I play

It doesn't.

Opening up more is the whole game. It's basically a puzzle detective game where you are trying to piece together a story and you are trying to unlock more rooms, parts of the manor, things to do to learn more. It isn't like most roguelikes in that you need to put clues together and may learn more on some runs than unlocking new things, but it's more about discovery that way. A pen and paper is helpful for this game but it can be hard to discern what to take note of and not. If you aren't hooked by the story and wanting to know more, there really isn't much more to the game.

 

[Orbital2060]

Sometimes this game comes together in a way like no other. I managed to connect the Boiler Room up with the Pump Room via the Archives, in order to activate the reserve tank and drain the Reservoir completely. It helps with some dice to be able to reroll building out from the Boiler Room. Thank god I had a bunch of keys, as I opened a few bum chests at the bottom before finding the Sanctum key, as well as the 3 allowance tokens. So thats the 5th Sanctum puzzle done, and I also barely had enough steps left to raise the water level up again to be able to ride the boat across the Reservoir pool to the other side, and end the run with 1 step left as I got out of the boat. I checked on the next run I started now, and its there and I have to find the Pump Room again to drain the level down to the entry point for the next key location. I think its doable without the reserve tank, and just use the default tanks. Since I already filled the reserve tank up with the water in the small tanks before calling it. Having the security card from the start due to calling it in the Break Room the day prior helped a lot, and saved a bunch of physical keys which I spent on the chests. And raising the security level on the Security room terminal. To get as many security doors in the upper levels as possible.

Next up is going back down to the Reservoir for the second Sanctum key there, before moving on to the Boiler Room + Laboratory connection to reach the Throne Room. And the key in the Mechanarium blueprint, which I have added but havent drawn once yet I think.

The run also spawned the Armory axe for a third time, so I cut the 5-gem cost from the Trophy Room. I think maybe Im gonna keep the Knight buff going for one more axe for the Cloister (3-gem cost), in addition to the Vault (3-gems) and Attic (3-gem cost) which have been axed already.

 

[bigdad2007]

It doesn't. The whole time I played I kept thinking it was going to open in some grand way or lead to some transformative moment.. it doesn't. From start to finish it is exactly what it seems at first, a repetitive puzzle game with a heavy reliance on RNG and replaying and redoing sections.

Theres depth to it, and I see why people enjoyed it, but the praise it got earlier this year was painfully inflated in my eyes.

That's why I have decided to pass on it. Like if you have to grind the game to negate the RNG, then the RNG was just padding. Make a really good 5 hour puzzle game instead of adding rouge like/RPG type mechanics to draw it out the playtime.

A good rouge like doesn't treat the rouge like elements like a hurdle you eventually overcome, the randomized elements remain random and novel because the core gameplay is experiencing the different builds possible by forcing a player to play differently.

 

[Orbital2060]

Connecting the power lines/steam ducts have been pretty easy going so far, maybe I just got lucky. It looks like there is a greater chance for rooms with power lines to be drawn out of the Boiler Room. So if you direct the power in one direction, and then draw the next room out that way, there is a higher chance to get a room that can direct the power.

I did the power connection for both this (Laboratory) and the Pump Room first time when I went in with that in mind. Of course, with the Pump Room you need to draw the Pool first. But they were both less difficult to set up than Id imagined just from reading about it.

 

[calistan]

Sometimes this game comes together in a way like no other. I managed to connect the Boiler Room up with the Pump Room via the Archives, in order to activate the reserve tank and drain the Reservoir completely. It helps with some dice to be able to reroll building out from the Boiler Room. Thank god I had a bunch of keys, as I opened a few bum chests at the bottom before finding the Sanctum key, as well as the 3 allowance tokens. So thats the 5th Sanctum puzzle done, and I also barely had enough steps left to raise the water level up again to be able to ride the boat across the Reservoir pool to the other side, and end the run with 1 step left as I got out of the boat. I checked on the next run I started now, and its there and I have to find the Pump Room again to drain the level down to the entry point for the next key location. I think its doable without the reserve tank, and just use the default tanks. Since I already filled the reserve tank up with the water in the small tanks before calling it. Having the security card from the start due to calling it in the Break Room the day prior helped a lot, and saved a bunch of physical keys which I spent on the chests. And raising the security level on the Security room terminal. To get as many security doors in the upper levels as possible.

Next up is going back down to the Reservoir for the second Sanctum key there, before moving on to the Boiler Room + Laboratory connection to reach the Throne Room. And the key in the Mechanarium blueprint, which I have added but havent drawn once yet I think.

The run also spawned the Armory axe for a third time, so I cut the 5-gem cost from the Trophy Room. I think maybe Im gonna keep the Knight buff going for one more axe for the Cloister (3-gem cost), in addition to the Vault (3-gems) and Attic (3-gem cost) which have been axed already.

Sounds like you've pretty much mastered it! How many hours have you put in so far?

 

[Orbital2060]

Sounds like you've pretty much mastered it! How many hours have you put in so far?

I dont know about mastering it, but the stats say Ive played it for 76 hours. Probably about right, with 60 runs at 1-2 hours each. The last one down in the Reservoir lasted something like 4 hours, for me to try and figure out what the hell is going on, and make the most of the possibilities.

Still only got 3 or 4 trophies, and working towards the Blue Tents that unlock at 8 trophies.

Im close to completing a few more, but stuff like reaching Room 46 in under one hour - I dont know if I will ever do that.

 

[calistan]

I dont know about mastering it, but the stats say Ive played it for 76 hours. Probably about right, with 60 runs at 1-2 hours each. The last one down in the Reservoir lasted something like 4 hours, for me to try and figure out what the hell is going on, and make the most of the possibilities.

Still only got 3 or 4 trophies, and working towards the Blue Tents that unlock at 8 trophies.

Im close to completing a few more, but stuff like reaching Room 46 in under one hour - I dont know if I will ever do that.

They certainly don't give those trophies away cheaply. I took 20 hours to get the first one, before admitting I'd probably never get any of the others.

I can believe the reviewers who said they were still going after 200 hours.

 

[engstra]

I need to get back into this game. It's a real slow burn but when clicks it really clicks. The RNG can be pretty brutal and the game doesn't really give you any sort of hint on how to progress or what you may have missed in other rooms.
Been trying ages to connect the boiler room to pump room but it just never happens...

 

[Deerock71]

"Blue Prince is a masterfully intricate roguelike puzzle game..."

Roguelikes blow.