Blue Princeis the new critical darling indie game, combining the essence of a modern escape room puzzle game and a strategic roguelike. As a huge fan of escape room games back in the day,Blue Princeis a lot of fun with a roguelike twist anda definitive GOTY contender, but one aspect sticks out like a sore thumb. As the game is a roguelike, most of it is randomized, except for one key aspect: the puzzles.
As I played throughBlue Prince, I started to notice it more and more until it became a problem. The majority of the puzzles have the exact same solution no matter what, and this leads to the game being a bit too easy. To be fair, this makes writingguides and tipsto share with our readers easier, but for the quality ofBlue Prince, the game would be evenmore legendary and acclaimed if it made this one crucial change.
Blue Prince’s Randomization Dilemma
Blue Prince Wants To Have Its Cake And Eat It, Too
It’s incredibly odd that for a game likeBlue Prince, Dogubomb didn’t commit all the way to making it entirely randomized. In order to complete most objectives inBlue Prince, one needs some luck, not only in terms of items but,most importantly, luck in terms of what rooms you’re able to draft:a mechanic that fully relies on randomness. Rooms like the Gallery or Showroom are required tounlock certain achievements/trophies, and drafting a critical room while having all the important pieces put together is a great feeling.
I’d contend that this aspect of randomization was done right, but why didn’t that also apply to the puzzles? Yes, two key puzzles are randomized with the Parlor and Dartboard (and the Chess puzzle to a certain extent), but that’s about it, which is a very small portion ofBlue Prince’s total amount of puzzle rooms. Whenever you come across the Drawing Room, the Office, or the Boudoir, the safe code is the exact same every time, which cuts down on the problem-solving discovery aspect.
It feels like develper Dogubomb wanted that randomized strategic element with the rooms butstill wanted normal puzzles so that most people could beat the game. When looking at another incredible escape room game, it’s clear whatBlue Princeshould have done instead.
Randomized Solutions Would Make Blue Prince Better
Why Not Make It More Hardcore?
One of the best escape room games ever made, if not the all-time best, isSagrario’s Room Escape. This was a 2009 flash game brilliantly designed from top to bottom, with the most notable aspect being its entirely randomized puzzle solutions. The puzzles inSagrario’s Room Escapeare brutally difficult, and it’s debatable whether a guide is helpful or not due to the randomization. The game’s practically guide-proof,a genius idea to make players use their brain power no matter what.
Maybe it’s a bit too hardcore for the average player, but it should be an unlockable game mode if that’s the case.
This design philosophy would be perfect forBlue Prince. Having most of the puzzles randomized for each save file would make everyone’s experience a bit different,resulting in an exciting and engaging time for every new game. After learning all the solutions, it gets tiresome putting in the same code every time just to get one gem out of these safes, but the new randomization would fix that issue.
Maybe it’s a bit too hardcore for the average player, but it should be an unlockable game mode if that’s the case. We currently have Dare mode and Curse mode in the game, so why not an extra randomized mode for puzzle solutions? It adds even more replay value to an already stacked game, and it would makeBlue Princeeven better.Hopefully, we’ll see it in a future update that will keep us playingBlue Princefor years to come.
