Blue Prince is a first-person adventure game developed by Dogubomb and published by Raw Fury. Originally released in 2025, this title is now available on the Nintendo Switch 2. If you’re into trial and error games with light puzzle elements and a mysterious atmosphere, then you’re in luck.
Essentially, Blue Prince is a locked-room mystery, except there are many rooms. The entire game takes place in a mansion the protagonist has inherited. However, there are forty-five known rooms within the mansion, with room forty-six being but a rumor. The rooms shift every day, so there’s no telling where the mansion will lead you. But the goal is to find that 46th room.
In terms of gameplay, there aren’t too many buttons to remember. The player character is in first-person mode, and aside from moving the protagonist and moving the camera to look around, you can pick up items. Some items include coins to buy other items that might help you on your quest, a key card to get into certain areas, food that increases your step count, and more.
Yes, in Blue Prince, every step matters. You start each day with fifty steps, though it’s not your literal steps. Each step counts whenever you enter a room, whether it’s a new one placed on the map or if you’re backtracking. With forty-six rooms to find, that leaves only four steps leeway in case you need to backtrack. You need to be careful and precise with your steps and where you place the rooms.
Luckily, some rooms have perks. For example, the bedrooms often give you an extra step or two. If you find food, like in the kitchen, that will also increase your step count. It seems like you need to be precise with your steps, but Blue Prince also has plenty of RNG in the mix. Whenever you enter a doorway to a new room, you’ll be presented with three room options for you to place on the map. If you find dice lying around, you can reroll the room options to give you better choices (or maybe they’ll be worse).
As stated before, Blue Prince is a game of trial and error. The longer you play, the more you’ll learn about the mansion and its many rooms. Some rooms are dark, so you won’t know your room options unless you find the Breaker Room. Some rooms have locked doors, but you may not know that until you place the room. If you have a key, great. If you don’t… well, it’s time to backtrack.
Light puzzles are in some of the rooms, but I felt they were a little convoluted. For example, one puzzle didn’t seem to have enough information, so I often guessed the answer. Another puzzle had the instructions lying about in another room; if you come across the puzzle first, you may figure it out on your own, or you may not. But that’s part of the charm of this game. You want to keep playing so you can get farther.
Once you run out of steps, the game automatically ends the day. You’ll restart at dawn on the next day, the map completely wiped, and no items in your pocket (unless you find one of the permanent ones). You can prematurely end the day if you’re stuck, but I often kept backtracking to ensure I didn’t miss any clues in any of the rooms.
Overall, Blue Prince is a charming title. It’s slow-paced, but can really make you think and suck you into the “just one more try” mentality. Yet, going through the mansion, even if you make it super far, doesn’t take too long. Once I figured out the main gimmick of the game and understood the rooms better, most in-game days took me roughly thirty to forty-five minutes to get through. It’s a great game to pick up and play here and there or get sucked into.
