A s far and wide as the Roguelike doctrine has spread in recent years, it mostly only infiltrates games that revolve around conflict. That’s not the case here. Imagine choosing your route in Hades, but rather than merely determining your next victory reward, that selection is everything. Each time you stand before a door in Blue Prince’s impossible mansion and choose which room will appear behind it, the tenor of your run alters. As that door opens, others close, at least for the moment, while yet more spring into existence.
Playing Blue Prince, the Roguelike we’re reminded of most isn’t Hades but Spelunky. A slow-burn firstperson puzzle adventure has few obvious features in common with Mossmouth’s platformer, but there’s shared ground in the impact of choices, and how attempts end abruptly but with a lingering sense of possibility. In Blue Prince, as in Spelunky, there’s always something you want to test next, RNG permitting. With the option to ‘save and continue’ or ‘save and quit’ after each foray, we’re compelled towards the former even when we don’t have time for another 30-minute-plus tour and know we can’t save mid-run.
As for your aim here, it’s deceptively simple: to locate the secret 46th room in a mansion that’s five rooms wide and nine deep. You’re heir to your great-uncle, but only when you enter that final room will the place be yours to keep. At the beginning of an in-game day, the house consists of an entrance hall and an antechamber at the far end, the gateway to your prize – the space between ready to be filled with your choices. Approach any door in the entrance hall and you randomly ‘draw’ three rooms, from which you’ll ‘draft’ one that instantly becomes real, if only for the day.