Adventure / Point-n-Click / Narrative Games

Not for everyone, but it was my GotY for 2025, no doubt.

There's a very valid criticism that the roguelike randomness can introduce a long delay between when you realize the solution to a puzzle and when you get to execute it, which is usually a mood killer for puzzle games. The game balances that out really well, I think, by just having SO MANY puzzles for you to juggle at once, that you can just make a note of the idea you had, and then refocus onto something else, instead of the frustration of not being able to execute your idea right away.

That DOES drop off in the late game, though, when you've only got a few puzzled left to pursue. The game tries to balance this by adding more and more ways to manipulate RNG in your favor, the longer you play, but I think it still falls on the side of not enough.

On a more fundamental note, just the puzzles themselves are all REALLY well-made. And they all get a big buff to satisfaction by being woven into a really fascinating narrative.

I'm probably in the minority but I didn't like the game. I think mixing rogue like and puzzles is terrible and this game demonstrated why very well.

For context, I played it and basically 100% 'd the game (yeah I know it's almost impossible to 100% this game but I basically solved every single puzzle I could find). I actually did this out of spite because I wanted to hate the game but for the "right reasons" and so that I can be fair with my criticism.

Roguelikes can usually get away with resetting between "rounds" because each round is quick. It makes failure/death less punishing. The problem is that puzzles can take any amount of time. If you get a puzzle, it could take you 10 minutes. If you don't, it could take hours. As an example, I started a gaming session one night. I had 2 hours before I wanted to wind down for bed and previous rounds had been quick so I thought why not? Huge mistake. I ended up getting "lucky" and got a miracle run. Basically because the game is rng, I got a run where a lot of things went my way and I uncovered several puzzles, mysteries and solutions all in a single run. Just one single round of the game ended up taking over 4 hours and I didn't want to stop playing because you can't save in the middle of the round and I was worried I'd never get such a lucky round again. This sort of thing make it incredibly hard to plan time to play the game. Maybe this is only a me problem but I rarely get days where I can just devote an entire day to playing a game. Blue prince is deep too so if you want to "complete the game" it will likely take you over a week of playing every day.

Another issue I had with the game is the lack of a built in note taking system. After "finishing" blue prince, I checked the number of screenshots I had taken and I took 380 screenshots. That is insane. This is my opinion but if a game requires you to take that many screenshots it should have a note taking system. One of the big issues is that you have no idea what is and isn't a clue and since the game is a roguelike, you don't know if and when you will see a particular clue again. What this basically meant for me was that I had to screenshot anything I thought that might be useful because who knows if I need it later. The game also punishes you for moving so you can't just go back and check if you forget. Doing so can ruin your run. I was shocked that people were praising the game for not including a note taking system once I was done with the game. It was torture having an aha moment only to realize I had to go dig through my 380 screenshots to go puzzle out the solution. Yeah I also had a notebook but I used it sparingly especially after "early game".

The third issue I had was around how some of the puzzles are terribly designed. I will give you the most damning example. I had solved a pretty indepth puzzle in blue prince except instead of a solution it gave me a riddle. The riddle was cryptic but I thought I had a good idea of what the riddle meant. The problem was with how I would confirm the solution. Because the riddle basically said to stand in one spot for a really long time (in real life). I tried that and it didn't work. This was a puzzle that pissed me off enough I finally looked up a solution since I didnt want to waste my gaming session basically afking the entire time.

This was a huge waste of time. I absolutely hate puzzles like this. In my opinion if you have a puzzle that requires someone to literally wait for a long time, the solution better be obvious and not some cryptic riddle.

All of this was made worse by the next game I played at the time which was Chants of Sennaar. A game that was way more polished than blue prince. The contrast between the games made me sour on my experience further.

When you begin and have enough puzzles to chew through, it's fun. However, I found it infuriating when I got screwed by the RNG, which could not give me the right layout when I already knew how to solve a puzzle for more than ten runs. So, in the end, I really disliked mixing those two genres (puzzle solving and roguelites).

It is possible to tweak that RNG in your favor, but this is gatekept by RNG too...

Best puzzle game I've ever played. I couldn't put it down.

The ambient music playing as you enter the long tunnel at the end 🥹

Very interesting and unique game that has absolutely no respect for the players time. For example, every time you go to the security room you want to activate the doors, but the game makes you go through a bunch of screens on this incredibly slow computer instead of, say, just putting a lever on the wall.

Overall recommend it as a cool new concept in puzzle games, if you have the time.

I enjoyed it but my only complaint is once you learn enough about the game to figure out the big puzzle, you can play rounds where it's impossible to progress, despite knowing exactly what needs to be done.

Me and my gf played it quite recently and I can say that it was a great game to play from the couch with a controller! A very fun and addictive little game. Especially if you like mystery elements and some rouge-lite mechanics. Highly recommended.