If you\u2019ve spent any time in the puzzle-gaming community over the last year, you\u2019ve probably heard people talking about \u201cthe notebook.\u201d Not a digital log or an in-game menu, but an actual, physical stack of paper filled with scribbled safe codes, floor plans, and family trees. That\u2019s the legacy of Blue Prince. Ever since it landed in early 2025, it has been less of a game and more of a collective obsession for a certain type of player\u2014the kind who doesn\u2019t mind feeling like a genius at 2:00 AM and a complete idiot by 2:15 AM.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of momentum that makes you wonder what else is hiding in the shadows of the release calendar. Speaking of surprises, the industry just got a massive jolt with the Sons of Sparta shadow drop<\/a>, a Metroidvania that trades the quiet drafting of blueprints for high-octane combat. It\u2019s a wild pivot from the methodical pace of Mt. Holly, but for those of us addicted to exploration, it\u2019s another rabbit hole worth falling down.<\/p>\n When I first stepped into the shoes of Simon P. Jones, I thought I knew what I was getting into. A teenage boy inherits a sprawling mansion from his eccentric great-uncle, Herbert S. Sinclair, but there\u2019s a catch: find the 46th room, or lose it all. It sounds like the setup for a cozy point-and-click adventure, doesn\u2019t it? But within twenty minutes, I realized that Mt. Holly is less of a house and more of a living, breathing machine designed to test your sanity.<\/p>\n The core hook of Blue Prince is something I haven\u2019t really seen elsewhere. You start every day at the entrance hall of a 9\u00d75 grid. Every time you approach a door, the game gives you a choice of three rooms to \u201cdraft.\u201d It\u2019s like a deck-builder, but you\u2019re building a floor plan. Do you pick the Bedroom because it gives you two extra \u201csteps\u201d (your primary resource)? Or do you pick the Greenhouse because it\u2019s full of \u201cgreen\u201d items like shovels and dirt piles that might hide gold or keys?<\/p>\n This is where the strategy gets messy in the best possible way. You only have a set number of steps\u2014initially 50\u2014to explore the entire manor. Every door you pass through consumes one step. If you run out, Simon collapses from exhaustion, and you wake up back in your tent outside. The house resets. Every room you carefully placed is gone, replaced by a blank slate.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a roguelike, sure, but the \u201cruns\u201d aren\u2019t about combat. They\u2019re about efficiency. I remember one run where I was desperately trying to reach the north end of the manor to check a lead on the \u201cAntechamber.\u201d I had five steps left. And I drafted a \u201cFoyer\u201d because I knew it would automatically unlock all adjacent hallway doors. I felt like a total genius right up until the moment I realized I\u2019d boxed myself into a corner with three \u201cDead End\u201d rooms I\u2019d drafted earlier just to grab their resources. That\u2019s the beauty and the frustration of the drafting system. You aren\u2019t just exploring a maze; you\u2019re the one building the maze that eventually traps you.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a term people have been using for Blue Prince: \u201cmetroidbrainia.\u201d If you\u2019ve played Outer Wilds or Return of the Obra Dinn, you know the vibe. You don\u2019t get a double-jump or a power-up that unlocks a new area. Instead, you find a note in a trash can in the \u201cUtility Closet\u201d that mentions a date\u2014say, March 14th. You realize that date is a potential code for a safe you saw three runs ago in the \u201cStudy.\u201d<\/p>\n The game doesn\u2019t track this for you. There is no \u201cObjective\u201d marker pointing to the safe. There isn\u2019t even a \u201cCase Board\u201d in the menu. If you didn\u2019t write it down, you\u2019ve lost it. This creates a fascinating relationship between the player and the game. I started using a dedicated graph-paper notebook. By the time I actually found Room 46, my desk looked like a total mess\u2014basically a conspiracy theorist\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n One of the most memorable puzzles involved the \u201cParlor.\u201d It\u2019s a classic logic problem with three boxes. One always lies, one always tells the truth, and one\u2026 well, the third one is a wildcard. Solving it isn\u2019t hard once, but because of the roguelike nature, you might encounter that room dozens of times. Some critics have complained that repeating these minor puzzles feels like \u201cfiller,\u201d but I found it added to the atmosphere. You\u2019re Simon, a kid trapped in his uncle\u2019s obsessive world. Doing the same logic puzzles over and over feels like part of the indoctrination.<\/p>\n While the gameplay is built on mechanics and math, the soul of Blue Prince is its narrative. It\u2019s remarkably deep for a game where you never actually talk to another living soul. The story is told through environmental storytelling\u2014the \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell\u201d rule taken to its extreme.<\/p>\n Herbert Sinclair, the uncle, isn\u2019t just an \u201ceccentric.\u201d As you dig through the staff announcements and the red letters scattered around, you realize the Sinclair family was deeply intertwined with the \u201cFenn Aires\u201d government\u2014a militaristic regime that used the manor for things much darker than puzzle-solving.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Mary Epsen, Simon\u2019s mother. Finding her trail is when the game really shifts from a mystery to something political. Her puzzles are often tied to children\u2019s books she wrote, which turn out to be coded manuals for rebel activity. There\u2019s a specific \u201cBlue Prince\u201d vs. \u201cBlueprints\u201d pun that runs through the whole game. Without spoiling the ending, becoming the \u201cBlue Prince\u201d isn\u2019t just about inheriting a title; it\u2019s about a fundamental shift in loyalty.<\/p>\n I found the \u201cMary\u201d storyline much more compelling than the hunt for Room 46. There\u2019s a certain melancholy to exploring these beautifully cel-shaded rooms and finding remnants of a woman who was clearly trying to save her son from a world of propaganda. The game does this incredible thing where it uses \u201cred\u201d items as a symbol for the government and \u201cblue\u201d items for the rebellion. You start the game obsessed with the red\u2014the \u201cproper\u201d way to do things\u2014and slowly, your inventory fills with blue.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be honest: Blue Prince isn\u2019t perfect. By the time you\u2019ve put in 40 or 50 hours, the randomness of the drafts can start to feel like a personal insult from the game. There were days where I really needed a \u201cWorkshop\u201d room to craft a specific tool, but the drafting pool just kept giving me \u201cBathrooms\u201d and \u201cCoat Closets.\u201d<\/p>\n The community has been divided on this. Some players love the tension\u2014the feeling that you have to make do with what you\u2019re given. Others find it tedious. Personally, I think the frustration is intentional. The developer, Dogubomb, seems to want you to feel the weight of the house.<\/p>\n However, the \u201cAries Key\u201d puzzle and the final stretches involving Baroness Auravei (the great-grandmother) are undeniably obtuse. We\u2019re talking about \u201cmoon logic\u201d levels of difficulty. Some of these clues require you to cross-reference dates from the 1800s with the number of buttons on a specific portrait. It\u2019s the kind of thing that drives people to datamine the code just to get a straight answer.<\/p>\n By the time I reached the \u201crough draft\u201d area\u2014a late-game zone where the house looks unfinished and glitchy\u2014I felt genuinely exhausted. The game pushes you to the brink of \u201cbecoming slightly unwell,\u201d as one reviewer put it. It\u2019s a simulation of obsession. You aren\u2019t just playing a character who is obsessed; you become that character.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re just picking this up now, you\u2019re actually in a better position than the launch day players. Back in April 2025, there were some nasty bugs where you could clip through the world or have your save file hang during the transition between days. Most of those have been patched out.<\/p>\n The console versions (Xbox and PS5) run smoothly now, and the addition of the \u201cMac\u201d version last September opened it up to a whole new crowd of \u201ccoffee shop\u201d puzzlers. One thing to note is that the game is on Game Pass and PS Plus, which is probably the best way to play it. It\u2019s a high-commitment game, but a low-barrier entry.<\/p>\n One \u201cfeature\u201d that hasn\u2019t changed is the lack of a built-in hint system. This was a bold choice in 2025 and remains bold today. Dogubomb clearly wanted to foster a community of collaboration. If you get stuck, you have to go to the forums or talk to friends. In an era where most games have a \u201cpress X for a hint\u201d button, this feels like a breath of fresh air, even if it does make you want to throw your controller sometimes.<\/p>\n Blue Prince is a game that respects your intelligence, perhaps a bit too much at times. It doesn\u2019t care if you have a job, or kids, or a life outside Mt. Holly. It wants you to stay up late thinking about why the \u201cBilliard Room\u201d has a dartboard with a missing 14.<\/p>\n If you like the \u201cEureka!\u201d moment of a well-designed puzzle, there is nothing better on the market right now. Every time I thought I\u2019d seen everything, the game would throw a new mechanic at me\u2014like the \u201cPower Hammer\u201d that lets you break through walls, completely changing how you think about the 9\u00d75 grid.<\/p>\n But if you\u2019re looking for a relaxing, linear story, stay away. This is a game of friction. It\u2019s a game of failing forty times before you find one small scrap of paper that makes the last ten hours of work make sense. It\u2019s beautiful, it\u2019s eerie, and it\u2019s occasionally a bit of a nightmare.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever forget the feeling of finally stepping into Room 46. It wasn\u2019t just a \u201cvictory\u201d screen. It felt like a release. Like I could finally close my notebook, put away my pens, and go back to being a normal person who doesn\u2019t dream in 9\u00d75 grids.<\/p>\n Simon is the fourteen-year-old protagonist of the game. He is the grandnephew of Herbert S. Sinclair and the son of Mary Epsen. Throughout the game, you discover that Simon\u2019s upbringing was heavily influenced by the propaganda of a militaristic government, and his journey through the manor is as much about his personal political awakening as it is about finding an inheritance.<\/p>\n While the manor is structurally described as having 45 rooms on a 9\u00d75 grid, the goal is to find the elusive 46th room. But don\u2019t expect to see the same things every time; there are actually over 60 different types of rooms that can pop up in your drafting pool, each with unique layouts, resources, and puzzles. Some rooms, like the \u201cAntechamber,\u201d only appear under very specific conditions late in a run.<\/p>\n Not a chance. Unless you have a photographic memory, the game is designed to be impossible without external record-keeping. You need to track safe codes, room synergies (like how the \u201cMorning Room\u201d buffs your gems for the next day), and narrative clues that span multiple \u201cdays\u201d of exploration.<\/p>\n Yes. While finding Room 46 is the \u201cprimary\u201d objective and will trigger the credits for many, there are deeper narrative layers. Following the \u201cMary Epsen\u201d rebel trail or the \u201cBaroness Auravei\u201d historical trail leads to different conclusions that provide much more context regarding the world outside Mt. Holly and the true nature of the shifting house.<\/p>\n \u201cSteps\u201d are your most vital resource, as they limit how much you can explore in a single day. However, \u201cGems\u201d are a close second because they allow you to draft \u201cRare\u201d rooms that often contain the most important puzzles or shortcuts. \u201cGold\u201d is useful for buying items at the Bookstore or Shop, and \u201cKeys\u201d are essential for unlocking the many doors and chests that block your progress.<\/p>\n At the end of every day\u2014either by choice or by running out of steps\u2014the entire manor is cleared. All rooms you placed are gone, and all consumables (gold, keys, gems, items) are lost. The only thing you actually keep is what\u2019s in your head\u2014and your notebook. There are also a few permanent upgrades you can unlock that give you a better starting position for future runs.<\/p>\n What about you? Have you managed to crack the code of the Sinclair inheritance yet, or are you still stuck trying to figure out why the \u201cSun Room\u201d always seems to appear when you have zero steps left? I\u2019d love to hear about your most frustrating (or triumphant) runs in the comments. And if you\u2019ve got a photo of your \u201cconspiracy notebook,\u201d definitely share it\u2014we\u2019re all in this madness together!<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget to follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> for more deep dives into the indie gems that are currently taking over our lives.<\/p>\n Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are a games\u2019 lover and have writing skills, you can share your articles with us and we will publish them in our blog https:\/\/vgamerz.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\nKey Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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The Architect\u2019s Dilemma: How the House Works<\/h2>\n
Knowledge as the Only True Currency<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/picture>The Family Tree and the Red Herring<\/h2>\n
Dealing with the RNG and the Late-Game \u201cWall\u201d<\/h2>\n
Technical State in Early 2026<\/h2>\n
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Is It Worth Your Time?<\/h2>\n
Frequently Asked Questions (PAA)<\/h2>\n
Who is Simon P. Jones?<\/h3>\n
How many rooms are actually in Blue Prince?<\/h3>\n
Can you beat Blue Prince without taking notes? Honestly?<\/h3>\n
Does Blue Prince have multiple endings?<\/h3>\n
What are the most important resources to manage?<\/h3>\n
How does the roguelike \u201creset\u201d work?<\/h3>\n
Wrapping Up<\/h2>\n
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