[STEAM] I stopped with Blue Prince after the credits rolled. Having watched the postgame, I am very glad

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Get on the computer. Screenshot by Destructoid It was the cohesion of the puzzle and the roguelite elements that elevated this game above its premise for me, and perhaps it was inevitable for the careful balance that was struck to go out the window in the post-game.

Post-game, after all, expects a level of mastery over the existing systems, but that is perhaps where my personal interest in roguelikes differs from most. I find it fun to express my growing mastery by accomplishing the goals with worse and lesser equipment, gaining greater ability to ride out any storm. For most, the fun comes in growing optimization and improved consistency. Indeed, late-stage Blue Prince mansions might as well be tailor-made to the player’s objectives at the time, leaving you to focus on the puzzles.

I played around the postgame puzzles for a little while after claiming my inheritance, then I decided I had my fill of the mansion and put the game down satisfied. Late last year, I caught up with things by watching

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(from Aliensrock, whose work I highly recommend)— and I’m glad I dipped out when I did.

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A different kind of adventure

Inevitably, the focus on puzzles grows at the cost of the roguelite aspect, throwing off the base game’s careful balance. It is, therefore, a big issue that both the design and the execution falter somewhat as you get deeper into the postgame. Some spoilers will follow here, so be warned.

Be it the error of the blue-recolored throne room’s blueprint color (originally, it was still marked as ****** and was therefore not getting the appropriate appearance bonuses from the Scepter and the Banner of the King) and the cypher in the safe (where WATER and WALER were both valid solutions to the numeric code), some of the more obtuse tunnels betrayed the game’s otherwise impeccably tight design. Resource balance also shifts significantly as you get deeper in the postgame, making the continued Allowance Token rewards pointless at best or insulting at worst.

The final segment of the game that leads to what fans currently think is the true ending features a truly repetitive set of puzzles from a type you have encountered all along the game, with no roguelite elements remaining, followed by another word puzzle for good measure. As for the “true” ending itself, I’ll just say I’m glad I watched someone else get to it rather than struggle to get to it myself.

And perhaps that’s the word: while the base Blue Prince experience achieved a fantastic genre fusion, most of the postgame puzzles felt like a struggle to me, and the story rewards offered were too piecemeal compared to what came before. It felt like, and I shudder saying this, an adventure game.

I thought the whole point was that we have progressed past that genre framework.

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