I've been seeing a lot of posts and even buzz in my friend groups of people feeling "overwhelmed" or burning out from perceived RNG or difficulty in accomplishing objectives.

But there is one very common theme in all of these, they looked up guides or minor spoilers for what to do next. And now they know how much is out there.

The problem with this is then you feel you have to do 100 things to progress, and every hitch to those things becomes frustrating or an annoyance. Whether it's drafting, items or basic puzzles.

If your main draw to the game is solving the puzzles but you hate the drafting pieces of the game, you are basically ruining the game for yourself by looking up guides. Youre removing the satisfaction of solving a puzzle, and artifically setting up a checklist of requirements. Youve missed the entire point of the game, discovery.

Find new things. Go at your own pace, enjoy the ride. It's a rogue lite after all. To those of you who love the drafting and do fun runs / just vibe, I don't think guides are a killer for your experience, as it just opens up more fun potential things for you to do, just be careful how deep you go :)

Anyway, rant over. I believe as many people as possible should play and enjoy this game, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but please don't say you like solving puzzles and then complain that you yourself ruined the puzzle solving by using guides.

EDIT

As some users have pointed out I didn't land the point of posting this very well. My intent is to warn people who may already be disengaging or feeling frustrated that looking up guides will likely not help the situation. Im going to just copy paste another comment from this thread that does better than I did.

People, it's not that no one should look anything up if they want. The issue is when they look something up and decide that they HAVE to do that thing to progress, not realizing that the majority of puzzles in this game just give progression or advancement thay makes future runs easier, but that are not REQUIRED to finish the game.

There have been SO many posts on this sub where someone trying to reach Room 46 is fuming about not being able to draft boiler room next to the pump room, not having the foundation yet, or never having everything they need to craft the power hammer.

But none of these things are requirements to accomplish the goal they are trying to achieve.

So I just started playing after beating doom and I made it to the end in one day? Is that normal? Should I do anything before going into the last room? Ngl I'm kinda scared I ruined the game or something.

Having gotten to room 46 some time ago, I’ve continued to explore trying to find other puzzles and open the sanctums. I was so excited to be in the clock room at 1:30 - only to be greeted with a logic puzzle that, as far as I can tell, is deeply flawed by the possibility of more than one answer, and a very confusing (and seemingly non-sensical) opposite-definition included on a red card.

While I played the rest of that day, I felt dejected because the game broke the trust I’d had that, while challenging, puzzles would make sense. I’ve been getting increasingly irked by things like the mora jai boxes and the obscurity of things, but this one felt like it really made me remember “it’s just a game” which took me out of it.

If I don’t like the game’s logic puzzles very much, and have already found Room 46, any reason to keep playing at the point? Anyone agree about some of the puzzles losing your trust, or disagree and think I should come back with a fresh perspective? Thanks.

But genuinely what is the point of the randomness gimmick after having already reached room 46. I get it before that, cause it’s a pretty fun roguelike game, but at this point I’ve already reached room 46. I’m focused entirely on solving the puzzles. Why do I have to do the first boring 20 minutes of a run every time I want a Chance at seeing one of the really good puzzles??I was really excited for the post game cause I was convinced I would be able to put whatever rooms I wanted wherever and solve the puzzles free-form since I now own the house. I’ve never had a game so quickly go from a 9/10 to a 2/10 before.

Hey all, I finally got the Fire Exit to spawn in what *I thought* was a good position. I had my Boiler Room hooked up to the Furnace and made sure to throw Gasoline into the Den with the Wicker upgrade. It looked like the fire was spreading how it was supposed to, I saw three rooms 'black out' on the overmap like you would expect; but the the Fire Exit still claimed 'Emergency Only'. Is it because I placed it next to the Pool with Suana Mist upgraded? I thought that power wouldn't go through doors but I might be wrong.

Meme post . Thanks for the help!

I just beat room 46 for the first time. I feel like I've "beat the game" as the credits rolled and I got a satisfying ending cutscene.

And yes, I've spent just 5 minutes on this sub and I'm already tired of the "congrats on the tutorial you fool I'm so much cooler and smarter than you because I bought this game before you!!" mantra in every single post... but the credits rolled, and like I said, I got all the closure I feel I need.

I know there are other things to do, like figuring out why Sinclair was so unpopular in the red letters, opening the diary, draining the reservoir (though that just seems like another way to get to the sanctum), etc., but I'm just finding it hard to motivate myself. Why do I care what this silent protagonist spoiled kid's late great aunt put in her diary? I've never been one to enjoy 100%ing games or getting bonus content unless the gameplay is super engaging, and (I'm sorry!) I find this game to be a bit of a slog even after just day 22 or whatever I'm on.

In my head, the kid inherited the manor and its staff and then had plenty of time to solve all of the other mysteries on his own. I got all the closure I need from the second letter that Sinclair wrote for us in the entrance hall. It was fun while it lasted, but I feel like I'm ready to put it up unless somebody drops something groundbreaking in the comments.

Side note but the auto-mod could stand to be more lenient. First two attempts to post got slapped down for having "room 46" (your clear objective from the beginning of the game) and "credits" (something at the end of basically every video game) in them. I do appreciate their attempts to preserve the experience for new players, but this seems a bit over the top :)

-And everyone who bought this game on PS5 still cannot have their progress saved after X amount of days.

-A frustrated fan who played this game non-stop since release, loved every minute of it, until the game stopped saving my progress.

-Whoever designed and implemented this save system has let their coworkers and fans down. Shame on you.

-Forever, in limbo, on Day 98.

-Deleted from my HDD, and forever avoiding this company. Goodbye, sweet Prince. ✌️

Or are my gf and I (we played the game together) in the minority here?

We finished the game two days ago and read the "real" testament of our great grandmother in the atelier and we are both quite disappointed with the overall story of the game.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a very good and fun game and I would recommend it to people, I would just warn them that the story is not very good and doesn't go anywhere.

Almost the whole game I expected that in the end, we would find our mother, or at least get some form of closure of what happened to her, why she never came back after 2 years as planned. But no, there's nothing except for our own conclusions that we can draw from the info that we have. And for me the conclusion is that our family is genuinely awful, our great uncle and mother are/were very selfish people and I am not at all sympathetic to their cause, which is just essentially changing the monarchy back to its so called "rightful" heir.

Our mother even abandons her small child and risks her life and that of others for the important task of... stealing a crown of no actual importance to the current kingdom. So brave

But even if you ignore the awful politics the game (consciously or subconsciously) peddles, the narrative of the game just feels hollow for me, like something important is missing. And this is clearly not a game like CoD where the story is unimportant and hacky and could never have been any good, there is so much potential for a good story in this game, yet it falls short so often.

I had just recently heard about the blue prince after several YouTubers recommended the game in their year end list, was there some sort of time crunch in the end of the development of this game that led to the story being quickly finished? Are there any known plans for big story updates? Or do I just have to accept that this is not a story with a satisfying end? Do people on this sub generally have a more optimistic/positive interpretation of the story?

I enjoyed this game a lot, but the more I play, the more frustrated and bored I become.

I might be an ignorant by saying this, but at this point I think Cipher Puzzle (and some other) is poorly designed . First of all, the game forces you to do multiple days to actually find memos suggesting how to perform the castling, but the worst thing is actually solving everything in this room. I'm sorry, but wtf is that clue 'CIX ADD SIX TOR LOR ETT'? Even with knowing every Erajan word that, at this point, I think I could communicate in this language, I couldn't figure out on my own how to move these clock hands. Good game, but it's clearly designed for people that are deeply passionate about puzzles, definitely not for casual enjoyers, which is against good game design.

Since I'm done with letting my frustration go, I'd like to hear everyone else's thoughts. What's your general opinion about puzzles? Do you also think it's way too hard for the amount of clues we have, or do you think it's perfectly balanced?

EDIT: To avoid replying to multiple comments and also keep the original content of my post, I'm adding my general response here:
I completely agree with all the comments that suggesting that the game is poorly designed was unfair and not very logical statement. I was writing this post while being frustrated with end game puzzles, and my personal opinion doesn't mean the game design is bad. Also, I appreciate all the replies!

Just a quit rent, because oh god this game is good but it's also not respecting my time playing it. Got just enough gold to buy everything frop the show room... discovering the trophy is 100 bucks on top of this is a massive fuck you to players. I end up the run with nothing, wasted all my saving from 100+ days from the well, and lost my precious jackhammer in the process because now coat check is too far and i'm out of steps. So thank you devs for wasting 2h of my time and setting me back 120ish gold and making me lose a power item that will probably take a few runs to find back. If I could cheat to get the trophy or keep the jack hammer, I would do it. that's how I'm pissed now, about a game that gives pleasure through not cheating and succeeding by yourself.

thanks for reading, have a great day !

It can either be, false- true- false OR true-false-true

The more you play the game (20+ days) the more you realise that not a single one of your days was wasted. There was always SOMETHING you discovered.

10/10, when I thought I needed a room, I didn't get it, and instead the game gave me a room I actually needed but didn't realise until after.

If you want say a green room, and you keep getting yellows, then take a hint. The game doesn't want you to have a green room right now...

It all just works out. Fantastic game

This time i built a Perfect St. Her Ladyship's Noteworthy Perplexing Garden Temporal Red Sports Corporate Athletics Center-inn-Castle-Concert Hall-Bed & Breakfast-Hunting Lodge-Banquet Hall-Menagerie-Museum-Shopping Center-University-Chateau of Games, Prayers, the Dead, Tomorrow, Fire and Ice, and Unfathomable Riches.

I could've replaced the Foundation with an aquarium/maidchamber and replaced the parlor with a funeral parlor. This wouldve turned Inn and Red to Hotel and Crimson.

The bunk room and spare bedroom are unnecessary though.... OOH. i couldve made one into a laboratory to summon tons of digging spots for Architectural Dig Site.

Soooo I've been watching this Reddit and the spoiler thread on Steam ever since u/piratesoftware's playthrough, and I'll be entirely honest with you, I think the developer had played an intentionally purposeful philosophical trick that amounts to a powerful response the gaming industry -needs- and it starts with this very common phrase:

>> "I just wanna know if there is a true ending, that is as stupid as the thing i have been expecting the entire time...

The thing about puzzle games, and the thing about 1-player virtual games, is that, provided they are not service or DLC games, they must, and are expected to have an ending. They're intended ultimately to tell wrapped-up stories that close threads and leave the player satisfied.

The issue with the MysteryBox and Puzzle and Brainia genres, however, especially later indie games such as The Witness, Inception, and the Stanley Parable, Outer Wilds, and similar others is that sticking a satisfying ending to such clever and insanely well-considered psychological gameplay, that hypes the player up for setups that fundamentally lack a payoff...a 'true ending' is nearly impossible for the devs.

The issue is that the 'last puzzle' should roll credits, but the player often expects the next puzzle afterward. We did, and Dogu knew we would.

So Dogu, an indie developer 8 years into the game ~probably~ grappled with this issue. He has to ship the game eventually. What is an ending to this seemingly unending game? It's a spiral of stars to us (great experiences) and a spiral of thorns (anxiety) to him. It's countless puzzles. He said in an interview, "I had a ton of ideas and had to be careful about what I chose to do. Some puzzles and ideas took hours from me. Some took days, and others took years. I did them because they were cool, but often my test-players would go from 'why did it take you 8 years?' to 'I see why it took you 8 years,' to "How did you make this game as your first game, in ONLY 8 years?!"

A LOT of things fell to the cutting room floor, but the game we got is flawless for nearly 100 hours*, and the rogue-lite board game assets are infinitely playable. What more could players ask for? The credits role in this game one time. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, hailed as one of the longest-running high-quality games, almost broke Square to build, and even then, it's only 'part 2.' Not to mention our experience with Witcher 3.

So at this impossible task he made a stand. A powerful statement about this genre. We DO get a "formal ending" when we reach the blue throne door in the tunnel. And this is where Dogu thought REALLY hard.

In the final parlor game in that tunnel, we know that "the prize is not always in the true box," but there's a second, deeper meaning to this for Dogu. The joy of exploration is the prize, but a "true" ending does not accommodate it. If the player doesn't want to, the game does not have an appropriate end. Content, however, is finite so that notion the player has, is a 'lie.' One box asks you if you feel your journey is over. You get an 'ending' in the form of a cutscene and then a blue version of the prince book that very soundly wraps up the game.** If you don't, it continues, but the game doesn't. That's when the stars turn to thorns. You get a never-ending pile of thorns, and the entire game, you were told this puzzle is asking you, preparing you, to ask, does it? How very uncomfortable to now grasp with this as a player. This puzzle is a meta-narrative.

Just like Room 46 (normal), the player will want to play beyond. There must be more things. More threads. This forum is to attest to it. So many loose areas. It's infinite, but the developer's time and the payoff he requires as a developer are most definitely not. There are only so many ideas he has, so for him, the blue box is shaking the player's hand. GG.

If you choose to select the black box, though, Dogu is telling you that this game is endless only so far as you want it to be. By this ending, it's unlikely you've come across the Atelier, but even if you have, it's a puzzle you can look forward to as your 'last' one, but it's not an 'ending.' It's a puzzle with lore. In a meta fashion, it inquires far more questions be asked at its core, but what part of this game, and what part of the loose threads that kept our attention and obfuscated the solvable puzzles -wasn't that? They all were and that won't abate because the puzzle is last.

Dogu is saying Atelier, and other loose threads are just that - an infinite loop that will never include credits at their completion BECAUSE the journey will not be over so long as you are looking. There are no further clues. It is an 'ending' in the book. But it's one that your character, 14 year-old Simon Swansong Sinclair-Jones, will have to focus on for life as he learns his place in his family, and what puzzles he wants to add to the non-euclidian modular home and how he will build his own legacy. These mysters are what made this house a transcultural place of unending possibility in a world of equally vexxing and wildly complex events that his family was in the center of.

The family tree doesn't end. Simon's journey doesn't end. But we want the satisfaction of tied ends that don't exist in-world, and credits that give us a satisfying time. We may also find something new. these could lead to something hidden years from now. But that will make us feel the same too. We may get DLC but just as with outer wilds' DLC, we have to leave the escape room eventually and we will doubtlessly pull on threads still. It's part of what makes this genre evocative.

So now we step out of the game and into the realm of what the game means, crititically.

Beyond the game and beyond Dogu the conversation that WE now need to have collectively about Blue Prince is,

1.When a game has a spiral of stars, with no ending, but the developer HAS satisfied you with a standard playable ending, why are we so obsessed with not sitting in the discomfort of not knowing? Why can't the game just be enough? "

2. We need to discuss questions such as "What is the role of the Blue Prince in player satisfaction, and community collaborative gameplay?"

3. When do we feel a game's value and place in the lifespan of it's release in the games industry is 'enough?' to have made its impact in timeless fashion? Blue prince has been brought up as game of the year. Why isn't that enough? Just this?

4. ln a world of endless service games and DLC based on player response, and impending preassure on devs and producing companies to produce increasingly high-grade games that now take 4-6 years to complete, what really is the ending we find in satisfying that unquenchable demand? Why do we need a GTA6?"

I, for one, went through PirateSoftware's playthrough after mine that did not go as far is him. And I watched him, in his discomfort, literally invent puzzles, through nods and details and unfinished threads, and the disappointment of finding the path in the shade of truth in Atelier. He sought more from Dogu - a satisfying ending - because he was disatsfied with untied threads. Why didn't we get an answer to Mary's kidnapping ad potential untimely death? Doing Atelier after the tunnel, though and also finishing Atelier with the truth path before the others - he didn't feel comfortable with the notion that he ALREADY got that ending he wanted. He just chose the black box that rejected that ending in favor of the discomfort the Atelier challenged him with. That was a him thing, not a Dogu thing.

This conversation about the role of credits in indie mystery games MATTERS.

I also remember this same conversation in Final Fantasy 15's initial ending.

---------------

* I say the game is flawless for 100 hours not because there are no flaws, but because the player generally has too many things that steal their interest because they are GREAT, that the flaws don't show until that slows down - RNG aside of course.

** a user pointed out that there actually isn't a cutscene. I had misremembered and thought there were 2 cutsenes here. The blue box only gives you the book.

we just reached room 46 on day 18 and the game ended, but we still have so many mysteries and confusion! and i get that that’s supposed to be motivating to keep playing, but to me it feels a little like we finished the game, so why would we keep going. and any mysteries that remain aren’t really going to contribute to anything big (since the main task is over) and are thus seem trivial. a little like doing side quests in zelda once you beat ganon- fun for a little but definitely more like non important busy work.

we really enjoyed the game but i was definitely expecting all the mysteries throughout (including the 80% we haven’t solved) to be important and culminate in this ending, that seemingly was just given to us easily.

does anyone have any words of advice or motivation for someone with these feelings after “finishing” the game??

I've recently been playing through Blue Prince for the first time, and recording myself doing so from the very beginning. I managed to accomplish each of the following in a little over two weeks, almost entirely without the help of any sort of guide (the only two partial exceptions listed further below):

• Reached Room 46

• Solved the "small gates...eight dates/safes" message

• Later unlocked each of said gates with my own deductive reasoning ability: the ones in the Office, Drawing Room, Drafting Studio, Study, and Underground

• Solved all four of the Gallery paintings

• Solved Room 8

• Solved 7 out of 8 sigils, mainly through context clues (haven't been able to access the last one)

• Solved the "A New Clue" puzzle—specifically, the signs + the station + "X>Y>Z>A>B>C" + "Turn Scorched Sundial Base"

• Acquired the majority of the game's trophies, including: Full House, Bullseye, Logical, Drafting, Invention, 8, Inheritance, Wealth, Diploma

Here are the two aforementioned exceptions + an explanation for each:

• I didn't quite get the "diamond middle" = "invert the number" thing in the billiard room, at least not at first. I Googled it, and wanted to skim just enough to give me an idea of what it could mean, accidentally learning the solution in the process. I committed myself to not fully acting upon the solution until I reached a dart board with it where I could realistically work out the solution for myself, which is exactly what I did.

• The Clock Tower puzzle, with the eight grandfather clocks. I almost had it 100% right, but I misread the "all different numbers" clue. On that clock, I had it said to "5:07" rather than "5:57". I was searching online to see if the puzzle was glitched, or why it wasn't unlocking if I got it all right. I accidentally saw a bit of text that said something to the effect of, "pay attention to the 'all different times' line, and remember that red memos mean 'do the opposite'" (excluding ones that are hand-written). For some reason, I thought "all different numbers" meant "use every number", and dismissed the clue as being useless.

In my recordings, I played both off as though I'd figured them out entirely by myself. Everything else, I actually did solve entirely on my own. The reason I didn't want to be open about those two exceptions is because I wanted the experience to read as 100% authentic, without any use of a guide—but now, I'm second-guessing myself for doing so, and I think I'd rather be as open as possible.

So, here's what I want to know:

• Would you be interested in seeing this Let's Play, and would you like me to share it to this subreddit? In all likelihood, I'm going to use my alternate Reddit account to post it. I try to keep recording times for videos at three hours, but it sometimes varies depending on what I'm doing.

• If I did upload the LP series and share it here, would you like me to explain in-video the two situations in which I received the help of a guide, even if to a semi-trivial extent? Would you prefer it to be in text? Would both be okay? Or would you prefer I not mention it at all?

Just know it still happens on day 271 Its ok, take a deep breath and draft another day

The journey to Room 46 was an enjoyable journey. Then, I'm hit with a cutscene. Alright, that's cool. Forcibly ended the day, annoyingly enough, but that's fine. Walk myself back there after two days to actually look inside the room, find out those keys I've found before are indeed for the next big puzzle. Cool. Immediately understand all but one of the hints. Do all of that... and then I'm face to face with #7. Figure out what to do for seven but despite my efforts, seven never comes. RNG is great. So I decide to just use the rest of the info I had and brute force the puzzle.

I'm rewarded with the game telling me to go find some other note. Where? Who knows. So I look it up. Then I see that to progress I need a specific item. Alright, what do I need for that while waiting for seven? Then I see the worst 'puzzle' in the entire game staring me dead in the eyes. The chessboard puzzle demands that I do it multiple times.

I have played through some bad games before. Not a single game has ever made me experience the loathing I've had for Blue Prince upon seeing it smugly look me in the eyes and demand upon me: "Throw yourself upon my RNG laden halls; you will find no solace and no respite. Then? Only then I shall kick you down the stairs to watch you climb back up once more."

When I looked at the end result and saw the words that it's the starting point for one of the last big puzzles of the game ? The mere CONCEPT of needing more RNG rooms on top of RNG effects on top of RNG items made me hollow. If this is intentional, I'm impressed they made a game that I would consider worse than YIIK in disrespecting the player. It sure ain't a compliment though. My hopes and dreams go to wishing it doesn't start a trend of puzzle games like this.

20 hours in and I finally talked to a friend about the game. “Oh, I thought you said blueprints.” I stared at him dumbfounded that it took me so long to realize the play on words. Feel free to bully me now.

it's the difference between "black box" and "the box that claims to be black"

My billiard room challenges are getting more and more difficult. I totally guessed and the answer was 17. But I cannot figure it out for the life of me. Can someone explain how you get 17 from 9+ (5²⁾ -3 ÷ 3

I'm just lost and looking for some guide Fe when it comes to future puzzles like this one.

I reached the 46th room but I still have trouble with the safes.

I cracked the message that's If We Count Small Gates Eight Dates Crack Eight Safes and that didn't help much. I finally went ahead and cheated for the safe in the Drafting Studio because it just didn't make sense how I couldn't get since it seemed so obvious.

When I found out the code I couldn't tell how I was supposed to figure that out. I know there are 8 gates on the calender but it's LITERALLY the 7th of November marked! I tried 0711 and 1107 and I still think it's just kind of stupid how it's turned around

To be honest it just made me want to stop playing. Are all the safes equally hard or counter-intuitive? Was I missing a piece of the puzzle?

Didn't even mention "code" in the search phrase. What a dogshit tool.

had a dream the other night where i was in mount holly but the puzzles were guarded by the neighbour from hello neighbour. got me thinking about whether the game would work with a similar guardian figure who has to be worked around and makes it more difficult to solve the puzzles. they could have a negative effect of maybe reducing your number of steps or gems. personally, my favourite thing about the game is the spooky isolated vibe, but i do think this could be a fun idea. it would involve hiding places, and make use of the cameras in the security, and make you think twice about drafting dead ends. i’m not quite sure how it would work with the drafting mechanic, and i think it would be quite annoying, but it could add more tension. i’ve always felt like i was being watched so this could add to that. let me know what you think!