I loved it, but I had frustrations. I think there are two almost perfect games in here, the tile based mansion builder and the myst like mansion explorer. Somehow I found that putting them both together resulted in a slightly lesser experience than either of them functioning alone. It’s a very minor blemish on a fantastic experience though.
Hadn’t thought about it that way. I would had enjoyed it more if the rogue like aspect was gone and you could just rearrange the mansion at will, unlocking and storing rooms whenever to try things out to solve the puzzles.
I played a ton of it, and it basically consumed everything I did, but after a while I just dropped it. I technically beat the game, but I think it’s probably the worst-kept spoiler that finding the 46th room isn’t finding more than a fraction of the puzzles the game has to offer.
At this point, it’s less of a fun payoff and more of just a feeling of “finally” for the puzzles. There’s a room that allows multiples of another room whose puzzle I never managed to figure out after multiple tries, even with heavy RNG manipulation. I have another puzzle that I have to have specific rooms to place as well, which means more RNG. When it’s giving good puzzles, the game is a wonderful onion. When you’re stuck on a bad one, you’re either cursing the RNG required for it, or wondering how the hell the devs could ever have expected that to be solved (looking at you, Room 8’s predecessor).
I’ve got what feels like a ton left to find, but it kind of feels like I’m at the point where the satisfaction is outweighed by the tedium or the sheer confusion the puzzles have. All that to say that this game has totally been worth it, even if I couldn’t find myself finishing it.
Up to room 46, it felt like every failed run built up to your eventual success, like any good roguelite. You failed, but at least gained a bit of knowledge, a permanent upgrade or improvement to the state.
Then you get to a point where each run is less and less rewarding and eventually give up. There’s nothing left to learn or upgrade, it’s now a fight with the RNG.
My opinion is that in the game you should have collected rooms over time, but be able to build the house with whatever tiles you have.
This would still require multiple playthroughs, as you need to rebuild the house for different puzzles, but also removes some of the RNG by tying it to finding new rooms rather than at every door.
I found it to be a beautifully frustrating experience. There clearly are a ton of layers and puzzles can help you solve other puzzles. I appreciate the effort it took to make it, but it doesn’t feel like it respects the effort it takes to play it. Here’s some of my frustrations:
At a certain point you should get a magic vacuum upgrade to pick up all common items in rooms. Hunting for gems and coins in rooms on my 25th day sucks and adds nothing
I should be able to move at least three times faster. Fuck, navigating the house is slow
It really sucks that the first time you “solve” the primary puzzle you actually can’t progress until you solve a separate other puzzle that is dependent on finding one room and then another, and that is not clearly indicated at all
While footsteps eventually become trivial it’s an annoying resource when you don’t have full control over the layout of the house. So you can build a maze through no fault of your own and then you don’t get the steps to explore them
Eventually there’s a special room you can pick every run. Why do you make me actually traverse to that room? It burns useless steps and again, is slow as fuck
Additionally, the only “permanent” room you can place (to my knowledge) you can get way too early. So if you put that in a crappy spot you just kinda fuck yourself for the rest of the game
Sometimes you will think you have solved a puzzle but need to assemble the rooms to implement the solution. So you can: spam runs and rooms to get lucky and find it, do normal runs and just hope you find it, try to manipulate RNG to maximize the chance of solving that puzzle. None of those are fun when you have a couple of solutions to try and you spend multiple in game days manufacturing that opportunity
The items are kind of crazy. There is a puzzle that requires you to assemble three items in a specific room, then discover a separate other room, then get to that room to use that item. There’s like 15+ items in the game, how are you ever supposed to organically put that together? Also finding a metal detector in my first 5 days made me paranoid that every room was hiding keys and coins on the floor even when I didn’t have it
Some of the puzzles are so obtuse and have so many layers that if you ever happen to solve one that you suddenly think all puzzles could be that crazy. I solved the chess puzzle before the periodic table puzzle and was building this wildly complicated solution to that puzzle when it was actually really simple
Despite my gripes I do think it’s a good game with incredible puzzles and a very unique design. I just think it doesn’t account for people actually playing it. I would bet there’s a really intriguing story under this but eventually I got so hung up on performing solutions I had already discovered I couldn’t be bothered to also discover the plot. I did read a summary after that helped contextualize things. Honestly what I’m looking forward to is when someone else takes these mechanics and refines it into a really cool rogue-like
Just here to agree with your thesis. It feels like Blue Prince doesn’t respect my time. So much of the game relies on luck but each round is 30+minutes long.
I got credits and uninstalled. I respect this game, but I’m not sure I enjoyed it.
If you got credits, thats you completed the tutorial. The game has ridiculous depth and story to discover. I can totally see how not every one gets that
You’re not wrong. I’ve had most of these thoughts. I would appreciate more permanent upgrades to save time.
I won’t say it’s a flawless game. The depth is just so unexpected.
I played through the credits run solo. Now that I’m passed that, I’m bouncing ideas off a friend because it might take either of us ages to discover things like how to create certain items, etc.
Im going to need to go back and try it again, I don’t think i gave it enough time. I failed (because of course I did) about 5 times before giving up. Its a neat concept but it didnt get its hooks in me like everyone else says.
Without fullt spoiling it, does it have some kind of twist in it that I didnt give it a chance to do?
The rng mechanics are definitely frustrating for some but the game is way deeper. Getting to 46 rolls the credits but you are left with so many unanswered questions. Some people stop there and feel satisfied, but others are curious about the world.
My thoughts are to try to push through the initial frustration with rng on the drafting side. You’ll eventually find that there are Roguelite mechanics to help you along, and it will feel less rng-dependent.
Failing early is normal - your runs will get more consistent as you progress in the game across multiple days. And when they do, that’s when it really hooks you.
I don’t think there’s any moment that truly blows your mind. It’s a very slow burn. I found every run I learned something new that made me want to revisit old rooms and search out new ones. It definitely helps to take notes which is also fun in its own way.
Sometimes solving a puzzle just gives you some lore but that was also neat too. There’s one note I found that stuck with me regarding following traditions. It doesn’t have anything to do with the game but it was great writing!
There were a couple of moments for me that made me go “wait, how fucking big is this game actually?”, but otherwise yeah it’s more of a game where you gradually scratch at the surface and peel at the corners and bit by bit it keeps opening up and opening up and opening up beneath you.
If you only did a handful of runs, you likely didn’t experience many, if any, of the various ways that persistently impact your run. It is also a game that have layers to it, the draft some rooms first layer ends up giving way to the puzzle second layer as you progress. It does a great job of giving you different ways to look at something that’s old that suddenly makes it relevant again.
Honestly, the devoted community is pretty sure the whole game isn’t even solved yet.
My SO and I have been obsessed with this game for the past few weeks now. Unlike any other game I’ve played, this one makes you feel smart for remembering small details about things you spotted earlier, or when you look back on a note you took that is suddenly relevant.
That said, we are at a point now where we know roughly what we have to do, but we still need to slog through multiple days to get the rooms we want to appear.
We’ve built enough starting bonuses that reaching 46 isn’t really a challenge, so now the drafting just feels like a slog.
I think from here on out we’re going to be looking up hints just to get to the finish line. [Edit: spoiler tags aren’t working for me, removing them for now]
Hey! Not sure if you’re on an app or browser. I’m currently on the Lemmy browser. Doing
<span style="color:#323232;">::: spoiler An example spoiler
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Something happens at the end of the game!
</span><span style="color:#323232;">:::
</span>
works for me to make
An example spoilerSomething happens at the end of the game!
I’m curious to see if copy/pasting that on your end will look correct on my end, even if it looks wrong for you.
@PerfectDark I only recently cames across with project and it looks amazing - like a Jellyfin for games. I only wish there was plugin support for Retroarch/Lutris or something similar rather than needing to rely on EmulatorJS.
I love the work you've done sitting down with the team and it's definitely convinced me to put this one down as the next of my ever growing number of services going onto my homelab cluster.
As an aside, I also wanted to thank you for your writing in general. I used to do a lot of writing (heck, I did three quarters of a journalism degree a lifetime ago), and the effort and quality you put into this stuff has definitely started that itch in me again...
As an aside, I also wanted to thank you for your writing in general. I used to do a lot of writing (heck, I did three quarters of a journalism degree a lifetime ago), and the effort and quality you put into this stuff has definitely started that itch in me again…
Please do!!!
I’d love to read more from ‘our’ circle of people. I find there’s…not enough, which is (in part, anyway) why I like to try my best at sharing this kind of thing. Especially in an atmosphere where short videos are consumed like crazy, where A.I. can slap together (poorly) someone’s writing, and where the big sites are just click-bait or begging for subscriptions and support.
IDK, I’d love to read whatever you’d be writing!
And thank you so much for writing this, I’m gonna link the RomM team to a new convert :P
I only wish there was plugin support for Retroarch/Lutris or something similar rather than needing to rely on EmulatorJS.
We integrate for now with playnite (lutris for windows) and any handheld that can run muOS or Portmaster, but Lutris integration is on the list! Sadly, retroarch doesn’t have a plugin system, so for now that’s discarded
It’s so sad that Like a Dragon series is now at its peak and it could benefit from that system massively, but can’t. And by the time this patent runs out, it will probably already run its course.
Slowly making my way through the Mass Effect Legendary Edition after grabbing it during a Steam sale! I only played ME3 when I was a teenager, so it‘s really fun to finally get the full experience.
I guess you don’t get the emotional impact as compared to having played the whole trilogy, but it was enough fun on its own that it made me come back to it all these years later!
Ghost of Tsushima would’ve rocked even harder with a system like this.
maims a mongol/ronin/bandit
“YOU! GHOST! It seems I too am now a ghost! I’ve learned your style after my defeat, and through more practice, am ready to take you down. Fight ME, you weakling!”
Or something like that would’ve made that masterpiece even better. :'-]
Absolutely baffling that this isn’t free. I watched RTGame play it on YouTube and can’t imagine how ripped off I’d feel if I paid cash money for it. I had 1 2 Switch with my switch at launch and was instantly bored by it, but at least it was actually a game.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne