I Miss Blue Prince

I miss Blue Prince. I miss it in a way that I can’t remember missing a game.

I miss the initial intrigue, the early bafflement offset by a compelling desire to find out more. I miss each exciting new discovery and each new piece of information – things you just knew were important even if you didn’t exactly know why! The sense of achievement when riddles were finally cracked, connections were made, and puzzles solved. And I especially miss the buzz of that last run when we finally walked or more accurately *sprinted* through the door to Room 46 to learn what it held.

But more than that, I miss the experience of playing it through with my partner Hannah. I held the controller while she was chief note-keeper – each role playing to our strengths and both approached with enthusiasm and dedication. We shared the decisions – which direction to follow, which room to choose, which particular thread to pull on as each run evolved in its own way, and how to tackle the game’s occasional more-conventional puzzles. It was an experience that we shared, sometimes even extending beyond actual game time – the odd dinner table theory and the occasional random epiphany being shouted up the stairs. And almost uniquely, it was a game that Hannah (as a willing but only occasional gamer) didn’t just enjoy but even regularly “initiated”. It felt special.

Once we’d entered Room 46 and rolled credits on the game, the celebrations only lasted so long. A euphoric “we did it!” gave we to something more melancholic. It was unsaid at first but the realisation appeared to dawn on each of us. This brilliant and unique game, no, this brilliant and unique experience had sadly come to an end. True, there are still breadcrumbs to follow, dots left to connect and additional backstory to uncover and we did even have a couple of runs trying to fill in some of those gaps. But the main driver had gone, taking any clear sense of purpose and – honestly – most of the fun with it. Turns out not wanting something to end doesn’t stop it from being so.

We’ve had some great gaming moments together and I’ve no doubt there will be more to come. My new obsession is Re/Match – a game that couldn’t be more different, with a pure arcade-y joy and “just one more go” appeal. But that’s one that I’ll be playing solo again – a more-familiar feeling and not worse per se, just different. Blue Prince wasn’t just a special game, it gave me and Hannah something special too. We cracked it, we did it, we loved it. Together.

Author’s note: OK so the brief from James was actually to write a review but, hey, I wanted to share what it meant to me first. That said, a brief is a brief so you’ll find that review (and as “spoiler free” as I could make it) here too. Please do check it out.