Summary
After only about a week since its release,Blue Princehas been getting rave receptions, being the most highly-reviewed title of 2025 at the time of writing, with a 90 average critic score on OpenCritic and finding itself in the discussion as a potential Game of the Year contender. The debut from developer Dogubomb that took eight years for creator, director, and designer Tonda Ros to refine and perfect,Blue Princehas proven all that hard work paid off, as, despite being a more niche and experimental “roguelike puzzler,” it has already garnered heaps of praise for its absorbing experience.
The situation in many ways mirrorsthat ofAnimal Well, last year’s hitindie Metroidvania, and the first title published under popular content creator Videogamedunkey’s Bigmode label.Animal Wellmade a huge splash as well, instantly drawing many players into its beautiful but haunting labyrinthine world. More than that, the two also share the trait of having layers upon layers of secrets and optional content to discover, andBlue Princemight just have taken the crown fromAnimal Wellin this regard due to its nature and design.
Animal Wellwas also nominated for Best Debut Indie Game andBest Independent Gameat The 2024 Game Awards, and sits at an 89 on OpenCritic.
How Blue Prince One-Ups Animal Well’s Treasure Trove of Secrets
Blue Prince and Animal Well’s Rabbit Hole of Hidden Layers
Both games present players with initially simple goals: to escape the titular well andreach room 46 of the Mount Holly mansion, respectively. They gently guide gamers into their systems and let them experiment with the mechanics while slowly and organically introducing more wrinkles and elaborate combinations and possibilities. Eventually, players are armed with the knowledge and tools to overcome previous obstacles and solve puzzles that were locked off earlier.
What setsBlue PrinceandAnimal Wellapart is that, once completing a playthrough and reaching the ostensible end, this really only marks the beginning of a series of carefully involved steps and even more devious puzzles. Though many of these are technically optional, they offer additional context to their stories and settings along with different endings. Both titles beckon players to keep digging under the surface and explore their worlds further to see, and solve, greater mysteries.
Blue Princeis currently available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimateand PlayStation Plus' Extra and Premium tiers.Animal Wellis available on the latter two.
Blue Prince’s Design Presents a More Diabolical Challenge For Hardcore Completionists
Solo developer Billy Basso stated ahead of its release that he thought that it might take years for players to even uncover, let alone solve, all ofAnimal Well’s meticulously hidden riddles. Fans answered in kind, though, and a dedicated crowdsourcing community went to work to share their discoveries in an endeavor to decode all the cryptic clues. Sometimes this involved simple brute-force, while others were pasted together from all the carefully laid breadcrumbs to arrive at the correct solution. It’s still unknown if every singlesecret inAnimal Wellhas indeed been unearthed, but many have, and much faster than its creator anticipated.
Blue Priceoffers a similar incorporation of deeper layers well beyond its starting puzzle. However, itsroguelike elementsprevent some of the methods used to crackAnimal Well’s from being as effective. In both, most of the clues are there for those who pay careful attention and take note of subtle hints. But whereas inAnimal Well,once the answer is known, it’s just a matter of following the exact steps, however complicated, to solve,Blue Princeoften thwarts this strategy.
Blue Prince’s use of randomnessmakes attaining certain solutions leagues more difficult, since, even if players have previously figured out what to do, they may not get all the pieces needed to complete a given puzzle in a single pass. It throws an extra layer of challenge into the mix, remaining fair but requiring more patience and, admittedly, a bit of luck, to achieve. Still, it can be incredibly satisfying to have everything fall into place on a perfect run. LikeAnimal Well,Blue Prince’s plethora of extra secrets are enticing to complete, and it will likely be a game that inspires future titles to attempt to go even further in this area.
