"Games like this drive the industry forward": polarizing opinions on Blue Prince in the new episode of "What's the Game?"
The topic of the latest episode of the monthly deconstruction show “What's the Game?” was Blue Prince, a first-person quest with roguelite elements. This time, expert opinions were divided. It was intriguing to observe two completely opposing perspectives on the game design and other elements of a single project.
The show's hosts were, as usual, Alexander Semenov, head of the media division of WN Media Group, and Maksim Fomichev, an independent expert and former producer of the upcoming RPG The Expanse: Osiris Reborn. The special guest was Georgiy Kuravkin, former creative director of Wargaming.
Fomichev took a highly negative stance, criticizing almost every aspect of Blue Prince. His main complaints included the lack of clear objectives and fun in the initial hours of gameplay and poor storytelling through the environment. He also noted that the project does nothing to engage and entertain the average mainstream player.
According to Fomichev, Blue Prince would be improved with a more interactive environment, adding more gameplay within each individual room. He also lamented the setting, which he found not very intriguing, suggesting instead that the game could benefit from elements of mysticism. For example, a Lovecraftian setting could make the game's world and characters more relatable to players.
Overall, Fomichev compared the success of Blue Prince to the situations around Balatro and Palworld, considering the hype around these games to be artificially inflated through media.
"Media hype has changed drastically over the past five years, and now everything goes viral with incredible force. The same story happened with Blue Prince. It is, in my opinion, an average game that media folks have elevated with cries of 'Game of the Year,'" Fomichev concluded.
Kuravkin, who played Blue Prince for about 100 hours, shared a much more positive feedback. On the contrary, he praised the game for its unique combination of quest mechanics and roguelite elements. Being a big fan of Quest games in the style of Myst, he hadn’t seen anything similar in the genre before.
At the same time, Kuravkin suggested several QoL improvements. For instance, Blue Prince could benefit from an internal journal that players could consult at any time to read what specifically is happening depending on their progress. He also noted that there’s a lot of mysticism and global mysteries in the world of Blue Prince, unfortunately hidden deep in the endgame.
"Despite all the drawbacks, the author has managed to combine very incompatible things in Blue Prince. I respect this game for that, first and foremost. I believe that such projects develop the industry, and for this reason, it is one of the best games of the year. Although if you dissect each mechanic separately, there are better games,” Kuravkin summarized.
“What's the Game?” is a monthly show available on the educational platform WN Academy. You can watch a recording of the latest broadcast on the platform. Additionally, access to the archive of all previous episodes is unlocked after registration and upon attending your first broadcast.
The next episode of “What's the Game?” will air on September 17. You can register via this link.