Baron Herbert S. Sinclair, grand-uncle of the titular character, Simon, has left behind a last will and testament concerning the inheritance of his labyrinthine estate nestled in the sleepy town of Reddington—Mount Holly. But there’s a catch: the inheritance is contingent upon Simon locating the mysterious 46th room in what’s supposedly a 45-room estate.

No servant, maid, or butler has ever seen the elusive room, nor do they know what, or where, it is. So we grabbed a pen and notebook, and turned the page on an exciting mystery, solving puzzles in marble statues, oil paintings, and stained-glass windows to uncover the secret behind the 46th room.

As you step into Mount Holly, you’re welcomed by the foyer—a room that introduces the game’s mechanics, provides an empty blueprint for which to draft rooms, and a key rule: you must depart before nightfall, or after taking 50 steps.

Mount Holly changes daily. No room is permanent, and any items you collect will vanish once you leave. As the heir presumptive, it’s your job to explore, draft rooms, and solve puzzles that either reveal new pathways or offer clues pointing back to earlier areas. Remember, the estate resets at the end of each day, so keeping a notebook is essential to recording your discoveries and returning next day with a fresh plan.

Locating the Accessibility Room

We opened our journal to the Settings menu available from the title screen and got to work examining the accessibility options, only to find them rather bare-bones.

The Settings menu (available both in-game and the title screen) offers limited support across Visual, Auditory, and Mobility categories. Visual options are restricted to screen brightness, and Audio settings are limited to volume sliders. Mobility support fares slightly better with options like controller sensitivity, camera inversion, and FOV adjustment. However, there’s no way to view or rebind controls.

Strangely, the Accessibility Menu can only be accessed in-game, not from the title screen. The Accessibility Menu (currently greyed-out and disabled) hints at a future update that promises features like Color Assist Mode (presumably support for players who are colorblind) and a Control Rebinding. We’re eager to see these additions implemented, but also wish they were available on day-1.

Visual Accessibility Frustrations

We started our clue-finding mystery at Mount Holly Estate and quickly ran into some visual frustrations. We get it—Blue Prince is about mystery and exploration, which is core to its design, but without stronger visual support, players are pushed away rather than drawn in. Objects are incredibly difficult to spot, and the cursor, which changes into an eye when hovering over something interactive, is barely visible.

Coins, gems, and keys, and more, are scattered throughout the sprawling estate with no way to ensure you haven’t missed something. Many items, like a hidden lever, are incredibly small, and important objects can blend into the furniture making it frustrating when you finally notice them after walking past them several times. A simple solution would be the addition of contextual outlines to clearly identify interactable objects without compromising the core of the game: solving the mystery of Mount Holly.

We thought that would be the end our visual frustrations, but they persisted. Many clues are hidden in handwritten notes, some in cursive, making them difficult to decipher. Certain clues are color-coded, like red and blue notes or the colors of boxes, which can pose further accessibility issues. Worst of all, some rooms feature sudden flashing lights upon entry with no warning for players with photosensitivity—and the flashes are intense. Simple solutions like adjustable fonts, text resizing, and a “disable flashing lights” would go a long way in mitigating these issues.

Perhaps most frustrating is the total lack of any colorblind mode or support for players who are colorblind. Puzzles in the Billiard Room and the Utility Closet, for example, require perception of red and blue, yet no accommodation is provided for players who cannot see those colors. We feel this is unfortunately a major oversight, and one with no official timeline for a fix, although the options appear in the game and are greyed-out with a note that adding this support is "a priority".

Cognitive Accessibility Mystery?

Just as players who rely on visual accessibility may face challenges with Blue Prince, we encountered some notable cognitive hurdles, particularly around guidance, memory, and onboarding. For players jumping in blind, the game can feel immediately disorienting. While it’s intuitive that the goal is to solve puzzles, the complete lack of onboarding or tutorials turns the early experience into a guessing game. We had to figure out the controls, how to interact with objects, and what we were meant to do, resulting in a frustrating friction for newcomers.

Blue Prince presents players with a blueprint and choices about what lies beyond each door, such as a hint that a gem or a key might be inside, but even after entering, it’s often unclear what you’re meant to do. More than once, we’ve found ourselves asking, “Was that it?” after entering a room. And with some rooms containing no puzzles at all, it becomes an unpredictable experience for players expecting a consistent mystery and challenge.

For rooms that do contain puzzles, there’s no clear indicator of success or failure. Nothing happens—no feedback, no progress marker, no notification you’ve failed, or even interacted correctly. You’re wandering the room, unsure if you’ve made progress or missed something entirely. It leaves you feeling more confused than accomplished, and it becomes easy to give up.

One of the biggest cognitive hurdles is the inability to save and suspend your progress without forfeiting your current run. This can be especially frustrating for players who’ve made significant progress during the day but need to step away. While there’s no visible in-game clock, it often feels like one is ticking in the background, adding subtle pressure to make each run as productive as possible before being forced to leave it behind.

Stay The Course

For players who stay the course through a rocky onboarding experience, Blue Prince gradually reveals its true identity as not just a puzzle-solving mystery, but a roguelike puzzle adventure.

The game prioritizes the journey over the destination. With constantly changing rooms, puzzles that evolve, and secrets unlocked by combining clues across multiple rooms, the experience becomes rewarding. One day you might discover a sledgehammer that can break the crate you saw in another room, revealing a sought after key. Another day, you might stumble upon a pitch-black room, only to realize you need to find the circuit breaker hidden elsewhere to illuminate it.

Like all roguelikes, not every run is a good one. You’ll hit dead ends, encounter locked doors with no keys, or find tools like a shovel with no way to reach the room where it’s useful. And some days, there’s simply no viable path to room 46, even if you know where it is. Even in these less than fruitful runs, you gain knowledge: where items appear, how rooms connect, and what to try next time. That insight becomes the real treasure that carries into your next attempt.

The Door To A Greater Mystery

From the outset, Blue Prince tasks you with finding the elusive 46th room to claim your inheritance, but there’s far more beneath the surface. Scattered letters, newspaper clippings, torn correspondences, and other fragments reveal deeper layers: the legacy of Herbert S. Sinclair, the tangled history of the family, and the land upon which Mount Holly stands.

All-in-all, while the accessibility features may fall short of an otherwise page-turning experience—and we’re glad to see Dogubomb promising future updates—the mystery itself doesn’t disappoint. Finding room 46 may mark the “end” of the game, but Blue Prince easily invites you to stay longer, unraveling the true nature of Simon’s story and how he fits into the bigger picture.

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