Blue Prince is a roguelike puzzle masterpiece

I have been playing this game and it is really a blast. The tutorial note cards strongly recommend using a pen+paper while playing and I can second that as pretty much required for some of the more "meta" puzzles.

Worth noting that I believe it is also on Gamepass and whatever Sony's version of Gamepass is called if you already had those services and wished to save a few bucks.

> The tutorial note cards strongly recommend using a pen+paper while playing

This is my largest complaint. The game should really have a notepad built in. It doesn't need to write down clues for me, but it would be nice to not have to find where my notes were if I put the game down for a long time. Is it that it's a console release?

So many games desperately need this feature. Almost all games could benefit from it to some degree. I see zero negative consequences to adding it to every single game in existence just in case someone wants it.

if you play on PC through Steam, Steam at least has a notes function in the overlay nowadays: https://www.polygon.com/2023/4/28/23702656/steam-beta-update...

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure adding Game Pass games to Steam isn't really compatible with that. It looks like there was a "notes" app for the Windows "Game Bar", but it's no longer available.

Thanks for this callout, I was looking at the reviews here and on Steam and waffling, but I've got Game Pass.

Also, re: notepad writing: if you've got two monitors, it Alt+Tabs just fine. I'm writing this as the opening credits play.

I've played 10 hours ish and it needs pen and paper notes. A text notepad probably won't work

possible, yeah, from what I've heard the launcher is weird for those.

I don't recommend using it, there's unfortunately a bug where your notes will not save randomly and just disappear between sessions. Which for a note taking feature basically makes it usuable. You can find discussions about the bug on steam ex https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/6679490218977...

I haven't played this, but I played Obra Dinn, which the review mentions, and I really don't think digital notes would have been nearly as good as pencil and paper. I really needed to draw arrows between things, sketch out a timeline, put question marks around ideas, etc. Pencil and paper is just so much more expressive.

I think the option would be great regardless. What you say is true - pen and paper is more expressive than digital notes, but digital notes is better than nothing.

I played Obra Dinn without pen and paper and I was fine.

There was a game called The Roottrees are dead which is based on Obra dinn with a built in journal system and it is really useful.

> whatever Sony's version of Gamepass is called

Just mentioning that it's PS Plus, and the game was made available on their Extra & Premium tiers at launch [0], which is nice, as they typically release all the games on the same day in the middle of the month.

[0] https://blog.playstation.com/2025/04/09/playstation-plus-gam...

P.S. "Lost Records: Bloom & Rage", the second half of which is due to come out in a couple of days is very different, but highly recommended too, especially in its emotional vibes and how well they integrated the VHS camera into the gameplay.

It’s an indie game. I think that adding a full-fledged note system with as much creativity as paper+pen is a big undertaking and perhaps not the best use of resources for the developer