Delta (He/him) Hello from the Hallowoods fan art, Pokémon, OCs and writing. Ask me about any of those.
Pokémon/Fakemon side-blog @themurcyregion
Original writing: @oddhaul
Been reading phase two of Skulduggery Pleasent to bf
We’ve reached Dead or Alive, and Creed’s speech is just… mad, for many reasons
The first half is reads painfully realistically, especially considering the descriptions saying how Creed fanatics behave between Creeds’ words
But then the second half is like. Bam! The first step of my three stage plan is a 9:00pm curfew, and like whaaaaa?? 9?
If you’re a teen who stayed a mate’s place too long, better make it a sleepover, lest you risk detainment. Your book club run a little overtime? Tough shit, you better hope you’re someone with a night shift permit or it’s the cuffs for you. When does the curfew lift? 3am, 7am, 10pm? Creed doesn’t say
The fact there’s not a protest to such a problematic curfew before its public announcement is crazy. People should be lining up to join Temper’s resistance
Another thing is Creed saying, “oh, we’re not oppressors but oppression is what this world needs. We’ve given the mortals time and time again to prove themselves worthy of leading but now it’s time for us to take the wheel”
Paraphrasing ofc. But assuming Creeds’ referring to mortal world wars and global turmoils as their ‘failings of leadership’ is just suuuuuper hypocritical bc Creed immediately starts turning Roarhaven into this 1984 fascist state with him the leading dictator
And we see what will eventually happen to the mortal population, plus the people shown affected by Creed’s and the City Guard’s policing seem to be people of colour. It hasn’t been straight up said but Temper says “it’s not safe for people like us” to a man he saves from unfair arrest. And Bella (the Corrival student who gets abducted for being out of her dorm at night), Axelia mentions her parents are coming from Papua New Guinea to find out what has happened to her
I see now that Rancid Fines’ relation to Nazi Germany was a lot more deliberate than I realised when I first read this book
Imo the last two books of Phase 2 are the worse in the series. All because of the plot’s pacing (I believe Landy originally planned for another two books in this phase but didn’t get them for some reason). Either way, I’ll still enjoy reading the them. Maybe I’ll find a new liking for them with a new mindset. And maybe I’ll enjoy Cadaver more after rereading his introduction (I can’t remember if I blogged my Mind full of Murder thought dump already, but ohh boy I am so neutrally confused about how I feel about him as a character)
On a different note: Rancid’s last name changes from Fines to Fine in the first chapter. Also Omen’s dad Caddock changes to Craddock at one point
Also my bf made one excellent point when we read Seasons of War but I’ll need to make another post about that
Also, Gretchen! I completely forgot who she was when she gets mentioned in Until the End. That’s nice!
Unnecessarily Long Blue Prince Review / Thought Dump
Overview:
This game is simply amazing. If you like complex puzzle games that require needing screenshots and a notepad and pen to solve said puzzles, then I couldn’t recommend Blue Prince more.
The mystery, world-building. and atmosphere are incredible. There’s clues written in a fictional language. Clues that require a run with a specific collection of rooms or items to solve. And whenever you think you’ve close to completing everything, bam! They’ll be a new rumour or hint to lead you somewhere else. Every discovery gets you hooked, even if you have a run where everything you planned to investigate takes a tangent, you still find something new
The art is amazing, each room design is amazing, the puzzles feel brilliant when you figure them out. The mystery keeps you interested and every scrap of info you get either points you to a new mystery or a new tidbit of lore/history.
The Ambiance:
Each room and area brings a unique vibe. The gloom and ambiance of rooms that hint towards the fate of MC’s mother. The negative atmosphere of a red room’s impairment. The quickly abandoned setting each room has been left in. It really makes each room feel like it gets used frequently.
Little detailing like blinds being open in rooms drafted on the perimeter, or say the bells and comm device in the Maids’ Chamber really emphasise what each room is and what it’s used for.
Honestly all it would take is a few light jumpscares (like a blink-and-you’ll-miss a human silhouette at the end of a corridor, that ducks out of sight before you clock it) to make it a great horror game (not that I think the game needs that)
The Puzzles:
(Most of) The puzzles were fun to work out and really satisfying to apply when planning each run. The eureka moments are what get you addicted. You finally see the bigger picture (like the dual picture puzzle) and sudden you’re spending the next 5 dedicated to chasing this lead.
Some rooms do unique things if pair with others, like the Pump Room and the 6 areas that use water. Draining one room to fill another has unique effect that leads to more clues and areas
Unlocking permanent features helps the game progress and make you feel more apt at exploration and makes the game repetitive tedious. Thats not the say RNG doesn’t screw you over. Getting power to the Lab took me forever.
I have a few complaints with the late game puzzles I have but I’ll get to those shortly.
Dislikes:
My main critique is the difference between progression in early and late game, as well as some of the puzzle solutions.
Late game Blue Prince has a lot less pull than early game. This is mainly because you’re slowly running out of leads and clues to solve, which can make the puzzles you’re stuck with feel directionless as each run starts to yield less and less results.
And when your patience runs thin you resort to peeking at a Wiki or Reddit post for a hint and discover your lost because you didn’t scan some piece of text with a magnifying glass or something.
[To give the Wiki writer(s) and fandom some kudos, they’ve done an excellent job of not handing you the solutions and hiding them behind collapsible lists of hints or spoiler tags to poke you in the right direction first.]
There’s been a couple clues where I’ve resorted to looking up the solution because I either felt too frustrated after spending ages on it, or I’ve run out of leads to follow in the endgame.
The Office safe was one of them. On one hand I’m happy I’ve looked this one up because I wouldn’t have thought to have started counting the statutes as “03” instead of just “3” (I think the game should show that the safes combinations are 4 digits)
However looking that up made a bigger clue (the dual artwork puzzle) lose some of its value as part of it is to help with solving the Office safe.
Other times though, it ruins puzzles you haven’t found. I ruined the main mystery of A New Clue by peeking at locations to use the Burning Glass. In fairness, the Burning Glass had only unlocked minor discoveries up until this point (like upgrades discs). But in hindsight I should’ve been more patience. Getting RNG to align with your objectives isn’t simple and it made sense to use it whilst I still had it. But in the end, I recognise it’s my bad.
My last complaint is the endgame puzzle progression. By the time you’re hunting down your Sanctum keys you’ve likely come across scraps of a 6-by-3 letter grid cipher. I had this cipher filled out but was left with nowhere to apply it other than the Clocktower (which was incorrect). So, I shamefully looked it up only to find its use comes after a ‘Castling Puzzle’ and a ‘Court of Aries’ puzzle.
The way to find these two additional puzzles comes from Blue Memo hints left by the Blue Tent upgrade (a 400 gold purchase that’s only available after completing 8 of the game’s achievements). The Blue Tent gives every Blue Room a well hidden Blue Memo if the room is drafted on rank 8.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but only two of these Blue Memos reference Castling in chess (and one of the book Manuscripts, I’ve found out) and even if you know what castling is it’s not clear where it’s meant to be applied.
Okay, it IS endgame. The puzzles shouldn’t be crystal clear at this stage. But your main lead at this point is the 6x3 grid. Chances are you wouldn’t catch a glimpse of ‘castling’ for numerous runs and after too many runs of discovering nothing, the game’s hooks kinda loosen.
Maybe that’s a me problem
I suppose the intended route to find this would be. Do all Realm Sigils - Solve the eight Realms in eight days puzzle - Apply the new paragon ordering from the Will in the Tomb - discover the first drafts of The Red Prince and A New Clue in the Catacombs and get the hints you need from there.
However I completely disregarded the new Paragon ordering (or just assumed it was the same as the original one) so after too many runs where nothing progressed I just wanted a bit of direction.
I think the game should point you more towards the second paragon ordering. As without the manuscripts the Throne Room puzzle and Castling Puzzle are really obscure. But the worse of it is getting the Sceptre outside. I don’t know how you’re meant to find the Sceptre on your own. Resetting till you get Blessing of the Monk is a bizarre choice. Yeah, the diary hints you there’s smt to drafting new room ms outside, I got to draft the Antechamber outside but what exactly points you to draft the Trove there??
The complaint in short.
Like all games, the bit where you’re having the most fun is when you’re playing blind and discovering heaps of new info to get better at the game. The worse part is sometimes when you get good. Because now you’ve unearthed the game’s mechanics and know how everything works. There’s nothing new for you to find and any stones you haven’t turned over gets harder and harder to see
This makes me wonder if the game should have a ‘current objectives’ menu. That way, you’d know when to put down a hint or continue with a current one (like there’s a few puzzles in A New Clue). However this feels like a slippery slope to hand-holding and I commend the game for staying clear of that, even if it makes the end game feels like navigating a void at times
You are, of course, free to disagree with me with anything I’ve said here. This is just how I currently think about the game, maybe I’ll disagree with what I’ve said here in the future
Favourite Rooms:
- Any room with no cost and two exit points (like the Den or Corridors)
- The Parlour Room and its puzzles were so satisfying to solve… until they start putting two statements on each of the boxes fuckkkk that shit
- Solving the late game Billiards puzzle made me feel like a smug maths professor
- The Courtyard (especially when upgraded to give 2 Gems)
Least Favourite rooms:
- The Hovel. Unless you’re trying to get a lot of new expensive rooms early game and don’t have the Gems to pay the cost. This room is only worth drafting once for the gas valve
- The Servant Quarters: Items are sooo essential to finding new leads, it just feels silly to draft this unless you absolutely have no other choice
- The Mirror Room: Yes, I know it can be handy for a Schoolhouse run, or a Dead end run but it’s a nightmare to navigate, uses so many steps just to open the damn thing up and now your drafting pool is oversaturated with rooms and drawing specific rooms becomes harder. I suppose the extra Security print’s inside it is kinda nice ig
Changes I’d make:
- It’d be nice if there was a permanent addition that let you preserve a rare item for a day. Like a Coat Check next to the campsite maybe. I can see this being a touch too OP tho
- I constantly felt aware about how long I was keeping the Mount Holly Staff on paid leave. I know they’re getting paid and Sinclair’s probably too rich to realistically drain all his finances (his will does consider that which is cool), but they say in the emails that they miss their jobs after a while and long to return, and the more you play the longer it means they’re away. Just makes me feel a tad guilty
- I don’t like how you don’t get to explore Room 46 when you first get to it. You can explore it a day after you reach it but there are crucial clues for the Sanctum keys in there that I didn’t discover until after I stumbled across half them by chance beforehand
- I think a second cut to credits would’ve been nice for after the endgame. Maybe after the Throne Room puzzle. It’d be nice for the game to be like, yeah you’ve done it all now. Maybe then, say after the final Parlour boxes, the game could give you a list of things you’ve left incomplete
- The Red Envelopes should do more. I found 5 of them before teaching the Unknown. Apparently only 7 of 8 of them have been found? Or is it that 1 of them is unobtainable? I’ve noticed the Orchard Hut having an empty gem stand on the floor beside the table. Does that mean the last one’s around there or did the evil gardener run off with them. I guess they give old rooms a permanent gem to get. But in terms of progressing puzzles and unlocking stuff, they seem to do nothing? Which is weird because finding these letters act as a secondary objective to Room 46 until they get usurped with hunting down the Sanctum Keys
The Ending?
Absolutely loved unlocking the series of unique doors to find the final(?) cutscene with the three parlour boxes
As for the actually “ending” itself… idk
I like how it applies the “does it ever end” scrap from Her Ladyship’s Chambers, to tell you the game doesn’t actually “end”, while at the same time, giving you a final book to read about a blue prince having played the game ‘Blue Prince’ that ends with the text “the end”
“Is the game over now?” you ask.
“No, but actually, yes,” Blue Prince replies.
Dare Mode:
Was a lot of fun!
I got lucky and got the glitch where the fourth dare doesn’t load and managed to beat the game with the dares of:
- If you have 3+ gems, draft the most expensive room you can
- Unlocked all locked trunks you come across
- Never use all five spaces on a rank
I’m very grateful that messing dares up only results in resetting the day, I honestly thought it would delete the save file.
And I still got the trophy even though I beat the challenge with only three dares active
The Game Over monologue I found kinda amusing, especially when it catches you off guard, you’re like, “What? What did I do?”
Curse Mode:
Is less fun but more interesting
Sometimes limiting player action makes the way forward more obvious
Can’t believe they deforested the apple orchard, I suppose starting the day with 33 steps is waaay too OP
I got the West Gate open. I found an upgrade disc and managed to upgrade the Nursery into the Nurse’s Station (I honestly don’t know how you’re meant to beat Curse Mode without this room)
My current objective is to get to get the satellite working so I can get the “Open-Antechamber-door” outcome for the Lab experiments and then leg it to the Antechamber (as that’s how I beat Dare Mode).
Where I’m at now:
Currently snagging the last(?) two letters and solving (well, more looking up than solving, but still some solving) the Family Core/Still Water clue. Just how much more is there to this game?? It’s great, even if some of the puzzles are too out there for me.
Curse mode is slow progress but I’m gonna get this Platinum Trophy, mark my words. I say it’ll usurp Inscryption and Hollow Knight as my most challenging Platinums
Trophy wise, I need the Curse Mode, One day, and One Hour trophies.
As much as I like the game, I’m tempted to try something new and attempt the two minutes speedrun to grab the One Day and One Hour trophies.
You do this by gliding/flying over the baluster on the Grounds leading to the elevator (done by spamming jump and map constantly to keep Simon in the air). Doing this you can clip out of bounds and glide (the same way) under the map and pop back up again using pre drafted rooms. You waddle out of bounds round the side of the house till you reach the back, fall and spawn the Room 46 lever in the Inner Sanctum (the hard part), pop back up using the Antechamber and open sesame!
So far I’ve managed to spawn the lever twice but haven’t had enough air time to land beside it. Maybe next run
blue prince when you get the rooms and items you need: this rules. game of the century. nothing could be better. i am a golden god.
blue prince when you do not get those things: absolute trash. troll tier game. an asshole game for assholes made by asshole creators. the shovel is a lie.
