Blue Prince is the most non-stressful roguelike I've ever played, and that makes it perfect for bedtime

Self soothing is a funny thing, and for me, my latest method is to play Blue Prince an hour or two before bed. If you'd have told me a few months ago that I'd find an oasis of peace in a puzzle roguelike, I'd have laughed in your face. I love Hades and Hades 2 with a fierce passion, drawn to a sense of comfort in cyclicality while constantly feeling the compulsion to play just one more round. There's nothing chill about 90 percent of the best roguelikes I've played, because they're built to be moreish.

But Blue Prince is a different experience entirely. Or rather, it does a similar thing with surprisingly somnolent ramifications – for me, anyway – and it's made me view the genre in a brand new (night)light.

Blue moon

That's not me calling Blue Prince boring. As a combat-free exploration puzzle game set in a winding, ever-changing house where room selection is randomized from a pool of existing blueprints, I still anticipate new discoveries. This time, however, I can be leisurely about it.

As I explore each newly-drafted room, I pay attention to the noises the house makes as it yawns around me. It's a soothing soundscape, a tapestry of soft footfalls, creaking floorboards, the staticky hum of a nearby control panel. I complete a parlour game puzzle and feel my eyes start to droop. But no, I tell myself; I must press on and uncover more mysteries.

That's the curious space I find myself in while playing Blue Prince. Intrigued yet comforted, it's all too easy for me to forget that I'm supposed to be paying attention. That's why the game encourages you to keep notes as you go, with it spanning as many days it it takes you to figure out the mystery. At least, it seems that way – I really feel absolutely zero time constraint, which is a first for me in a roguelike. That's why I saw no need for note-taking over the first few in-game days.

But by the time Day Five rolled around, I was starting to notice more oddities – a forgotten bit of small print page here, a new book there, a letter locked inside a safe. Making notes as I go has become especially key, since the game does have a tendency to leave me feeling more cozy than fired up. But with so much to think about, that leads me to another reason why Blue Prince makes me feel tired – my brain is working hard here.

Routine expeditions

You know how some people read before bed, maybe do a crossword puzzle if they're the kind of person to keep such a thing handy? Blue Prince satisfies both of those ends. Some rooms have built-in puzzles, like the parlour riddle boxes or the dartboard mathematics, but working out a formula for drafting rooms is a head-scratcher in itself.

Random generation dictates which rooms are available to draft as you unlock new doors, from dead-ends to step-replenishing power-ups – steps are needed to make it through the house, after all, and with 50 to start off with, they whittle down surprisingly fast.

At first, I thought it was a simple case of simply getting through the house and making it to the antechamber as fast as possible – but I quickly learned there are clever strategies to get the most out of each day aside from simply beelining to the finish. Room combinations are a thing, a handy library book tells me, and drafting certain ones on the same day (and sometimes in close proximity to one another) unlock new surprises.

It's a stark change to the roguelike format, altering my approach to each day. There's no such thing as a wasted day, even when I end up barricading myself off from the higher floors following a series of disappointing dead-end rooms, because the story itself is a puzzle to unfold, too. There are so many layers to Blue Prince, very few of them pointed out directly, which only further necessitates me to take things slow.

As far as the best Xbox Game Pass games are concerned, Blue Prince looks set to monopolize my attention for the foreseeable. I only play it when I'm all but ready for bed, and allowing myself to fall under its hushed lullaby thrall has been a highlight of the last week or so. For once, I don't feel the need to steam-roll this roguelike – I want to mainline its relaxed, quiet intrigue into my veins and let it slowly drip-feed me the magic day by day. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm due a little nap. Even writing about Blue Prince is enough to send me off.

Check out the best roguelikes to play next, from Hades to Slay the Spire