1 - Clock tower, absolutely no reason that should not trigger at the set time, nothing about being careful or observant.

3 - Yes but if you want to recheck something you have to draft the library, end the day then draft it again. Add an extra day if you’ve already ordered the wrong book. Basically forces you to take screenshots of all pages of all books, preferably each with the magnifying glass, it’s just unnecessary and doesn’t add anything.

4 - No I’m talking about getting it active which requires repeatedly ending days or wasting a resource you need for the ridiculous “Does it never end?” constellation.

6 - No, there isn’t anywhere in the game that outlines the coin costs for every blessing, it’s trial end error, a complete waste of time. Also changing blessings is a chore and can cause annoying misalignments with puzzles.

7 - Well first, the number of crates, then the anticlimax of what’s actually in there.

9 - In most puzzle games, yes, but in Blue Prince a red herring often costs hours in carefully engineering a run with no pay off.

I definitely feel like some of my 200+ hours were wasted on dodgy wording, pointless mechanics and poor design choices:

1. Events only happening on the first instance of each day caused me to get completley stuck on a relatively easy puzzle as I thought I’d already tried the solution.
2. Blue notes
3. Library mechanics
4. Southern Cross
5. PONDER
6. Blessings
7. First blue door
8. Watering can shenanigans

Then there were numerous red herrings which didn’t even have any significance.

I would say Portal 2 for the laughs and story then Portal for similar reasons to OoT, then maybe Blue Prince.

It was good but some of the puzzles have terrible solutions and Tonda clearly didn’t have any qualms wasting the player’s time.

So you had an N64 and played it when it came out? Even if so, you were 7, slightly too young to really grasp the massive technical leap it represented for the entire industry at the time.

You questioned why so many consider it the best game of all time. The debate isn’t about which games have the most modern quality-of-life features today, or what I’d take to a desert island. When talking about the “greatest of all time”, cultural impact, timing, and legacy can’t be ignored.

Newton discovered the laws of gravity. We don’t diminish his monumental achievements just because physics evolved and his formulas are now taught at a high school level.

Also, my favourite Pokémon game wasn’t the first one I played as each one was an iterative improvement rather than a groundbreaking novel experience which wasn’t matched for years.

I could possibly agree with your statement “overrated in a modern context” (I’d personally put every single Final Fantasy on that list), but that’s not what the “best of all time” lists are measuring.

Blue Prince… Don’t get me wrong I got it day one, beat it blind and loved it but sticking that in your top 5 games of all time whilst throwing shade on Ocarina of Time is laughable.

I accept that if you weren’t there for it, you may never appreciate it to its full extent and might easily see it as overrated.

That said, the experience of playing Ocarina of Time in 1998 will likely never be topped, simply because we will never again see a leap as massive as the transition from 2D to 3D. Not only did they invent most of the mechanics still used today, but they somehow got the atmosphere and sense of adventure damn near perfect on their first try.

Thinking you had beaten the game after collecting the three Spiritual Stones, only to pull the Master Sword, wake up seven years in a ruined future, and realise the real journey was just starting, was mind-blowing.

Throw in time travel, the Sheik reveal, the perfect musical score alongside a blend of quirky and creepy encounters, and the game achieved levels of mystery not seen before and rarely replicated since.

​Combine all of that with a pre-internet culture where every secret had to be discovered and shared by word of mouth, and it conjured a sense of magic that I don’t think will ever be reproduced… Admittedly they came close with the “you can go anywhere” aspect of Breath of the Wild.

You’re all wrong, only correct answer is:

1. Ocarina of Time
2. Breath of the Wild
3. Portal 2
4. Civilization VI
5. Slay the Spire

With Smash Melee and Hades II only just missing out.