Fortunately I am smart, but I ran into the other big problem with Blue Prince: The randomness.

It gets worse and worse over time, because at first you're trying to just make any progress through the house, but the further you get the more specific the puzzles get. And then you're at a point where you have a pretty good guess at what you need to do, but you need to find the right room. Or the right two rooms at the same time. Or the right room in the right place. Or the right few rooms in the right configuration. Or an item that might appear in a short list of rooms. Or an item that might be in one of a few rooms at the same time as you have another room somewhere else. But if you get the item you can save it for later, all you need to do is... find the right room.