Steam is getting a new puzzle platformer in March 2026, eight years after its initial launch on 8th generation consoles. On the one hand, the game, which is called The Liar Princess and the Blind Princehas the energy of so many landmark, story-driven side-scrollers, a subgenre led by the likes of Inside and Ori and the Blind Forest. But at the same time it is Hollow Knight-esque hand-drawn animation and team-centric gameplay reminiscent of It takes two make it more unconventional.
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a clever inversion of the traditional damsel in distress story. Players take on the role of a seemingly meek young girl who hides a terrible secret: she can transform into a huge wolf-like creature. One day, while roaming the forest in wolf form, the girl is surprised by a boy prince and reflexively lashes out at him, damaging his eyes and blinding him. Wracked with guilt for mutilating the innocent child, the girl decides to help the boy and escorts him to a witch who has the power to restore his sight.
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The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is basically a long, bittersweet escort mission
I am well aware that escort missions are not very popular with players. Personally, I tend to dislike them quite a bit, as they can often feel like filler content designed to fill “dead air” missing from mission design, or to artificially inflate the game's runtime. This is a problem that's particularly pronounced in the AAA space, where leading, following, and general “go here, do this” missions are seemingly worshiped as the height of immersion.
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Start
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Light (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
But it doesn't have to be this way. There are many games where escorting or following an NPC somewhere can be quite compelling, especially when this dynamic is well-defined and purpose-built. Take a game like Resident Evil 4for example: protecting Ashley from zombies can be difficult, but it's a conflict baked into the game's story, which makes it interesting. Mechanically, Ashley is completely helpless compared to Leon, which further increases the tension – a must for any horror experience.
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince does something similar, albeit with more disturbing, heartbreaking implications. The “princess,” whose human form is a farce designed to win the blind boy's trust, is dishonest and cunning, but her heart is in the right place. At the same time, the prince is a fundamentally sympathetic character, victimized, damaged and trapped by events beyond his comprehension. A compelling narrative context thus supports every moment of the game.
This paves the way for The Liar Princess and the Blind Princes shape-shifting and puzzle mechanics. Since the prince cannot see, and since the princess still turns into a wolf when exposed to moonlight, players must switch between her human and wolf forms to help the prince past various obstacles and enemies that wish him further harm. Deception at the heart of The liar Princesspp the story forms the backbone of the game, connecting the story to the mechanics in an interesting, complex way.
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Hopefully a re-release will give The Liar Princess and The Blind Prince a second life
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince was released in 2018 for PS4, Nintendo Switch and PS Vita, though you could be forgiven for not knowing: the game arrived with little fanfare, garnering only a handful of reviews from major retailers before quickly fading into varying degrees of obscurity. On top of this, the reviews it received were hardly stellar, with most critics scoring it in the 7/10 range, and some going as low as 5/10.
Something these critics seem to agree on is that while it has some pretty pedestrian mechanics, the story and atmosphere make The Liar Princess special. The ethical complexity of the princess character is rarely seen in the gaming world, which tends to favor protagonists who are morally upright, ambitious, or otherwise simplistic. Without going into spoilers, it's fair to say that The Liar Princess maintains this focus on dark, brooding storytelling throughout its runtime, offering a story that is regularly surprising and emotionally affecting. It's also worth noting that the game never feels mean or nasty in any way, despite the darker parts of the story.
These elements, along with a striking storybook aesthetic, are more than enough reasons for The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince to see success in 2026. It really flew under the radar when it launched in late 2018 in Japan, and again when it released globally in 2019, but indie games have only grown in popularity since then. There's also been a rise in narrative-focused games that prize story and atmosphere over mechanics, and with gaming demographics becoming more diverse over time, perhaps there's more room for The Liar Princess to thrive this year.
