Slay the Princess – The Pristine Cut

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Slay the Princess is a Visual Novel with psychological horror and body horror elements released in 2023 for PC and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2024 in a “Pristine Cut” with additional content, alongside a free update to the PC version to bring it in line with this version. The premise, on the face of things, is simple if subversive – players take the role of an unnamed hero who is instructed by the narrator to head into a nearby cabin, head to its basement, and slay the princess who is chained there. If they don’t do so, they are informed, it will mean the end of the world.

It doesn’t take long for this premise to come apart at the seams. Who are you supposed to be and why were you selected for this task? Who is the princess and how did she come to be chained in the cabin’s basement? How will her survival lead to the end of the world? And just what is the deal with this narrator, who is so insistent about what you must do that he berates you and argues with you if you deviate from your instructions or even question them.

Those who played The Stanley Parable will certainly recognize elements of that game in the way Slay the Princess uses narration to break the fourth wall, though here this mechanic is done more for drama and in furtherance of the plot rather than for humor (though there is occasional humor in his sardonic tone and derisive remarks). And that plot grows deeper as the game progresses and your character remembers what happened the last run through, along with other changes I won’t spoil here.

Progression through the game doesn’t just encourage but outright requires multiple playthroughs, with players seeing what happens down different paths of the “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style story. And to this game’s credit, those paths lead to surprisingly varied places despite the simple core plot premise.

However, without getting into spoilers, I will say that this simple plot premise evolves into a story that’s so heady and philosophical that I had trouble wrapping my head around it, not only exploring ideas about choice, violence, death, and perceptions of reality, but getting into abstract and metaphysical ideas I struggled to follow. All of this in a game where a surprising number of limbs get hacked off and chests get impaled.

The art style here mostly sticks to a sketchy monochrome style of 2D art seemingly drawn using pencils, which is both unimpressive on a technical level but also at times pretty imaginative in the imagery it depicts. This is backed by a mostly subdued and atmospheric soundtrack to underline the drama and at times horror present in this game.

I should also mention that the writing is overall pretty good, and the voice acting is excellent for all the game’s characters, but… well, sometimes the recording quality is pretty lacking, and I can’t say whether or not that was intentional.

Overall, I think Slay the Princess is worth looking at for fans of Visual Novels for its unique narrative, though I feel like its philosophy gets a bit too heady for a game whose surface premise is so simple, which may lead to players feeling like they’re in for more than they bargained for with this game. Also, in case it wasn’t clear from the premise, the violent and disturbing content here may also put some players off. So this definitely won’t be a game for everyone.

tl;dr – Slay the Princess is a Visual Novel where players take the role of a hero instructed to go into the basement of a cabin and slay a princess to save the world. Needless to say, there’s far more going on here than it seems at first, and the philosophical topics this game dives into may make your head spin while the violent and potentially triggering content will surely put off some players. This isn’t a game for everyone, but it’s unique enough that fans of this genre should give it a try.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Voice Acting, Best Story, Best New Character – The Princess

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