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Saving a princess has to be the most overused trope in the fantasy playbook. If pixelated plumbers and heroes clad in green tunics have taught us anything, it’s that princesses need rescuing – right? Not if Slay the Princess has anything to say about it. In this psychological horror visual novel, you're tasked with killing a princess to save the world – or so you’re told.
It starts with a straightforward premise: an unseen narrator calls on you to carry out a grisly murder for the greater good. But as you question the motives behind this task and mull whether to slay or spare the eponymous princess, the game reveals a surprisingly dense philosophical narrative that probes questions of perspective, autonomy, and existence.
Originally distributed on Steam by developer Black Tabby Games in October 2023, Slay the Princess was released to broad critical acclaim. The Pristine Cut was later offered as a free expansion and is now available on consoles as a definitive edition packed with additional chapters, expansions to existing chapters, and numerous different endings.
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Upon completing our first playthrough on Switch, which can take around three or more hours, it was clear why the title had struck a chord and we felt like we had barely scratched the surface. Unfortunately, our second playthrough was marred by technical hiccups that thwarted our progression, so be warned that the current build has kinks that need ironing.
Assuming those issues are remedied, Slay the Princess is a compelling and uniquely original must-play for fans of horror-laced narrative subversion — think Doki Doki Literature Club!, and meta-thought experiments offered by the likes of The Stanley Parable, whereby players can choose whether to obey or wholly disregard a narrator’s guidance.
Without spoiling anything, it’s a given that player choice dramatically shapes each playthrough’s outcome. The game relies on a time loop mechanic in which everything from the environment to the princess’s form and even the voices in the protagonist’s head are altered by the player’s actions, leading to your trust and assumptions being tested in new ways.
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The looping cycles of death and resurrection only to be repeatedly tasked with a cryptic princess-killing purpose establishes a sense of both continuity and unpredictability, themes at the core of the game’s broader philosophical binary, which asks you whether it’s better to exist in the world as an eternal fixed entity or as part of a process in constant flux.
While all that sounds weighty and abstract, it's not thrown at you all at once. More immediate questions will take minute-by-minute priority: Can anything the narrator says really be trusted? Should I confront the princess with a blade in hand or unarmed? Is the captive damsel truly a dangerous antagonist, a potential ally, or even a love interest?
The story is told through exceptionally written prose that is literary and darkly poetic while at times veering into cheeky self-awareness and humour to deliver moments of levity. That said, the game’s exposition can feel lengthy at times, and by design, players will encounter the same dialogue prompts within a playthrough, particularly at the start of a time loop, though it's all skippable.
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Slay the Princess is fully voiced and, though there are only two voice actors, both Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight's range and versatility are on full display with each playing multiple iterations of the game’s characters. As a result, they succeed in making an emotional impact and building immersion as their different personas emerge throughout the playthrough.
The title’s monochromatic art style and sketchbook-like aesthetic fully complements the story being told. Scenes play out using limited frames of animation paired with eerie, mood-setting sound design. A limited colour palette is utilised, but occasional flashes of red visually pop in a way that elevates the often-imaginative scenes of violence and body horror.
A neat addition is parallax effects activated by motion controls, adding a touch of visual depth to the illustrations. The menu system meets the visual novel standard with myriad save slots and a history tab to review past dialogue. As mentioned earlier, the game froze and left us no choice but to restart on several occasions, so we’re waiting for a patch before continuing.
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Though we haven’t seen enough of its endings as we would like, Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut is brimming with content and is highly replayable by design. Though its time loop structure could lead to things feeling repetitive sooner than we’d like, discovering a new narrative arc was always satisfying and something that consistently motivated us to delve deeper.
Conclusion
Slay The Princess: The Pristine Cut is an inverted fairy tale that shatters conventions and questions heroism, opting to pull you into a narrative odyssey that leans into metaphysical themes more than it initially lets on. While its presentation is distinct and superbly executed, extended play sessions can’t help but feel somewhat repetitive due to its recurrent structure. That said, there’s no denying the depth and breadth of storytelling on offer.
Comments 31
I bought it digitally on PS5 but I’ll probably pick up the physical on Switch next year if those technical kinks are ironed out by then. It’s truly a fun game, even if you don’t necessarily think you’d be into it.
How does a visual novel/text based adventure even have technical issues?
Thanks for the review, as much as I'm not a fan of horror everything else about this appeals to me (minus the technical issues of course, fingers crossed most if not all of those will be fixed sooner rather than later) so I'll eventually get it for sure!
"REVIEW | [NEW SWITCH GAME] - A [POSITIVE ADJECTIVE] [GENRE] Hampered By Technical Issues"
Not a knock on the site - you guys are just saying the truth. But we really need the Switch 2 already don't we?
How did they even manage to screw up the performance on a game like this lmao
@Hoshiko @anoyonmus The engine it's built in (Ren'Py) doesn't actually support Switch, so even getting it to run on Switch is a bit of a hack job that's mostly been covered by the homebrew community.
@PedroMatos And yet people keep saying I'm crazy for wanting better hardware. It's just getting rediculous at this point
Hopefully the issues are addressed before the physical goes into production.
The performance issues have been frustrating, largely because the game doesn’t seem to tax the Switch. I’ve played only one story of my second play-through, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things don’t get buggier.
I’ve enjoyed the story and how much the Princess changes based on your interactions. It’s definitely a wordy game, so although the writing is often excellent, many conversations between the player’s voices can drag. I hope to see all of the endings, but I don’t think this game is quite as impactful as Doki Doki Literature Club and the Stanley Parable.
@PedroMatos @Bigmanfan Read the review. The technical issues mentioned in it have absolutely nothing to do with the Switch's
processing power or lack thereof.
Will grab it eventually, hope the issues are worked out.
The PC version also had insane technical issues when it launched. It's been a long time since I tried it, so I can't speak to how it is now, but at the time it was horrendously broken even on PC.
@Kochambra Sure, in this case, but the trend is there regardless
@Kochambra Yeah, apparently I gotta learn how to read lol. Still stand by my point, but it is irrelevant in this case. Good on ya for pointing out my stupidity lol.
@Vordus I see
"Flips classic “saving the princess” tope into a complex psychological horror"
I always forget this game is often described as a "horror game", but at least half of it is a comedy actually. Honestly, at first I was pretty disappointed when I finally tried it after every YouTuber overhyped it by being extremely vague and mysterious about what the game was actually about, but eventually I enjoyed it for what it was. The writting is genuinely hilarious.
I'm surprised a game like this can even have issues like that.
@PedroMatos this is a pure 2D adventure game, the kind that has thrived on consoles since GBA and visited them since NES. Whatever might have gone south to cause its alleged performance issues (to humour their existence for a moment despite my Echoes of Wisdom experience being but the latest nail in the coffin of related credulity), what makes you assume it won't go south on Switch 2 as well? ¯(ツ)/¯
Again, better hardware isn't going to fix poor optimization or issues with porting over an engine... Let's not pretend the Switch can't run THIS game, c'mon people.
@KryptoniteKrunch Seriously. There is nothing complicated about this game all it needed was more time to work out the kinks. But no let's just blame the hardware
Listen guys I gotta' be real, I'm not one of those fps clowns but this thing is like barely running at 0.23 fps for me with long dips into 0.008 fps territory. Something's gotta' give.
Personally I definitely noticed the stuttering but I really didn't think it was a big deal. It's a visual novel, you don't exactly need to have frame perfect inputs.
@anoyonmus Because it's a Nintendo Switch game, they all seem to have issues recently.
Almost feels like a fantasy Stanley Parable. I'm intrigued at least.
Not trying to minimize, but these days, a lot of devs do not optimize their games for Switch, let alone have good QA/debuggers. I think half the trouble is those that take the time to optimize Switch ports vs the Switch genuinely struggling to run games. We've seen impossible brilliance on the console, headscratchingly unpolished games, and true memory guzzlers that the Switch just can't (or won't) handle. All I'm saying is we've seen better, run better, so what's this game's excuse? Who knows.
From Reddit:
And, when asked if the Switch physical edition will include the upcoming patches:
@PedroMatos Nope. Modern (and indie games too) games just needs adequate optimization.
@MontyCircus Thanks for the news. Really glad they have the right mindset to get a good build before they start manufacturing.
@fenlix
Yeah, what was up with that? I've seen the same sentiment on other sites too. Now that I've played a bit, it's definitely the kind of game I want to play as blind as possible, but like, in a normal experiencing the game for myself way, not the "whatever you do, don't look up a single thing about this game!!" way seemingly everyone has been pushing.
I've been coming to this site very regularly for close to 20 years. I've finally made a login just to make this one comment. Slay the Princess is a masterpiece and deserves more than 7 out of 10! This one touched me deeply, emotionally and intellectually. By far one of the best and most meaningful gaming experiences I've had, and I've been gaming since the C64.
They use Ren'Py on the original release (not sure on switch) but I had a look at the code they use, it is way more complexe than most Ren'Py/Visual Novel you tend to see. The game story is really complexe, there is a lot of branching, and they also do a lot of things that Ren'Py is not supposed to, which is probably why all the struggle. Their game would probably benefit from being converted to a better suited game engine, or its own dedicated game engine.
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