Continuing my Halloween-themed screenshot posts, today we'll be looking at a different kind of game. Slay the Princess is a game about, well... slaying a princess. There's a narrator who guides you through the woods and up to a cabin where a princess is chained in the basement, and in order to save the world, you need to slay her. Seems pretty straightforward, right?
But the narrator isn't the only voice who reasons with you. Your voice (Voice of the Hero) will discuss with the narrator and try to make more sense of the situation. It's not like you're given much information to go on. Who can you really trust?
This is a visual novel type game, where you are given conversation and action options, and you choose the path of the story. You can play "20 questions" with the narrator, slay the princess, save the princess, or just walk away from the whole affair. But your actions have consequences...
Depending on your actions, you might find yourself conversing with more inner voices centered around the actions you chose, like a Voice of the Stubborn, or a Voice of the Smitten.
Regardless, there's a deeper, darker story going on underneath your seemingly simple choices, and you'll just have to play this game to discover it for yourself.
I especially like that, despite the fact that you're the supposed hero, every shot of your hand shows what appears to be a scaly monster's hand. It makes you wonder who - or what - you really are...
On October 24th, a day after its one-year anniversary, Slay the Princess is getting a free update called The Pristine Cut. According to the developers, it will add about 35% more content to the game, including thousands of new voice lines and illustrations, 17 new music tracks, improved background artwork, and a new ending to the game.
Also, they'll be porting the game to consoles with this update. I'm a strictly PC gamer, so this doesn't interest me, but if you like console gaming, you'll be able to play this game later this month on PS4/5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox.
I'm excited to re-play this game later this month. Maybe I might post some new screenshots to compare it to this original version of the game.
This game is literally perfect.
I don't say that lightly. And I'm not saying it's the greatest game ever made or anything like that. What I'm saying is that everything it's trying to do, it does perfectly.
The writing is incredible. The voice performances absolutely nail it, every line read feeling like a mic drop. The art is gorgeous. The music is subtle and evocative. The design of the branching narrative is brilliant.
There's not a single thing I can find to criticise. Slay the Princess is an absolute gem and you owe it to yourself to try it.
Hm, I actually found the voice acting pretty not great. Some line reads were odd, and the different voices felt like they were recorded on different mics.
I made it to one ending, and really didn't feel any desire to do another go around.
I know what you mean about 'perfect' though, I have my own small list of odd games that, to me, feel like they're 'perfect' in what they're trying to do.