Review: Slay the Princess is a masterpiece for horror and cozy gamers alike

Initially, I was drawn in by the concept of the name: Slay the Princess. In a world of games built on saving the princess, it was certainly interesting to face the idea of dooming a princess for once.

Add in the hand-drawn, pencil-esque drawing style and you had me hooked. This game exists in a grayscale of delicate lines, but that lends itself to a haunting quality.

Note: This is a horror game, so it may contain themes that are upsetting for some. Also, there are some flickering lights and parallax effects that may cause motion sickness. These can be turned off in the game’s preferences.

For a full list of content warnings, you can visit blacktabbygames.com to make an informed decision on whether this game is appropriate for you or your children.

Gameplay

Slay the Princess is an interesting little gem of a game. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure and while it can seem a bit like a visual novel, there’s so much more choice afforded to you than a VN usually lends.

You start out standing in a forest with an invisible voice talking to you. They are called simply, ‘The Narrator’. The voice bids that you go up the clearing, enter a cabin, and slay the princess who is chained up in the basement.

Personally, I went the roundabout way and tried everything to keep from going to the cabin. But, all roads lead there eventually and you’re greeted with a simple wooden structure. Inside, it is a barren one-room with a table and a sharp blade. You see a mirror on the wall, but stalwartly, the Narrator tells you that it doesn’t exist and when you go to touch it, it disappears. This will be a running theme: this single room, the blade, and a mirror you can’t touch.

From here, you have a choice. You can either take the blade or go down unarmed. When I had the choice, I always went down unarmed. From those two choices branches an unseen network of paths. What you choose makes a difference in what happens next.

If you choose to slay the princess, there is a difference between killing her immediately or killing her later. As such, there are several ways this game can shake out. Generally, you loop three times after the first and I think there may be upwards of 9 paths.

Once you kill her/she kills you/you escape, the game will fade and you will be reborn into a new world that looks eerily the same except for some notable changes. Your choices in Chapter 1 have shaped Chapter 2. From the outside, the cabin looks unchanged, but going inside usually shows off a different interior. You still have the same knife and mysterious mirror, but some designs are more opulent than others. 

Going down to the basement shows that the princess has changed as well. She’s not always just a lone woman in chains, sometimes she’s much more beastly. 

My playthrough only scratched the surface of options. There are 97 total achievements to get in this game and at the end of my playthrough, I only had 20%.

It’s a smaller game as it only took me 3 hours to complete, but the replayability of it means that you’ve probably got about 8-10 hours of gameplay. For collectors of achievements or completionists, this game is a wet dream.

Art and Sound

I don’t even know how to start describing the art of this game. I’m not a big lover of black-and-white movies or cartoons because I crave the vibrancy of color. A part of me wondered if I’d be disappointed by the style in Slay the Princess, but the reality is that I’m obsessed. The pencil thin lines that appear like graphite across parchment paper lend themselves to the horror quality of the story.

Very rarely do we see splotches of color and that only makes them more effective. For instance, when she’s bleeding for any reason, you see the richness of the red all the more when surrounded by the grayscale atmosphere.

Not only is the style charming in a haunting way, but the designs for the Princess are paramount. The way that her visage twists into horrific outcomes and shapes is, honestly, half the fun of the game.

When it comes to the sound design, both the voice actors and the music are sublime. I loved that the Narrator, The Voice of the Hero, and all the varied voices that pop up depending on which path you’re on are all the same voice with different inflections and accents. It helped to sell the vibe that something was just a little off. The Princess, as well, had very distinct changes depending on the choices made.

The music never became a bother. I could tell a few times when it looped, but the songs are long enough that it’s not obtrusive. And, you’re really too busy focused on the story to notice if a track loops.

My favorite song is the one that plays when a path is complete, just before you die. There’s a moment where the song is basically all voice based and it’s lovely. 

Coziness and Cons

While it may be a horror game, there’s a ton to feel cozy about in this game. The horror doesn’t come at you in an alarming way and at no point does your heart rate kick up. This is a very slow horror that you have full control over.

Very rarely are your choices taken from you and when they are, you’re well aware of them. Basically, you just play a game of “choose your own adventure” and you’re offered quite a few ways to play. So, your path is mostly your own to make. The only time you’re barred from choices is to keep you from repeating something you’ve already seen.

As far as cons go, there aren’t really any. If I were to stretch to find an issue, I’d say that there is one repetitive nature to the game that can be a little exhausting. Chapter 1 repeats often. It’s not a full repeat, but the beginning of it is largely the same. All you can really do is just skip to the cabin. To me, it wasn’t an issue, but I figure it’s worth mentioning.

Slay the Princess Verdict

Slay the Princess was a lot of fun. I enjoyed playing it on her side at every turn that I could. It’s clear that you could have gone more on the narrator’s side or perhaps even forged a path down the middle. I’ve only played through once, but even after finishing the game, I only got 20% of the achievements.

The replayability of this game is pretty solid. I estimate I could probably get two more playthroughs without much overlap.

I highly recommend Slay the Princess and if you want to give it a try, you can get it on Steam for $17.99. If Horror isn’t your speed, you may have more fun with one of my all-time favorites, Smushi Come Home.