Slay the Princess. Gameplay correct novel. (Game review).

Good afternoon. To tell the truth, the past year 2023 turned out to be somewhat lean for me in terms of releases in the gaming industry. There was Atomic Heart, which was sensational even before the release, which is a worthy product of domestic game development, even if by the standards of other popular representatives of the genre it cannot boast of anything outstanding. Remakes of the cult horror games Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 have been released, but these are, in fact, just more modernized and expanded versions of games that were already famous in their time. It is also impossible not to mention the beloved Baldur’s Gate 3, which has earned enormous recognition and the title of best game of the year. And Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Mortal Kombat 1, released at the end of the year, although they pleased players, in particular long-time fans, were again new parts of already established franchises. In other words, the original large projects either went unnoticed or turned out to be a failure, such as Fort Solis.Unfortunately, the same problem occurs with indie projects. Of those that people heard, I can only remember Sea of ​​Stars, Pizza Tower and the cooperative Lethal Company. But don’t be discouraged, because you can always find something worthwhile if you dig deeper, delving into the denser jungle. I must note that indie games often arouse more interest in me than AAA creations. And I’m especially pleased with those cases when this or that project falls into my information field absolutely by accident, but at the same time has a strong impact and evokes emotions. The visual novel Slay the Princess became just such a phenomenon for me.

But before moving on to the description of the game, let’s first talk a little about the genre itself. I think it would be unnecessary to explain what it is, because nowadays visual novels are much more widely known than they were 10-15 years ago. In general, it seems to me that Doki Doki Literature Club was largely responsible for the popularization of this genre at one time. I do not vouch for the reliability of this judgment, I simply draw conclusions based on personal experience, since before Doki Doki became famous, I had heard of games in this genre, but extremely rarely. But now this or that novel, no, no, will come under discussion among the masses, although I don’t think that the number of releases produced per year has increased significantly.

The main distinguishing features of visual novels, as a rule, are a large amount of text on the screen, through reading which we understand the plot, as well as, due to the origin of the genre, visuals made in anime style, although there are representatives of the genre that do not look like Japanese cartoons. However, not every interactive project with a lot of text and anime can be a visual novel. For example, I noticed that many people classify Needy Girl Overdose in this genre, although it is more of a simulator with visual novel elements, like some kind of Idol Manager.

I would also like to point out that due to the excessive simplicity of the gameplay implied in such games, the genre of visual novels seems to have hardly developed at all during its entire existence. No, of course, the emphasis in such projects is primarily on the plot, and that’s understandable. Although sometimes developers try to add some additional activities to the gameplay, in addition to reading text with periodic moments of decision-making (though the election system is not present in every novel). But often these additions are a symbiosis with other genres such as quests or puzzles.

But if we talk about the initial components on which visual novels are built, then it’s really difficult to make any changes, with subsequent development. With the narrative part, everything is clear: this is mostly a matter of taste, and if some people like a typical romantic story about schoolchildren, then give others something tough and dark. Visuals and music in short stories can also be the strongest aspects. Still, it’s not for nothing that the name of the genre contains the word “visual”. The picture must be at its best, otherwise the game risks simply passing by the public or, in some cases, even scaring off potential players. You can’t do without good music either. In Umineko: When They Cry, Everlasting Summer or the already mentioned Doki Doki Literature Club, the reading process is accompanied by beautiful compositions that perfectly convey the mood of the story. But what about the gameplay?? After all, apart from progress through history and the ability to sometimes take control of a game character, we have nothing else. And fortunately, sometimes you come across representatives of the genre who demonstrate that even such meager gameplay can be enough to create an exciting project that stands out from similar. Such as, for example, Slay the Princess.

Due to the specificity https://lottozonecasino.co.uk/bonus/ of the story here, it will be somewhat difficult to describe the plot of this short story, so I will first present the plot, and then build on it. The game starts in a certain mysterious forest, through which our mysterious protagonist, who has no name or personality as such, makes his way. It is immediately worth noting one of the main features of Slay the Princess, which distinguishes it from most other short stories – the presence of a narrator who will not only describe everything that happens, but also guide the hero, giving instructions that, according to him, must be followed. We could see a similar technique in The Stanley Parable and later we will return to this game, since the common features of these two projects are striking by themselves. The narrator talks about our mission: to reach the hut on the hill and kill the princess imprisoned there, otherwise the whole world will end. And here, from the very beginning, Slay the Princess gives players what many visual novels lack – rich variability. We can unquestioningly fulfill what the narrator demands of us, or resist his will to the last. There is even an option in which we turn around and leave. And each of these paths is not somehow erroneous or incorrect. Each of them leads to certain consequences, but does not lead to a banal bad end, forcing the player to load a save and make a different decision.

Structurally the game is designed as follows. We have chapters and cycles. Within one cycle there can be from two to four chapters. The chapters themselves follow the same script. We begin our journey in the forest, reach a hut (or sometimes another place), where we find a captive princess. After which the princess, one of the endings occurs: either the main character dies, or the princess, or both of them. There is also an outcome in which the princess gets out, but such an ending, as a rule, leads to the completion of the entire cycle. In one playthrough, that is, from the moment you start the first cycle until you reach the final ending, you will need to live through five different cycles, although in some circumstances there may be more.

I don’t know how much I was able to convey the whole essence of the game’s construction. Too bad Slay the Princess experimental. But now I’ll try to explain from a plot point of view. The first chapters of the cycles are always the same in the sense that the protagonist does not remember anything, and the narrator incites him to kill the princess. However, then, starting from the actions that we took, the game will show us their consequences in subsequent chapters, until the cycle ends. That is, if in the first chapter we tried to save the princess, then she will remember this, and when we meet in the second chapter she will be nice to us. If we killed her, then she, obviously, will no longer be so friendly towards us and, most likely, will even cease to resemble a person, and will take the form of some kind of monster.

But, as I already said, Slay the Princess gives us a huge scope for our actions, so there are a lot of possible scenarios, thanks to which we can see more than ten different variations of the princess, each of which is different from the others. I’ll give an example based on my favorite version of the princess – the witch. If in the first chapter of the cycle we first try to save the princess and then stick a knife in her back, then already in the second chapter the girl (in whose appearance animal features will suddenly appear) will expectedly treat us with distrust, since she will remember our action in the last round. But if you meet certain conditions and convince her that you no longer wish her harm, then you can open the third chapter, in which the process of reconciliation and restoration of lost trust takes place. And that’s how the whole Slay the Princess works. The game does not limit our actions, and we are free to do as we want. Moreover, so that during one playthrough we do not end up on the same lines, the game blocks the options that we accepted in previous cycles, which also helps the player see as many outcomes as possible.

Speaking of why you need to go through exactly five cycles to complete it. The fact is that at the end of each cycle, the protagonist meets the true princess, who wants to collect all the parts of herself in order to take on her original appearance, and for this she needs the help of the protagonist, who will collect the fragments of the princess’s personality, meeting with her incarnations at different iterations. And I must officially declare that I recognize the princess as the best waifu of 2023, because, given how many versions of her can be found in the game, each of the players will clearly find at least one of the variations that he likes.

Now a few words about the main character. In fact, here the protagonist is as impersonal as possible, and I usually don’t particularly like this technique in games, especially in visual novels, where the basis of everything is the plot. Yes, this is done on purpose so that the player can better adapt himself to the character, but it seems to me that such a technique is not entirely correct, and in part, maybe even a little outdated. However, as you can understand, Slay the Princess is not that overly plot-oriented, and all decisions lie entirely with you, so here the maximum unity of the player with the protagonist looks extremely appropriate. In addition to the narrator’s voice, the game also contains the hero’s inner voices, which have different character traits, again depending on your actions. But these voices do not take over control of the main character. They only give the player advice and express their opinion about a particular situation. And the decisions remain entirely at your disposal.

By the way, about the narrator. Unlike the protagonist and the princess, he never remembers the events from previous iterations, but always follows the same line – the princess must be killed. I have already mentioned The Stanley Parable, where we can either follow the path along which the narrator leads us, or go against it, which will lead to interesting outcomes and anger the narrator. Here he also remains dissatisfied if we do not want to end the life of the princess, and often enters into an argument with the inner selves of the protagonist. And often these dialogues are quite funny to watch. Although they may seem like empty chatter to some, aimed at prolonging the narrative, however, the fact that all the lines in the game are voiced, and of extremely high quality, makes you want to play Slay the Princess without resorting to skipping any scenes.

In general, the game extremely persistently forces the murder of the princess onto the player, starting from the title itself and ending with the fact that there are much fewer iterations resulting from attempts to save the princess than those that are the consequences of an attempt on her life. Moreover, neither the narrator nor the true princess reveals the whole essence of what is happening until the very end, so the player has to blindly move forward and, in the final part, when all the secret moments are more or less revealed, make the final decisions.

Now I will talk about the endings, but since Slay the Princess to some extent is not so much a work with a plot in the usual sense, but rather a kind of parable filled with metaphors and allegories, which is why it should be perceived more from an emotional and sensory position, I would like to immediately warn you that I will talk about the endings based on my individual understanding of them. So, it turns out that both the princess and the protagonist are some kind of divine beings connected to each other. The princess wants to leave the current world and go to a new one, but this threatens the destruction of the first, which is what the narrator warned about throughout the game. And here I know three outcomes, although I do not exclude that I could have missed some endings. Or we do what the game forces us to do and kill the princess. Either we agree with the princess and leave the world. Or, which seems to me the happiest ending, we convince the princess to give up our divine powers, and we remain with her in the present world.

Slay the Princess is a unique visual novel that everyone who is at least partial to the genre should play. Gameplay that does not forget about the presence of the player, allowing him to make decisions every few hours, but gives him full opportunity to play as he wants. A rich variety of musical accompaniment, along with beautifully voiced characters, especially the princess, who sounds as different as possible, but is equally excellent. Attractive visual style, which, despite the lack of an abundance of colors, perfectly depicts the locations and the princess, demonstrating her either as a charming beauty or as a dangerous and fearsome monster. Slay the Princess takes the foundation that is present in every visual novel and demonstrates exactly how to handle it to give the player a sense of ownership and make it clear that their actions have an impact on what happens, as should be the case when it comes to any game, regardless of genre. Yes, if you think about it, there is no plot in the traditional sense, but just imagine how the story could turn out with the variability that is present here. A story where we don’t just observe events from the perspective of the main character, but where we ourselves are him, but at the same time we are allowed to fill him with some personal qualities so that we don’t feel like we are playing for an impersonal piece of cardboard. And all this is complemented by stylish pictures, an atmospheric soundtrack and fully voiced text, including not only character lines, but also narration. Perhaps Slay the Princess, due to its specificity, will not appeal to everyone, but I still recommend that you read this novel for yourself and decide whether you want to save or kill the princess.