Choices matter. Or at least that’s what a lot of games want you to believe.
It’s become all too common for games to give you the illusion of choice, the narrative or game seemingly reacting to your decisions but in reality doing anything but. The diametrically opposed forces of players wanting control and influence whilst the developers struggle to handle all the edge cases and branching narrative trees mean there’s rarely a happy median met. However I think there’s balance to be struck there as the value of a game on rails has been woefully undersold in recent history. At the sametime there are brilliant examples of games where choices do matter and, in the case of Slay the Princess, take it to the next level by using those choices as a core mechanic of the game.
You’re on a path in the woods and at the end of this path there is a lone cabin. In the basement of that cabin is a princess, bound and chained there. You have to slay her and if you don’t the whole world will end. No one else but you can do this and you’re perfect for the job. Just know she’ll do everything she can to stop you from killing her. She’ll lie, she’ll promise you things, and she’ll even do the unthinkable thing of trying to empathise with you. Don’t let her. Remember if she escapes the world ends and that just so happens to include you as well. So, go on, off you go, there’s a princess that you need to slay.
From here on out the review is, essentially, going to spoil everything that I felt made the game so compelling. So, should you be reading this review to see if it’s worth then my answer is a resounding yes but please, I beg you, do not read any further if you ever wish to play the game yourself.
MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS BELOW
In my first few runs through the game I followed instructions to the T. Go to the cabin, don’t say a thing and just try to slay the princess. Boy that did not work out at all which led both myself and the main character to question whether or not the voice in our head was to be trusted. From there I started to experiment a bit. Just how much could I do, or not do, in order to see a particular sequence of events all the way through to the end. Turns out quite a few of them as there’s a number of key factors that, if taken one way or the other, open up other narrative routes for you to pursue. I honestly thought I was running dry of options early on in the game but as long time players will know there’s really no chance of that happening. You just have to reframe how you think about the narrative itself.
Once you realise that each of the paths isn’t necessarily linear suddenly those binary choices you’re presented with don’t feel so two sided. At every point in a particular story journey you’re able to switch course. You might not be able to get back to the outcome you want, that’s the nature of making choices, but you will absolutely be able to see other outcomes that might have otherwise been unavailable to you. When you get to this point it then becomes a simple matter of how much time you want to spend in the game in order to explore all the available paths.
What really hooked me about Slay the Princess though was how the choices you made were reflected back at you. Run in there, blade in hand, and try to slay her without a word? You’re met with a ruthless killer who’s every bit as skilled as you are. Show up without a weapon? She’s everything a princess is meant to be; caring, kind and understanding (if just a little bit unhinged). Engage in some complicated behaviour like killing her, coming back, giving her the knife and then leaving your life in her hands? She responds in kind in the most complex ways. The repeated character development arcs that are 1 to 1 reflections of the choices you’ve made are something that was hard to get tired of.
Then there’s the ultimate conclusion where you realise the truth of you and the princess’ existence. I’ve just spent the last 10 minutes re-reading everything about it to try and fully understand it again and it’s a dense thing to unpack. I do like the concept though, that a man afraid of the eternal death of the universe severed death from it, trapping it into 2 consciousnesses that would be forever bound in countless realities where one would try to kill the other. There’s so much to read into that, even more when you consider how it can play out within the game depending on your choices, so I won’t dwell on them here. Suffice to say they’d make for amazing conversation with others who’ve played the game.
PLOT SPOILERS OVER
Slay the Princess is a truly exceptional example of narrative mastery. The numerous branching trees you can explore, all of which are direct reflections of the choices you’ve made, are a demonstration of how this kind of interactive fiction can be done right. If that doesn’t sell you on it then I don’t know what will as Slay the Princess will go down as one of those games I’m kicking myself for missing when it released over a year ago.
Rating: 9.0/10
Slay the Princess is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch right now for $26.50. Game was played on the PC with a total playtime was 2.9 hours and16% of the achievements unlocked.
