Your next actions will dictate the fate of the world. It all depends on one choice: will you slay the princess?
THE GAME
Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut is a visual novel and horror game developed by Black Tabby Games and distributed by Black Tabby Games and Serenity Forge. A hero finds himself on a trail in the middle of a forest. At the end of this trail, there is a cabin and, inside it, there is a princess imprisoned. Your mission, contrary to what all the enchanted fables tell, is to kill her. At least that is what the narrator, your guide in this mission, says, who explains to you that, if the princess is not killed, the world will end. When you find the princess, she does not seem to be a threat. What to do? Kill the princess as the narrator asks? Try to understand the girl's side? Risk the end of the world and release the noble woman? Who is telling the truth? This and many other questions can be answered because a hero finds himself on a trail in the middle of a forest. At the end of this trail, there is a cabin and, inside it, there is a princess imprisoned.
MY IMPRESSIONS
If you like visual novels, you have to play Slay The Princess. If you don't like visual novels, you also have to play Slay The Princess. I say this for the simple reason that it takes the genre to another level, making it a unique and memorable experience. Often, when you play something in this genre, you have some predefined paths and your choices are often limited and don't take you off track. In Slay The Princess, each action can completely change the course of the story, creating ramifications that will lead you to a different outcome. What makes this game so good is how it takes the visual novel genre and transforms it into a tabletop RPG, where you choose your actions and they have consequences. Interestingly, one of the characters in the game is literally called the narrator, which reinforces this idea even more. And it's impossible not to want to go through each route of the story more than once, choosing different answers and actions to see what the result is.
The story has its philosophical depth, with many reflections on various subjects, which at first may seem like just daydreams, but which will make you think about some topics. The game's art is simply sensational. Each frame is drawn in a unique and highly stylized art style, which shows a lot of personality. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, which is wonderful, since the game is basically text and many games in this style alienate non-English speakers if there is no translation. I recommend playing with headphones, because the game's sound effects and music put you in the mood for what is happening, but more than that, the voice acting in Slay The Princess is divine. All the professionals who worked on giving the characters their voices are to be congratulated, because they manage to convey exactly what the character wants to convey, especially the princess who, honestly, even gave me chills at times.
The Pristine Cut adds a lot of new content to the game, which already had a lot. Some new chapters, some new routes to take and many deaths await you. I'm avoiding talking about what you can find in the game because it is an experience that must be lived. A horror that does not use scares, but that keeps you alert and afraid of making mistakes in your choices. Trying every option, reading every dialogue, dying in the most brutal and grotesque ways must be experienced.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Since the game has many routes, choices, and endings, naturally, we will have achievements for most of them. This means that you will have to explore all the stories to the fullest, making all the possible choices to see different scenes and endings. Since there is a feature that shows you everything you have already explored in the story, it is easier to discover the paths that are yet to be discovered. If you were already curious about taking different paths than the ones you initially took to find out what happens, naturally you will get all of them. Despite being laborious, the game is exquisite in its narrative and you will want to follow everything, but it is always possible to skip the dialogues and only see what is new, not making the search for 100% of the achievements boring.
CONCLUSION
While playing Slay The Princess, I tried to remember another game that gave me a similar feeling, a feeling of free choice, but that will always surprise me with every step I try to take. That's when I remembered: The Stanley Parable. Both have the same idea, a narrator who wants to guide you on a path, but that, obviously, will not always be followed. Many other elements are very similar and I'm not comparing them, quite the opposite, each one does it very well in its own style. I like clever games, that take you out of the ordinary and make you experience things that other genres won't make you experience.
Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut is full of great work in every corner: gameplay, sound, art, story, in short, everything comes together to create a unique atmosphere. It's a true interactive work of art that leaves you wanting more, seeing everything that's possible, discovering new directions for the story and being surprised by everything that's offered to you. It's definitely a wonderful game.
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