The Horror of Slay the Princess

You’re walking alone down a dark forested path. Eventually, you find your way into a decrepit shack in the middle of nowhere, filled with nothing more than a single knife and a basement door. You take the knife and venture down into the depths of this forgotten cabin and find, to your surprise, a beautiful woman chained to the back wall. A voice in your head, the Narrator of this story, tasks you with one thing. No, you’re not a knight there to rescue her. You’re there to slay her, because this princess, according to the Narrator, has the power to end the world and everyone in it.

This is the main plot of the indie horror visual novel Slay the Princess by Black Tabby Games. While there isn’t any traditional kind of gameplay with 3D environments or omnidirectional movement, it makes up for it with a stellar narrative and gripping voice cast. For those who don’t know what a visual novel is, it’s basically a book with pictures, music, and sometimes voice acting. There isn’t any online gameplay, but instead a narrative meant to engross the player and allow them to alter the story with their choices. 

Slay the Princess attempts to subvert a very well-known trope of the hero going to save the Princess from imminent danger, and it does so successfully. You, the player, are put into the position of the “Hero” and are instead told by the Narrator to kill the imprisoned monarch. However, the choice is yours. Multiple choices, in fact. If you want, you can immediately turn around and leave instead of approaching the cabin where the Princess is held. You can decide not to take the knife and simply ignore the Narrator’s insistence that the Princess is dangerous. Or you can simply do what you’re told and kill her without attempting to talk. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the story is entirely affected by your decisions and your interpretation of both the Narrator and the Princess.

Before I get into it any deeper, if you have yet to play the game and want to play it, spoiler warning ahead.

Spoiler Warning for Slaying Princesses

This is why Slay the Princess is a horrifying game. It preys on your own perception of events and punishes you for interpreting its setup a certain way. If you decide to ignore the Narrator and break the narrative, he invents various paths that lead back to the cabin. There is nowhere else for you to go. No one else in this world aside from you, the Narrator in your head, and the Princess. The condensed setting and sense of helplessness solidifies the idea that you have a lot of options, but really none at all. All paths lead back to the cabin, where you must make the decision to slay the Princess.

When you make your choice to either spare her or slay her, something changes. Something will happen that kills the Hero, forcing you to reset back outside to the beginning of the story. You move on to “Chapter II,” which totally changes the Princess depending on how you treated her before. Did you kill her immediately? She’ll challenge you to a fight in the form of a muscular demon. Did you immediately decide to help her and ignore the Narrator? She’ll confess her love for you and you’ll both exit the cabin together, hand in hand (I did that first). The more wishy-washy you are about your decisions, the more incarnations of the Princess you’ll encounter to reflect your thoughts and actions toward her. If you believe she’s concealing a weapon, she becomes a living cluster of knives, daggers, and swords. If you attempt to run away after speaking with her, she becomes a nightmarish spirit hellbent on breaking the Hero over and over again. 

The game knows you. After your first encounter with the Princess, it’s reading exactly what kind of player you are. Not only is it attempting to subvert the “hero saves the princess” trope, but it’s attempting to unravel the ways people consume and interpret fiction. Each time you are killed by a certain Princess, you get an additional Narrator voice that acts just like you did last time. Did you do the exact opposite of what the Narrator told you to do? Meet the Contrarian, who exists only to offer ideas that the Narrator will hate. Did you want to free the Princess immediately? Meet the Smitten, the Prince Charming version of the Narrator that just wants to love regardless of the form the Princess takes on. All of these Narrator voices exaggerate actual mindsets the players might have while playing, and it makes the experience all the more personal. It’s a game about games, a story about stories. It’s about what we take away from them and how we approach them. 

Brandon Boone’s chilling soundtrack adds another layer of depth. Depending on the Princess you’re speaking with, the music might be light and serene. It also might be gritty and sharp, accompanying a suspenseful and dark tone. For example, if you manage to meet with the Damsel, an innocent version of the Princess, the track that plays is aptly called “The Damsel,” which uses very calming, regal violin movements. Conversely, if you meet the behemoth known as the Fury, her theme is much deeper, filled with what sounds like a low tuba, and a vibe that almost borders on dubstep . 

Abby Howard’s amazingly expressive art also adds to the horror, as we slowly start off with a very storybook-esque aesthetic and slowly descend into shattered madness, which is reflected in the sprites and backgrounds. The game looks and feels dark, but it has the ability to feel the exact opposite when it needs to. There’s also an underlying doomed romance beneath the main plot that I haven’t touched on, so if you like characters connected by destiny, you’ll like this. A lot. Trust me.

 Slay the Princess was released on October 23rd, 2023 and was immediately met with praise from all angles. Tony Howard-Arias is the genius behind the script and his words are brilliantly narrated by Johnathan Sims, who many may know from the audio drama The Magnus Archives, which you can listen to on the Rusty Quill Podcast’s Youtube channel. The Princess’s voice actress, Nichole Goodnight, also does a great job at portraying the different variations of the character. A free DLC, called the Pristine Cut, will drop on October 24th, just in time for Halloween. It’ll add a few new Princesses, which means new art, music, and hilarious Narrator dialogue. Now is the time to jump into the game and experience it all for yourself. Play it with friends. See how they treat the Princess and the Narrator, and most importantly, see how the game itself reaches into your mind and reads you like an open book. Happy slaying!