Summary
Slay the Princess isone of the most interestingvisual novels released in 2023. Createdby indie studioBlack Tabby Games, Slay the Princess has dozens of possible routes, along with a plethora of different variations to its endings. It’ll take some time to reach one hundred percent completion.
Throughout the game, you’ll meet different iterations of the titular princess. Some of them are stepping stones to more interesting chapters, while others are some of the most narratively interesting routes you’ll come across in your playthrough. Here’s some of our favorite princesses and how to encounter them.
7The Stranger
The Illusion Of Choice
Slay the Princess starts with a fairly simple objective: head to the cabin and slay the princess within. That being said, the game gives you the option to just walk away, which leads to a spectacularly disturbing attempt at railroading from the Narrator. If you head to the cabin in the next chapter, you’ll meet The Stranger.
Here’s where things get tricky. In the second chapter of any given loop, the princess is molded by your expectations and actions in the preceding chapter. Since you never met the Princess in this loop, her form is sloppy and unfinished. Instead of a developed character, the Princess is a five-headed amalgamation of what could have been.
6The Nightmare
Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves.
Leave the Princess behind in the first chapter, and you’ll trigger the Nightmare route on your second trip to the cabin. The Hero, having been too afraid to face the Princess, imagines her as an uncanny valley abomination in a mask. The Princess, who shapes herself to fit the Hero’s expectations, is more than happy to indulge his worst fears.
The Nightmare is by far one of the creepiest princesses out there. Her very presence is enough to shut down the Hero’s bodily functions, and she shows no remorse for tormenting the Hero. Depending on your actions during this chapter, however, the Princess has the potential to become something far worse.
5The Witch
The Frog And The Scorpion
The Witch is actually a pretty easy Princess to obtain, especially if you’ve already unlocked The Damsel on a previous loop. Don’t take the knife with you to the basement during the first chapter, but give in to the Narrator’s railroading when he tries to make you slay the Princess anyway. The result is a snarky witch who’s cunning and devious by nature.
The voice acting for the Witch is excellent, and the design for both her character and her lair is weirdly adorable. She’s open about how much she distrusts the player, and you’ll curse her inevitable betrayal when it comes. There are a few different ways you can end her chapter, all of which lead to interesting chapters in their own right.
4The Apotheosis
Your New God
Sure, the ending of Slay the Princess might have you meet the Princess' true form as the goddess that isthe Shifting Mound. But it’s possible to meet her as a deity far ahead of the game’s true end. All you have to do is fight the princess during the first chapter, but give up during the battle.
Your first chapter after you die will be meeting the Tower, a majestic goddess who cannot be disobeyed. If you die without subduing her, she’ll morph into the Apotheosis during the third chapter, a fifty-foot cosmic entity who’s more of a god than the Shifting Mound is. Reality shifts around her will, and she’s by far the most dangerous Princess you’ll meet.
3The Grey
I Kill You, You Kill Me
There are two ways to unlock the Grey. Unlock either the Damsel or the Prisoner first, then kill her. The details change depending on which Princess preceded the Grey, but both follow the same template. You’ll meet the ghost of a Princess who might have once loved you, but is now obsessed with killing you as a means to keep you forever.
The Burned Grey is perhaps the more interesting of the two. She’s the Grey you unlock after killing the Damsel, and is motivated to kill you through sheer obsession. That being said, the Drowned Grey is still pretty creepy. She’s more sullen and bitter than the Burned Grey, befitting the bitter edge the Prisoner had over the naive Damsel.
2The Razor
Mutually Assured Destruction
There are plenty of routes that involve you and the Princess facing off in a fight to the death. However, none of them are quite as over the top as the Razor. She’s an easy Princess to unlock: simply slay the Princess without hesitating, but check her pulse once she falls dead.
You’ll unlock a Princess obsessed with murdering you as many times as the narrative will allow. There are tons of variations of this Princess, and her route is one of the only ones in the game that can potentially span more than three chapters. It doesn’t help that her final form looks both nightmarish and cool.
1The Wild
You Can Never Be Whole Again
The Wild is triggered when you either die in the belly of the Beast, or fight the Witch in a way that ends in the two of you dying together. In the next chapter, you’ll wake up fused to her as the Wild, which takes the form ofthe very woodsthat make up the world outside the cabin.
The dialog for this chapter is beautiful and full of foreshadowing. If you remember the intro before the game’s main menu, you’ll recall that Slay the Princess is meant to be a love story. The Wild embodies that premise in the purest sense, showing how natural it feels for the Hero and the Princess to exist together as one entity.
