99) Slay the Princess (2023)

Developed as the second game from Black Tabby Studios, a Canadian based indie developer consisting of husband and wife Tony Howard-Arias and Abby Howard, Slay the Princess is psychological horror visual novel that tasks players to, surprise, slay a princess. While this may seem like an overall straight forward goal, it becomes clear pretty quickly that there's much more going on.

We begin our journey as an unnamed character in the woods. The narrator sets the scene that we are on our way to a remote cabin in order to slay a princess that, should we fail to do so, will bring about the end of the world. Another voice, one far less confident, interjects, stating it feels wrong and that we should save princesses. With literally no other information to go on, we're presented the our first choice in the form of either complying, trying to leave in the opposite direction, or to ask the narrator questions directly in an attempt to learn more about the situation. Should we choose to question the narrator, they become cagey, defensive, and insistent that we must accomplish our goal. Try as we might, we cannot get information as to how the princess may end the world, only the certain confirmation that she will.

Regardless of choice, we proceed to a mostly barren cabin. Heading down into the basement we come face to face with the titular princess who, as was promised, is restrained and alone. She begins to speak with us, asking us to instead release help her escape. The narrator insists that the princess must die while the other voice pleads for us to hear her out. The narrator and the voice bicker, but ostensibly the choice is ours. It's here that we are presented with a range of options, some of which may involve slaying a princess.

99) Slay the Princess (2023)

Developed as the second game from Black Tabby Studios, a Canadian based indie developer consisting of husband and wife Tony Howard-Arias and Abby Howard, Slay the Princess is psychological horror visual novel that tasks players to, surprise, slay a princess. While this may seem like an overall straight forward goal, it... Hold on. Something feels off about this...

Regardless of our choices, we will find ourselves once again waking up in the woods, a familiar scene presented in a familiar way, with even the narration staying the same. We can choose to comment upon this, telling the narrator that we've done this before, a fact the narrator will deny while a new voice joins in to add to the discussion. If we proceed to the cabin, the new voice will interact with us and the other voice, making note of how certain things seem to change or be different in this new telling of events. The narrator becomes even more suspicious and defensive, and it becomes clear that more is going on than we've been led to believe.

The game will continue on in this way, with subtle and not so subtle changes, new voices coming in, and our interactions with the princess playing out in wildly different ways. Every time you feel like you have a handle on things or understand what is going on, the narrative will throw you a new curve ball. You begin to question things you once took for granted. What the narrator knows versus what they tell us? How much information do the other voices have and why do they all sound similar? What does the princess remember of each iteration? Who or what are we, and how did we get thrust into this loop?

Slay the Princess is a game that, at first glance, doesn't have much going on. A visual novel about slaying or not slaying a princess seems pretty cut and dry. Beneath this simple facade lies a deceptively complex narrative in which your choices end up having more lasting impact than you're initially led to believe. All of this combines with hauntingly beautiful artwork and some truly amazing voice acting to deliver an experience that will become uniquely your own. There's no way to get all of the information in a single playthrough, and the game openly invites replayability and experimentation. Slay the Princess is an experience that's hard to discuss without mildly spoiling things, and while it falls a bit short in terms of horror, it excels in being psychologically engaging in ways that few other games can.