This is kind of an odd moment for me, as I’ve never really been one to start talking about a game when I’m not even a full hour into it. However, I’m already feeling the need to talk about Slay the Princess, well at least briefly. I knew this was going to be a different kind of experience after watching the release trailer, yet I still found myself very unprepared fro what awaited me in the games opening 30 minutes. Yeah, this is definitely going to be an odd one.

I suppose I’ll leave a spoiler warning here as I do need to talk about my first few decisions in Slay the Princess and their results. However, I can honestly say that I have no idea exactly spoiler-y these experiences actually are at this time. So, if you want to go in completely blind, then stop here. Otherwise, let’s continue.

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Okay, so upon starting up Slay the Princess, I was expecting the usual slow-burn kind of story that you tend to see in these sorts of branching-path narrative games. I mean, usually you see fairly plain events and developments following your first few decisions. Yet, that’s not at all what happened here. My first, uh, “story” I guess you could call it, saw the so-called hero doing exactly what the title and narrator prompted: he slayed the princess, no dawdling and no questions asked. The result: being banished to another dimension for eternity (but he was happy apparently). Uh, okay.

For my next story, I did the complete opposite. I had the hero refuse to even enter the cabin where the princess waited…which basically resulted in reality fracturing and evenutally collapsing in on itself until everything seemingly reset. (What?!)

It didn’t end there, though. Starting a new story actually continued that last one, with the new reality being a blend of infinite others, fracturing, coming back together over and over, with every action adding to the nightmare. The result of this one? Well, let’s just say that the hero may have gotten a peek behind the proverbial curtain and seen a truth that he shouldn’t have. This was all within my first 45 minutes or so with the game!

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel some discomfort as I went through these scenarios too. Like, there hasn’t been anything gross or truly visually shocking (yet), but the entire atmosphere is heavy and uncomfortable. And, again, this is just the first few minutes! What kinds of horrors and insanity await further on into Slay the Princess?? I’m definitely going to dive in and find out, but I kinda shutter to think about it.

This might sound like a complaint, but that’s not really a case. I’m a big fan of horror and an even bigger fan of unpredictable stories. It’s rare for a horror experience to surprise me anymore and it’s even rarer for me to be completely unable to predict where a story might go. So, despite being a bit scared of what I might encounter as I progress into Slay the Princess, I’m actually rather excited to be in what is essentially uncharted territory!

For real, if you’re at all curious about this one, you’ll probably enjoy it. It’s probably going to be an intense experience to be sure, but at least you won’t be able to spoil yourself by trying to guess what will happen next.

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Have you played Slay the Princess? If so, what was you experience like? What’s another game that surprised you in a similar way?

Image from the Steam page