Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut Review

Let’s get this out of the way: Slay the Princess, the stunning horror visual novel from Black Tabby Games, was my favourite game of last year, 2023. I mean this without hyperbole, though I accept that I haven’t yet played everything released then and haven’t finished certain titles that might rival this gem for the year’s crown. The story is engaging, entertaining, and thought-provoking in equal measure not to mention how it does a fine job of playing with its looping events. Plus, the music is haunting, the widely varied performances by both Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight are a highlight among a veritable light show of excellence on display, and there is even a ghost. I happen to like ghosts. There is very little I did not like about that game, and going into Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut, I was excited to relive the whole experience, let alone explore the new additions. As much as I am trying to maintain a pinch of objectivity in reviewing The Pristine Cut as its own entity in comparison to the original version, this is still, at its core, the same love story I fell for a year ago.

All that being said, Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut has made me fall in love with its story all over again. For one thing, I’m very glad to see it on console; as much as PCs tend to be the best place for visual novels like this, I tend to be more of a console gamer myself. Furthermore, it’s worked rather well with my controller for the most part, as simple as it is. It can be a tad finicky at times when I accidentally hit the control stick the wrong way and start selecting the quick menu at the top of the screen, but the menu is easily turned off for control fumblers like myself.

As for other faults, while the skip shortcut is in a good place, I found skipping itself a tad unwieldy at times, with the audio refusing to play for whatever line of dialogue I ended on, even if it was new. While on the topic of criticism, there was a minor technical issue where, after a decision had been made, the two visual indicators were split from each other. The brown-orange text highlight settles back in at the top option whereas the player’s hand/talon off to the side of the text remains at the same position as the last-selected choice. Moving between options resyncs the two, but seeing this happen is always jarring.

However, putting aside those few issues, it isn’t just a move to consoles that sold me on The Pristine Cut, No, what’s made me fall in love all over again is the new story. On the whole, the experience is essentially the same, yes, but several chapters have been altered or expanded, there’s a whole new ending (that I will not be getting into), and three new chapter IIIs. It's the last of those additions that truly sold me on The Pristine Cut as a worthy upgrade to Slay the Princess, and it’s what I want to talk about most.

If you recall, back in vanilla Slay the Princess, the plot begins (and begins again and begins again and so on) with Chapter I: The Hero and the Princess and the player on their way to slay the princess. Then they move on and loop back to the beginning of their quest in possible chapters for II and, sometimes, III when events pan out in deadly directions. As such, any given Chapter III tends to delve deeply into what’s come before and these chapters have held some of my favourite moments in the game.

In The Pristine Cut, this goes even further for me. The three new Chapter IIIs — “The Cage”, “Happily Ever After”, and “The Princess and the Dragon” — each offer new and engaging avenues to explore both the player and the Princess. I'm going to go into each of them and try to explain some of what made them great, but that will involve some spoilers for each new chapter. Skip to the final paragraph if you'd like to go in blind.

When I played through “The Cage”, it was a harrowing experience, both in the gruesome violence on display and through the cold, dehumanising introspection on the Princess’ part. The player, the Narrator, and all the Voices quickly get ahead of themselves and wind up trapped, face to face with a still-equally-trapped Princess. Only now she’s lost her head. Figuratively, of course. She’s still got her actual head; it’s just in a cage now, separate from her body. There’s a bit more to the chapter, but on the whole, it does a fantastic job of leaning into a sort of gnawing helplessness on the player’s part that is rarely explored to this extent in the rest of the game. It’s a fright to experience, but not an empty one.

“Happily Ever After” partakes in an interesting middle ground between “The Damsel”, which it carries on from, and “The Deconstructed Damsel” from the base game. It explores a possible future ending for the player and the Princess where they can stay together in an ornate castle-y version of the cabin forever, living out their, well… “Happily Ever After”. The two have everything they could possibly want: delicious feasts, tantalising games, and each other — because they do so love each other very much, didn’t you know? However, all of that sours with time and the two, at least when I played it, have to come to terms with each other, end the fantasy, and be honest. This isn’t the blind smitten acceptance of “The Damsel” nor the stubborn attempt at insisting on knowing the Princess’ heart of “The Deconstructed Damsel”, but a crushing exploration of endless empty joy and what can be made of it when it is abandoned.

Even so, “The Princess and the Dragon” is my personal favourite of the bunch, and not just because it leads off from one of the more ghost-filled chapters. This chapter flips the script, landing the player in the Princess’ body instead of their usual flesh. Not only does this allow for some fantastically funny revelations, like how all the time spent talking amongst the different voices in the player’s head plays out in real-time as excruciating silence for the Princess and, now, you. The chapter breaks from the usual perspective and offers a unique visual flair, but the best part is absolutely getting to see the Princess’ thoughts on the situation. As much as I love how different the player’s headspace can get depending on which Voices have been forged and how each and every one of them feels like a distinct character, there’s something special about getting to be so far removed from that context and having to see it from a distance.

All three of these new chapters added so much to my understanding of Slay the Princess and explored situations that are not only a pleasure to see included but that feel like they filled a hole in the stories that the player can tell inside of the original game. Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut may, for the most part, look, sound, and feel like the original title, but with its new additions to the story, it offers a greater amount of exploration that more than justifies the new release. Play it, whether this is your first exposure to Slay the Princess or if you enjoyed it already. It’s worth it.