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STAFF REVIEW of Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut (Xbox Series X)


Friday, December 20, 2024.
by Adam Dileva

Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut Box art While I had heard of Slay the Princess when it released last year in 2023 for PC, I never paid it much more attention and subsequently forgot about it. Well, the time has come for me to experience it now that it’s released on consoles. Better yet, the wait seems to have been worth it, as we now get Slay the Princess – The Pristine Cut, an extended version with much more content to experience.

Developed by Black Tabby Games and published by Serenity Forge, Slay the Princess – The Pristine Cut is a visual novel at its core, but if that’s not the genre you’re normally not into, don’t dismiss it quite yet. While I’m not normally too enthralled with visual novels, those with intriguing stories are hard to ignore. Visual novels are generally quite linear. Sure in most you’ll get a few dialogue choices, but it’s usually getting from the start of the story to the end, and that’s it. Slay the Princess is more than just a story you’re following, instead offering plenty of different branching choices and a number of surprising endings. Slay the Princess is unique in the sense that it’s a horror themed yet has some dating-like elements to it.

Given that Slay the Princess is a visual novel, I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers where possible, but it’s also impossible to do so given the nature of its genre. Do what you can to go into Slay the Princess blind, avoiding as many spoilers as possible, aside from reading this review of course. Slay the Princess is self-aware of itself, much like The Stanley Parable, but also has some unique and unexpected twists and turns, like Doki Doki Literature Club.


Most games revolve around you saving the princess, but here it’s the opposite, as you’re tasked with slaying the princess by any means necessary. “There are no wrong decisions. There are only fresh perspectives.” This is the message you’re first greeted with. This made me feel as I was able to freely explore different options and outcomes I normally wouldn’t.

You begin in the woods on a path with a cabin in the distance. At the basement of this cabin is a princess locked up with chains. You’re told to slay her or else the world is going to end. Yes, you read that right, you’re not here to save the princess, but instead, stop some sort of calamity by murdering a seemingly innocent princess that’s bound with chains in a basement. That can’t be right can it? If I knew someone was coming to kill me, I would do anything I could to survive, be it lie and promise anything that I could. This is what the princess will do, anything to convince you to stop from slaying her. But do you save her and risk that it might actually destroy all life as we know it? Do you take such a risk, or follow the voices in your head.

I’ll show them though. The first thing I did was ignore my instructions, doing what I could to actually save her. Someone has to be lying, so naturally I wanted to do the ‘right’ thing. I don’t kill princesses, I save them. This was my first ending, and I’ll tell you, it wasn’t quite what I expected. Even when you reach an ‘end’, it’s not really the end, but more of a new start.


This is where the time loops are introduced. I saved the princess, but woke up back in the woods telling me I screwed up and to right this wrong, by slaying her. Thing is, you’re not just replaying the same chain of events, as when you get back to the cabin, things look and appear different. Instead of a wooden door, maybe now it’s larger, or maybe there’s a window or mirror. This has to mean something right?

For my next chain of decisions, I opted to just leave, not going to the cabin, but leaving entirely. This of course led to a different outcome, and I found myself back in the woods. With a new voice in my head, I had some different information, which led me to my next sequence of choices. With a narrator describing many things happening, things become slowly more odd as you try new decisions and see outcomes. Eventually the narrator starts to actually talk directly to you, as do other voices in your head. What could this mean? Who is the narrator? That’s when Slay the Princess starts to become quite intriguing and really started to grasp my attention.

As for its gameplay, Slay the Princess comes down to being an interactive visual novel, so you’ll simply be choosing different dialogue choices when offered. There’s no timed choices or quicktime events, so you can play at your own pace. Even though there’s not much to its gameplay, it’s an intriguing experience regardless.

There are so many twists and turns I didn’t see coming. This made it quite engaging, as trying a new path of choices usually led to drastically different outcomes. I stopped keeping count of how many times I died, and even though I did, that wasn’t necessarily an end. Sometimes when you think you’ve finished the game, it’s not truly the end. Even when you do reach an ‘end’, playing again can lead to a completely different outcome by choosing different paths and dialogue. There’s a tracker to keep progress on which endings you’ve gotten, so there’s plenty of reasons to try to slay the princess in a different way, all of which are drastically unique from one another.


Maybe you’ve played the base game already, wondering what’s new and added to The Pristine Cut. The main addition is the three new chapters, each of which play vastly different from what you’ve experienced before. With these chapters also brings new princesses, of which will do what they can to murder you if given the chance.

Maybe you’ve already mastered the game and know all the intricate routes. Some of these routes have been expanded drastically, even up to double the length. Boasting 35% more content, there’s even a new ending to try and experience. There’s a Gallery to track your progress and with 1200 new hand-drawn frames and 2500 new lines of voiced dialogue, even the most experienced princess slayers will have plenty of new content to explore.

Most visual novels can sometimes be a slog to get through since there’s a mountain of text you need to read. What surprised me the most was how Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut was fully voiced. Flawless performances from Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight elevate the well written dialogue, and once you start to grasp what’s going on and finally seeing your dialogue choices, it becomes quite an intriguing adventure. The different voices in your head, along with the narrator trying to influence your decisions has to mean something, right? While there’s not much animation, there’s plenty of different scenes that are hand drawn by Ignatz-winning graphic novelist Abby Howard in black and white.

It’s not often that a visual novel sticks with me after the credits roll, but Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut has been with me the last week or so after getting many endings. There’s an intriguing story, great penciled artwork, and flawless voice acting. The branching paths and dialogue options are substantially different from one another and makes for one of the more memorable visual novels that deserve to be up there with the best of the genre.

**Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**




Overall: 9.0 / 10
Gameplay: 9.0 / 10
Visuals: 8.5 / 10
Sound: 9.5 / 10

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