Psychological horror Horror Horror visual novels Surreal horror

Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut

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A voice tells you to slay the princess. She says otherwise. Choose who to believe.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Stores: Steam, GOG, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (97% of 34,835 reviews); Metacritic 90 on PC; 4.81 of 5 on the PlayStation Store (2,344 ratings)
Length: about 3½ hours to a first ending, around 18 hours to see everything
Players: 1
Made by: Black Tabby Games
Released: 2023

No. 3 of the basement horror games · No. 4 of the forest horror games · No. 2 of the cabin horror games · No. 1 of the time loop horror games

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What frightens A narrator sends you down a basement to kill a chained princess before she ends the world. Whatever you choose, you die or she does, the story loops, and each time she comes back changed by what you believed about her, growing more monstrous, more violent and stranger.
Content: violence, blood and gore, death, suicide themes, body horror, strong language, partial nudity, flashing images.

A hand-drawn, fully voiced horror visual novel from Black Tabby Games. You walk to a cabin in the woods to kill the princess chained in its basement, and every choice you make reshapes her, the cabin and the story as it loops. The Pristine Cut is the expanded edition, with new chapters and a new ending.

About Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut

Slay the Princess is a choice-driven psychological horror visual novel by Black Tabby Games, the studio behind Scarlet Hollow. It came out on PC in October 2023. The Pristine Cut is its expanded edition, published with Serenity Forge on October 24, 2024 and it is sold on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch as well as PC. It adds three new chapters, longer versions of The Den, The Apotheosis and The Fury, a gallery, more than 1,200 new hand-penciled frames, more than 2,500 new voiced lines and a new ending.

The opening is simple. You are on a path in the woods. At the end of it is a cabin, and in its basement is a princess. A narrator tells you she must die, or the world will end, and that she will charm, lie and promise you the world to stop you. There is a knife for the job. What you do next, and what you believe about her, decides where the story goes.

The horror comes from not knowing who to trust and from watching your own beliefs come true. If you go down expecting a monster, you may meet one. You die, she dies, or something else happens, and the story starts again with the cabin and the princess changed by what came before. Some versions of her are calm and sad, others bloodied and cruel, and the places around her grow stranger and more grotesque.

Every background and sprite is drawn in pencil on paper by graphic novelist Abby Howard, mostly in black and white, which makes the red of blood and the moments of transformation hit harder. Every line is voiced in English, by Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight, with subtitles in ten other languages.

A first ending takes about three and a half hours by HowLongToBeat's count, and seeing every route is closer to eighteen. It suits players who like horror built on dialogue, dread and choice rather than jump scares or combat. There is a lot of reading and listening, and the payoff comes from replaying to see where other beliefs lead.

How to play Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut

Start a new game and listen to the narrator as you walk the path to the cabin.
Read each scene and choose a line of dialogue or an action from the list.
Decide whether to take the knife, go down to the basement and what to do with the princess.
When the story loops, choose differently to reach new versions of the princess and new chapters.
Use the gallery in The Pristine Cut to see which routes and endings you have found.

Screenshots

Slay the Princess screenshot: the princess, chained by her neck and wrists, sits on the floor of a stone basement, a knife lying on the tiles

Slay the Princess screenshot: the chained princess with dark-ringed eyes asks if you think she is some sort of monster

Slay the Princess screenshot: a path winds up a hill at night to a lit cabin while the narrator warns she will lie and cheat

Slay the Princess screenshot: inside the cabin at night, the basement door stands ajar with its lock broken and the table shoved aside

Slay the Princess screenshot: the princess in a blood-soaked dress, a broken shackle on her wrist, says this was fun

Slay the Princess screenshot: stone steps climb through bare pale trees toward the cabin on a hilltop under the stars

Slay the Princess screenshot: a stone hall overgrown with fleshy growths, a channel of blood running down its floor

Tips

There is no wrong way to play; dying is part of how the story moves forward.
Answer the way you actually feel at first, then replay to test other attitudes.
Play with sound on: the voices in your head are half the story.
The maker warns of suicide themes and occasional flashing images; check its content warnings first if either matters to you.
It has full controller support, you can save at any time and nothing is timed, so you can take each choice at your own pace.

Questions

What is the difference between Slay the Princess and The Pristine Cut?

The Pristine Cut is the expanded edition: three new chapters, longer routes for The Den, The Apotheosis and The Fury, a gallery, new art and dialogue, and a new ending.

How long is Slay the Princess?

HowLongToBeat puts a first ending at about three and a half hours, main story plus extras at about five and a half, and seeing everything at about eighteen.

Is Slay the Princess on consoles?

Yes. The Pristine Cut is sold on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch as well as PC, Mac and Linux.

Is Slay the Princess scary?

It is more unsettling than jumpy: dread, bloody violence and body horror drawn in pencil, with the fear of not knowing who is telling the truth. It is rated M by the ESRB for blood and gore, intense violence, partial nudity and strong language.

Is Slay the Princess a dating sim?

Its makers call it a psychological horror visual novel and dating sim, but they also warn you not to romance her, because it will not end well for you.