To go into great detail to describe this game feels like a bit of a disservice to it, but even when I didn't go in 100% blind I still got a lot out of it.

I can see it being very mileage-may-vary, but I feel very seen by this game. One as someone that's struggled to cope with mortality and as someone who is plural. It handles the subjects with a lot of tact and feels different from a lot of "your choices matter" type games that feels like they're trying to be armchair psychologist when Slay the Princess is more a game about having an existential conversation. It doesn't come off as condescending or demeaning, aside from maybe too many dialogue options that are fluff or seem like they just restate the obvious.

It has a lot of clever writing, in terms of interactions and even some of the humor. For whatever it's worth, the final choice I had was probably the longest I've lingered on a dialogue option ever. Simply due to how I have to take apart my brain chemistry and put it back together again. Just a lot of it also comes in the form of prose, which is inevitably going to come off as white noise to some. Which is fine, of course! It's just not a writing style for everyone.

It's so tempting to go back and see what the other options would've been, but again, that feels like a disservice to the game. It feels like it's made to have one playthrough that is definitively "yours" and then leave it, so I might leave it for a while before trying to play it again.

Reviewed on Mar 18, 2024


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