It's cute, but overall lacking. It falls for many of the same pitfalls that many English VN's and smaller games that try and approach philosophy normally fall into, and then adds a few more, but it covers the ideas with a nice layer of style.
It's clear that Slay the Princess wants to say... something. Whether that's about how we as people owe much of how we interact with the world to other people, or about change in general, or... other things, it's hard to say. But it wants to. How do I know? Because the game won't stop bringing it up.
The problem is that all it really does is... talk about it. The core premise of the game is there, of course, but all it largely serves to do is act as the introduction to the idea. And then the rest of the game is... just bringing it up over and over again. Metaphor after metaphor, paragraph after paragraph. The dialogue becomes college-level philosophy papers but in prose.
And beyond just how messy and imbalanced TELLING of the idea is, the end result is a game that lands on the same point that many other indie game/VN's land on; 'hey, did you know life has meaning?' and 'existence is cool, you should try it'. I wanna see one of these meta-games do something else besides existentialism for once.
I did like the voice acting, and I did enjoy the overall style of the game, but now after sitting on it, all I'm left with is, harsh to say, a bit of a nothingburger. It's a great-looking and great-sounding burger, but unfortunately, there's nothing there.
It's clear that Slay the Princess wants to say... something. Whether that's about how we as people owe much of how we interact with the world to other people, or about change in general, or... other things, it's hard to say. But it wants to. How do I know? Because the game won't stop bringing it up.
The problem is that all it really does is... talk about it. The core premise of the game is there, of course, but all it largely serves to do is act as the introduction to the idea. And then the rest of the game is... just bringing it up over and over again. Metaphor after metaphor, paragraph after paragraph. The dialogue becomes college-level philosophy papers but in prose.
And beyond just how messy and imbalanced TELLING of the idea is, the end result is a game that lands on the same point that many other indie game/VN's land on; 'hey, did you know life has meaning?' and 'existence is cool, you should try it'. I wanna see one of these meta-games do something else besides existentialism for once.
I did like the voice acting, and I did enjoy the overall style of the game, but now after sitting on it, all I'm left with is, harsh to say, a bit of a nothingburger. It's a great-looking and great-sounding burger, but unfortunately, there's nothing there.