Cosmic Damsel Loops (Slay The Princess)
Wait, before you take the pitchforks out, let me sort of explain myself. This VN has an interesting concept that takes a twist on the established fabled trope of the damsel in distress. Instead of rescuing here, well, the job is to kill her while she's locked in a basement.
Unfortunately, Slay the Princess wouldn't let me have it that way easily. As it took me through various forms of reality warping loops, like ground hog day to find different ways to do my bidding. It's a scary game, but it gets fun as the hours go by. The premise relies on a situation with a lot of deceit involved, including from the narrator himself forcing me act on the job.
It's one of those games with an intriguing concept that is executed well, but goes really further and further without feeling like there's any end to it. In fact, the only dark aspect of it is being in the abyss of constantly trying different ways to do it.
Fade in, exterior, following a pathway through a forest that leads to the cabin, before I make my decisions, I have usual questionnaires drawn out. Made sure I knew what I was going into, because this narrator guy sure loves to be tacit about the job. I don't even know who he is.
The dialogue, and humor is a little tongue in cheek, but when things get serious, yeah they get serious enough to mellow down everything. A number of things factor in for that happening. One, I die a lot. Two, there's no telling who to trust because neither the princess is innocent nor the narrator fully explains why I am doing this in the first place.
The only one voice who seems to be human here is the Hero, but him, the narrator, and me are in the same body. After we've reached the cabin in the woods, we look at a door, and table with a knife on top. Obviously set up by an associated party of the narrator.
All of this seems conveniently set up, being nagged by him to continue. I go down the stairs, and see someone calling, with a rather sardonic attitude. She looks like she has seen better days, but my mission is to end her. Yet somehow, I had to choose my conscience first before making the decision.
I tried to play along, be convinced but then something she said struck me out. So I made the quick call to kill her. Unfortunately all that talk made her mentally prep, she dodged the attack before knocking me down. She started to put up a fight, and in a way she was winning, but I also managed to stab her as well. We both died there and then.
But here is where it gets weirder, there's a next chapter called The Adversary, and am right back to where I was. Except a number of things are different, one is that I am aware, the narrator isn't, and two is that I have another voice with me. So it's the 4 of us now.
It kind of gets established that depending on how it plays out, I have a different personality of each voice in my head. That depends on how things turn out. The one I have right now has too much bravado and devil may care attitude going to give me any useful advice. But that wouldn't matter.
Because reentering the cabin, something has changed. The inside looks like it was made using clay instead of wood, the door, table, and knife are there, but so is the mirror. Which becomes a delusion of the red herring sorts. As I go down the tunnel now, this time her voice sounds deeper. And before I knew it, she looks twice the size she was before.
She has horns protruding, muscular build, and a tail. Next thing I know she also wants to fight me. I am not sure if the choices I made would have resulted in me winning, but she got me easily this time, as if she knew my every move. I was dead again, and then I resurrected to third chapter.
This time, everything looks like it was made of clay, branchless trees, desolate area, and a cave ahead with the mirror. I have another voice with me, called the Hunted. From here, the plan is to lure her out, and then take her down.
With the Hunted, I finally managed to put up a good fight, and it was a close call, but we won. She lost, died. It seems I have really won this time. But then again, I don't know, something like a bunch of arms comes out of nowhere, takes her away, and puts me in a void. Narrator is also gone for good.
This part of the game is where this eldritch species tells me in riddles and mixed messaging that she wants vessels. Like the princess but in different form each storyline. Meaning, I have to end each scenario differently to get what I want.
So far, am still drawing a blank page. Why am I trapped like this? Who or what exactly are they, how is the narrator connected to this, and are we trapped as well in this cycle, including the princess? I Shrugged it off, and decided to do a different run in another parallel universe.
I went straight for the kill, I didn't bother asking her anything, I just did it. There was the choice of even checking her pulse or taking the knife out. No, I smartened up and decided to leave it be. Before making my way out. Unfortunately, the reward I got from the narrator was an abyss. No way out, and was supposed to accept that this was my faith, instead be happy about it.
I never liked this guy, and I now I hate him even more. Really? This was my reward? Even the hero thinks he's full of it. So we come up with a plan by heading back, taking the knife and I basically kill myself to see if something changes. It did. Chapter 2, the Wraith.
Of course, she's a meek ghost lurking besides the skeletal remains of hers, feeling lost, cold, and alone, she simply wants to hitch a ride in my body and leave the place. There's just one problem, there's that other voice that pops up when she talks. Doesn't sound friendly either.
I decided to just leave her here, narrator be damned for I care. But of course, she didn't like that, had a hissy fit, and then shoved her hand in me. She was a ghost, she couldn't do anything. Except she did, tear open my chest, and take my heart out before crushing it.
She turns into a wraith on the third chapter, and this time possess me. My 2 other voices, both the cold one, and paranoid, hatched a plan with the hero, and me. And then we both pushed ourselves into the pit she came from, trapping us both. And then the entity sucked us in again. Our vessel run has been complete, and the mirror shows up more of our shape, each run looking different.
Alright, I've decided on this 3rd run to warm up to her better nature. I helped her escape, or at least tried. Of course, got possessed by the jerk who tells me to kill her, and I resist. She took the knife, stabbed me several times while apologizing. NGL, kind of bought into her crying for me.
Ok, this run is more fun, and I'd say the silliest one. Because of how things go. This is what I would call the "I can fix her" run, because every Steam reviewer is memeing about it. Seriously, I think I did kind of fixed her. Well temporarily. Not all good things last for long sadly, kind of sucks considering what went this time. Plus the funniest new voice in my head.
This guy is so down on fawning over her, he refuses to see her any other way. A Smitten voice indeed. I really wanted to keep the conversation going, and actually fulfill her wish even if that meant doom for the world. But yeah, the entity ruins it, and I am back to square one again.
Don't ask me what this is, I didn't want to go to the cabin anymore, and tried running away. But instead of going around in circles to one cabin, I found this portal to all the cabins I've gone to. This point, the madness was taking me over, and after saving, just called it a day and stopped here. The voice acting was good, and the art work isn't bad either. But nothing evokes dread like the music.
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This one sounds like an incredibly unique and mind-bending game. The way it challenges traditional storytelling with its twist is fascinating. Thanks for sharing this captivating journey.
Yeah, it's like H.P. Lovecraft's own Grim Brothers type spin on a fable story.
I see.