I did not expect to fall in love with this game as much as I did. On paper, it's a pretty straightforward horror-ish visual novel with a killer black-and-white art style. However, after about an hour, the game reveals its hand and the true nature of what's going on puts a new perspective on what you are being asked to do repeatedly - enter the cabin in the woods, and slay the princess that's chained up inside before she can destroy the world.

Each loop of the game always starts the same, but branching paths exist in nearly every dialogue choice. Some are subtle differences, while others change the direction of not only the story, but the characters themselves, in significant ways. My first playthrough, I acted purely on gut instinct without looking anything up. Some of the stories that I witnessed were incredible. One in particular really hit me on an emotional level by how tragic and raw it all felt. After completing my initial playthrough, I immediately started a new game just to see some of the different major arcs that I had missed the first time - it's impossible to see everything not only your first time through, but it will take many multiple runs to see the differing possible outcomes.

Some of the dialogue can drag at times and become overly "talky" at points, but it also feels intentional in the context of what is happening in those moments. The music and art are both incredible and have been stuck in my head since finally closing the game. If you dislike visual novels, I'm not sure Slay the Princess will necessarily convert you, but it's certainly one of the best in the genre that I have ever played.

Dave the Diver has so many cool ideas and fun gameplay loops! Unfortunately, the pacing of the game is ALL over the place and is really inconsistent, making it feel excited at times, and a chore at others. There are a lot of basic systems and pieces of content that get locked away for 20+ hours because it's tied to story progression for no real reason, making some of the sushi restaurant elements feel even more detached from the rest of the game/story than it already kinda is.

But man, that early game where you are first exploring the first few areas of the sea, unlocking new weapons and tools, and getting new restaurant unlocks to make more money? It's fantastic and it really hooked me. It's once you meet the sea people, the game starts to really slow down significantly and become a lot more tedious. The final couple of areas, while visually rad and have great music, require so much backtracking and gating for what ultimately ends up being pretty small and unexciting zones. Overall the game is really neat, and I'm glad I played it! There's just a lot of missed potential on both halves of the game to really shine sadly.