I just finished watching the gameplay of Slay the Princess and although I don't usually write or think enough about video games or series to write about them, I think this game really connected with me, although I warn you all, there will be spoilers.
Spoilers not as such telling what happens in the game but as what the final scenes make me think about more than anything else, the theme of life and death has been relevant to me because for a good while I've been thinking about the absolute everything that those two are. It's always scary to think about that but trying to understand it has its beauty and Slay the Princess manages to represent existence very well.
More than anything it makes me think because it represents life and death as a beautiful balanced dance, or at least that's how it looks from my perspective, because all the endings it has makes it very clear that it can mean several things to different people, the different endings they have can be enough for every way of thinking that plays it and that's a very wise decision. The way it takes advantage of the fact that it is a game to deepen the meaning of not the beginning or the end but ONE beginning and ONE ending is brilliant.
I think it's normal to be afraid of death, and many people look for the meaning of life so they don't regret finding meaning before they die, what I believe is that death, although inevitable and certain (and terrifying) is necessary and is, at the same time, reassuring; Death is what gives meaning to life, it's a stepping stone in this life, it's part of.
When I still did not have a conclusion about what to think about death my dad was there to reassure me and help me to give a different perception to things and I am very grateful to him because without him I don't know if I would have been able to, not to understand it, but to give it my sense. And it is because of death itself that life has the value it has, it is because of death that life is worth living, or trying to live it.
I don't think anyone knows what they are doing but it is part of, the meaning of life, for me, is simply finding the way to enjoy it your way, doing what you want, whether it is preparing to be a president or maybe with absolutely nothing planned and letting yourself flow, because at the end of the day our life only has to matter to us, it is ours, and if we are not happy with it then what's the point of being unhappy? I don't think there is any.
I am not saying that it is easy because it is not and never will be, life is more than often unfair, but beautiful, and there are still many things that I do not know and do not understand, maybe my concept of life will change in the future, what I do know is that I will continue waiting for each new day, whether it brings something good or bad (preferably good).
If my unnecessarily philosophical thinking is of any use to anyone who is having a bad time (and another thing the game talks about) I hope they seek their happiness and find it soon, that the end is nothing more than the opportunity for something new to begin, that this life goes in cycles and just as life may be full of sadness today, I know it will be full of happiness tomorrow.
Because I believe it is worth trying, crossing it, making it, succeeding or failing. Life is only one.
This suddenly stopped being about the game, how funny. What if there is life after death and no one comes back because it's more fun in the afterlife than in here?
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⊹ ࣪ ˖ elizabeth
I honestly wholeheartedly agree with your statements, after watching the many playthroughs of Slay The Princess I can say it has to be one of the most thought provoking games out there hiding under the guise of a simple visual novel type of game.
Going into the game and all the videos I genuinely did not expect much of it except for it maybe being a troll game with the graphics of it just looking like someone actually did put some amount of effort in it but the more I began to watch the more I understood how it was a sort of representation of what life and death looks from the view of a person that has experienced it all with the same person.
Through the endless amount of paths, contradictions, failures, and doubts, I think that the entirety of the game itself and playing it is what it feels like to live. Difficult, okay, I fucking love living, hell no kill me. An endless amount of tomorrows. It's so complex, honestly.
Spiral
slay the princess is literally one of the greatest things to happen in 2023 in ways i cannot even begin to explain. this is coming from someone who doesn't really like "dating-sim/vn" games, if it can be classified as one. like. fuck.
the art style/the princess' design(s) is fucking amazing.
everything about this game is amazing 10/10
I completely agree, I don't consider it a dating simulator but definitely a visual novel.
by Mystisk; ; Report