Slay the Princess is a horror-romance visual novel with a lot going for it. Once you’ve played the game, you’ll understand most of the forces in the game’s narrative. You will have met many versions of the Princess. The secrets of the Narrator, the Shifting Mound, and the Long Quiet will be laid out for you. However, there is one force that I have not seen explained or talked about very much. What, exactly, is the pristine blade?
In Slay the Princess’s narrative of two gods set against each other by the narrative, the pristine blade is almost taken for granted. It’s just kind of there. It is the one thing that can actually do the job of slaying the princess. As the Narrator says, “you’ll need it if you want to do this right.” In the same way that the Narrator does not explain the mechanics behind how he imprisoned The Shifting Mound, the source for the pristine blade is left nebulous.
I think the pristine blade is one of the most interesting elements of Slay the Princess’s story and deserves to be examined. This small mcguffin is doing some major work behind the scenes in a pretty major way.
Dangerous to Go Alone…
Throughout your time in Slay the Princess, you’ll quickly learn that nothing stays the same as you head to Chapter II. The nature of the Princess is to shift in response to how she is perceived, so every choice you make shapes what she becomes. The Princess’s shifting nature then extends to the interior of the cabin in Chapter II, and to the path in the woods, if you reach Chapter III.
Throughout the game, the Narrator will change the way he describes everything as the environments slowly change. There is one object in the entire game, however, that never changes. It is the one thing in every Chapter that is never influenced by the Princess’s power. The pristine blade. It is always described the same, it never visibly changes, and it is the one thing that can truly slay the Princess.
The pristine blade is also the one item that can have a different starting position. There are times when Chapter III might start with the Blade missing from the table where it usually rests. It might be resting in the hands of the Princess, stuck in her corpse, or gone entirely. This is because between chapters, the pristine blade will stay wherever you put it last.
The pristine blade is a sliver of permanence. It is, therefore, the perfect counter to the Princess, also known as the Shifting Mound, who is a creature of change.
Using the Blade: The Spectre
In reaching the Spectre, we get a pretty good look at how the pristine blade is supposed to work. You can each the Spectre by attacking the Princess without speaking to her as soon as you meet her. Once your task is done, you leave the blade in the Princess’s corpse and head upstairs to wait for forever to pass.
As long as you wait forever and pretend to be happy, the pristine blade will be able to keep the Princess dead forever. The pristine blade remains stuck in the Princess, she remains unable to be anything except dead, and your task is finished. This will trigger the “good” ending where you’re “happy,” but also trapped. Once you use the pristine blade on yourself to escape the Narrator, you free the Princess from its permanence.
In this route, if you choose to defy the narrator and use the blade on yourself, you fail to slay the Princess. The pristine blade seems unable to keep the Princess permanently dead between chapters. Your death restarts the loop. When the loop restarts, the Princess returns.
Flipping the Table: The Razor
One of the biggest testaments to the Razor’s power over permanence can be found in Chapter II: The Razor. Unfortunately, this time, the power gets turned against you.
If you end up with the Voice of the Contrarian going into Chapter III after meeting the Razor, you can take his advice to throw the blade out the window. This effectively locks you out of any opportunity to fight back against the Razor since the pristine blade will stay thrown out the window. In every successive attempt against the Razor you will be left without a weapon.
This iteration of the Razor’s route, “No Way Out,” is one of the best examples of the pristine blade’s permanence. Your fight against the Razor lasts so long that you end up acquiring all of the possible voices. This means you restart without the blade no less than seven times before you manage to best the Razor. In each of these successive attempts, the pristine blade remains inaccessible since you threw it away.
“No Way Out” also reveals something important about the pristine blade: it is impartial. Its permanence can help you, or it can hurt you.
Relinquishing the Blade: The Thorn
Reaching the Thorn is one of the biggest examples of how the blade’s permanence between versions of the Princess. To reach the Thorn, you’ll first need to encounter the Witch, who hates you for betraying her. Taking the blade and then giving it to the Witch will take you to the Thorn in Chapter III. In Chapter III, the pristine blade remains clutched tightly in the Princess’s hands.
The pristine blade’s permanence displayed in this chapter is notably different from when it was seen in the Razor’s route. The transition from the Witch to the Thorn marks a shift to a different version to the Princess. While No Way Out features an extreme version of the Razor, it is still fundamentally the Razor. Even a shift to a different version of the Princess will not overcome the pristine blade’s permanence.
The shift to the Thorn reveals that the pristine blade is immune to even some of the strongest alterations the Princess can muster. Or is it? The Thorn is actually unique when it comes to the interplay between the Princess and the pristine blade. It may be argued that in this instance, the pristine blade actually becomes a part of the Princess. As this version of the Princess is “the Thorn,” the pristine blade becomes just another one of her thorns.
Whatever the case, the upcoming Pristine Cut DLC may offer more answers as more variants of the Princess are promised to appear. Since the DLC’s name is derived from the pristine blade, I am very excited to see what else may be revealed about the Princess and the pristine blade.
Deus Ex Machina: Chapter I
There is perhaps one instance where I can think of where the pristine blade changes position without your action. In Chapter I, if you enter the basement without the pristine blade, the Narrator will eventually shift the story to drop your weapon into the room. While this appears to be a violation of the pristine blade’s power, it is actually an expression of the Narrator’s power.
Even though the Narrator built the construct that houses the Princess, he isn’t in complete control. He can’t simply force things to happen, at least, not reliably. He can’t force you to take the pristine blade, but he can make sure you get it by cleverly using a trope of storytelling: Deus Ex Machina. In your “moment of need” the pristine blade appears before you, ready to slay the princess.
There may also be an explanation for why the Narrator can’t move the pristine blade all the time. Quite simply, once you have reached Chapter II or Chapter III, the Princess’s power has already grown. By Chapter II, her influence has spread to cover the entire interior of the cabin. By Chapter III, her influence covers the rest of the construct, including the path in the woods.
Though the Narrator is crafty, he is also clearly unable to change the Princess directly or even change anything under her sway. (Or, he is perhaps unwilling to change the Princess, or even interact with her or her domain, as that may fuel her power.) Therefore, it seems that by the time the pristine blade changes locations, the Narrator can’t move it since it’s in a domain that is within the Princess’s power.
A Cut Above
I love games that use everything they can to subtly reveal information or tell a story. Elden Ring and Dark Souls are renowned for using item descriptions to do this. In Slay the Princess, it is all done through atmospheric story telling. Within the game itself, the pristine blade is barely even mentioned. Yet it’s power is real, and there was clearly a lot of thought that went into how it works.
Black Tabby Studios have made something special with Slay the Princess. This is a game that oozes with detail. Every option chosen has narrative significance, small decisions can result in scenes that few players will ever see. Black Tabby Studios clearly put a lot of love put into this game. The thought behind the pristine blade is just one element that proves it.
Black Tabby Studios is not done either! Slay the Princess has a DLC releasing this fall, with a trailer releasing soon. The DLC is titled “The Pristine Cut,” drawing its name from the pristine blade. I am extremely excited for The Pristine Cut and I’m eagerly waiting to see new elements emerge.
