How can I get OUT of this NIGHTMARE - Therapist Plays Slay the Princess
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
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#slaytheprincess #therapist #letsplay #longplay #reaction #narrative #therapy #psychology #analysis #eurobrady - บันเทิง
Threw the blade. TWO different windows broke. Absolute reality
For as many times as I've played through the game, I don't think I ever noticed that before. God I love the little details in this game.
Yoo I only saw the left one before, you're goated
noooo you're in the construct
absolute reality is everything outside nooo
Given that the cabin is every possible one all together. Maybe another reality broke the other window. I wouldn't be surprised is one dropped the blade in the gap in the floor.
Funnily enough I never saw anyone else who noticed it. It's almost sorta like a foreshadowing of what's to come
I find it so funny that Brady was saying he'd rather die than do anything the Narrator says, and lo and behold... *The Contrarian Appears*
He can predict the future without even knowing it himself
He is doing that all playthrough, it's so insane. Only voice he not predict well it's the Cold one (too emphatic for him lmao)
That's why I really wish him to play Doki doki literature club.
He is so good at psychological analysis that I want to know what he thinks about the game and if he can predict what happens in it,
The last psychologist that I have watched play DDLC was so dumb that she could not even predict things that were obvious (eg. end of chapter 1) and then she dropped the playthrough.
With him I would be super excited about his thoughts about DDLC girls and their issues.
The Contrarian is fascinating. He's basically the jokes-all-the-time voice, but he experiences character growth in a way we haven't really seen from any of the voices thus far, in a single chapter no less. Also the [Wait Forever] fakeout is amazing, calls the player's bluff and makes you feel a little stupid
I dunno:
Oppy experiences it too, but you have to look past his nature and pick out key details in order to really see it.
Plus Contrarian's arc will continue later down the line.
Spoiler text written backwards:
.looc ytterp s'tI .htworg retcarahc emos htiw ereht si nairartnoC eht dna ,tnereffid si traeh s'ssecnirP eht ni emag eht fo dne eht ta nibac eht neht ,etuor nairartnoC eht od uoy fi ,oslA
@@user-S853Spoilers:
I absolutely love that. It's like a continuation of Contrarian's little growth arc he had at the end of Stranger. Though, unfortunately, the poor guy hadn't gotten the chance to really process the guilt he felt for what happened in the Stranger yet. So he's so sad when we meet him again. I just wanted to give him a big hug! He deserves one.
Strange. I can’t see my previous reply.
@@user-S853 Really? Are you talking about your reply where you wrote the spoilers backwards? Because I can see them just fine. I guess TH-cam is just being a little weird again lol
1:10:57 "I'm sorry that you met this vessel so early in your journey"
This line only appears if you find stranger as your first vessel with your first meeting with Her. It's a hint that you can get a unique ending at the end of everything that's exclusive to meeting Stranger first (:
Wait, I forgot, is there an actual unique ending or is this just about
(spoilers)
The Contrarian being there along with the Hero?
@@WhoStoleKirya73 Just that :) and, well, they're a little different.
@@WhoStoleKirya73 Princess final cabin form changes. There is three form including stranger one and all of them have somehow different personality.
I think it is less of a hint and more of an acknowledgement that this route is mind-fucky for a first time player and probably gives away way too much to someone unfamiliar with the game's premise, and may spoil some things.
I have seen 3 people (have just started this video so it doesn’t count) play this game and I still have never heard of the stranger.
I've always closed the game with [Wait forever.] when I was going to be away for a while. When the Pristine Cut dropped, it felt so good to be greeted not by a lifeless menu, but by the Shifting Mound telling me "Months mean nothing in the maw of forever." She never left my side :)
"Unless the pain is pleasurable, for some people" Brady's Razor arc, 2024
🤗💞
The Stranger was the very first vessel I brought to the Shifting Mound.
I had originally decided to keep defying the narrator as a joke because I'm so used to games railroading you like "Okay you've had your fun… now get back to the story."
But then it just kept going, and by the time I might have turned from that path... I'd already gone too far.
It very early on showed me that all my actions had consequences and just how far the game would let me go. It showed me just how special an experience I was about to have.
My first route was The Moment of Clarity, and I’m pretty sure my second route was The Stranger. I was so scared of the princess by my third loop lmao
I felt the same way getting The Stranger first ❤ I even got Moment of Clarity last on that run, and going into the final confrontation right after was WILD
My first two routes were tower to fury and the razor and I wound up being super on edge with all of my interactions with any of the princesses including the mound up until I got happily ever after for my last route- I like how my playthrough really felt like it told a coherent story through the different routes I chose
I wish I could've gotten the Stranger first, honestly. I really appreciate the thought process that led to you choosing what you did, as well as the way you drew immediate conclusions from your experience (which, taking the full game into account, turned out to be pretty accurate ^^).
The nature of your reasoning tells me that you as a player are already pretty attuned to the genre and its conventions. The way the game allows you to proceed as you did is proof that the devs are just as attuned, and probably accounted for a portion of the players to have this exact thought process. Which is an incredible feeling - you really get the impression that this game was made _just for you_ and is on your precise wavelength at times like those, which is an incredible planning/writing feat. Going through one of those moments right from the start must've been fantastic. I think I encountered her on my second or third full playthrough, and I remember being a bit disappointed thinking that as impactful as the experience was, and it was, I would've been absolutely bowled over if I'd encountered her without all of this prior context. You feel and learn _so_ much by facing her. :D
Also I assume you've seen the Stranger-specific ending, then? The more I think about it, the more I love this particular one, possibly even more than its base version. I won't go into too much detail because spoilers, but the underlying idea of this whole ending, about starting fresh and carving one's own path, is all the more touching and meaningful when it comes to the Stranger, unconventional and torn over multiple irreconcilable directions as she is/feels herself to be.
The cabin ending(at the very end) with the stranger is my favorite of all the endings I love her so much
Fun fact, there are custom lines for refusing to engage with the shifting mound if you choose to wait. She technically has a modified dialogue variation for millennia later- after x number of days it will change to "You have returned to me. (weeks/months/days/years/decades/centuries/millenia) mean nothing in the maw of forever. I never left your side."
Rad, I got the weeks since I started and then put it down before the pristine cut.
Yo the dude that picks this game back up in 3024 is going to have his mind utterly blown
Matpat is going for the highest dialogue option
Wow
@@paulomatute4114Actually it's just Ash now. Just sayin' plus, Tom will like it.
11:05 "Your task is to _slay_ 💅💅 the Princess"
😐
I can't unhear it😂
@@czar6203 My reaction. Why do weirdos have to make everything cringe?
@@ThePhaxaldon’t take yourself so serious
Me a week ago: "Not sure why YT suddenly recommended Slay the Princess to me. There's no way I'd be interested in murdering princesses."
Me now, after carefully watching every single episode of Brady's playthrough in the last 4 days: "Why is this so fascinating? When will he release the next episode? Why does this hurt so much? What am I doing to myself? What is Brady doing to me?"
You should pick up the game! It hits SO much harder when you're playing.
@@europeanwildcat True, and if this playthrough is their only exposure to the game they haven't even encountered most princesses (including some very common ones like the wild)
the wild my beloved. but yeah, if money is the issue, the devs said "better to pirate and play it than to watch a playthrough"
In my case, I saw it pop up on my Steam recommends (what THAT says about me, I dunno :P) when it was fairly new--and it immediately caught my eye, because of the unexpected verb there, of course. "Wait, WHAT the Princess???"
Way too many spoilery playthroughs watched later (I'm sorry, Devs!), I finally bought it during the 2024 Halloween sale, and here we are! Now I'm having fun confusingly introducing it to my Steam friends in the form of random, out-of-order screenshots with weird captions. Bwahaha. :)
I forget the names of the Princesses I got my first playthrough, but I recall the Thorn...hmm, I'll just look up my achievement list.
Got Thorn, Wounded Wild, Damsel, Prisoner, and Moment of Clarity. Interesting how some of these are offshoots of other similar Princesses.
So glad your continuing the slay the princess playthrough. It's such a shame most people stop at the first ending because there is sooo much content in this game and Spoiler: You haven't even gotten any of the recent pristine cut princesses which are just incredible.
Thanks for commenting that because I haven't seen all the new stuf yet and I don't want to be spoilered, now I know this video is safe to watch
@@Link-dx1lx Yeah np. That's kinda what I've been doing too playing along with the playthrough.
There are more?!
Which are the new ones? At least their title to avoid spoilers and see if the ones I got were new or old.
@@AkaiAzul Expanded Chapters: The Apotheosis, The Den, The Fury. New Chapters: The Princess and the Dragon, The Cage, Happily Ever After. One new ending.
Brady: *Goes on an entire explanation about the nature of avoidance and why we do it*
STP: "Oh, so that's how you wanna be?" *Unplays your game*
"I'm sorry that you met this vessel so early in your journey" is, in part, knocking on the fourth wall a bit -- she's apologizing for you getting such an insane route before ever seeing the princess in a normal state.
My very first princess~
@@RisaPlays You're the contrarian, aren't you?
@@HellGod67 Yes~
@@RisaPlays She was my first too! I love her~ I want a figure of her tbh!
In my first run I "won", and in the second I got this, so I wonder what would your thoughts be?)
Also it seeing multiple roads to cabins really freaked me out as I've seen something similar irl and it was quite traumatic.
The point about the narrator only ever acting on avoidance of pain is a good observation. He is an echo of whoever seemingly made the construct, and they made the construct to create a god that could end death because they themselves feared death. In my opinion, the Narrator is the first thing that goes awry with the construct. He doesn't just want you to destroy the concept of change, and thus the capacity to die, he tries to convince you that nothingness is happiness, that joy is just the absence of pain, death, fear, or change. It is preferable to him to destroy the princess and then live out in a blank, unchanging eternity than to die. He is an echo of the construct creator's fear of death, and he does everything he can to avoid it. Without naming it, the Chapter with the acronym AMOC reveals this fact very well, albeit subtly.
These are some good thoughts, but I think I disagree with the part about the Narrator failing. I think he's actually enacting his plan exactly as he planned it. The reason he gives you an eternity of nothing and tells you that it's happiness is for two reasons:
One, to keep you locked in the construct.
Two, to prevent The Princess from being perceived.
So, the Narrator mentions during the last conversation that if everything had worked as it was supposed to, then we (The Long Quiet),
wouldn't have discovered we were a god. I believe he says this if you tell him you don't want to be a god. Actually, I think Brady
asked this question in the last episode, probably why it's in my head still, lol.
Okay, so if the Narrator tells you that you're happy for an eternity, then the Construct, which is really just part of The Long
Quiet, (we see that in the endings where you kill The Princess or leave with her) will remain intact.
I think the reason that it's so important for the Construct to remain intact here, is because The Princess is in it. If we kill the
Princess, she is definitely dead, but only for so long as we believe her to be. What would happen if the Construct broke, then? Even
if we believe that The Princess (the capacity for change) is dead, will all of humanity believe that when they can perceive her?
Will all sapient life in the Universe be capable of believing wholeheartedly that change is dead?
I figure they won't. And that's probably what the narrator thought, too. If even one single human believed change might not be dead,
then the Princess would come back to life, and everything would be undone. To prevent this, the Narrator tries to keep you in the
Construct, and tells you you're happy so that you never break the Construct, and so that you never perceive the Princess as alive,
either.
This turned into a massive wall of text, I'm so sorry. Hopefully it made sense, lol.
@@iveneverbeengoodwithnames2061 definitely see your point, mate. Your explanation also gave me a new perspective/take with the narrator. Daaaang
"Thank you for uploading and giving dopamine, therapist man" the gnomes in my head say, in unison
As he explained in a previous episode of DE, he doesn't give dopamine. He releases the accumulated dopamine.
@@garr_inc So he is a heterotrophic entity. Got it
@@garr_incwell, following this logic, the statement isn't entirely false, it's not a non-direct dopamine giving
Is it dopamine though? Or is it serotonin? Or endorphin?
@@sheersternfeld1914 Well I do wait for these to come out for a while, so mostly dopamine
When the game ”crashed” the first time on my second playthrough, I was tired and it was really late. I enjoyed both playthroughs and I was somewhat satisfied.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the game couple of weeks later and the princess welcomed me back 😂
How interesting and wonderful way to have a first experience with that part of the game. What is beautiful about this game is while the paths can be experienced by us our experience is unique due to our own perspective. When i had this path i was confused and turned it on right away like Brady did.
This man needs to get the
1. Happily Ever After
2. Tower - Apotheosis
3. Adversary - Fury
4. Nightmare
1. Nightmare - Moment of Clarity
2. Adversary - all possible chapters and combinations, especially Needle and chapter 2
3. Tower - all possible choices and combinations, especially Apotheosis.
4. Fury - from any.
5. Cage
6. Beast - any possible choice and combination, especially Den
7. Wild - from any.
Spoilers:
I'd love to see him get Apotheosis with Paranoid. It would be so funny and interesting to see a therapist's reaction to Paranoid laughing like a madman and treating this whole thing as if it is a dream.
@@CowMalicious9479 Spoilers:
He's like that in Cage too. Kinda
Don't forget the Princess and the Dragon
Adversary - Fury is goated
It's so interesting, I suppose as someone who's not regularly playing games, the old "the game crashes but it's on purpose" trick seems fresh the first time around, and every game that does it will be someone's first. It's nice to see this moment happen for someone, especially with a game like this.
test
it's also interesting from a playthru perspective. he got so quiet i thought my audio dipped out, but from his perspective if he thought the game crashed he would edit it out. Why talk during that part?
My first moment like that was eternal darkness for gamecube. Very cool horror game.
(*Brady accidentally name drops the Nightmare Route in his title despite being on a completely different route*) The prophetic visions continue I see.
That's what I thought when I saw it as well! He just keeps unknowingly predicting everything in this game lol
He must be a dreamer.
What should we bet that he gets the Nightmare Route in the next episode? if he is avoiding things, it is an option on the table.
@@supermysterious66 I hope he'll have his moment of clarity=)
@@supermysterious66 Good chance. He mentions a whole bunch of things that happen right afterwards. He also talked about turning around since he explored the traditional routes. Locking the Princess away could fit into that!
“Could be five different personalities waiting down there.”
You are really not convincing me you haven’t played this before.
Five is not an unreasonable guess, given that there are five different tones of voice in the line, "Hello? Hi. What are you doing here? Are you here to - KILL?"
@@mavericksolomon395 You missed the dissatisfied sigh. 😂
Anyway I just have to respond, "Hmm no. No thank you."
I think he deduced that number from different voices of princesses.
Did you miss part 1 to 5?
I've seen the whole thing. He keeps predicting what's about to happen over and over again while accusing the game of reading his mind. It wears on the suspension of disbelief that he gets specific details right every single time with what he says literally a line or two before they happen.
Slay the Princess: the game that's so traumatic that the therapist now needs therapy.
"My mirror's in the _shoooop!"_
@@n.e.r.dcomicsinc9212 if the therapist is not receiving therapy, I want a different therapist. It's like having an anti-vax nurse.
@ that is fair
Therapists have to go to therapy themselves, because they are in much more danger of getting secondhand trauma.
@@WoodlandDrake So the kind of nurse that would put your wellbeing above everything else?
I clicked your first episode a few days ago and I was like "meh, it's fine for some background noise." And let me tell you man, I'm actually waiting for the new videos now. I'm invested. You have a good personality, and good insight. You make fun content. So keep going!
Yay! I like the Contrarian. He’s one of my fav voices. At first, everything is fun and games with him because he doesn’t think anything we do has any real consequences. Hiss only goals are to have fun and annoy the Narrator because he thinks it’s funny.
They he realises that his actions do have consequences and we’ve hurt the Princess. Immediately after that revelation, he starts taking things seriously and wants to help the Princess.
I love the wait forever, because you have to reopen the game "return to the box" by your own will.
And there, she has never left your side.
The line "oceans reduce to shallow creeks" I think it's meant to be more of a representative of the characters godhood
But you can also say that character's godhood is meant to represent a person waking up to their full potential, transcending all those inner voices that hold us back and writing a new story in our lives.
So my point is, as multifaceted this story is, there is a lot of perspectives to look at it. And you're both right in your own way.
I always thought so too, but Brady made a very good point. Both interpretations are valid IMO.
Your INSANE affinity with this game makes for the most mind-fucky playthrough of anything I've ever seen
Theres a fully avoidant route you can take for the whole game, not just for one run of chapters. The way to get it is no matter what happpens in chapter one, in chapter two you have to walk away from the cabin (or in the case of the Stranger, stand still in the woods and refuse to move). If you do this for 5 iterations you get a pretty neat set of achievements and ending to the game, but I won't spoil that part :)
This only happens if you're on a fresh run of the game, it cant work if you've already met the shifting mound, so you'd have to start a new game if you wanted to try this out. I'd love to hear your perspective on it, its not a very common route to take, and I dont see people talk about it very much.
You could even say that it's the game's unofficial secret ending, since it's so rare to actually achieve it. I don't think I've ever seen a single first run get the ending.
it can work as long as you don't bring her more than one vessel.
Is it for the pristine cut?
@@jesterjaded73 I nearly got it as the first run XD
@@jesterjaded73 my friend got it on her first run, and she was so confused 🤣
46:12 "There could be like 5 different personalities down there" well well well, about that-
I absolutely love how the contrarian has you go through the process of figuring out the best way to hold your blade, and once you're finally decided, to then throw it out the window, making that entire process pointless. Such a perfect thorn in the narrator's side.
13:22 saying this right before meeting the Contrarian is amazing!
Do not restart after each princess. Its worth reaching the ending again for other endings
And of course, to hear what each princess has to say at the end of it all
I think he mentions that he wants to do a different ending against the shifting mound so I suppose he's going to keep playing in this save file
My most favorite ending that i have personally gotten is "The princess and the dragon."
I initially got it in my first playthrough and i got attached to it the most.
Spoilers?
Same!
@@increbidel4685It's just the name.
@@increbidel4685 Are you sure you want to get it spoiled?
This is your last warning
You do The Spectre, when she posesses you you slay her (and yourself) and in chapter three you wind up as a voice in The Princess's head
@@otavainen222Except
You're not really a "voice" in the sense that you don't have a "voice of the" title. You're just you, and the main consciousness of LQ.
1:11:15 "I'm sorry you met that one so early" is the game's way of saying "This will affect the final ending" Or it could not depend on what you do, I won't spoil more than that
YESSS the stranger. if you have her as your first princess, you can get a unique ending. no spoilers, but during the debate with the shifting mound, continue the fight without yielding (you dont have to be mean to her). Dont slay her, dont agree to rising as gods.
Ronillust pretty much did this in one of his playthroughs and got that ending. I didn't know it was a special ending that came with starting with The Stranger.
@footlong7980 honestly that ending is very similar for a non-stranger princess, but the Stranger has some differences
It was my first playthrough I was like nope nope not doing this. I'm not following a strange voice.
That ending is the best possible one in my opinion it feels right that to leave with her is like leaving with a stranger but one you’ll get plenty of time to know
is the final that your character and the princess stay together and exit the cabin? If is, this ending is not exclusive of this princess. You can get this final with all the princess!!!
I always thought it was interesting how, in that one sequence at the end of the staircase, Pain and Unfamiliarity are paired with each other. Each main route in the game is represented with a pair of words, i.e. Skepticism and Blind Devotion being the Prisoner and Damsel. These pairings are both thematic opposites, but also these pairs of routes both lead to one shared chapter 3. But
Pain and Unfamiliarity, representing the Razor and the Stranger, are the odd ones out there. The Stranger doesn't have any chapter 3s, and the Razor goes all the way to chapter 4 but only has that one path.
So at first I thought this pairing was basically done out of having two chapters that didn't really fit with any other ones, but upon further thought there is actually quite a strong parallel between these chapters. They're the same concept, but the roles are swapped around between you and the Princess.
In the Razor, she's just having fun playing around while cutting you into so many pieces, but by messing around and having fun, you eventually have every single voice, and are able to awaken some amount of your true self. And suddenly it's not fun for her. You're beyond her, and she can no longer do what makes her happy (i.e. shredding your flesh into ribbons)
The stranger is the exact same route. The contrarian is all about messing around and having fun, but in doing so, he creates a princess that is closer to her True form, and just like what Razor went through, it suddenly stops being fun. Choice no longer means anything, and he is no longer able to do what makes him happy (i.e. take the funny option in every situation)
I loved your reaction to the "game crash" fakeout, the sheer confusion.
you know what I love more then a complex choice game with a lot of phycology? when a professional explains everything while playing it. also when is has crazy cat girls :3
Yes! I love that so much! If I find an amazing psychological game, one of the first things I do is check if a therapist or some kind of psychology expert has played it. It's always so interesting!
But Brady, I avoided something and it turned out well!
1:18:58 That's part of the brilliance of the game: "I will be waiting here by your side until you're ready to return to mine". The Shifting Mound is referring not only to the Long Quiet but to you as the player.
I've been kinda lurking on this playthrough without commenting, but the talk about avoidance and control really spoke to me as someone who's struggling with that, albeit in an unusual way
I'm one of two people who occupy this body, and I function as the "host" in that I'm here the majority of the time and have the mental energy to get through most of day-to-day life, but I care very deeply about Summer, who I see as like an older twin sister born into the same mind; you can think of us like the Shifting Mound if she was two instead of infinite
Summer is very kind, gentle, sweet, and diligent, her only real failings being that she doesn't have the same kind of resilience or stubbornness that I had to have throughout our life, and that she has the misfortune of being born into a body that didn't fit her; she makes for a wonderful heart that I'm glad to have as part of us
But sometimes I feel like I spend too much time in the lead; I have a need to always understand everything, to always be in control or at least know what's going on, and frankly things can be very confusing and blurry between the two of us, so sometimes I make the mistake of shutting everything out but myself, and then oopsie I've been taking the lead nonstop for days now and I've burnt myself out
So it's good to remember that this is an avoidant behavior that I employ to try and stay in control, and that I should work to break down these barriers I've put up, for both of our sakes
This game must be very interesting from the perspective of a system! (If you do describe yourselves that way)
@@cawareyoudoin7379 Oh, definitely very interesting, I love it to bits for all the plural readings that can be made
And yeah we usually call ourselves a system, I was just hesitant to use that word here since people will sometimes immediately assume that "system = DID", especially given the poor understanding of plurality that is unfortunately pervasive among many, including some (but not all, making no accusations here) mental health professionals
We don't have DID, OSDD is a possibility but we try to focus less on labels and more on just figuring out a model for ourselves that describes us well
but you ARE summer though. if you managed to fill the gap that separates your problems you would become 1 fella again, a melding of twos into one and won't have to feel bad about "taking the lead"
@@randomlyannoying Damn at least your username is accurate, please don't assume you know some random internet stranger better than she knows herselves, we're happy like this even if it comes with some difficulties, and Summer and I support each other in ways that simply wouldn't be possible as one person; I love my big sis more than anything and we're not going to lose each other anytime soon
@@LuxViolet0022 while I cannot relate exactly, I have what I feel is a comparably misunderstood existence and there is something wholesome and soothing reading about your view and the things you've learned about yourself 🤗
I wonder about the road you've travelled to get where you are, and the experiences you have yet to discover 😊
If you want them, I hope you don’t mind if I infodump a bunch of (spoiler-free) choices to chapters you haven’t seen yet:
Chapter 1: going down to the Princess with the knife, telling her you won’t drop it and then attacking her yields a couple options. Giving up the fight with the gentle princess is another. Going down and then leaving the basement is the last. I won’t give further directions on those chapters.
Prisoner: don’t touch the shackle
Damsel: slaying and staying with her in the cabin are two routes
Witch: not giving her the blade has few options
Spectre: killing before she possesses you and after she possesses are the two main routes.
There’s also a bunch minor changes that can occur within these chapters, but these are the main ones
Also:
Chapter 1: you can also drop it then attack her after talking to her, but it depends on how much you've stalled her. You can also anger the gentle princess by going back for the blade.
Prisoner: Also slaying her and not taking her head are the other routes.
Spectre: You don't even have to try to kill her, you can just say no to being possessed or attempt to leave which will upset her.
@@reubensalter8125 I’m trying not to give spoilers for options he hasn’t seen yet
@@talldrinkofmarmalade7281 Yeah I missed that. Just fixed it.
I usually don't watch these kinds of long videos, but you really make them interesting (not that the game itself isn't interesting) with these psychological perspectives.
Really love disco elysium and slay the princess, and you do videos on both of them. Hell yeah
Thank you for talking about the restorative healing. I've been learning so much about engaging more, that I'd come to see all disengagement as something to avoid. Even though I still do that at times, but mostly after stressful situations to recharge. But realising that it can sometimes give you confidence as long as you're making sure you are going to engage again is a really powerful insight to me
This is not only the first time I've messaged on a channel but the soonest I've ever seen a video, I'm so glad I found this channel!
38:38 the perfect depiction of choice paralysis
Avoiding to follow a laid path opens many other paths. It was the same with avoiding the cabin, only to be met with unlimited cabins
I know you are going in this time without "prior knowledge" or not full on RP, but 12:47 strongly reminded me of the phrase "can't run from yourself", considering you and the princes are one being
6:42, "We're going to look at it from multiple different dimensions." Love it; the game predicting your thoughts again, or you predicting where the game is about to take you? Perhaps both!
The Stranger is undoubtedly my favorite route to start out with. In hindsight (or in this case having already seen the ending before) this whole route is a very good glimpse at the overall themes of the game, and a hint at the princess' nature as a being of perception, even before actually encountering Shifty and hearing her say that. It's not the only route that does that, but I really like how the Stranger does it.
Plus, the Contrarian is my favorite voice! I would say he seems like one of the healthiest voices (not necessarily in what he encourages, but in his own behavior and mindset compared to the others) but having looked into some of his dialogue I can say for sure he _really isn't._ It's less obvious than the other voices (not counting the hero) but he's a little screwed up too, in a way that feels very familiar. I'll... talk about it when we get to that point, though.
Yes! Avoidant playthrough! One of the many things that just amaze me about STP is that there truly are no "wrong" choices. If they offer you an option it's because there's something interesting waiting. Even if the option is "refuse to engage". I look forward to watching you find other ways to neither save nor slay the princess!
I've watched all of this series up through this edition. I really enjoy the looping theme that brings us right back to the path in the forest. We begin here.... we end here. A causality loop keeps giving Brady the very elegant opportunity to pick apart & and stitch together the apparent difficult task of understanding human construct, conflict and reaction different minded individuals will experience. I am looking forward to this second playthrough, tweaking things here and there to produce alternate outcomes, sometime with just minimal changes in how people may perceive an encounter and then react, will send a result in vastly different direction. Keep it up Brady!
I love your videos. I really wouldn't care if you were a therapist or not because you are such a chill dude but it definitely is a plus on my enjoyment.
After this, I would love to watch your Disco Elysium playthrough.
Oh THIS is not a nightmare. Not yet. But I'm pretty sure, that you will get it in the next playthrough. Looking forward to see the next video!
That’s what I thought haha
starting with the stranger is PERFECT!!! i was so happy to see her in the thumbnail of this video :)
"Interesting..." I say, listening to him explain how people will avoid stressful situations, while I should be studying for finals.
Avoiding emails because I fear that they might be stressful is maladaptive. Avoiding Brady because we know he usually picks up his pristine implement on the other hand is adaptive, right.
Love the insight in the way my own mind works.
1:11:12 I don't know if anyone else already said this, but that "I'm sorry you met this vessel so early" is a bit of 4th wall breaking commentary, as the Stranger toys with the premise of the game. You already finished the game once, so you know what's going on, but imagine getting Stranger on your first run, before you even meet the Shifting Mound for the first time? It's pure nonsense. It's the worst way to start the game, hence the "I'm sorry" on your first run (the game doesn't know it's your second playthrough).
Famously MatPat stopped playing Slay The Princess after getting the Stranger.
But this is exactly what happened to me on my first run and I think it made the game make more sense, not less. Like now I had a goal, whereas before I was just flailing around with no meaning. Everything leading up to that first encounter with the the Shifting Mound was me trying to break as much as possible until someone or something gave me a straight answer about the situation I was in. Until he wants to talk sense, the Narrator is trapped in here with *me*. Having the game spell out for me that both the world and the princess respond to my actions (often outside the bounds of normal causality) meant that when I met Shifting Mound, I knew I had a responsibility to try and cultivate the kinds of princesses who have trust and faith in the world, because I've seen a glimpse of the conflicting natures that the princess can manifest.
I didn't completely succeed at that in the end, but having watched Brady's first run it feels like if I'd have ended up with one of the other routes to begin with I'd have had a much less clear idea of the nature of the princess and the narrative, because they're played more straight-faced, they show you something you'd expect to see if you were taking the narrative at face value. The thing with the Contrarian is that you aren't, the conceit of the immediate narrative isn't compelling to you, so you the curtain gets pulled back far enough for you to take it seriously. Which is reflected by the Contrarian's changing attitude- ok we fucked around, we found out, and now we can grow from that. That's called *change*, and the most important thing is that the Narrator hates it. Contrarian wins even when he's being earnest.
@@TM1337FalconPunch Just to be clear, the developers put out a poll where people could order the princesses from best to worst, and Stranger was the least liked chapter 1 princess. I've been browsing through TH-cam, looking for other playthroughs of STP, and every time I see someone get the Stranger on their first run, the reaction is always the same: confusion and urge to zone out.
I get that some people might enjoy Stranger, but generally it's a bad route to start with.
If you were to list the 10 chapter 1 princesses from best to worst for someone else to experience on their first run, where would you put the Stranger at? And which princess would you place lower than her?
It's really just the surface. So much more to see! And yes, there will be messages on some passages, which could be understood only by those who've beaten the game before. You should try to wait once more, when you get the opportunity. Her speech is actually directed to you, Brady, she is breaking the 4-th wall.
She really does start breaking the fourth wall. I saw someone point out that the 'boxes' she's referring to are the save boxes. And that it's 'hand-drawn cage" because everything is hand-drawn. You'll always go back to the save because you want to know more. GAHHHH I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!
i love the idea of making it one consistent narrative -- the princess is so many contradictory multitudes, it only makes sense that the player character is equally as full of so many varying perspectives and rationalizations of what the narrator puts you through
This has been a wild ride as someone who’s kind of therapy adverse (I’m a Catholic who has said therapy is just confession for atheists). I’ve never played the game but clicked on the first video a few days ago and now I’m enthralled hearing you talk about psychological concepts
this is the difference between therapy and confession - priests are not generally trained and studied in the workings of the brain, or advised to offer problem solving help
@ilexdiapason Yet, how much of therapy actually offers reproducible, consistent, positive results?
My wife and I call these problem-facing and emotion-facing issues "Sweater and Nail" problems, after that one video where "is not about the nail".
When one of us is talking to the other about a problem, we'll ask, "is this a sweater or a nail?" and it has helped a lot, by clearly communicating about what we need from one another in the moment.
I love that!
This is perfect! It's incredibly blunt yet rooted in (what I assume is mutual 😊) comedy which feels like it could facilitate communication in a way unique to you two and skip a lot of opportunity for miscommunication 🥰
Glad to see you playing Slay the Princess again! Just some advice, while there are plenty of brand new paths you have yet to see, there are also multiple different variations on those paths and even some different and really interesting angles you can view some of the versions of the story you've already seen from. Saving at the beginning of Chapter 2 and reloading to make different decisions, at least until you see if you can reach a Chapter 3, could be a good way to go about finding some more... interesting endings.
Yeah, I'm against save-scumming. It's better to just do straight playthroughs constantly.
@@reubensalter8125I'm like the master of save-scumming. But if it's for things I have yet to experience, (Like all the new and expanded routes) I won't save-scum. Because I'd like to see what ending my choices will lead me to :3
Thank you. Not only was this a fascinating read on the narrator and the contrarian, but it's also useful in my own struggles with ADHD-based procrastination. Dealing with the emotion-focussed solutions to deal with the avoidance of key tasks feels like something I should consider and implement.
No spoilers but I just LOVE how theorizing and explaining psychology on one route you're predicting things that fit like a glove to the other routes. Like when it comes to pleasure/pain and addiction. I think it attests how well written is the game 😄
Him talking about addiction really makes me excited to see his reaction to this specific route and a specific ending to that route.
Spoilers for Den:
I'm referring to the cannibal ending in Den with how Hunted loses himself to instinct. I don't think it's _just_ about losing your humanity and becoming more animalistic, I think it also shows addiction. Hunted is always feeling so small and helpless, and he hates it. So when he finally gets a taste of what it's like to feel bigger and stronger, like someone who tries to escape their suffering through taking drugs for that short-term relief, Hunted starts wanting more and more. He starts feeling like he _needs_ more and doesn't want to return to feeling small. Until eventually, he loses himself, consumed by instinct. To addiction. It's genuinely horrifying to see and I immediately became super scared for Hunted when I realised what was happening while playing through that ending for the first time.
The Stranger and Contrarian are such oddly deep versions of their whole. The Stranger almost tells both sides of the Princess's coin, of being everything all at once that the player understands, and also being this enigma that still can't be understood. At least, my interpretation.
But the Contrarian is so fascinating for being a supposed one-note character of doing everything opposite, but his demeanor shifts and becomes (and will become) a more well rounded character, and a perfect foil to the Hero. The constant balance of sense and logic versus impulse and chaos, within the LQ and in the player themselves.
I just really find it interesting, even if I'm not the best at deep diving into each detail.
I don't know if you're planning on doing EVERY Princess, which in itself is a herculean task, but even fitting into your weaved story, the previous ending leading into this, avoiding everything, leads perfectly into basically retreading your same paths, but finding different changes from what was once known.
Idk if that's too cryptic or not enough. But with everyone recommending the same few Princess's, that seems to be how things will shake out
right out the bat Brady talking about avoidance as a main coping mechanism: "wait is this fucking play about us?"
in all seriousness though can I get a little printout of the diagram you drew? 😅
Talking about „unwinding“ and then the chapter literally unwinds you when you walk down the stairs. Beautiful
Imagine a game asking if you want to continue playing. And you say no, so it closes it self.
Glad TH-cam forces these videos on me. Get to learn some psychology while watching a very interesting game I would have never picked up.
There's a boss in the Metal Gear series where the intended way to win is to go into hiding, then save the game and not play it for a month, then when you load the save again, you've won.
(Konami forced them to add in a way to beat that boss without doing that though)
Lol I just started watching these yesterday and I am so excited you are doing a second run! My social worker friend and I actually love doing themed runs where we pick a theme, like "abandonment route" or "mommy issues" route or "Indecisive kill/save/kill/save" route or the "teach her love" route and commit to doing a full 5 route run with that theme. I highly recommend it! Its so much fun and we have a ton of fun exploring that mindset and the choices you get depending on taking/not taking the knife
I'm so glad that you're enjoying this so much. It's beloved to us for good reason.
As you may noticed by this and previous playthroughs, your actions shape not only of what we expect of the princess, but for the world we are living it through the princess. Every time a „Third“ Chapter comes into place, the narrator says that her influence is getting stronger/out of hands by shaping the world around her. Therefore, this route not to engage, turns the princess into a stranger, a person we do not know - and therefore the world and her turns into something we can not pinpoint. The hypothectical apporach what we can do will result into a possible branche that we were seeing/experiencing in this run at the same time.
The shifting mount saying that she is sorry that you‘re meeting the stranger so early is a small wink from the developers and a confirmation, that this path is so oversaturated - expecially for first time players. Therefore it is usually unwise to go down this route to understand what the game is about when first time playing. It just complicates things. But a very interessting route none the less. ^^
I am BEGGING you to go through damsel again next! The pristine cut chapter for her is FANTASTIC
Brady. I love you going through this with a "narrative" direction to yourself as the player, and I love the therapy talks throughout. I haven't watched your other games or videos yet, but i definitely probably maybe will. I just want you to know, as little individual and non-personal "sessions" you give. for what it's worth, it has helped me. opened my mind to, things I'm doing, things that have been done to me, and well, to forgive the pun... brought me new perspectives to reflect on. And, I just want to say thank you.
Him talking about procrastination as an avoidance tactic gave me the motivation to finally send the email I needed to send since Monday 😭
I am sensing a Nightmare route coming up if Brady keeps the avoidance.
The Stranger is very special for multiple reasons, but what i will say for now is that it's actually the dev's favorite princess.
If I may suggest a vessel, assuming you haven't already gotten this request. Go down (blade or no blade, doesn't matter) but choose to keep her locked away. Ch.2, do it again, choose to keep her down there without killing her.
Yay, the defenestrating commences, we're on track for the best ending.
I absolutely _adore_ the narrative/story approach you have to telling your playthrough! It’s genuinely so captivating. I usually put playthroughs of “Slay the Princess” on in the background so I have something nice to listen to, and those videos are entertaining, but I always _want_ to actively listen to and watch yours! You blend the storytelling bits of your playthrough very well with your real reactions, and nothing is edited after the fact or tossed on with a voiceover that might make it feel more disconnected, and I’ve loved that about your playthrough of this game so far. You manage to make the characters and world you’re playing as richer and more compelling, which is wild because it’s _already_ so compelling! Just, overall, I love the way you’ve presented everything and I hope you don’t stop (but it’s alright if you do)!
I'm so happy that you're doing the discovery of other routes as an another run. I waited a bit with watching the video, but it was a definite blast with an addition of some useful concepts and ideas.
Hint for a future route: Sometimes for a happy ending with the damsel of your dreams, you have to show her your heart. Also seperate to this, you could always try to lock her in the cabin and see where that takes you
HEA is fucking great, i want to see his analysis into smitten, especially after his thoughts about the reality-manipulating powers he already has, which brady also has talked about somewhat
Honestly this one is best done as the last one
I still feel hungry
The Wait Forever closes your game and has a response depending how long you actually waited based on your computer's calendar
Please do all of them. I'm curious to see on your perspective and this is really helping me and learning new things. I don't know how and if words is enough. I'm experiencing rough times and having a therapist to talk things to and medication. I feel only little progress is made. But how you describe things. It's understandable and complicated. No matter how complicated it gets. I'm not sure if you'll read this nor would this make my case gets better after watching and understanding it. I want to thank you. I hope you have a longer life to help more people.
Hey man, im so happy youre continuing with the game! U probably won’t read this but this series is the only let’s play of yours I ever watched but your analysis on the mental states of some of the characters unironically made me realize some shit and me and my therapist now are planing to have a slightly different approach to therapy… so thanks!
I’m so glad your making more content on this game I really enjoyed this whole series.
words cannot describe how excited i am for you to play this. again literally. because there are so many routes that teach such valuable lessons. if you ever need spoiler free ways of getting to the rest of them we will be happy
to provide!
Hey! For the theme of avoidance and exploring stress responses, I have a few specific routes you can go down. 1) Decide to leave the princess in the basement while you decide what to do (neither slay nor save). 2) don't engage immediately, then after half-heartedly engaging in a fight, give up. 3) Go down unarmed, then return for the knife, and close the door behind you when you return again. The second one is the loosest in connection, but it plays on giving up well, and I think you'd have a lot of fun with that one, especially when you meet the chapter 2 princess. See you next time!
I’m an obnoxious hipster who’s incapable of taking anything seriously, and I’ve recently been considering going back to therapy due to the exact kind of maladaptive avoidance behaviors discussed in this video. The very first vessel I got when I played this game was the stranger, and I felt extremely called out while playing that chapter. While watching this video I somehow feel EVEN MORE called out than that.
9 minutes in and I already feel called out... I am the maladaptive avoidance type lol. But I'm so happy to see you do the Stranger's route, it's one of the more fascinating and fun ones in my opinion (though I have ones I like more)
(Don’t read if you haven’t watched the whole video yet)
I love how twice in the same video you have the “wait- That was on purpose?!” reaction, once for the “glitch” and then again to the game “crashing” on you. It’s almost as if the game itself is being…
✨ _Contrarian_ ✨
This is not the Nightmare, Brady, this is the Stranger. Nightmare is a totally different vessel ;)
"Will you place the images of "You" and "I" into a box for safekeeping?": Box=Window/Tab
"If you close that box, will you become another you in another world?": Become you, the player, not you, the character
"An imaginary pattern repeating itself until it can no longer bear the weight of its hand-drawn cage.": Pattern=DNA, not sure about the cage as Shifty could perceive numerous things that way
I love how your thumbnail photo(s) and her design mirror each other.
I do hope that you continue with this run as its own run, tempered by hints. Getting the Stranger on the first outing of a save file, SPECIFICALLY THE FIRST, causes a ripple that you may or may not see very late in the game. Another LP stumbled into it organically, and it was a fantastic moment.
Thank you for making these. Your 1st video of this game found me this game and I had to get it. I've enjoyed so much of it. I did few runs based on first impression, then antagonizing (the princess) and then trying to be most indecisive (and then some choices more along the lines of getting to see possibilities I had yet not explored). I thoroughly enjoy your explanations on this, the only downside is that the videos are not coming out fast enough! We crave for more. It's so interesting to see this, specially from your expertise in the field. I had to watch few 1st playthroughs after I had played it few times myself, and I find the emotional 1st time reactions / playthroughs as enjoyable as this deep dive into the psyche. Thank, you for taking the time.
Your playthoughs has been amazingly full of fun insightful analysis. I love it!
Following the narrative of avoidance, I suggest going through the Tower and Apotheosis routes. Instead of agency, choosing to be passive since the contrarian feels responsible.
In chapter 1, take the Pristine blade, talk to her, then fight her.
From the Tower route, if you want to bring the Contrarian voice back, then slay yourself. Whatever choices you make after that, I can guarantee it'll be interesting.
"You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world" it's really cool how his tone sounds different every time even though the voice line is the exact same, the things we see make us perceive his words differently.
So happy you are playing more! We absolutely cannot wait to see what more you have in store for us as well as you seeing what is in store for you in the game!
49:04 Those are not random concepts described here, but the different vessels that you can meet in the chapters 2! This is interesting because they are presented as pairs: routes that are close in gameplay but also themes.
“Skepticism and blind devotion”, for example, obviously are references to the Prisoner and the Damsel. Both are created when you choose to free the princess at the cost of your life. I want to point out “pain and unfamiliarity”: the Razor and the Stranger. They both address a character losing their sense of self because of an overload of choices. Birdman was overwhelmed by an increasing number of voices unhelpful to escape a princess focused in killing us. Here, the princess was unable to hold multiples overlapping perspectives created by Birdman being indecisive.
Gameplay wise, those two routes are also the only ones that cannot branch into other vessels (think the Thorn that came from the Witch. Different choices would result in a completely different Princess). The Razor always ends up in knife-princess, and you experience all there is to the Stranger at once. The two routes about an abundance of choices end up railroading you.
I may be misusing the disengagement/engagement parallel here, but Birdman dissociated from all the voices to fight and give a decisive blow to the Razor: a disengagement response. We don’t see it yet, but we can imagine that the Stranger is going to stabilize with the different vessels we are going to bring to the Shifting Mound, each focused on a single aspect like instinct, stubborness, kindness, etc.
(Analysis done, I just want to add that I met the Stranger and the Razor as my first and second routes, which is quite an experience)
On another subject, I think “uncertainty” is a narrative that can really pay off if you choose a different outcome with the Shifting Mound! This game is fantastic at weaving possibles stories.
I think that a lot of paths that you didn’t experience are about this subject. Not taking the blade but choosing to go retrieve it, talking to the Princess before attacking, locking her away, all of this lead to routes that are yet unknown. Can’t wait to see where this second playthrough ends up, your commentary is a delight !
37:31 slay the princess : into the princy-verse
Hey Brady, game suggestion, another game that you might like is In stars and time, its a game that focuses on a single protagonist and their multitude of issues while also doing its best to be so immersive that you can feel and understand the protagonist, it has a bunch of things that I’d love to see you analyze
Yaaaay i love the stranger!! She was my first princess and I have such a soft spot for her route and the broader game as a result. Interested to see how avoidance will inform the rest of this playthrough!
Yeah the box that she was mentioning was the game window itself, so her saying return to the box means returning to the game itself.
No it wasn't
@@ladygeneveve3805yes it was
No it yesn't
Not exactly. She was referring to the console, not the window.
I thought she was referring to the construct