Dusk Princess

Dusk Princess: Slot Overview

Who'd have thought that when Hacksaw Gaming's Cloud Princess hit the shelves in late 2024, we'd be reviewing the fourth in the Princess line over a year later? Yes, fourth, and the current one, Dusk Princess, follows on from Rainbow Princess, Sun Princess, and the aforementioned Cloud Princess. So far, they've been interesting releases, marrying dreamy anime-style visuals with features which pack a decent-sized punch. This pretty much sums up Dusk Princess, as well, as it carries on the dreamy artwork and delivers gameplay that revolves around charging a meter to deploy multiplier wilds onto the screen.

Dusk is the time when day gives way to night, where the protagonist of the game, Princess Luna, ushers the moon and the constellations to their places in the sky. That's her on the right of the grid, elegantly dressed as she hovers celestially with a floating gem above her hand. Elegant is an appropriate word to describe Dusk Princess on the whole, really, as it depicts a magical world in the clouds coated in pinks, purples, and a pastel palette. Like its three sister slots, Dusk Princess gives gamblers the chance to have a punt in an otherworldly environment with strong anime leanings.

Dusk Princess is played on a 6x5 grid that makes wins with the use of a cluster pays system. When 5 or more matching symbols are connected, they create a winning combination and a payout is made. Super cascades remove the winning symbols and any other symbols of the winning type from the reels. Symbols drop down and fall in from above to replace them. If a new win appears, the cascading repeats. Gamblers are able to stake a minimum of $/€0.10 up to a maximum of $/€100 in this game and can expect a theoretical RTP of 96.21% when doing so, while the volatility is medium.

The paytable has ten regularly paying symbols. They are five gem low pays, then candles, cards, pots, fans, and crowns. The largest clusters possible are 18+ in size, and they pay 5x to 150x the bet. When wilds are on the screen, they replace any paying symbol.

Dusk Princess: Slot Features

Dusk Princess' main trick is its Blessing Bar, which adds multiplier wilds to the reels when filled. It can be found in the base game and in the three bonus rounds. Four feature buys are also available.

Blessing Bar

The Blessing Bar sits outside the grid and is filled when winning combinations land. If totally full, it activates and resets. It takes an 8-symbol win for the first fill, then the amount needed increases by +2 symbols for each following bar fill. The bar resets between spins if partially filled. When activated, the Blessing Bar can award wild symbols with multipliers to the reels. 3 wilds are added on the first activation. When the Blessing Bar activates again, the number of wilds or the value of the multiplier increases on each subsequent activation. Wilds can increase by +1 each time, and the multiplier value can increase by x1 to x500.

The Dusk Court Bonus Game

Hitting 3 FS scatters in the base game awards the Dusk Court bonus game, and all three of Dusk Princess' bonus rounds come with 10 free spins. The Dusk court bonus keeps the base game mechanics but has an increased chance of getting more wild symbols and higher multiplier values. Also, the awarded wilds and multiplier value from the Blessing Bar are progressive throughout the round. Awarded wilds start at 3, and the multiplier value starts at x2. Scatters do not land in any of the bonus rounds.

The Lunar Court Bonus Game

Landing 4 FS scatters in the base game triggers The Lunar Court. It builds on The Dusk Court by starting the number of awarded wilds at 4 and the multiplier value at x5. It takes 15 symbols to fill the Blessing Bar the first time, then the amount of winning symbols needed increases by +3 each time the bar is filled.

The Night Court Hidden Epic Bonus

Hitting 5 FS scatters in the main game triggers the Night Court Hidden Epic bonus. It keeps the base game mechanics, except the Blessing Bar stays full throughout and activates once on each free spin after any regular wins. The awarded number of wild symbols starts at 6, and the multiplier value at x10. The awarded wild or multiplier value will increase after the Blessing Bar activates on each spin.

Feature Buys

Four options are available at the feature buy. For 3x the bet, BonusHunt FeatureSpins make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game, while Blessed FeatureSpins cost 50x to guarantee a full Blessing Bar and an activation at the start of every spin - wilds start at 3 multipliers at x5. The Dusk Court bonus may be bought for 65x the bet, or 250x buys The Lunar Court.

Dusk Princess: Slot Verdict

Dusk Princess continues Hacksaw Gaming's Princess series with a stylishly playable fourth release. Visually, it's a pleasant game to behold, and players who enjoy a bit of anime-inspired artwork in their slots should be able to easily lose themselves in Dusk Princess' twilight world. Just how many princesses inhabit the universe Hacksaw Gaming is creating remains to be seen, but for now, they've all appeared in slots that match their très cool style with substance.

The substance in Dusk Princess is not of the complicated variety. It's actually very simple, as it only really requires charging the Blessed Bar with wins. Fill the bar up, and wilds, maybe multipliers, too, are coming your way. This is no Reactoonz-style, cluster winning queue of various modifiers, culminating in something extra special at the end. Instead, the charged effects remain the same no matter how many times the bar is filled, just that players can get more wilds, and/or greater multipliers as the Blessed Bar passes through collection cycles. Furthermore, the 10,000x max win is achievable in all game modes, and what injects hope in the base round is that the multiplier value increases by a random amount, which, while it might not occur often, means it can technically increase by up to x500 at once.

Bonus rounds are likely to have better odds of knocking out a sizable total on account of the wild and multiplier values being progressive throughout, though results naturally vary. Overall, Dusk Princess is another harmonious addition to the studio's Princess line, which keeps complexity in check to avoid cluttering the twilight ambience, while still possessing the ability to knock out meaningful results.