Saya no Uta – The Song of Saya (18+)

Saya no Uta – The Song of Saya (18+ VN) (vndb page) (J-List page to buy)

Finally got around to playing/reading it.

This is one of those cases where the gap of ten years between the Japanese release and the English translation release did it no favours.

Warning, as usual, spoilers may abound. If you have any intention of playing/reading this VN, don’t read this post. (also 18+ images)
Also, as usual, this is not much of a review either, just a rant.

I had never heard of it until 2006/2007, the fan translation was done in 2009 if I’m not wrong, but then vanished quickly as the company JAST USA was working on Saya no Uta.
The final English translation was released by JAST USA in 2013; By then, in my honest opinion, much of the shock and uniqueness of Saya no Uta had vanished, the passing years don’t forgive.

No doubt it’s still one of Nitro+ great earlier works (together with Phantom of Inferno; Deus Machina Demonbane; Hello, world), which they are well known for and successfully built upon. (I might have to admit I have a thing for their earlier works…even their recent works are decent, just not as novel as the earlier ones)

Regardless, I still say quite a bit (if not all) of the novelty and uniqueness of the games slowly died with age.

Want to know why?
Within 20 minutes of starting (I’m a slow reader) I already had a bit of suspicion it would turn out as it did.
Believe me, I had never read any plot summary of it before playing. All I knew was that it was some sort of horror VN and saw a couple of images.

This was one of them, the contrast between Saya and the scenery is just so cute.

The first tip that it could turn up being a less than stellar experience was as soon as I identified Fuminori’s problem, not hard as he himself explains it to us: after an accident he sees the world as a visceral nightmare and people as horrible monsters, soon after it is revealed to us that, as expected, everyone else saw everything as the normal world would be.

My problem with this was probably that I am…well, me.
This concept made me remember an explanatory concept for Silent Hill 2 I read some years back where — hypothetically — James was actually hallucinating and all the monsters were actually normal people.
Now, obviously, this SH2 explanation could itself have been based on Saya no Uta’s concept, I honestly do not know, it’s a possibility. But it’s strangely disappointing when you get a sense of familiarity on a work commonly hailed as novel and unique. Still, not a boner killer. (mental boner, mind you)

No, the “boner killer” moment came not much later, as soon as Saya appeared for the first time and the MC started lauding her as the only thing in the world that soothed him and gave him hope, the only part of the world, living or inanimate that he saw as normal, the only, single exception to his nightmare. (in my opinion this uniqueness of Saya was a dead giveaway that I most probably was right on my following thought)

By now my “mental boner” was way beyond dead, I would go on playing the VN because I’ve heard countless times that the story was great. (then again, not even once have I heard someone mention they got the vital plot twist as soon as Saya was introduced, I’m a special snowflake )
And even knowing the plot twist, the story still has a lot of ‘space’ to surprise me. (and I’ll admit, there’s lots of other ideas being explored on the game, not just “boy meets monster girl and wants to make babies”)

Still, knowing where the game is going to end at, some parts are…cringe worthy, namely:

No uncensored images in Japan!
And remember, she’s an inhuman monster, not a cute loli. I’m not even sure if it actually has a vagina.

Boobs are OK. But remember, she’s an inhuman monster, a literal blob of meat.

I just found it funny to see that notice on the uncensored images. Oh, yes, she’s an inhuman meat blob monster. And I had a bit of childish fun censoring this image. (believe me, I tried to make the arrow cover the penis completely, couldn’t manage to get it to work)

Of course that uncomfortable cringe turns into an evil smile pretty quickly, as soon as they stop having sex and the MC is overcome by his feelings:

If he knew what we know…he would be crying a lot more.

I’ll refrain from posting more “image walls”.

Then it goes into a ‘flashback’ back to when the MC first met Saya, while lying in a bed in the hospital and getting to grips with his new experiencing of the world.

Saya appears and the MC with his new ‘outlook’ on the world sees her as a human, a god send given the circumstances and so reacts positively to her presence.

Saya, the heaven sent cute little angel (or so the MC perceives), responds with this:

Ah, you cute little devil!

Then we come back to the present time, after the MC started living with Saya.

Tsukuba Yoh, a girl who had asked him out, then talks with him to finally get his answer, the MC answers in a harsh way. (although he does show remorse about it later, despite perceiving them as horrible monsters deep down he accepts that they are still his old friends)

Then Takahata Omi, who was a good friend of Yoh and…happened to eavesdrop their conversation, decides to go to MC’s house and confront him about how harsh he was to the poor girl.

Nah, Omi, just your imagination.

She then enters the house after ringing the doorbell for quite a bit, without answer.

And she’s greeted by Saya.

Remember kids, don’t enter other people’s houses without permission.

She hears some strange slimy sound coming from the kitchen and seemingly escaping further away into the house.

And then proceeds to investigate, first the kitchen where everything looked kinda normal, if not for some strange slime on the floor.

Then she goes to the living room, which was pitch black. And turns the light on, revealing MC and Saya’s great painting job.

Saya then starts eating and kinda loses track of time, so she gets caught by the MC while eating.

Of course Saya, knowing how things are (but seemingly not completely grasping how the MC viewed the world) is a bit surprised by his reaction.

If he knew what we know…wait, I already said that before.

And now the rest of the story starts to unfold. And I better stop posting images of it, and stop spoiling the story.

So…

A more objective rating of the VN:

Music: 6/10 – simple, but well placed and strangely fitting (if a bit repetitive)
Art: 6/10 – backgrounds are simple yet nice (a mix of illustrated backgrounds and photographs), characters are simple but effective (there’s a bit of a sketch look to the art, not overly polished, I like that)
Voices: 7/10 – not saying they were the greatest voice acting ever, but I enjoyed that most, if not all, characters are voiced.
Story: 7/10 – I’m trying really hard to discount that I pretty much started the game knowing the outcome and that affects enjoyability quite a bit. (it wasn’t their fault, but it wasn’t my fault either) But overall the story is really well done, well structured, started with a nice enough concept and succeeded.

Overall: 7/10 Would bang! Wait…
Still, I think US$25 is a bit of a steep price for an old VN.

Last, but not least, in my typical “so, a life learning we can get out of this game” style:
Dunno…maybe that sometimes we see monsters where they don’t exist and yet we end up falling for actual monsters and seeing them as marvellous. (I’m a deep thinker, ain’t I?)

Doesn’t she look so cute among the visceral scenery?

So, I guess this is the end of this post.

See you next time!