CONTENT WARNINGS: The
game contains explicit depictions of rape, gore/body horror,
cannibalism, and sexual
content involving Saya, who is initially implied to be underage. There is
a censored version available on Steam, which (I believe) removes the
visuals from the explicit scenes, but leaves in enough dialogue to
follow what's happening. I'm playing the full uncensored version, so I
don't know exactly what has been removed in the Steam version, but this is what I've heard.
There are some spoilered images on this page with descriptions of what's
shown. Click to view the image; move the mouse off the image to hide it again. Right click
to open in a new tab for higher resolution. There are no sexually
explicit images on this page.
--
Saya no Uta is a Nitro+ visual novel written by Gen Urobuchi, released
in 2003. Although the inclusion of explicit sex scenes makes it an eroge
by definition, it's written and treated as a horror story from the
onset.
I stumbled upon a comment
referencing it when I was reading reviews of sweet pool, another game by
the same company, and I rapidly felt compelled to play it. The game is
quite short; I played it over three days, and I think I finished it in
around 6 hours.
The plot follows a medical student named Fuminori, whose parents are
killed in a car accident that nearly kills him as well. He undergoes an
experimental neurological surgery that saves his life, but leaves him
with an untreatable and undocumented form of agnosia that causes him to
view the world as a mass of rotten meat, including his food and other
human beings. He is slowly able to adjust to having as close to a
'normal' life as possible, thanks to a girl named Saya, the only thing
in the world that his brain doesn't as interpret montrously disgusting.
Above: an example of the 'real' world vs.
Fuminori's perspective of a house. The left is completely normal, the
right is entirely made of bulbous red meat and tendrils.
The game opens up without any mercy, showing us Fuminori's point of view
of the world, with lumps of oozing flesh gurgling and hissing in his
ears as he tries to stomach feeding himself rancid goo. In reality, he's
having lunch with three of his college friends, who have no idea of his
affliction or why his attitude has been so distant since his accident.
Alternating between different characters' viewpoints allows us to see
Fuminori's actions from both an internal and external perspective, which
is quite an interesting and effective storytelling choice.
How Fuminori sees people; a vague fleshy lump, focusing on a 'mouth'.
There are two other CGs like this, one focusing on an eye, and one with
no features.
There are three possible endings to the game, with only two
choices to be made along the way. The first ending serves as an early
'game over' of sorts, near the middle of the game. The other two endings
depend on what you select when faced with the
second choice.
I found the game very compelling. Most of the reviews I
read beforehand were quite positive, either lauding the story in its entirety, or
jokingly saying things like "this game is so good, don't ever play it
tho". I felt a little sick right at the beginning of the game because I
didn't expect the very first thing I saw to be Fuminori's perspective,
but it throws you right in the deep end and it was a very effective choice to
do so.
Right before you begin, the game asks if you would like to blur or dim
the 'grotesque' images, which includes the games' fleshy backgrounds and
some CGs (it doesn't censor the sex scenes though). I opted to play with
the images blurred because I didn't know if they would bother me.
Luckily, there are breaks from the imagery during other characters'
perspectives. The backgrounds also stopped bothering me after a while,
and there are only 3 CGs they rotate around for the close-ups on the
meat creatures' faces, so there's less to be worried about than I
thought, at least for me personally.
There are six NSFW scenes in the game, with three occurring in the 'main' route
before the first choice and the rest occuring after. Four of the six
scenes include assault. The graphic nature of the scenes felt
unnecessary, with the
assault being especially gratuitous. There are plenty of ways to show that a character is morally warped without resorting to using that
as a plot device, especially since the game is perfectly fine using
violence instead.
The sex scenes between Saya and Fuminori felt heavy-handed. They're
pretty short and easy to skip past, but they didn't add a lot.
I think making the scenes less overtly porn-y would
really benefit the development of their relationship a lot more than the
hentai scenes we get instead. Yes, I know it's a porn game by
definition, but the writing in other areas is very intimate and nuanced,
so it would have been nice to see that extend to the scenes where Saya
and Fuminori are at their most vulnerable with each other.
---
NSFW Scene List
(Scenes in red
contain assault or nonconsensual acts. Highlight to see spoilers for
more information. When I played, I just turned the voices off
during sex scenes and skimmed the text until they were over.)
1.) Occurs when Fuminori comes home to Saya for the first time. It
happens quite suddenly, but is short.
2.) Occurs at Fuminori's house again. Starts with a line similar to
"Saya tears my clothes off" or something like that.
3.) Occurs when
Fuminori's neighbor encounters Saya and assaults her. It is shown twice, once when it
happens, and once a few minutes later when Fuminori comes home. The
second time it's shown, the neighbor appears as a flesh monster.
The following scenes occur if the game continues after the first choice.
4.) Occurs when
(spoiler) [Tsukaba Yoh] goes to
Fuminori's house and encounters Saya.
5.) Occurs after Saya
and Fuminori take a bath together. (spoiler) [Saya
and Fuminori both assault Yoh.] I would read all of the dialogue
leading up to the actual event, then skip the scene itself when it
starts.
6.) Occurs after Fuminori gets off the
phone with Koji. (spoiler) [Yoh and Saya give
Fuminori a blowjob.] The scene is short, with a bit of dialogue
where Fuminori tries to figure out what to do about Koji. It's still
nonconsensual, but not as graphic as the previous scenes.
There are no more sex scenes in either ending after this point.
---
The Endings
(spoilers, obviously; click here to skip)
The first ending I got was the one offered at the half-way point. I
decided to do that one first so I didn't have to replay the game later.
It was... quite empty. That's purposeful, though. Saya offers Fuminori
the chance to (spoiler) [cure his condition,
so that he can go back to seeing things the way he did before the
accident.]. If he takes her up on her offer, that's exactly what
happens. [Saya cures him. Fuminori opens his
eyes to find his blood-stained home and his neighbor's body, but Saya is
nowhere to be found. He is arrested for murder, then sent to a mental
institution after psychological evaluation. Saya sneaks in just once to
say goodbye. They communicate by texting on a cellphone slipped through
the bars of his cell; she doesn't want to mar Fuminori's memories of her
body and her voice. He accepts her decision. They don't say much, but
they know that this happened because they weren't willing to trust each
other completely, to give themselves up wholeheartedly to their love.
Saya says goodbye, and Fuminori is content to wait for her if she ever
decides to come back. He is comforted by the white walls of his room and
is grateful to see such a color.]
This ending feels unsatisfying, but also very realistic. It's kind
of heart-wrenching. Saya's offer is probably the most selfless act of
any character in the game. She'll lose absolutely everything if Fuminori
accepts. She undoubtedly loves Fuminori, more than she cares for her own
desires. His happiness is her number one priority, even if that
happiness doesn't involve her. By this point, you sort of feel like the
very least the game could do is let these two be together. In a weird
way, though, this is also the most hopeful ending in the game. [Since
Fuminori and Saya's love is the catalyst for the end of the world, I
guess them not being together could really be considered the "good"
ending. At least they don't die in this ending, and there's a vague
potential that they'll speak to one another again.]
When you reach the game's second choice, you have an option to make a
phone call to either Fuminori or Ryoko. I went with the Ryoko route
first. [Koji calls Ryoko and meets with her, learning more about Dr.
Ogai's research and Saya's true nature, although he doesn't believe any
of it. The two pair up to meet with Fuminori at his new hideout; Ryoko
hides in the trunk so she can sneak in later.
Koji is 'ambushed' by Yoh, transformed into a meat monster, and he beats
her to death. Fuminori attacks him with an axe. Saya attempts to break
his neck, but is deterred by Ryoko. During the fight, Saya is frozen
with a can of liquid nitrogen, and Ryoko takes aim at her with a
shotgun. Fuminori cleaves Ryoko in half with his axe, but not before she
fires the gun, shattering Saya into pieces. Koji watches as the very
last bit of life drains from Fuminori's face. Fuminori smashes his face
into the blade of his axe and kills himself. Saya barely manages to
crawl her way over to him and touch his face before she, too, dies.
Later, Koji has a nightmare, the same nightmare he's had every night
since that event. He suffers from hallucinations, now, a fact that
Ryoko's ghost chides him for. Koji manages to get through it the same
way that she did: keeping a gun with him for peace of mind, knowing that
he's only one bullet away from ending it all once he can't cope anymore.]
I... wow. The scene with Koji and Ryoko at the diner was one of my
absolute favorites in the whole game. I have no idea why; there was just
something so sickeningly real about the way Ryoko spoke and her
perspective of the world, and Koji's robotic reactions, unable to
understand somebody who's gone so far off the deep end. She regretted
everything, but knew she had no choice but to keep going.
This ending was probably where I got the closest to crying. I didn't cry
during the game, but I felt the tears well up here. The CG of Fuminori
in the pure white background almost broke me. Even just thinking about
it now has my eyes wet, actually. The single moment of serenity in that
image and his empty expression [before he
kills himself] is so powerful. He doesn't hesitate for even a
second. There is nothing to think about. Saya is his everything.
The other option that grants the third (and probably 'true' ending) is
to call Fuminori instead of Ryoko. [In this
case, Koji doesn't have Ryoko to protect him when Saya attacks. Saya
breaks his neck and begins feasting on Koji's flesh. She suddenly
convulses and Fuminori panics, cradling her in his arms. She tells
Fuminori that it's time; she didn't think it would happen so soon. She's
going to give him her very last gift. Their children are about to be
born.
Fuminori carries her outside, underneath the stars. And then she blooms.
Ethereal flower pods burst from her back, unfurling and releasing their
spores. Like a dandelion, Fuminori had given her the tiniest bit of love
she had needed to spread her seeds.
Weeks later, Ryoko downs her last drops of booze. She finishes her last
perusal of Dr. Ogai's notes, fully organized, detailing his theory of
the organism's reproductive system. Saya should have birthed her
children soon after she came into this world, but the wealth of human
literature and emotion thrust upon her left her lost, unable to do so
without anyone first showing her love. She became tainted by the notion
of romance and could not fulfill her purpose.
Ryoko resigns herself and steps outside, where the city and the earth
itself is slowly bubbling up with putrid meat. She is probably one of
the few humans left on Earth, but it likely won't be for long. She never
got a chance to meet this extraordinary 'Saya', but would have liked to,
at least once. She wonders if her new body will still enjoy the taste of
vodka like her old one did.]
The visuals here are stunning. I almost think the entire game's payoff
is in the two CGs of Saya in this ending. It's genuinely beautiful. It's
horrible, but you just can't bring yourself to see it like that. Even [the
meat dripping from buildings and traffic lights] is somehow
beautiful. It's eerie and quiet and lonely. This has been Fuminori's
entire life for months on end. Part of you is vindicated that he is no
longer alone. The game is masterful at making the player care more about
the happiness of two characters than anyone else in the world. The
thought that [to Fuminori, who has suffered so
heavily in such silence, the world is now a verdant garden bursting with
life given to him by the one he loves] is so beautiful. You feel
as if he deserves it. You want him to spend his days observing and
experiencing every single thing. This ending is explicitly about Ryoko,
but you don't even really care; at least, I didn't. My thoughts drifted
to Fuminori the entire time Ryoko was talking, and I think that
perfectly encapsulates the strength of this game's writing. Whereas the
other ending made me want to cry out of actual sadness, this one makes
me tear up just from the wealth of emotion behind it.
---
Overall Thoughts
I actually think I loved this game. It was executed extremely well, and
the prose was fantastic. I finished it a few hours ago and thought it
was very well done, but I'm still thinking about it a lot, and I think
I'll be thinking about it a lot for the forseeable future. It definitely
deserves the accolades that I've seen it receive in reviews so far.
The game's ability to build atmopshere is exemplary. In the latter half
of the game, especially in the ending that occurs if you call Ryoko, I
found myself vividly imagining the conversations and scenes as if they
were fully animated and directed. The sound design was also extremely
impressive. The most chilling bit of audio in the whole game for me was
(spoiler) [Yoh's desperate screams of
'ithurtsithurtsithurts' as she clings to Koji before he kills her].
It happens in both endings, but I got shudders both times I heard it.
That particular scene is an example of how masterful the pacing, audio
design, and writing are; it was frantic and terrifying and awful to see.
After playing through the whole thing, I see no reason to play the
uncensored version over the censored. None of the graphic scenes felt
necessary. Although it actually IS important to the story that Fuminori
and Saya have sex, and that we know the details of what they get up to,
I see no reason that we have to actually watch them do it. The CGs of
them nude in bed and in the bath together were tasteful and intimate, so
I think just showing that much should be plenty. As long as the dialogue
sets up (spoiler) [Saya's pregnancy]
later in the game, the visuals don't matter.
As I mentioned before, I played with the 'blur grotesque images' setting
on. I turned it off a few times out of curiosity, and kept it off during
the last ending. A word of warning: I believe that the CGs in the
gallery show the gore fully, even if you have the blurred setting on, so
be aware of that. You should still be able to get the full effect of the
game with images blurred. I checked out the 'dim images' setting for a
moment, too; that one obscured too much for my personal taste,
but I appreciate the different options more than I can say! Apparently
the producer had the crew add the censorship option because the beta
version made him too uncomfortable to play.
I'm extremely glad I played this game. I absolutely understand why
people wouldn't want to; it's a tough sell, and absolutely not for
everybody, but I feel enriched for having experienced it. I think it
deserves it's title as a classic. If you're thinking about playing it, I
hope you do so to the level of your comfort, and that it makes a lasting
impression you as it did me.
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