“Hey Avisch what is the scariest eroge or visual novel you’ve ever played”
“Saya no Uta”
“That was an unbelievably quick answer”
“Yes…yes it was”

Horror can be subjective. But usually similar motifs, designs, and sounds can scare anyone.
(weird analogy time) If horror was a type of citrus drink, then Saya no Uta would be the most ultra sour concentrated lemonade you could find.

It’s probably the most (in)famous title by Nitroplus. But why? I chalk it up to the following
1. It’s short and memorable.
2. Despite being short, the characters are very deep.
3. The music instantly sets the mood.

Story Summary

Im 90% sure that you know the premise of Saya no Uta (plot descriptions are all over the net). But for the sake of completeness I will describe it….in a unique way.

You know that horrifying sound that voices on garbley television sets make? You know those creepy things from the Cthulu mythos? (go watch “In the Mouth of Madness” if you don’t)

Well Sakisaka Fuminori has to experience both of those! After a bad car accident and surgery, Fuminori senses have become inverted. Anything clean looks dirty. Anything healthy, looks, feels, and tastes rotten. Any voice comes out like noise. However, he meets Saya, a girl who looks normal in this inverted world and they become attached to each other.

Just to mention. The story actually begins in media res. So you don’t find this out right away. So the presentation will still be cool for you, if you decide to play it.

In fact Im not going to spoil anything more than that. So don’t worry about spoilers.

Since this game is more of a visual novel than Meishoku no Reiki was. Im going to use a different style of review for this

Style of Writing

The game is very bleak, very dark, and all around very creepy. I found the the translation of Urobuchi Gen’s writing to be very enjoyable, it’s very clear writing and good at getting the mentality of the characters understood.

The Point of View in game is partially first-person and then omniscient. Whilst in other visual novels where a change would be noticeable, Saya no Uta transitions well between the two views.

Story and Characters

Being a short game, the game doesn’t waste time at all. You learn enough about the characters to get yourself somewhat attached to them. In fact. The shortness of the game makes me alittle sad because I found nearly all the characters to be very interesting.

Fuminori (the protagonist) manages to come off as both sympathetic despite being somewhat emotionally cold. The way he describes his situation really helps you understand his isolation and how Saya is his only light. Saya herself is not seen as much in the game as you would think, despite this she makes an impact. She is not the intentionally cute moeblobs you usually see, she is mature and just regularly cute.

Kouji is seemingly the third main character of the story if you make the choice to go for the two latter endings. His reaction to Fuminori’s isolation makes for a believable character, and he manages to avoid being a stereotypical naive side-character.

The erotic content of the game is ok. I didn’t actually pay too much attention to it (as I might for other games). It’s game that successfully relies on it’s story, and thats just fine.

The voice acting is definitely good. Midorikawa Hikaru voices Fuminori, and does the role well. Saya’s seiyu Kawamura Midori is also impressive, being able to make her character sound young and yet mature.

Art and Character Design

Chuuou Higashiguchi (中央東口) is behind the designs of this game. I always like to see how the look of the characters may or may not reflect the serious/unserious nature of the game. His characters designs find a way to be both very moe and damn serious. He uses some very dark and strong colors, but the characters still look attractive.

Speaking of color, like most visual novels the game has a distinct coloring style. Very empty and very erratic. The background images seemed very similar to most doujin games (essentially a photo with a nice color filter over it), but they still looked nice regardless.

….that of course is when you are not being shown the horrific fleshy world which you likely have trouble looking at (thankfully you have it blurred and/or darkened) in the options section.

Music

The music of the game is rather brilliant. Ever since I played through Umineko no Naku Koro Ni my standards toward music in visual novels have been raised. So me calling this music “brilliant” is a relatively big deal.

I never once found the tracks to get repetitive or annoying, and here are some good examples of the how they set mood. “Schizophrenia” instantly makes you uncomfortable and the main theme depicts both insanity a calmness.

Interactivity

The game actually only has two choices in the whole thing. So replayability is dependent on if you liked the game and just want to play through it again. There are three endings in all.

Never the less. Being my paranoid self I ended up using nearly half of the 50 save slots.

Overall

Saya no Uta is good in that it makes sure to leave an impression on you. Whether you find it great or okay, it will leave some sort of impression. This is probably why it’s so damn famous.

I’d say that if you want to get introduced into how Nitroplus makes scary stuff, this is the eroge to play. If you don’t like the first five minutes. This game was quite scary for me as I said at the beginning, I actually took a break from playing it at one point (though eager to start again cause I loved the story so much)

I think the my only gripe with the game. Would have to be that you cannot replay the voices or easily backtrack to read text. It’s not really that bad though.

Also the scene described here deserved it’s own CG. Would have been heart-breakingly sweet.

And to end this review. Have one of the best fanarts inspired by this game.