10/10 game for me but WARNING for explicit content (steam version is kinda censored anyway): ------------------------------------------------ Saya no Uta is, without a doubt, one of my favorite visual novels I've ever played. I know that's probably a surprising statement considering the kind of content this game contains, but that's exactly what makes it such a fascinating experience for me. I love it because of how effectively that material is incorporated into the atmosphere, themes, characters, and overall storytelling. Before anything else, though, I want to make one thing very clear: This game comes with a BIG! content warning: Saya no Uta contains extreme gore, graphic body horror, death, disturbing imagery, sexual content, sexual violence, psychological horror, cannibalism, sexual slavery, pedo content and extremely uncomfortable themes. Some scenes are intentionally grotesque and difficult to look at or read. This is absolutely not a recommendation for everyone, and if you know that this kind of content isn't something you can handle, there's no reason to force yourself through it. With that said, if you are comfortable with extremely dark horror and like cosmic/body horror, I think Saya no Uta is an incredible example of how far a visual novel can go with atmosphere and psychological storytelling. What I love most about it is the atmosphere. From the very beginning, there is this constant feeling that something is fundamentally wrong. The world feels distorted, alien, and hostile, and the game does an amazing job of putting you inside Fuminori's perspective. After his accident, Fuminori no longer experiences the world like everyone else. What other people see as normal becomes horrifying to him, while things that should be horrifying can become beautiful or comforting. That concept alone is fascinating, but what makes Saya no Uta special is that the game doesn't simply explain this idea to you, it makes you experience it. The visuals, descriptions, music, and presentation all work together to make you feel trapped inside his perception. The contrast between beauty and disgust is one of the strongest aspects of the entire visual novel. Something can be horrifying from one perspective and beautiful from another. The game constantly challenges your assumptions about what is "normal," what is "monstrous," and what makes something beautiful or ugly. That's also why Saya is such a fascinating character to me. Without spoiling anything, her relationship with Fuminori is one of the most unusual relationships I've encountered in a visual novel. It isn't a conventional romance, and trying to judge it using normal romantic standards doesn't really work. Their connection is simultaneously tender, disturbing, tragic, and deeply unsettling. And somehow, despite everything, there are moments where their relationship feels genuinely intimate, but still is EXTREMELY disturbing, so keep that in mind. But that's something I really appreciate about the writing. The game doesn't simply say, "This is horrifying, therefore you shouldn't care about these characters." Instead, it creates situations where you can understand (not justify) why Fuminori becomes attached to Saya, even while being horrified by the consequences of that attachment. That contradiction is incredibly effective. Saya herself is also incredibly memorable. She's one of those characters that sticks in your mind long after you've finished the story. Her design, personality, mysterious nature, and relationship with Fuminori all contribute to making her feel completely different from the typical visual novel character. And then there is the soundtrack. I genuinely love the music in this game. It contributes so much to the atmosphere that I can't imagine Saya no Uta being nearly as effective without it. There are tracks that are beautiful and melancholic, others that feel deeply unsettling, and others that somehow manage to be both at the same time. I'll def buy the soundtrack irl as soon as I can The artwork is another huge positive for me. Yes, some of it is extremely graphic, but I think the grotesque imagery has a purpose beyond simply trying to shock the player. It reinforces Fuminori's distorted perception and makes the world feel genuinely alien. The game understands that horror isn't necessarily about showing you a monster. Sometimes horror is making you question whether the monster is actually the person looking at it. That's one of the ideas I find most interesting about Saya no Uta. Underneath all the gore and shocking imagery, there are surprisingly strong themes about perception, isolation, morality, identity, obsession, humanity, and love. The story asks some genuinely uncomfortable questions. If your perception of reality completely changed, would your idea of right and wrong change with it? If everyone you knew became horrifying to you, who would you trust? If the only person who could make you feel safe was something that everyone else considered a monster, would you choose humanity or that person? And perhaps most importantly: What exactly makes something human? Another thing I appreciate is the game's length and pacing. Saya no Uta isn't unnecessarily long. It's relatively short and focused, which I think works perfectly for this story. It feels like a concentrated psychological descent rather than a story that needs dozens of routes and hundreds of hours to make its point. I've played plenty of visual novels that have great ideas but don't quite know how to execute them. Saya no Uta, for me, is different. It has a very specific identity, and almost every part of the presentation contributes to that identity. You have to be comfortable with some very extreme material to appreciate it fully. But if you are, I think there is something genuinely special here.