Saya No Uta / Song of Saya

Saya no Uta / Song of Saya

Saya no Uta is a rather infamous horror eroge that has been on my radar for some time. Several days ago there was a perfect storm. 1) I wanted to get back into VNs after discovering the Steam Link app on Android. 2) I realized Song of Saya was now on Steam. 3) VN Steam Sale. 4) The Steam version was censored.

The main thing that held me back previously is visual pornography tends to be a huge squick for me and I try to avoid it. Considering the game already had a reputation for being disturbing and gory and generally fucked up I wasn’t sure I wanted the added eroge factor. So having access to a version of the game that censored eroge, but not gore, was a big plus for me. (Interestingly the core game offers a way to censor gore by providing various filter options for blurring and darkening, though I would say if you’re inclined to use such filters this is probably not a game for you.)

The story is a young man awakes after a car accident and subsequent brain surgery to find his perception has been horribly changed. The scenery looks covered in guts, people look and sound like monsters, and everything around him revolts his senses. Everything except a young woman he’s recently met named Saya.

So, first off, let’s talk about the censor patch. Everyone who says the censor patch ruins the story is dumb, this story could function perfectly fine without any explicit eroge content, and if you don’t think so maybe it’s because you’re here for the loli. I don’t judge, but I’m not pulling any punches either because most VN fans are stupid and I am qualified to say so. All the patch really censors is loli content, which means it removes I think 2 sex CGs and zooms in on some of the others. They apparently modified the translation to use more euphemisms when talking about sex. It’s still abundantly clear what is happening, and it’s still abundantly fucked up. I got more anime tiddy than I bargained for because I naively assumed that a Steam censor patch would account for all lady bits, but none of it really triggered my squickometer so gg everyone, A+ would censor again.

This was a short read for me (3-4 hours to get all 3 endings) and a good blend of body horror, psychological horror, and SF elements. All the endings were satisfying in their own way. There are some very disturbing elements obviously, but I felt the writers did a good job of telegraphing so if you start to feel really uneasy, like maybe this seriously isn’t for you, you can back out.

I think you could have some really interesting discussions on what Saya no Uta does or doesn’t do. For instance, does Saya really need to be a loli? What does Saya’s form say about the writer, intended audience, and characters? Are the sex scenes truly necessary? One thing that struck me as particularly interesting is while the game does not have many choices (there are only 2) one of the choices is really the defining ethical one. I might distill it as: no matter what one’s perception is, one still chooses or rejects depravity.

Suffice to say, I enjoyed this one a lot. It falls into a category of game-I-heartily-recommend-except-I-actually-don’t-YMMV-drive-safely (see DDLC, Lisa). I’m starting to think shortish horror VNs are really my jam and I’d like to read more. I’ve been “reading” House of Fata Morgana since 2017 in spite of allegedly loving it, so length is clearly an issue for me.