I played through Nitroplus’ visual novel Song of Saya and to my surprise I was still thinking about it days after.
Written by the same guy who wrote Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Song of Saya is the story of Fuminori, a man suffering from brain damage caused by experimental surgery that saved his life after a near-fatal car accident. As a result his perception and senses are completely warped, causing him to see the world as a living hell. Intestines, blood, vomit and pus cover every surface of his world, his friends, he can hardly call them like that anymore, are deformed monstrosities that speak with screeches and other barely understandable sounds and smell of rotten meat and shit, which often oozes out of pores from their face and body. The only thing keeping Fuminori “sane” is Saya, an almost angelic-looking little girl. She is the only person he sees as a normal human being. Saya claims to be alone like him and they move in together.
The rest of the game is a steep descent into all sorts of dark and disturbing places.
Song of Saya was the first visual novel I’ve ever played, seriously at least. I mean ,okay, after a few beers I might have checked the odd hentai game but I can’t say it feels the same. So I can’t say if this was a good visual novel or not, the amount of interaction is minimal, with only 2 choices throughout the game, albeit with big consequences for every choice.
The story is told in first person, usually from Fuminori’s point of view. That makes it easy for us to sympathize with him and actually glimpse the disgusting reality he is in. When we see things in Fuminori-vision, sounds are distorted, dissonant and images are noisy and gory. The images are very gory but leave most of the things happening to the imagination. That is one of the strong points of the Song of Saya. The descriptions of all the horrible things happening are almost Lovecraftan in their lack of detail, as a result the player’s/reader’s mind is left to form it’s own horrifying images, a sign of every good horror story.
Cutest lil’ Horror
The Song of Saya is cruel, twisted and does NOT hold itself back. It is most definitely not for those who are easily offended. There is gore, nudity and pretty much everything depraved and shocking. Surprisingly, every cruel and sick act is justified in a satisfying way that serves the story instead of crippling it with out of character moments. It is to the game’s huge credit that it managed to keep me interested in and feeling for Fuminori and Saya every step of their descent into completely evil-character territory.
I would also like to make a small mention to Yoh, one of Fuminori’s “friends” who is without a doubt one of the saddest characters in the history of sad characters.
Song of Saya manages to become beautiful at times, and not in a morbid, sick way but in a profoundly deep and honest one. Simple, one-dimensional (spoilers: no pun intended) villains are one of my biggest turn offs and i found Song of Saya to be one of the best examples of the opposite. I might go so far as to say that I’ll be exploring more Visual Novels.
Disgusting, shocking, not-too-terrifying, cruel, but ultimately a very moving and heartfelt story from a point of view we don’t often see things from.
If you think you can handle it, I fully recommend Song of Saya, it’s a rare gem.
~Garret