Saya no Uta - a review

Saya no Uta - the teased masterpiece vs what it unfortunately actually is 

Saya - the game's main
 heroine and mascot

If you're in the visual novel sphere or lately, on a specific side of tik tok, you have probably heard the name Saya no Uta, or have seen the heroine's face. She's pretty well known, the game being the number one most-rated game on VNDB (visual novel database), with a whopping number of 18146 votes, and an average score of 7.99. Still, popular doesn't necessarily mean good, so let's see how good this game holds to its praise. 

This review is not spoiler-free.

What is Saya no Uta?

Saya no Uta is an eroge visual novel developed by Nitroplus (or Nitro+). It was released in Japan in 2003 and officially published in English in 2013 by JAST USA. Its director and scenario writer is the famous Gen Urobuchi, best known for his work as a scriptwriter on Madoka Magica.

Now you might wonder why I underlined that word, but it's because it's extremely important that we understand what it means. A lot of people, even between those who have heard the word before, don't truly know what it means so let's clear that up.

An eroge is a game with erotic content. That's all. It doesn't matter how much it has, if it includes even one h-scene be it 2 minutes in a 20h game, that game is now officially considered an eroge. A visual novel that is primarily pornographic and/or is just porn with breaks in between the scenes is called a nukige. Saya no uta is NOT a nukige. 

Now that we have that out of the way, some people might be shocked to hear that this game includes sexual content (and oh boy we'll sure talk about that too), and might be wondering why is every 11 year old on TikTok obsessed with it and, to that, I can confidently say that they have thankfully never played the game. People online will act like it's a horrible thing, and while I agree that it's extremely annoying, I would rather them not play it for reasons that will become obvious soon enough.

The good, the amazing, and the taste of the masterpiece it could've been.

So let's start with the good, right? 

The first thing you might notice is the sprite artstyle (and the art in general). Personally, I was very intrigued and pleased by it, as it really isn't just your average moe anime drawing. The art matches the tone of the novel very well, and it's just plain refreshing to see more unique artstyles in visual novels.

Right off the bat, we start with the main character, Fuminori,  interacting with what look like grotesque flesh amalgamations, all talking in an ear-piercing and disgusting way. But the shock only comes after, when you realize what those monsters actually are. They are Fuminori's friends, and they aren't actually in any way grotesque or monster-like, but instead, our protagonist went through an accident, from which he could be saved only by an experimental treatment, that, as a side effect, had him develop an unknown neurological disorder that makes him see the world around him the way he does. Each and every one of his senses is affected, and he now sees, hears, smells, and tastes the world around him as if everything was covered by intestines and gore, and everyone was a form of horror abomination. Yet in this mess of a world that he now perceives himself to live in, there is one beacon of hope that keeps him living, that gives him hope. That beacon is none other than a little girl by the name of Saya, who he can perceive normally. 

Screenshots from the game showing how Fuminori
 sees his friends (bottom) vs how they actually look (top)

The premise of the story is enticing and generally pretty original. It hooks the reader and especially since the beginning, it's very shocking. The dialogue of the friends being so distorted it makes no sense anymore, the dread inducing music, and the constant parallels between how the world actually looks like vs how our protagonist sees it are all amazing. The horror is there, and not by any cheap tactics, but by the genuine horror of the world our protagonist has to live in, the atmosphere is chill inducing and the music fits extremely well. At the time of writing this review some months have passed since I played this game and I can still vividly remember the most iconic tracks of the game. 

Still, I'd argue the best part of this game is the writing in the non-eroge parts. The novel is very short, it took me around 5 hours to finish it, but it doesn't feel underdeveloped. The story is concise, and you never have a moment of boredom. The cast of characters is small so most of them are pretty well fleshed out. Perhaps it doesn't make you cry for them, but the story and actions still hit pretty well, and I found myself rooting for Fuminori's and Saya's demise by the end of the game (I will explain later). It's just generally a very enjoyable read, and the side characters act in a very humane way, though sometimes suffering from the "horror character characteristic stupidness/boldness" syndrome. But generally, their actions are believable.

My favorites are probably the endings. While the first ending which you can get (the bad ending) is pretty dull, the other two are magnificent. My favorite one is actually not the 'true' ending, but another bad (?) one, in which Fuminori's (ex)best friend kills Saya, and then Fumi kills himself. His friend is then left all alone, all his friends dead, left to be haunted by his nightmares. It's depressing but also so intriguing, and it leaves you with some feelings you can ponder over. The true ending is also very interesting, and it has some of my favorite art. In this one, Saya, who was earlier revealed to be an alien who came to this planet to perpetuate her species, gives birth? Blooms? spreads her seed on the entire planet and every person gets turned into a gore blob like her. It's poetic in a way, and if you really liked her, this ending is pretty damn fulfilling. 

If you're very attentive you might've noticed that my favorite parts were the beginning and the end. So why's that? One very simple answer. They were the ones with the least or no amount of eroge content.

And this brings me to the negatives.

The unfortunate reality, and the big disappointment that Saya no Uta actually is.

I must start this by saying I don't actually have issues with eroge content/h-scenes in general, or in plot based stories. I actually think they can really add to stories when they're executed well, or just be a neat break when if they aren't that serious. No, their existence isn't the issue. The issue comes from how they're put in practice and oh boy...

As i have mentioned before, It took me around 5h to finish Saya no Uta with all endings. Let's say a slower reader would've needed 6/7h and a faster one 3/4h. The total number of h-scenes is 6/7 (there 6 sex ones and 1 just naked bath scene). That means the average player will see at least one h-scene per hour of gameplay, and they last anywhere from ~4 minutes to ~10 mins. That is not little for a game that sells itself as plot heavy.

And here I'll have to come and address the elephant in the room. Saya is most definitely lolibait. If you do not know what a loli is, lucky you. But basically in Japanese media it's defined as a young looking girl. And by young I mean prepubescent leaning towards primary school. And these girls either actually are that age or are 1000y old fairies or some stupid excuse like that. So why do they have a name? Because this is also a porn category. Yeah, love you japan. Perhaps one day I'll make a blogpost about this as well, but not today. So when I say  lolibait I mean she's the classic out of this world ageless creature that looks like a little girl and is also super sex positive for some reason.

Some people will how the fact that she looks acts and is acknowledged by everyone in the game as a young child only adds to the horror and makes sense story wise. To that i call bullshit,  I won't deny they could've done an amazing job making her youngness and Fuminori's descent into degeneracy a very horrific tale, but unfortunately, as much as most of it's fanbase tried to pretend that's not true, the real purpose was not to disturb. Or perhaps to disturb a bit, but really, most of the content is made for sexual gratification. Chances are it scared you because you aren't attracted to little girls, but if you were, do you think you would still be scared? Perhaps for some, but definitely not for all.

And here comes the biggest issue I have with the sex scenes. They're generally not written as disturbing or horror. They're simply what it says...sex scenes. There are some that are written as more disturbing, but generally, they just read as the average "dead dove do not eat" smut. An average reader would be disturbed, but if you came into contact with this type of content before, you can tell its main purpose is not to disturb. Also, another hint towards the actual reason they are there is also the copious amount of cgs during them. And that just completely breaks the flow of the novel, and the horror of it, and it just gives it this fethishy vibe.

As such the middle of the novel is its lowest point, as its just filled with porn The usefulness of them is debatable. I do not think the game should have no sex scenes, the beginning ones do help with the story (though I'd space them a bit more, as I feel like they're a bit too close to each other.) And the fact that Saya really likes semen and sex which is important later on is a good thing to establish (although one should mention how "sex/semen obsessed" is a very popular trope with loli porn). But in the middle....

The scene where Saya gets raped is almost objectively useless. And I do get the getting closer to Fuminori part, and it's not the idea I mind, but it's execution. The amount of cgs and details makes it obvious how it's simply there because it's someone's kink. And it's not even made to be that horror?? A rape scene can be made so disturbing, but this just reads like the average non-con fic. I genuinely believe the game would've been so much better if Fumi would've walked in when he just undressed her, or before he put it in. It would've served the same purpose, especially since it was only mentioned once after the scene was over.

Is it worth it?

It's really hard for me to decide if the game is worth it or not, because my feelings on it are very mixed. The good is amazing but the bad is horrific, and could genuinely spoil someone's entire experience. I have thought about maybe recommending the steam censored version but i haven't played that one and i have a feeling instead of summarizing or adapting the text they just straight up cut it which would leave the average reader with quite some gaps. 

So in the end i say if you still want to read it, start it while knowing what you're getting into. And if you really want to play it but don't want to see those scene's at all just get the steam version and then read a summary online. 

Overall i think this game is soooo overrated, and a lot of people like it just because it's so edgy and well known, and also because it's short. If i could give it two grades i really would, i'd give the non eroge parts a 9 and the eroge parts a 3 but as i cannot do that I'll just settle on a 6.3.