If there’s a commonality in horror, it’s all this death. A decapitation here, disembowelment there, blood and guts everywhere. It is enough to make a gorehound grin from ear to ear. Although, is it really enough to do that? I do wonder…
…You see, I believe going all “fear of death” on people creates a surface level fear. It makes you scared to trudge on, but once you turn off the game everything is rosy again. True horror follows on. True horror crawls inside your mind like a parasite. True horror makes you examine the deep roots of yourself, feeling sick. So, what triggers it? Silent Hill 2 character designer Takayoshi Sato commented about psychological horror:
“Psychological horror has to shake humans heart deeply. Shaking peoples heart deeply means uncover peoples core emotion and core motivation for life. Everybody is thinking and concerning about sex and death. Everything. And if we want to scare or shake or touch the users or spectators, then we have to think about sex and death deeply.” (SIC)
So let’s leap into a horror visual novel that has a heavy dose of both death AND sex and see how that turns out! Let’s pour over Song of Saya.
Song of Saya is a Lovecraftian horror visual novel made by Nitroplus. A car-crash leaves Fuminori Sakisaka not only with his family dead but also dying due to an acute case of brain trauma. Fortunately, experimental surgery rescues Fuminori. The downside is the world he experiences is our own but with his perception warped. One where environments are covered in rotting meat, speech is garbled and human beings are represented as twisted monstrosities. Fuminori would go stark raving mad if it wasn’t for the only human being he can see who he keeps all to himself: a little girl called Saya.
“Wait a gosh darn minute. A character is able to only see a Hellish landscape, with people being grotesque creatures, and the only normal character is a little girl? Something is up.” Needless to say, Song of Saya isn’t a narrative of twists and turns. This is especially as they make it apparent rather quickly Saya is something else, leading Fuminori down a dark bleak path.
What Song of Saya is, is a Lovecraftian narrative to its absolute core. A character becomes corrupted by a being darker and more apocalyptic than devils and demons. Outsiders, lured in by personal investment and curiosity, investigate what has happened only for terrible things to happen to their bodies, minds, and spirit. Conclusions where even the best case scenario is something pretty awful and haunting, after-effects lingering on.
Where the game distinguishes itself is the level of how awful things get. It seems the best thing that can happen to the cast is they simply just get their neck broken. It even steps beyond the expected “OH GOD!” most games are happy to frolic in to show, to use a professional journalistic term, “things just got real” This is especially apparent as a major character gets their chest ripped open like a Christmas present within the first two hours, and things only get worse.
Remember when I mentioned at the start about sexuality being a core part of the self often ignored by the horror genre and left alone to shoot staples at the cat? To say Song of Saya dwells on sexuality would be like saying Nintendo dwells on Mario. It is pretty creepy at times how they seem to fetishize the many, many sex scenes throughout the game. They really go all out describing in intense detail the sexual actions of Fuminori and someone else.
“So, it’s a Japanese game, ‘course there’s sexualization.” Except I legitimately can’t think of a single sex scene that isn’t disturbing without much thought. There are several scenes of having sex with a 12-year-old girl, a couple of scenes of rape and somehow I’m not even scratching the worst of it. This gross sensation feels done on purpose, but the level of dwelling almost feels like they were banking on people getting some pleasure from it. Something that feels just damn creepy at times.
Although, there is something the game never quite feels like it focuses enough on: gore. While Song of Saya gleefully shows Fuminori putting his pepperoni into Saya’s packed lunch with full descriptions and visuals, it is odd how absent violence is in comparison. I almost find myself daydreaming of Corpse Party‘s delighted tendency to show gore to almost a guro level (DON’T GOOGLE THAT). In this game, violence is comparatively hand-waved over and I can count on one hand how many bodies you see. I guess it hints at suggestive horror than Splatterhouse.
Something that brings me to the plot that, well, generally works is here. It has most of the trappings that work really well in a Lovecraftian piece. Along with how graphic the visuals/descriptions get, Song of Saya ends up pretty astounding at creating a dreary disturbing mood. The realization that things are not okay. That it will definitely get worse by the end. That it will never even approach the star system “okay” is in even after everything is wrapped up. It nails the morbid corruption very soundly.
The only part that feels like it doesn’t work is, oddly, the choice to have multiple perspectives. Lovecraft tales, if nothing else, focus on the perception of the cosmic horror behind the curtain. That you tease the odd aberrant thigh, the occasional bizarre wink, from behind the curtain and that even this alone leaves you psychologically scarred.
So it strikes me as odd you experience Song of Saya not only from the investigator’s side but also the antagonist’s and victim’s view. It does have its moments of excellence. It allows for an empathetic villain and a deeper study of who Saya is during the brief time spent (well, 4 hours?).
On the other side, there is no mystery as everything is left bare open from page one. The only mystery is who Saya is and what her motivations are, but by halfway through you can take a good stab. It leaves Song of Saya less a lovely Lovecraftian investigative tale and more a character study with choices.
While the choices are hideously few, I genuinely cannot suss out if this was a budget problem or not. If they had to cut down the choices from many, or if they had one or two “alternative paths” they wanted to explore and then had to legitimize it via choice mechanics. One choice left me bumbling down a path, died 10 minutes later, and then going through the same 50% of the prior choice again for 10 minutes. I genuinely cannot work out if this was riding the logic of “why would something unrelated affect particular details?” or if they were snipping corners.
Song of Saya‘s final score is a 6/10. What Song of Saya is, is memorable. It is disgusting, crude and violent in all the ways I could want. Perhaps it gets a bit jolly about getting its jollies off, but that makes it all the more unique. That and it is definitely one of, if not the, most revolting games I’ve ever played. In a good way, of course. If I walk away from a horror game without any negative feelings, I can’t claim they’ve done a good job.
Where Song of Saya gets it score is just how difficult it is to recommend. First, you have to be into visual novels, specifically ones which favor narrative presentation via text on a slideshow of images. Then you have to excuse the few choices. You also have to be into the horror genre, specifically a Lovecraftian type that acts more of a character study than a grim investigation into cosmic horror.
On top of that, you have to not mind sex scenes that feature things like rape, children and brain-washed slavery of someone with brain-damage (with even worse things happening to her), again with visuals. Finally, you have to consider spending a bit for a title about 2 to 6 hours long.
Yes, it is a hard sell. Although if this ticks all the boxes for you, then you’re up for a memorable hideous ride through the darkest most revolting game about. But, at the end of the day, isn’t that what people want?
Song of Saya
Pros
- Very good at setting the mood and being graphic
- Uses sexuality to make the game gross
Cons
- Few choices
