Review of Saya no Uta
Subject | Saya no Uta |
By | Helpfulness: 12 Vote: 2joner on 2021-01-23 |
Review | As a fan of cosmic horror, Gen Urobuchi's other works, and adventure games as a medium, it was inevitable that I'd pick this game up at some point. Had really high hopes for it, too, after hearing it being referred to as "one of the best horror VNs of all time" and "Urobuchi Gen's greatest work"; based on my tone here, however, you can probably guess that at the end of it all, I was not thrilled. First, I'll briefly mention the things I actually liked about the game. The beginning, specifically the first scene, certainly left an impression on me. I like it when stories just jump headfirst into pure insanity as soon as you press the start button, it catches you off-guard. Another thing I appreciated was the inclusion of "blur the gore" and "dim the gore" settings; always a welcome addition, in my opinion, even if I personally do not use them. And, of course the main menu and the UI are gorgeous, although I found the rest of the game's art to be average at best. The music was pretty good, too. The characters in the Song of Saya felt flat and one-dimensional, and their actions and development were entirely too predictable. If you've read one Lovecraft book - or, hell, consumed any other cosmic horror story - you've essentially played through all of the "good" parts of this game, and can probably guess everything related to the character development (which isn't very abundant, to be clear. The only kind of change any of the characters go through, if at all, is "succumbing to madness", either in an "evil rapist" way or "badass broken hero who knows too much" way. No inbetween. Yes, every "evil" character who gets actual screentime sexually assauts someone, onscreen, which just seems like a cheap attempt to make our morally grey badasses more likable by someone who, it seems, did know how to write up until the early 2010s). The Song of Saya does not contain the kind of horror that really stays in your head and makes you lose sleep, unless you're squeamish. The game may have made me genuinely uncomfortable a few times, but if I just wanted to feel uncomfortable, I could have just visited e-hentai and read some works marked as "offensive for everyone", for free, and it would've done a way better job at it, too. For the most part, the horror relies mostly on gross-out (including a LOT of rape) rather than anything truly "psychological" in nature like the Steam tags suggest, unless you count the protagonist finding someone who looks exactly like a child, even by his own admission, insanely sexy as "psychological horror" (although the sheer amount of sexual CGs of Saya, the length and detail of the narration in the sex scenes, and just how keen the narrative seems to be on framing what she and Fuminori have going on as a sort of tragic love story make me question the creators' intentions). I, for one, think this kind of "horror" is incredibly cheap and a disservice to the fans of the genre. I don't think I'll ever be able to wrap my mind around how, exactly, this game came to be recognized as one of the best horror VNs. Want some cosmic horror with meat-covered rooms and sentient flesh mounds, themes of body horror, nutcase researchers, characters who become metaphorical monsters once they see the world in a new light, eldrich romance, and actually morally grey, complex characters that aren't just genre tropes? Listen to the Magnus Archives. Want a horror VN experience with two bad people who end up feeling detached from the rest of the world and fall in love WITHOUT the onscreen rape scenes that take up a very significant portion of the game's playtime? Play Raging Loop. Or, hell, just go ahead and pick up one of H.P. Lovecraft's books, if you don't particularly care for modern-day settings. Honestly, there is nothing good the Song of Saya has to offer that hasn't been done better by some other work at the time I'm writing this review. |
12 points |