Saya no Uta

I rather liked it, especially the full voice acting. It's definitely something I would play again. The character I really hated was Kouji, in all honesty.

So your best friend has been acting strangely for months. He's a huge jerk ass to you and your friends, and you suspect him to be the reason behind your girlfriend's disappearance. He finds you following him and snooping in a house that you never knew about, and he might possibly have some ill intentions because of that. So what do you do when he asks you to drive him somewhere far away? You say yes, of course. It's not as if he could potentially be dangerous.

I'm sorry, but nobody should be that stupid.

You get used to it after reading too much HP Lovecraft, I think.

He's still his best friend, fundamentally. He was hoping that this was all his imagination.

Anyway, being inside the head of a crazy guy is to me one of the primary appeals on Visual Novels. Maybe I'm just good at abstracting from reality, but I always find it interesting to get carried into their trains of thought.

Even if he was hoping it was all his imagination, it's still pretty irrational.

I agree with being inside the mind of the insane character, though. It's both interesting and an unusual approach. It's so much different than the stereotypical H game scenarios, in a good way.

It was a pretty interesting VN, I think. Enough that I started up the article for it on the wiki. Good horror, Lovecraftian elements, exploring insanity... That kind of stuff easily draws me into a story, and this one had it in spades. The rape elements I can't, won't, and don't want to justify, though; they were pretty gratuitous.

@Chagen46: ... That level of hatred is kind of disturbing, and misogynistic in the word choice.

edited 28th Nov '10 5:28:09 PM by Nabi

Nabi: How is misogynistic? I wanted Saya to fucking die so shit could get back to normal. I fucking hate her and Fuminori. I thought you're supposed to.

Just because I called her a whore doesn't mean that I'm a misogynist. You're analyzing my post way too seriously.

Actually, as far as Eldritch Abomination go, Saya was fairly nice. Very nice actually. Even when alone, she killed only in self-defense and later, was willing to suppress her nature for the sake of the protagonist. I am fairly certain that if the protagonist asked her to not kill any living human being, she would obey.

A pity that, when the protagonist finally realized what Saya was, he was too Ax-Crazy, to think anything else than "Yay, human flesh looks tasty"

Up to the part where Yousuke gets subjected to gur-o-vision, slaughters a couple Eldritch Abominations his family, and is about to rape Saya.

Really? Is there some sort of law requiring that every visual novel with sex scenes have a scene of some woman, preferably a loli, getting raped by a larger and sex-crazed guy? (Without getting into what Saya really is, that is.)

edited 8th Dec '10 2:50:48 PM by TsundeRay

I've seen plenty visual novels that don't do that but they're likely untranslated.

Just passed the first story branch. I've decided that Fuminori doesn't need to go back to normal. Not after what happened (and the fact that he seems rather happy with Saya).

I'll visit the other fork after I get one of the endings.

edited 9th Dec '10 12:55:25 AM by TsundeRay

Up to the part where Saya transforms Yoh and shows her to Fuminori.

Saya:
Come on...Don't you remember what you've been filling me with every night?

edited 27th Dec '10 1:49:07 AM by TsundeRay

And also a perfect case of "DNA doesn't work that way!"

I've seen the Trope page, and I think this game is ripe for an LP. I myself have mixed opinions about it, so I won't be able to do it effectively, but I would like it if someone else did it. It just seems like one of those MST-able stories. Any takers?

Finished the game with all 3 endings.

I honestly found the "Earth is turned into an Eldritch Location" ending the happiest, despite knowing full well what it means—the world is finally turned into something that Fuminori doesn't find disgusting.

The "Fuminori goes back to normal and gets locked away" ending is really depressing, even if it has the least damage—Fuminori gets a few hours of freedom and he never gets to see Saya again.

The "Fuminori, Saya, and Ryouko die" ending is the worst. Multiple casualties happen, and Kouji is left as an increasingly-insane guy who has constant nightmares and hallucinations. It's a tragic price to pay for stopping an Eldritch Abomination who wants to spread worldwide.

edited 18th Jan '11 5:30:45 PM by TsundeRay

Never read Lovecraft, then.

I have a feeling I completely missed the whole point of this game. I'm not seeing the supposed "love" between Saya and Fuminori. Nor did I find the ending where Saya changes the world to be happy.

I'm pretty sure they don't want you to empathize with the Eldritch Abomination or the insane murderer. Not too much anyway. Fuminori may have a marginally sympathetic motivation, but he's definitely a Villain Protagonist.

Just started this. It makes my lit crit brain do the happy dance.

How so?

Clarste: From the posts in this thread and the review of the game on this site, everyody keeps acting like Saya No Uta is a wonderous story of love. Shit, someone in this thread said that the ending where Saya changes the world was beautiful.

You mean «If it was any other story, this would have been a beautifully romantic bittersweet ending. However, since the reader knows what is actuallly going on, it becomes a showcase of incredible horror.»

I haven't even read this one but seriously, Chagen, it's a cosmic horror story. What were you expecting? Why were you expecting better endings?

I wasn't expecting good endings, but given that there are people in this thread who are saying it's a beautiful love story....

Actually I just reread the whole thread. No one says that, Chagen. One person liked the fact that they twisted the straightforward beauty of the scene with the reader's knowledge of what it implies and someone else said that it was the happiest ending, before going into how the other two were really depressing for their own reasons. This wasn't actually stated, but the implication to me is "at least in this ending something was created".

tl;dr

This game is a gigantic troll. I never want to see the words "rat semen" in any work of erotic fiction ever again.