Saya no Uta

She snapped the neck of a grown man. Therefore, she is by definition stronger then the average person. Add this to all the other interesting tricks she performed (hiding in a 5 centimetre high space, melting a lock with natural acid, being practically made of impossibly flexible tentacles), and you'll see that the scene just doesn't make any sense at all.

I kind of wanted to play this game, but I get scared far too easily.

You could always play it during daytime.

I don't think I ever considered Saya no Uta scary. Disturbing or Squicky sure, but not scary.

edited 4th May '11 7:48:49 AM by Drakovicz

What said. It was a great story, but I wouldn't really call it frightening.

Yep. I feel like I've just had a bout of Sannity Slippage after I finished the story. I felt completely disconnected from my surroundings for several hours.

i finished the visual novel in one shot, ended it at like 2am
and slept peacefully
it isnt that disturbing though quite Squicky as above tropers said

I've been trying to get my roommate to play Saya for the longest time. He keeps saying no. I think he's smarter than I am.

It's a bit jarring at first (the first song/screen are pretty intense) but you get used to it quickly.

I just finished it, gotta stay I had to look around my room a couple times after hearing odd sounds. But really, it's not that bad. This isn't a horror movie and things don't jump out at you.

Edit: Does anyone else think the rape scene was a bit forced?

.... no pun intended.

I understand him flipping out and killing his family but the rape seemed a little left-field for me.

edited 9th Aug '11 5:26:37 PM by Jewbacabra

it was jarring and silly
but i guess its because its a hentai visual novel
the work only has three sex scenes

edited 9th Aug '11 11:16:47 PM by CommanderObvious

Finally finished. I was expecting it to be a bit longer, but oh well. Gen Urobuchi, you sick, sick bastard.

What'd you think? You get all the endings?

Yeah, I did. I'm sort of disappointed at the endings. I found the bloom ending to be disturbing all the way, though.

Agreed. There's a sick sense of closure with that ending.

The best thing about this VN is probably the Lovecraftian influences. Now I know what it's really like to be in an HP Lovecraft work.

Naw, best thing about this work is Rambo Doctor with a shotgun.

That shit came out of no where.

...Damn, I've been putting off playing this for far too long.

It's not very long. It'll probably take only around ~2 hours to finish.

i love the badassery the doctor has
and yeah
the story is so lovecraftian
and that gives me memories of my childhood

^While its roots are certainly Lovecraftian, I don't think a Lovecraft work ever included any truly Genre Savvy characters.

It's hard to be genre savvy when you're pretty much inventing a genre, though.

game. set. match.

I finished Saya the other day. Got all three endings. I'm really impressed. The art and music are quite excellent, and the plot really puts a twist on the whole Cosmic Horror Story thing.

Had Saya not fallen in love with Fuminori, the "Bloom" ending would have never happened, and I guess that's what really scared me: The Power of Love in this work actually destroys the world, instead of saving it. I can't think of any other work in which that has happened before. I CAN think of times when love has led individuals to kill various people, but not THE ENTIRE WORLD. Geez. That was really disturbing, but at the same time, I get the feeling that it is also Saya's "True Ending".

Also, the sex scenes were really gratuitous at times, even if they were somewhat relevant to the plot.

its gen urobuchi's self-proclaimed "tragedy syndrome" at work
the fact that there is no happy ending for all characters makes the story effective

[note: this is a lot longer than I intended, likely states the obvious and probably takes this more seriously than it should be taken. if anything resembling quasi-intellectual rambling makes you vomit, skip this]

^^ I'd totally agree that the depiction of love is what makes it interesting, for all its flaws. At the risk of stating the obvious, the idea that love is both the most important element in life and is always a redemptive, life improving experience is pretty much the big unstated assumption behind all orthodox "pick yer romance" visual novels. Even utsuges generally stick with the line that it is better to love and suffer than to endure the banality of not loving. SNU is a rather grim version of the magical girlfriend narrative, but the skill in it lies in how it manages to be get there while still hewing close to that orthodox depiction. Saya and Fuminori's love is totally unambiguously genuine, it does give them hope and purpose when all else is lost, it does survive and endure. And we have to square that, and everything that tells us to root for it, with what that love is and what it leads to. This is why the entire thing that happens to Yoh annoys me, as it takes Fuminori and Saya into blatantly psychotic villain territory a bit too easily. The whole trick the story hinges on doesn't work if the audience can say "their love is different because they're bloodthirsty maniacs. It's different." Everything they do should make perfect sense if you accept that their love is, in itself, a good thing and they're right to continue it. I don't want them to be the "good guys", that is ridiculous. But I do want the story to do everything it can to make part of me root for them and feel uncomfortable about it.

Regarding SNU's relation to Lovecraft, I believe someone earlier intimated that the point where the psychotic, shotgun wielding doctor's personality becomes evident is the point where we depart Lovecraftian horror territory. Although its not exactly psychological horror, Ryouko's characterization and Kouji's insanity in the "good" epilogue were two of the few points where the VN struck me as genuinely Lovecraftian. Gratuitous violence against the horrors has always been a fairly standard response to realising one is living in a cosmic horror story; the original "call of Cthulhu" story had Ramming Always Works in action, after all. Although it steals lines from Lovecraft in its depiction of how humanity reacts to horror, SNU otherwise isn't really Lovecraftian in nature. The basic thing that defines a cosmic horror story is that people don't matter. The entities that do matter are completely alien to us and too big to bother with anything we do. Sure, some minor agent might exploit a cultist's greed or a bereaved musician, and a human might stop them, but thats all noise and thunder which is irrelevant in comparison to the fact that one day an elder god will arrive and wipe us away like a speck of dirt regardless. SNU deviates from this not only in making Saya massively humanized (sort of justified in that shes a minor agent herself) but in that its a human idea that brings about the end of the world. I initally assumed that Saya was a cold-alien being merely imitating human emotion, Nyarly style. The moment it becomes evident her feelings and vulnerability are genuine is the moment SNU departs from Lovecraft by the book. It's also the moment when it becomes genuinely unsettling, rather than confusing. Tellingly, Saya's belief love is essential to the human condition comes not from her "absorbed dna" (curse you cream-cheese-soft science) but from the human literature she reads. Every story tells us we should root for the star crossed lovers no matter what, because what survives of us is love. SNU basically says "every love? Even this one?" and it's disturbingly difficult for me at least give an unqualified no. The sanctity of love, it is suggested, is not anything essential to us, its a story we've invented, and one far more dangerous than we are willing to admit.

And yeah, the sex scenes suck. Ikea Erotica with some half-heated squicky elements. Too bland to be really disturbing, too off putting to be erotic or enjoyable, and too straightforward to be narmishly funny. If there was a patch to take out the smut, I'd happily reccommend this to my lovecraft fanboy associates, as it is I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a established resistance to VN wierdness and ick.

edited 20th Sep '11 7:39:45 PM by KillerRabbit