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The Song of Saya key art: Saya, a girl with long dark green hair in a white dress, with pale glowing wings against a starry sky

Psychological horrorCosmic and Lovecraftian horrorHorror

The Song of Saya

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A love story told through the eyes of a man who sees only flesh.

Platforms
PC
Price
Paid
Rated
Very Positive on Steam (89% of 10,357 reviews)
Players
1
Made by
Nitroplus (published by JAST)
Released
2019
Get it on Steam

What frightens After a car crash kills his family, medical student Fuminori sees the world as a wasteland of rotting, pulsing flesh and hears people as grunts and screeches. The only thing that looks human to him is Saya, a strange girl, and the dread comes from what she really is and how far he will go to keep her.

Content: gore, blood, death, partial nudity, sexual themes, disturbing imagery.

The Song of Saya is a horror visual novel by Nitroplus, written by Gen Urobuchi and published in English by JAST. A medical student survives a crash only to see everyone around him as rotting meat, except for a strange girl named Saya. You read his story, make a few choices that decide how it ends, and watch his world and theirs come apart.

About The Song of Saya

The Song of Saya (Saya no Uta) is a Japanese horror visual novel by Nitroplus, the studio behind Steins;Gate, written by Gen Urobuchi, known for Fate/Zero and Madoka Magica. It first came out in Japan in 2003 and reached Steam in 2019 as a remastered version from JAST, with a new engine, higher resolution art and an improved translation.

Fuminori Sakisaka, a medical student, is the only survivor of a car accident. After brain surgery his senses are broken: walls look like pulsing organs, food tastes vile and his friends appear as heaving lumps of flesh. He thinks about ending his life until he meets Saya, a girl who looks to him like an ordinary person and who says she is searching for her missing father. Through his eyes, and later through the eyes of the friends who start to worry about him, you see what their relationship costs.

It plays as a visual novel: you read the text, look at the art and listen to the music, and at a few points you choose what Fuminori does. Those choices lead to different endings. The horror is in the art, which paints ordinary rooms as gore, and in the slow dread of a story that keeps asking whether love excuses anything.

The Steam version is edited for the store, but the warning on its page is plain: blood, gore, death, partial nudity, sexual themes and Lovecraftian horror. It suits adult readers of dark visual novels and cosmic horror who want a story rather than a game of skill, and it is not for anyone put off by disturbing content.

How to play The Song of Saya

  1. Buy and install The Song of Saya from Steam on a Windows PC.
  2. Start a new game and click or press a key to advance the text.
  3. Use the menu to save often, especially before a choice.
  4. When a choice appears, pick what Fuminori does; it decides which route and ending you reach.
  5. Load an earlier save and choose differently to see the other endings.

Screenshots

Saya stands in a corridor whose walls and floor look like red flesh, under narration about Fuminori's cognitive disorder
Fuminori lies half buried in a mass of red, pulsing organs
A small silhouette stands in a bright doorway at the end of a dark, tilted hallway
A frightened man in glasses raises a knife, lit in red and purple

Tips

  • Save before each choice so you can go back for the other endings without replaying from the start.
  • Read the content warning on the store page first; the imagery is meant to disgust.
  • Turn the sound up: the music carries much of the mood.
  • Use the text log if you click past a line too quickly.

Questions

Is The Song of Saya censored on Steam?

The store page says this version has been edited for release on Steam. It still warns of blood, gore, death, partial nudity and sexual themes.

Does The Song of Saya have multiple endings?

Yes. A choice Fuminori makes partway through leads to different routes and endings.

Who made The Song of Saya?

It was developed by Nitroplus and written by Gen Urobuchi; JAST publishes the English version on Steam.

What platforms is The Song of Saya on?

The Steam version is for Windows PC.

  • visual novel
  • anime art
  • body horror
  • romance
  • cosmic horror
  • japanese horror
  • choices
  • remaster
  • nitroplus

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The Song of Saya is played on store.steampowered.com and its makers' stores; this page links to them and is not part of it. Pictures are from the game's own pages and remain its owner's. Terms and pictures.

Sources: store.steampowered.com, store.steampowered.com, en.wikipedia.org