The Song of Saya

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 December 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.

There are two versions to buy. The Steam release (August 2019) is text in English, Simplified Chinese and Korean, and is the edited one. GOG sells Saya no Uta ~ The Song of Saya Director's Cut, added to its store in January 2022, with English and Japanese text and audio; its store tags include nudity and sexual content. Both are for Windows only.

It is short for a visual novel. The figures from HowLongToBeat on its GOG page put the main story at about 4 hours and seeing everything at about 6, and there are only a few choices along the way. A Siliconera writer looking back on it in 2024 said the crimes in it are shown in detail and gave them a week of nightmares, and still called the ending oddly beautiful.

How to play The Song of Saya

1. Buy and install The Song of Saya from Steam, or the Director's Cut from GOG, 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.

Tips

• Save before each choice so you can go back for the other endings without replaying from the start.
• If you want the version with Japanese audio and no edits, the GOG Director's Cut is the one that lists them.
• 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