Saya no Uta

Saya no Uta (沙耶の唄) is a visual novel by Nitroplus with horror elements.

Like Nitroplus' heavily Mythos-inspired Demonbane series, Saya no Uta's plot is somewhat Lovecraftian. Although direct references to the Cthulhu Mythos are minimal, the dark, eerie atmosphere is reminiscent of his works.

Many plotlines of Saya no Uta are similar to the manga Phoenix - Resurrection, specifically the life of Robita. At one point of the dialog, the main character explicitly references these similarities.

On February 24, 2009, the complete English 1.0 translation patch was released. The patch, while requiring a copy of the original game, translates the entire script in the game, allowing the fans who may not understand the Japanese language to enjoy the story as well. As of 7/09, this patch was no longer online, as JAST Usa bought the rights. It is, in fact, using this patch to produce the final version.

A comic book based on Saya no Uta, called Song of Saya, is in production by IDW Publishing. The first issue was released in February 2010.

Plotline
Fuminori Sakisaka is a young medical student, whose life is changed when he gets in a traffic accident which kills his parents and leaves him heavily injured. Fuminori undergoes experimental brain surgery to save his life, but the surgery has an unintended side-effect - it creates a form of agnosia, causing his senses to become "warped". He perceives the world as a hellish nightmare with a black sky and buildings covered in pulsating flesh, where all the streets and building interiors are splattered with blood, giant organs and cartilage. Ordinary people appear to him as grotesque, giant grub-like monsters with a hideous stench, and even food that he used to like now tastes utterly disgusting.

As he contemplates suicide in the hospital, Fuminori meets a beautiful, human looking girl among the flesh-covered walls. She introduces herself as Saya, and is apparently looking for her father. Fuminori does not want to be separated from Saya, and asks her to live with him. She agrees.

However, just as Fuminori sees normal things as monstrously twisted abominations, ordinary observers are able to see that Saya is actually a hideous creature from another universe. She is rarely ever seen by anyone but Fuminori, and those that do see her are immediately killed and consumed by her. Though her true form is never directly shown, it is described in the text, and an apparently identical being appears onscreen toward the end - and, ironically, is similar to the raw-looking, misshapen monstrosities which haunt Fuminori's world. The ultimate goal of her life is to spread her life-form into this universe through the original life-form with the highest level of intelligence: the human being. She learned everything about humanity from her "father", an eccentric Bio-medical scientist named Masahiko Ōgai, the first person to interact with Saya. She finds out the motive of human reproduction is "love", and the process is carried out by females. Consequently, she considers herself as a girl, looking for "love" to prepare for the final reproduction. However, because of her grotesque appearance, she had no chance to succeed - until she met Fuminori.

After her first contact died, she stayed in the hospital to continue her study and to look for the next relationship with a human being, which unfortunately results in a horror story in that hospital. Fuminori's experience also provides her the chance to learn the skills of modifying brains and bodies of human being.

The truth is revealed when Fuminori comes home to see Saya eating the slime-covered corpse of Ōmi, a girl he knows which appears as a yellow-green jelly-like thing in Fuminori's eyes. The smell and texture was described by Fuminori as "herb-like scent, looks like a variety of succulent fruits". When he tries it, he actually finds the human flesh delicious due to his twisted senses.

Endings
There are three endings to the visual novel, depending on the choices that the player makes during the course of the game:


 * Ending 1
 * Saya helps Fuminori return to normal, but suddenly leaves because she does not want to reveal her true form to Fuminori. Fuminori contacts the police, is charged with murder, and becomes confined in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of his life. Saya visits Fuminori once and, refusing to let Fuminori see her and hear her real voice, communicates using texts messages in a cell phone passed through an opening in the door. Fuminori confesses his love and promises to comfort her at any time. Saya leaves to search for her father, whom she believes could help her "go back to where she came" (possibly alluding to the other dimension from which Saya came), and Fuminori continues to wait for her eventual return in his cell. It is implied that the two never meet each other again.


 * Ending 2


 * Fuminori accepts what has happened to him and decides to remain the way he is to stay with Saya. To keep what has happened a secret, Fuminori decide to kill Kōji by setting a trap for him in Masahiko Ōgai's abandoned house in the mountains. However, Kōji is saved by Dr. Ryōko Tanbo, and they discover Ōgai's log with information of Saya. Kōji returns with plans to kill Fuminori in vengeance, and Ryōko offers to help him. After getting Fuminori's location by blackmailing him with information of Saya, the duo enter to kill Fuminori, and in the ensuing struggle Kōji kills a hideously mutated Yoh while Fuminori mortally wounds Ryōko. Before dying, Ryōko, with the help of some liquid nitrogen, manages to inflict a fatal wound to Saya. Upon seeing the state of Saya's body, Fuminori loses all will to live and commits suicide. Saya uses her last strength in order to crawl to Fuminori's body while being repeatedly hit with an iron pipe by Kōji. She dies soon after being reunited with him. After everything he went through, Kōji's mind shatters: he is left with delusions and paranoia, constantly plagued by nightmares of his deceased friends and vivid hallucinations of Ryōko. He keeps a single bullet for his handgun, implying that when his nightmares will become unbearable he will commit suicide.


 * Ending 3


 * The events in this ending are similar to the previous one, except Kōji refuses help from Ryōko in an attempt to kill Fuminori by himself. Without Ryōko's interference, Saya and Fuminori kill Kōji together. Afterwards, it turns out that Saya has reached the last stage and ultimate goal of her life: reproduction. Saya dies while releasing a spore-like matter into the atmosphere—a mutating agent aimed at humans, created by researching the human genome obtained during sex with Fuminori. The agent is spread across the globe by updrafts, slowly turning the entire human population into members of Saya's species. The end of the story is seen from Ryōko's perspective, and it is implied that Fuminori, although without Saya, will see beauty in the world once again since it will be filled with her kind. This ending could be seen as the 'true' ending, due to it seeming most connected with the title.

Characters

 * Fuminori Sakisaka (匂坂 郁紀)
 * The protagonist of the game. A medical school student, he suffers a near-fatal traffic accident which kills his parents and leaves his perception of life permanently altered. As he wades through the "world gone berserk" of flesh and blood, he seeks the affection of the only thing he sees as normal — a mysterious girl named Saya. Over time due to Saya's influence, Fuminori views normal people with apathetic disdain and becomes willing to kill others without remorse with only Saya and later, Yō as exceptions.
 * The protagonist of the game. A medical school student, he suffers a near-fatal traffic accident which kills his parents and leaves his perception of life permanently altered. As he wades through the "world gone berserk" of flesh and blood, he seeks the affection of the only thing he sees as normal — a mysterious girl named Saya. Over time due to Saya's influence, Fuminori views normal people with apathetic disdain and becomes willing to kill others without remorse with only Saya and later, Yō as exceptions.


 * Saya (沙耶)
 * Saya is a being from another dimension who materialized in this universe for the sole purpose of reproduction. She has no memories of where she came from and is guided only by her instincts. Due to Fuminori's condition, he perceives her as a lithe young girl in a white dress, but in actuality she is some sort of amorphous, tentacled, fleshy monstrosity that emits a putrid stench. She preys on creatures of all sizes, from cats to human beings, typically killing them by snapping their necks or disembowelment through some unknown means, and then feasting on their internal organs. Because Fuminori is madly in love with her, he gradually becomes a cannibal. Her true form is never fully revealed, as she immediately kills and consumes any third-party observers. The small amount of information regarding her actual form is gleaned entirely from in-game descriptions, which themselves are rather vague.
 * Saya is a being from another dimension who materialized in this universe for the sole purpose of reproduction. She has no memories of where she came from and is guided only by her instincts. Due to Fuminori's condition, he perceives her as a lithe young girl in a white dress, but in actuality she is some sort of amorphous, tentacled, fleshy monstrosity that emits a putrid stench. She preys on creatures of all sizes, from cats to human beings, typically killing them by snapping their necks or disembowelment through some unknown means, and then feasting on their internal organs. Because Fuminori is madly in love with her, he gradually becomes a cannibal. Her true form is never fully revealed, as she immediately kills and consumes any third-party observers. The small amount of information regarding her actual form is gleaned entirely from in-game descriptions, which themselves are rather vague.


 * Kōji Tonoo (戸尾 耕司)
 * Fuminori's friend. After Fuminori's accident he has been trying to help Fuminori's life get back to normal. After Kōji is almost killed by Fuminori and learns the truth of Fuminori's new character, Kōji directly confronts Fuminori's actions and attempts to kill him.
 * Fuminori's friend. After Fuminori's accident he has been trying to help Fuminori's life get back to normal. After Kōji is almost killed by Fuminori and learns the truth of Fuminori's new character, Kōji directly confronts Fuminori's actions and attempts to kill him.


 * Ōmi Takahata (高畠 青海)
 * Kōji's girlfriend and Yō's best friend. After Fuminori's accident she has become worried for Yō's sake. After Fuminori blatantly rejects Yō, Ōmi investigates by going to Fuminori's house. Inside Fuminori's house, Ōmi is killed by Saya.
 * Kōji's girlfriend and Yō's best friend. After Fuminori's accident she has become worried for Yō's sake. After Fuminori blatantly rejects Yō, Ōmi investigates by going to Fuminori's house. Inside Fuminori's house, Ōmi is killed by Saya.


 * Yō Tsukuba (津久葉 瑶)
 * A friend of Fuminori's who has a crush on him. Since his accident she has been worried and heartbroken at his sudden change of attitude towards the world. When she goes to investigate the disappearance of Ōmi, Yō is captured by Saya. Yō is subjected to an experiment by Saya and becomes genetically altered into the same type of creature as Saya after twenty hours. Fuminori was then able to view Yō as he originally did afterwards. However, the change caused Yō unbearable pain and she begged Kōji to kill her later in the story, which he obliged.
 * A friend of Fuminori's who has a crush on him. Since his accident she has been worried and heartbroken at his sudden change of attitude towards the world. When she goes to investigate the disappearance of Ōmi, Yō is captured by Saya. Yō is subjected to an experiment by Saya and becomes genetically altered into the same type of creature as Saya after twenty hours. Fuminori was then able to view Yō as he originally did afterwards. However, the change caused Yō unbearable pain and she begged Kōji to kill her later in the story, which he obliged.


 * Ryōko Tanbo (丹保 凉子)
 * The physician in charge of Fuminori's condition. She becomes suspicious that Fuminori has been hiding something during his routine checkups after he recovers from his injuries.
 * The physician in charge of Fuminori's condition. She becomes suspicious that Fuminori has been hiding something during his routine checkups after he recovers from his injuries.

Soundtrack
Made by ZIZZ STUDIO.
 * 1) "Schizophrenia"
 * 2) "Sabbath"
 * 3) "Seek"
 * 4) "Spooky Scape"
 * 5) "Song of Saya I"
 * 6) "Song of Saya II"
 * 7) "Sin"
 * 8) "Sunset"
 * 9) "Shapeshift"
 * 10) "Scare Shadow"
 * 11) "Scream"
 * 12) "Savage"
 * 13) "Silent Sorrow"
 * 14) "Song of Saya" (沙耶の唄), sung by Kanako Itō
 * 15) "Shoes of Glass" (ガラスのくつ), sung by Kanako Itō