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WaruiReview: Saya no Uta (with English Patch)

Started by Jango, April 12, 2009, 07:12:54 AM

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Jango

Intro: It's Easter Sunday, and what better way to start it off with sacrilege?! And while I'm at it, this will be the first review of a Visual Novel for TrinityMugen to my knowledge! For fans of Visual Novels, the first thought that comes to mind will most likely be sexing up some women, but would you imagine one with a shitload of gore in it? Saya no Uta dares to go that far, and in the end produces an incredibly unique story



Gameplay: You have one button, and that's your left mouse button. Click and you advance the story. That's pretty much it. There are either one or two parts (depending on the arc) where you can choose what happens, but other than that, you don't really have much control over the game. This is typical of Visual Novels, which are pretty much comparable to "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that I used to gobble up as a child. It's just a shame that you only get two choices max in this game.

Sound: This is one of the game's strongest points. The music is able to transition flawlessly between light-hearted music, to suspenseful music, to on the edge of your seat thrill music. It's rare to find a soundtrack that rarely follows a theme, but this one does a really good job of it. In addition, the sound effects really add to the experience, with every subtle sound from a door opening to the sound of approaching slithering making you feel as if you're not only in the game, but actually in a certain environment with others a definite distance away from you. Finally, the voice-acting is superb. Unlike some of the values I've seen in other Visual Novels, the acting is quite convincing, and some of the sound effect tricks they pull on the voices at, uh, certain moments, are sure to send a chill running down your spine

Rehash Factor: There are a total of three endings. That's all. One ending happens right after the first possible decision you can make, and the other two happen a bit later. I actually got the two long ones after playing for about five hours. However, if you really like the story, I suppose it would be like re-reading a book you really enjoyed.

Plot: Fuminori Sakisaka is the sole survivor of an accident that killed his entire family and left him in critical condition. After an experimental brain surgery to save his life, everything he sees in his world is covered in blood, organs, and whatnot. Meanwhile, everyone he sees takes on the form of grotesque monsters. Except for one girl, a young girl named Saya. Naturally Fuminori takes a liking to her, but what's the meaning behind it all?

Since plots are the most important part of the Visual Novel experience, you'll want to pay attention to this part. The plot is an interesting case on the human condition, highlighting the conflict between truth and sanity. I wish I could expand on that, but to do so would most likely give away the story. The narrative is also quite well-done, shifting back and forth between first-person perspective (when seeing things as Fuminori) and the third-person (whenever someone that isn't Fuminori is central to the story). In the way it's presented, it makes you both sympathize with and loathe Fuminori for the events in the story.

Oh yeah, might as well talk about the sex. In terms of story-development, if you take the shortest path, you get a grand total of three sex scenes while the other add on two more. Again I really don't want to give away the story, but there is some significance to it, as increasingly twisted as each one gets.

Notes About the Translation Patch: Installation is pretty easy, just copy-paste the files and overwrite the originals. While the readme tells you to use AppLocale to run the program, in my tests, this doesn't work while running it as-is works fine. Unfortunately (possibly as a result of running it this way), in some instances, there will be character jumbles for instances of Japanese text in the first few screens (even with Japanese language support), words that don't wrap in the middle, and occasional symbols where linebreaks or ellipses dots should be. Not a game-breaker though.

Difficulty: N/A

Final Score: 8/10
Sure technically there's not a whole lot of "gameplay" involved, but the story is so involving, that's really not the point. At some point in your life, you should check it out, as you probably won't find a more unique story.

Mandatory Closing Image

WARNING NSFW ---> http://jango.piiym-net.com/sayareview2.png <--- WARNING NSFW

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