Saya no Uta Still Remains the Most Horrifying Game of All Time

There is no game that sticks with me to this day in an unsettling manner as much as Saya no Uta. Also known by its English name, The Song of Saya, this unforgettable visual novel still remains to this day the most horrifying game I’ve ever played. If you’re looking for a horror game that will truly keep you up at night this spooky season, this is the one to play.

Despite playing Saya no Uta for the first time well over a decade ago (at the time of writing), its riveting and shocking storyline still haunts me to this day. Without spoiling much, the story begins with a man who ends up in an accident. This messes with his vision and causes him to perceive the entire world as this fleshy, Scorn-like disgusting place.

The protagonist’s accident even makes humans appear as these terrifying, grotesque monsters. As you might expect, this leads the protagonist to madness. That is, until he stumbles upon a girl who looks surprisingly normal named Saya. From there, the story descends into utter hell, both in the nightmarish visuals and the actual writing.

To an extent, this visual novel feels like everything it does is purely for shock value. Name a terrible crime or sin and it probably happens in extremely detailed fashion over the course of this story. And the wildest part is it isn’t even that long. I think it took me about three hours in total to get through Saya no Uta from start to finish.

Even though it is so short, I couldn’t stomach more than 30 minutes at the time when I played it. This is not the type of experience to binge. That is why it took me just over a week of playing for about 30 minutes each day to finish this visual novel when I first played it. Unlike other horror games, I couldn’t exist in that world for too long.

My method of breaking up Saya no Uta over a week ended up being a mistake, too. There wasn’t a single night I went to sleep without a nightmare due to playing this just before bed. No other horror game gave me this many consistent nightmares in a row. And that is all before considering the actual quality of the experience.

While the art and story are spectacularly horrifying at times, it left a surprising mark on me by the end. The conclusion of Saya no Uta is oddly beautiful in a way with the shocking commentary it has. I could spend a whole article’s worth of time just dissecting the finale and the intriguing direction the plot goes in. In a way, this is the necessary evil of visual novels. Every visual novel fan should fight through the madness to the end if they can.

After all, this is the most horrifying and haunting game I’ve ever played. Admittedly, I’m not the horror aficionado. This is far from my best and favorite genre in games. But even the genre giants and spooky games I’ve played don’t even come close to this experience. Titles like Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 7, Slender, Amnesia, The Evil Within, Phasmaphobia, and so on didn’t terrify me how this game has. If you like visual novels and horror, and even if you are like me and don’t prefer scary games, Saya no Uta is the ultimate marriage of the two everyone should try.

Saya no Uta is available right now for PC.