This review contains spoilers
By necessity, this post will discuss heavy topics such as mental illness, trauma, sexual abuse, rape, incest, animal abuse, and self-harm. This behemoth also contains spoilers for SayoOshi, tread carefully.
It's very rare that I find a game as grotesquely beautiful as Sayonara o Oshiete ~Comment te Dire Adieu~. Released by Craftwork in 2003 to lukewarm reception that developed into a cult-like following, SayoOshi is considered one of the "Denpa Trifecta." This trio of "main" denpa games that almost any denpa fan will point to as inspiring many of the other games includes SayoOshi, Tsui No Sora, and Jisatsu no Tame no 101 no Houhou.
For the sake of people reading this who have no idea what the heck a denpa is, denpa as a genre is probably best defined using the following three points:
1.) The protagonist is unreliable, and often mentally ill, in some way, shape, or form.
2.) The world around the protagonist seems to be going mad, for reasons the protagonist is trying to figure out.
3.) The plot itself involves the protagonist losing it more and more throughout the plot, though the protagonist often isn't particularly stable or grounded to begin with.
It's probably my favorite subgenre of visual novels. When it's done well, I think it's the most satisfying to see everything come together. And SayoOshi is done really well, in my opinion.
Many other people would disagree with my assessment, especially when it comes to the ending and how mental illness is depicted. I hope, in this long-winded review, I can get my own views on it across. I doubt I'll change anyone's minds, but at the very least, I hope this is somewhat enjoyable to read.
I believe SayoOshi is, at its core, a story about weighing your own guilt with what you're obligated to do, and how being obligated to do things out of guilt and because others tell you to will always lead to destruction, both of yourself and those around you. It's about cycles of abuse and trauma eating people from the inside out. It's not a story about overcoming trauma, or personal hardships. It's a game about how trauma can change people, oftentimes for the worse.
For many, the whole twist about Hirosuke, our nameable protagonist, being in a university hospital for having multiple uninterrupted breaks from reality is a cop-out, even if it was heavily foreshadowed from the beginning. And I can understand that. Even at release, the whole "the protagonist is actually just insane" plot twist was overplayed. But genuinely, I think it pulls it off, especially when it comes to balancing out the relationships and dynamics.
Some visual novels are meant to have a core message of "keep going even when it hurts, even when you feel yourself breaking into a million little pieces," and SayoOshi stands in stark contrast to that. Part of Hirosuke's whole problem is that he continued persevering out of obligation and guilt, without feeling he could reach out for help. He views himself as a deeply horrible human being, and I can't say I disagree much with that assessment. He's hurt insects and cats on purpose. He stole his sister's panties on multiple occasions as a teenager. He can only seem to love something if it's broken.
However, behind the horrible human being, you see all these systems that absolutely failed him. His family failed him. No one saw his concerning pattern of behavior as a child and thought to get him help. There were no attempts to get him help other than shaming him as a group activity, and we can see that made him scared to reach out. Even if his parents had done something, or tried to, the mental health system in Japan is already horrible, and mental health issues tend to be highly stigmatized. As far as we can tell, there were no genuine attempts to try and help him. Almost everyone significant in his life failed him, and this continues on and on until the only way he feels he can cope with his guilt, with his intrusive thoughts, is to bottle it up and create an escapist fantasy.
This isn't me defending him as a person, this is me defending him as a character, as well as the decision to make Hirosuke like this. To drive home the point that he's been failed by most major systems in his life, and that there were so many points where someone could helped him and instead no one did, leading to guilt feeding into obligation feeding into guilt feeding into obligation, and so on, and so forth.
Hirosuke feels guilt for his actions. He doesn't want to be like this. Even at his worst, you can see his hesitation, his trepidation, and again, his guilt. I don't think he's happy hurting other people. But, at the same time, he can't stop anymore. And the loss of control leads into guilt, which makes him feel obligated to continue, which feeds into a destructive cycle.
I think, also, it's interesting to view this cycle with Semina and Tonae. It's a much more subtle cycle for both of them, but still quite interesting.
Semina is the older sister. She was always the one meant to look after Hirosuke, especially because of the gender dynamics at play. But because Hirosuke was "off", and because she was often pushed aside for him, even as a child, she never liked him. Then, Hirosuke hits puberty and takes an interest in her. He steals her underwear, and naturally, she likes him even less and becomes more cruel to him. Meanwhile, her parents are still heavily pressuring her to become a teacher. She gets into her first choice of university, and becomes a teacher like their parents wanted. Hirosuke fails the tests twice. She tries to comfort him out of guilt and out of obligation as his older sister, and this makes things worse because he thinks she's pitying him instead of genuinely wanting to help him. Again, she's been horrible to him until now. This makes sense.
Next, he finally loses it. By this point, their parents are dead, and she's the only one left for him. Obviously, she feels guilty and obligated to take care of him. So, she tries a bunch of things to snap him out of his fantasy. None of them work. Eventually, she takes him to Tonae, at the end of her rope trying to fulfill her duty as his older sister. She visits him every day. But visiting him every day, when he's become deeply misogynistic and gynophobic, does far more harm than good, especially when she's already burnt out from taking care of him and prone to snapping at him. Despite it, he seems to be making at least a little progress before he walks in on Semina and Tonae talking, causing him to completely lose faith in his doctor and beginning another spiral.
At almost every point, Semina's actions are driven by both her sense of duty as his elder sister and as his only living relative, and her guilt for being mean to him, for being unable to find a doctor that can help him, and for not doing, or being, enough. She feels guilty after she snaps at him, and she feels more guilty when Tonae points out that her being near him so often likely made things worse for him, instead of better.
Tonae is the doctor, but she's also Semina's high school friend. They were in the swim club together, and Semina saved her from drowning. Tonae already essentially owes her life to Semina. Thus, when Semina asks her to try and help Hirosuke leave his delusion, of course Tonae agrees. How could she not? That's the person who saved her life! Of course she's going to agree to try and take on his case. Thus, the cycle of guilt and obligation begin again.
Hirosuke is gynophobic. Because she feels she needs to save him, for her own savior, she ends up trying to posit herself as a motherly figure to him. This seems to work well enough for a bit, considering we can see him opening up to her. However, if she pushes back too hard against his delusion, he'll completely lose trust in her, meaning she has to try and ask more roundabout questions to try and ascertain what's going on with him, meaning progress isn't particularly fast. Our first major setback comes when he feels comfortable enough to talk about the nightmare, and Mutsuki, the subject of his nightmare, walks in. This leads to him having a panic attack, and her realizing that the angel in his nightmares is Mutsuki. Unfortunately, she's unable to calm him down after that, since he's on the verge of a spiral. He finally trusts her again after a little bit, is ready to try and talk to her about his nightmares, and walks into her office... only to see Semina with her, thus fully sowing the seeds of distrust that only continue to grow throughout the rest of the game.
Tonae becomes desprate to try and save him. She can feel him clamming up after the progress she made, and so, guilt and obligation combine once again to give her the wonderful idea to try and snap him out of it using sex. Obviously, this doesn't work, given that, once again, Hirosuke has a very complicated relationship with sex and women. (Also see: the power dynamic difference, and the fact Hirosuke is literally unable to consent in a way that matters due to his delusions.)
Tonae feels so indebted to Semina and so duty-bound to help her patient that she takes drastic measures that likely didn't need to be taken in order to try and help Hirosuke, but these measures only make the situation worse. Thus, compounding her guilt, and her obligations, into another destructive spiral.
I don't think it's fair to claim that Sayonara O Oshiete does an asspull of an ending, especially considering the fact the foreshadowing wasn't super subtle, at least to me. I don't think it came out of left field, I think it built up beautifully, especially as we watch these traumas and spirals intersect and hurt everyone involved even more. It was genuinely almost painful to read at times, seeing the cycle everyone had trapped themselves in. My god, was it worth every minute.
I think also, with the concept of spirals and cycles in mind, the actual format works really well. Some of the text just hits different on a second play through without skipping! That doesn't mean I don't have my gripes with it, just that I think it works well.
I don't know how to describe how it resonated with me. I've tried, and tried, but I just can't. I think it's one of those stories you have to experience for yourself to truly understand.
Now, onto things that aren't the plot!
The art is some of the most visually interesting and beautiful art I've ever seen. The usage of color, the compositions themselves, and the art style all meld so well together. It's stunning, visceral, and still maintains a dreamlike aspect to it. I hesitate to call it a treat for the eyes, considering how grotesque it can get, but it's one of the prettiest visual novels I've ever had the pleasure of playing. The art holds up really well, even two decades later.
The music was also very good. None of the tracks were too long or too short, and it was interesting, hearing auditory foreshadowing for some of the characters. However, I do wish there was more of it. It could have benefited from having more music tracks.
The sound design with regards to voices was... just okay. It was fine. There were some standout moments, but even for it's time, it seemed a bit low-quality. There weren't many sound effects, but I did like how the school bell got progressively more messed up.
Overall, I rate this a 9/10 or a 4.5/5. If you have the stomach for it, you should try it.
It's very rare that I find a game as grotesquely beautiful as Sayonara o Oshiete ~Comment te Dire Adieu~. Released by Craftwork in 2003 to lukewarm reception that developed into a cult-like following, SayoOshi is considered one of the "Denpa Trifecta." This trio of "main" denpa games that almost any denpa fan will point to as inspiring many of the other games includes SayoOshi, Tsui No Sora, and Jisatsu no Tame no 101 no Houhou.
For the sake of people reading this who have no idea what the heck a denpa is, denpa as a genre is probably best defined using the following three points:
1.) The protagonist is unreliable, and often mentally ill, in some way, shape, or form.
2.) The world around the protagonist seems to be going mad, for reasons the protagonist is trying to figure out.
3.) The plot itself involves the protagonist losing it more and more throughout the plot, though the protagonist often isn't particularly stable or grounded to begin with.
It's probably my favorite subgenre of visual novels. When it's done well, I think it's the most satisfying to see everything come together. And SayoOshi is done really well, in my opinion.
Many other people would disagree with my assessment, especially when it comes to the ending and how mental illness is depicted. I hope, in this long-winded review, I can get my own views on it across. I doubt I'll change anyone's minds, but at the very least, I hope this is somewhat enjoyable to read.
I believe SayoOshi is, at its core, a story about weighing your own guilt with what you're obligated to do, and how being obligated to do things out of guilt and because others tell you to will always lead to destruction, both of yourself and those around you. It's about cycles of abuse and trauma eating people from the inside out. It's not a story about overcoming trauma, or personal hardships. It's a game about how trauma can change people, oftentimes for the worse.
For many, the whole twist about Hirosuke, our nameable protagonist, being in a university hospital for having multiple uninterrupted breaks from reality is a cop-out, even if it was heavily foreshadowed from the beginning. And I can understand that. Even at release, the whole "the protagonist is actually just insane" plot twist was overplayed. But genuinely, I think it pulls it off, especially when it comes to balancing out the relationships and dynamics.
Some visual novels are meant to have a core message of "keep going even when it hurts, even when you feel yourself breaking into a million little pieces," and SayoOshi stands in stark contrast to that. Part of Hirosuke's whole problem is that he continued persevering out of obligation and guilt, without feeling he could reach out for help. He views himself as a deeply horrible human being, and I can't say I disagree much with that assessment. He's hurt insects and cats on purpose. He stole his sister's panties on multiple occasions as a teenager. He can only seem to love something if it's broken.
However, behind the horrible human being, you see all these systems that absolutely failed him. His family failed him. No one saw his concerning pattern of behavior as a child and thought to get him help. There were no attempts to get him help other than shaming him as a group activity, and we can see that made him scared to reach out. Even if his parents had done something, or tried to, the mental health system in Japan is already horrible, and mental health issues tend to be highly stigmatized. As far as we can tell, there were no genuine attempts to try and help him. Almost everyone significant in his life failed him, and this continues on and on until the only way he feels he can cope with his guilt, with his intrusive thoughts, is to bottle it up and create an escapist fantasy.
This isn't me defending him as a person, this is me defending him as a character, as well as the decision to make Hirosuke like this. To drive home the point that he's been failed by most major systems in his life, and that there were so many points where someone could helped him and instead no one did, leading to guilt feeding into obligation feeding into guilt feeding into obligation, and so on, and so forth.
Hirosuke feels guilt for his actions. He doesn't want to be like this. Even at his worst, you can see his hesitation, his trepidation, and again, his guilt. I don't think he's happy hurting other people. But, at the same time, he can't stop anymore. And the loss of control leads into guilt, which makes him feel obligated to continue, which feeds into a destructive cycle.
I think, also, it's interesting to view this cycle with Semina and Tonae. It's a much more subtle cycle for both of them, but still quite interesting.
Semina is the older sister. She was always the one meant to look after Hirosuke, especially because of the gender dynamics at play. But because Hirosuke was "off", and because she was often pushed aside for him, even as a child, she never liked him. Then, Hirosuke hits puberty and takes an interest in her. He steals her underwear, and naturally, she likes him even less and becomes more cruel to him. Meanwhile, her parents are still heavily pressuring her to become a teacher. She gets into her first choice of university, and becomes a teacher like their parents wanted. Hirosuke fails the tests twice. She tries to comfort him out of guilt and out of obligation as his older sister, and this makes things worse because he thinks she's pitying him instead of genuinely wanting to help him. Again, she's been horrible to him until now. This makes sense.
Next, he finally loses it. By this point, their parents are dead, and she's the only one left for him. Obviously, she feels guilty and obligated to take care of him. So, she tries a bunch of things to snap him out of his fantasy. None of them work. Eventually, she takes him to Tonae, at the end of her rope trying to fulfill her duty as his older sister. She visits him every day. But visiting him every day, when he's become deeply misogynistic and gynophobic, does far more harm than good, especially when she's already burnt out from taking care of him and prone to snapping at him. Despite it, he seems to be making at least a little progress before he walks in on Semina and Tonae talking, causing him to completely lose faith in his doctor and beginning another spiral.
At almost every point, Semina's actions are driven by both her sense of duty as his elder sister and as his only living relative, and her guilt for being mean to him, for being unable to find a doctor that can help him, and for not doing, or being, enough. She feels guilty after she snaps at him, and she feels more guilty when Tonae points out that her being near him so often likely made things worse for him, instead of better.
Tonae is the doctor, but she's also Semina's high school friend. They were in the swim club together, and Semina saved her from drowning. Tonae already essentially owes her life to Semina. Thus, when Semina asks her to try and help Hirosuke leave his delusion, of course Tonae agrees. How could she not? That's the person who saved her life! Of course she's going to agree to try and take on his case. Thus, the cycle of guilt and obligation begin again.
Hirosuke is gynophobic. Because she feels she needs to save him, for her own savior, she ends up trying to posit herself as a motherly figure to him. This seems to work well enough for a bit, considering we can see him opening up to her. However, if she pushes back too hard against his delusion, he'll completely lose trust in her, meaning she has to try and ask more roundabout questions to try and ascertain what's going on with him, meaning progress isn't particularly fast. Our first major setback comes when he feels comfortable enough to talk about the nightmare, and Mutsuki, the subject of his nightmare, walks in. This leads to him having a panic attack, and her realizing that the angel in his nightmares is Mutsuki. Unfortunately, she's unable to calm him down after that, since he's on the verge of a spiral. He finally trusts her again after a little bit, is ready to try and talk to her about his nightmares, and walks into her office... only to see Semina with her, thus fully sowing the seeds of distrust that only continue to grow throughout the rest of the game.
Tonae becomes desprate to try and save him. She can feel him clamming up after the progress she made, and so, guilt and obligation combine once again to give her the wonderful idea to try and snap him out of it using sex. Obviously, this doesn't work, given that, once again, Hirosuke has a very complicated relationship with sex and women. (Also see: the power dynamic difference, and the fact Hirosuke is literally unable to consent in a way that matters due to his delusions.)
Tonae feels so indebted to Semina and so duty-bound to help her patient that she takes drastic measures that likely didn't need to be taken in order to try and help Hirosuke, but these measures only make the situation worse. Thus, compounding her guilt, and her obligations, into another destructive spiral.
I don't think it's fair to claim that Sayonara O Oshiete does an asspull of an ending, especially considering the fact the foreshadowing wasn't super subtle, at least to me. I don't think it came out of left field, I think it built up beautifully, especially as we watch these traumas and spirals intersect and hurt everyone involved even more. It was genuinely almost painful to read at times, seeing the cycle everyone had trapped themselves in. My god, was it worth every minute.
I think also, with the concept of spirals and cycles in mind, the actual format works really well. Some of the text just hits different on a second play through without skipping! That doesn't mean I don't have my gripes with it, just that I think it works well.
I don't know how to describe how it resonated with me. I've tried, and tried, but I just can't. I think it's one of those stories you have to experience for yourself to truly understand.
Now, onto things that aren't the plot!
The art is some of the most visually interesting and beautiful art I've ever seen. The usage of color, the compositions themselves, and the art style all meld so well together. It's stunning, visceral, and still maintains a dreamlike aspect to it. I hesitate to call it a treat for the eyes, considering how grotesque it can get, but it's one of the prettiest visual novels I've ever had the pleasure of playing. The art holds up really well, even two decades later.
The music was also very good. None of the tracks were too long or too short, and it was interesting, hearing auditory foreshadowing for some of the characters. However, I do wish there was more of it. It could have benefited from having more music tracks.
The sound design with regards to voices was... just okay. It was fine. There were some standout moments, but even for it's time, it seemed a bit low-quality. There weren't many sound effects, but I did like how the school bell got progressively more messed up.
Overall, I rate this a 9/10 or a 4.5/5. If you have the stomach for it, you should try it.