miserable people having a miserable time. that's basically how i'd describe room no.9. two best friends, who are in an apparent good time in their lives, are suddenly kidnapped and forced to various sexual and gruesome tasks.
while i heavily enjoyed the sex scenes, and specially enjoyed the "good" "true" ending, i feel like room no.9 left me... speechless? i really don't know how i could even rate this visual novel. there's no lore here, just miserable gay sex most of the time. and i do mean that. the game is really doesn't shy away from making the scenes feel miserable through it's writing, making it very obvious that the characters involved are purely doing this out of fear and a sense of duty to help each other. definitely caught myself asking me and my friends what would they do in the situation they got each other in.
room no.9 is an extremely interesting concept, that i don't think could exist beyond the visual novel medium. it's gruesome and miserable, left me questioning myself and what i would do if i was in the same circumstance.
overall, i'd recommend the game for people who want to read two guys in an agonizing situation. fuck or die type. also it's extremely recommended for you to heed the warnings, and use the provided settings, since this novel features some scatological scenes, and you can fully censor them, that made my experience much more enjoyable.

at first, i didn't even know what rating i should give kikokugai. if you've read the novel, you can tell by my username that, well, i actually liked it. but i have a complex relationship with kikokugai as a whole, i think
i love the premise. god, i really do! i think that nothing could be cooler than a transhumanist setting with martial arts and cyber warriors - unfortunately, it lacks in a few places.
the story was very entertaining and the fights were captivating, even i if i find it hard to wrap my head around contact sports with little to no visual feedback.
i think my main issue is that, again, gen urobuchi's misogyny and his dependence on shock value. game starts with a woman being raped. no, this isn't a spoiler, it's literally what you experience after pressing "start" on the main screen. besides that, the main premise of the game is about the protagonist's (kong taoluo) sister (kong ruili) was murdered during a gang rape. im keeping this review spoiler free, but the reason why this happened is revealed later in the game, and it's incredibly disgusting and misogynistic from the writer's perspective. it makes ruili sound like a shallow shadow of what she could be.
even though i hated what the premise came to be, and i feel like the story drags a lot during certain parts, i still enjoyed kikokugai somehow. i feel like the remake's visuals and voiced lines added a lot to my positive feelings towards the story. i also heavily enjoyed the soundtrack.
would i recommend kikokugai? definitely not. i do enjoy it a lot, as a story, as a birthplace of the titular ruili, who is one of my favorite characters of all time, but i don't feel like this is something you need to read.
read it if you wanna experience more of gen urobuchi's early works.
kikokugai is just my personal trashy vn that i enjoyed a lot more than i should.

saya no uta is a miserable, unforgettable, intriguing and captivating experience.
i do have my issues with it - i didn't enjoy the sex scenes. i do understand that this is an eroge, but unfortunately to me it seemed like these scenes were placed with the purpose of shocking the viewer and being transgressive. i didn't enjoy it, so i chose to read the censored steam version, which was more particular to my tastes and i enjoyed it more. i do enjoy transgressive fiction (i am a visual novel reader, after all), but unfortunately i didn't enjoy the sex scenes, let alone the rape scenes. if you're like me and don't enjoy those, i'd definitely read it censored, it didn't take away anything from my full experience.
with it's shortness, i'd definitely recommend this game for new vn readers, specially those who are interested in a cosmic horror. it was the story that got me into visual novels back in 2020, and it's an experience i'll never forget.
the music is extremely remarkable, specially the game's opening track "schizophrenia" - the song truly grips with it's violent noise and twisted sounds, setting the mood for the entirety of the game.
saya no uta made me fall in love this type of cosmic horror mixing beauty and depravity, the enticing visuals of the flesh and gore, mixed with the alluring beauty of human-like creatures.
this story expertly understands the depravity of desperation, of grasping at straws for a semblance of humanity in times of misery.
even though the story has many flaws, i fully believe saya no uta deserves the praise it gets.