Going to Frank N' Con

We're heading to the El Paso Wyndham Inn for Frank N' Con. Look forward to our coverage of the event in the next couple weeks.

If you'd like to join us, tickets are still available at the door for the same prices. Also, keep an eye on the Frank N' Con website and Facebook page for updates from the convention as they happen.

Enjoy the convention, and have a safe and Happy Halloween from all of us at Augmented Reality!

I'm a Drac - Wild Night Out

This is the last Mac Parody video for this season. It was a lot of fun to produce and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

In this one, Drac and Zombie discuss what they do in their spare time. Sounds like fun.

In Memory of Steve Jobs.

FAL-Con Halloween Spook Fest and Dinner

Frank N' Con is just around the corner, this Saturday and Sunday, October 29th and 30th, but the day before, don't forget to stop by the Major Players 1580 George Dieter, Friday October 28th from 4 to 8 pm for Fal-Con's first annual Halloween Spook Fest and Dinner. There will be a Zombie Walk, A Costume Contest, Face Painting, Trick or Treating and other Halloween surprises. The event is free, but dinner will be sold for $5 with all proceeds benefitting next year's Fal-Con event. For more info, visit Fal-Con's event page on Facebook.

DRRRRRRR! dat gang violence

in honor of finishing Durarara, here's a picture of my new hat.

I started Durarara back in January of 2010 when it was having it's original run but ended up dropping the show after a few episodes due to disinterest. The owner of Robo Gato has this habit of mentioning Celty any chance he can so last week I was going through anime I had downloaded but hadn't watched only to decide to watch Durarara. I ended up having a marathon of episodes 7-24 (I had watched 1-6 the day before) while working on a scarf for a friend of mine.


image copyright goes out to Brain's Base



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Specs:
Studio- Brain's Base
Director- Takahiro Omori

Series Information:
Year- 2010
# of Episodes- 24
Genre(s)- action, romance, supernatural
Synopsis-
Ryūgamine Mikado is a boy who longs for the exciting life of the big city. At the invitation of his childhood friend Masaomi, he transfers to a school in Ikebukuro. Masaomi has warned him about people he doesn't want to cross in the city: a champion fighter, an informant, and a mysterious gang called "Dollars." Nervous from Masaomi's stories, Mikado witnesses an urban legend on his first day in the city, the Headless Rider astride a black motorcycle. From then on, the existence of supernatural cases and a gang called the Yellow Scarves will rise to the surface, and Ikebukuro will pushed to the breaking point.
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I believe more people have heard of the Baccano anime verses the Durarara one, which is understandable considering Baccano was released by FUNimation before Durarara was announced in Japan if my mind serves me that memory correctly. My good friend has been practically begging me to watch Baccano, and he constantly mentions how good of a story it has. I should get around to watching it considering there are only 16 episodes, a whole 10 less than Durarara... well my rebellious nature took over telling me to "watch Durarara first!" even though it takes about 3 hours longer to watch.
I mention Baccano because the same author who wrote the light novels also wrote the light novels Durarara is an adaptation of.

If you like fast paced anime, then you'll probably enjoy this one even though the fast pace doesn't seem to go anywhere for about 10 or so episodes. There is plenty of action, and there seems to be a story developing but by the time the story is revealed (I believe around episode 11) you feel like you just may have wasted your time; but bear in mind these first 10 episodes were to let you get to know the characters, to get attached to them whether they were main characters or side characters. A really good point about this anime is that the side characters get a pretty good amount of screen time, and get their shining moments just about as much as the main cast. This isn't usually done in anime, but with a 26 episode series it's entirely possible and executed appropriately. Characters I didn't really much care for from the first few episodes I honestly became attached to; by the end of the show I didn't have any real favorite characters nor particularly disliked any as well.

One of this shows highlight is the very catchy opening and endings. All of them are easily recognizable as being "that music from Durarara" instead of generic poppy sounds like a lot of anime have these days. The background music isn't all that memorable because I honestly don't remember any of it... but I hardly ever remember background music >.<

Animation is fairly straight forward, but thanks to the character designs and city like feel of the show I feel in love with the style. Fight scenes are smooth, and ones where Celty is chasing down vehicles on her "horse" (it's her black motorcycle) are believable despite the fact she can leap extreme distances.

Overall Durarara is very action packed, but it takes like 10 episodes to reveal any real plot which makes this a show you have to have patience with. It's not like Inuyasha where the plot goes off track just about any chance it gets, but once the plot is revealed Durarara has one of the best reasons for being animated that I've seen in a long time. Light novels are a big source of adaptation these days in the anime community, but a lot of them are about getting together with a tragic moe girl verses a good story. Good thing Durarara decided that it was going to be kick ass verses another reason for me to go "awww, you're just like all the other light novel anime out there"

Did I mention that this anime is about gang violence and Valkyries? No, well shame on me.

I'm a Drac - Popularity

Augmented Reality Online Magazine presents Drac vs. Zombie! In this installment, Drac tells Zombie the woes of current vampire movies.

In loving memory of Steve Jobs.

(c) 2011, Retro-Cam Productions, all rights reserved

Alicia's Stories of Scariness! - "Amityville Horror"

This week on Alicia's Stories of Scariness, Alicia Bracken tells us the scary tale of the Amityville Horror!

Upcoming Events: Frank N' Con Pre-Shows

For those of you who enjoyed our recent episode of Aspect Ratio, which took place at a Frank N' Con preview at the Judge Marquez library, we're glad to inform you that there will be two more events. one will take place this Thursday, October 20, at the Cielo Vista Branch Library at 4 pm. Another will take place Saturday, October 22, at the Pebble Hills Library starting at 3:30 pm. Also, don't forget about Frank N' Con, which will be taking place October 29 and 30 at the Airport Wyndham inn. For more info on all these events, visit Frank N' Con's website or Facebook pages.

Aspect Ratio - Frank N' Con/Legend of the Seeker

Ruben Rascon III pays a visit to the Judge Marquez library to have a chat with some more of Frank 'N Con's supporters: Vendor and "Legend of the Seeker" enthusiast Andy Lawless, short film director Dakota Thomas, Ghostbuster and prop-master Jose Ilarramendi, and undead emcee Ghoulie the Kid.

Augmented Reality Podcast #4 - "Augtoberfest" (10/01/11)

Augmented Reality Podcast #4 - "Augtoberfest" (10/01/11) by Augrealmag on Mixcloud

Welcome to episode 4 of the Augmented Reality Podcast. Join Ruben Rascon, Alicia Bracken, Mike Cervantes, Mike Quevedo, Alex Galindo, Cris Enriquez and PJ Moreno as they discuss upcoming events for the month of October, celebrating Augtoberfest, at Augmented Reality Online Magazine.

(c) 2011, Augmented Reality Online Magazine

MAS is Back

*Walks out into the center of the ring and looks around at the cheering fans... After looking around for a good minute or two, he takes off his sunglasses and speaks into the microphone*

FINALLY!!! MAS8705 has come back to Augmented Reality!!!

*Tosses microphone off to side and he steps back into reality*

As much fun as it is to rip off the Rock's intro, I need to get serious here (or as serious as I can be when I do write in the blog)... For those of you who have no idea who the hell I am, I'm MAS8705, self-proclaimed "MASter-Gamer" of Augmented Reality and fellow contributor, or at least I was until about a month or so ago when school started... I admit that the start of the semester hasn't been too kind to me due to complications that have arisen, however I'm happy to announce that I have not only taken care of them (more or less) but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things providing all the ins and outs for all you gamers out there!

I admit that I will need to get caught back up to speed as to the upcoming events, and to get ready to help contributing more ideas that we hope the rest of you will enjoy... And don't worry, I plan on doing more of my 500 word rants and video showcases in the very near future, alongside showcasing my awesomeness...

In fact, Why don't I show off my awesomeness right now?

In the world of video gaming, there are alot of ways to show your greatness, such as achievements (TheMASterBlader-110k+ gamer score), completing games (there are way too many to count), or partaking in gaming tournaments (have placed in Top 16 and Top 32 in several fighting game tourneys around the El Paso/las cruces)... However, the greatest way to show your excellence is through the practice I like to call, Speed runs.

Have you ever seen Mario beaten in under 5 minutes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRyhpxR3l_g

If you ever wanted to see some of your favorite games get dismantled to a point where Hours on end games get beaten in a short time, look no further than speed runs... From Games beaten in three seconds, to RPGs being cleared in under a couple hours (FFX- 10 hours, Skies of Arcadia- 12 hours), any game that is any can be broken down if you have the devotion in it to succeed...

I am part of a site called Speed Demos Archive, and while I am the Rookie of SDA, I am slowly making a name for myself and will hopefully be seen as a big name as a bunch of other people on the site. However, much like many other things in life, you have to work hard and pay your dues before you can hit it big, and I have many lumps to prove it. Case and point, here is the speed run I have done that is actually featured on SDA:

Megaman Powered up: Fireman Run

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD8696D87DA6851E6

Is the run the greatest speed run ever?

...

well no, of course not... But you have to start somewhere and work your way up... Anyway, the point is that in case if there maybe slow weeks, I might show off some of my gaming sessions, including speed runs on games that have yet to be featured yet... But again, we will find out how things will work... Again, I need to catch up with the crew, including meeting up with some of the new staff we have since my mysterious disappearance, but I hope I can get you guys to read and enjoy my articles again...

Until next time, I'm MAS8705 and in the words of the great frank Sinatra: the best has yet to come and you Ain't seen nothing yet!

Alicia's Stories of Scariness - Ghost Train

Alicia is back with another story that's gonna...you know, really rattle your stuff. This time it's about the ghostly train.

I wouldn't want to live in No.6

During one of the anime seasons this year (I believe it was the summer one) I started a show called no.6; emphasis on the started because I did not get around to finishing it till recently. There's no real reason behind why I waited till recently to finish this show because I typically end up "dropping" 80%+ of the shows I start any given season because most are bland, not worth keeping up with or probably better in a marathon format. So ya! On to the review!!


image copyright goes out to BONES

I wasn't too sure at first if no.6 was based on a manga, or if the manga came out after the anime but through further research it appears the manga came out first. From what I could tell, the manga isn't very long... I don't even know if it's more than one volume BUT I have no plans on reading it because after watching the anime I realized even though the anime only had yaoi elements, the manga will probably have more >.> No thank you.

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Specs:
Studio- BONES
Director- Kenji Nagasaki

Series Information:
Year- 2011
# of Episodes- 11
Genre(s)-dystopia, future, post apocalyptic
Synopsis-
Sion is a bright teenager living a comfortable and promising life inside No. 6, one of this six remaining city-states created by The Babylon Treaty after the last great war devastated the world. On the rainy evening of his twelfth birthday, he meets a savvy adolescent who calls himself "Nezumi" (Rat) and is desperately trying to runaway from the authorities. For helping a fugitive of the state, Sion is stripped of all his privileges. Four years later, they meet once again. For better or for worse, Sion is about to unravel the secrets guarded deep inside No. 6.
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So, you want to know what I think about no.6? Well I ask you, will you be able to handle the truth? 'cause if you can't I'm not responsible for breaking your little anime loving heart. Not all anime series are good, some are just plain bad. This one isn't one of the "just plain bad" breed but it's not very good anyways.

no.6 had an exciting first episode, I'm not going to lie about that... yet when I watched episode 2 I decided screw this series, I'm going to spend my time on better anime such as Blood+ (dropped it a few more episodes in). Ya the second episode got more into the nit and gritty that this show would have in later episodes but that just wasn't enough for me. BONES animates really well, but I've come to the realization that even though I love BONES (they made RaXephon and several other favorite anime of mine) not everything they release is going to be good even though I expect it to.

This anime had a really interesting concept, despite being a concept that has been done so many times before. Get this, the concept is pretty much that if one group of people create this utopian world it's bound to be corrupt. no.6 is corrupt, and the way it gets torn down just isn't all that exciting. Other anime of this kind have had much better endings but this one just ended. It was an ok ending, and it did explain why everything that went down occurred but after watching this short 11 episode series I felt like I watched one of the blandest anime I had seen in a while.

Overall this one was well animated, characters did nothing for me, the story could have been so much better, the music was ok and my time was wasted. Don't even bother. If you're expecting a sci-fi spectacle like I was prepare for utter disappointment.

I might as well mention the best part of this show was the realization that killer bees were living and breeding inside the necks of no.6 residents. This isn't a horrific anime and this "bee disease" isn't explained to the extent it could have been. I personally don't think this show needed more than 11 episodes because anymore would have been too much 'cause there wasn't any tech lingo and the sci-fi concepts were so not out there.

I'm A Drac - Networking

We had discussed not uploading the rest of these due to the recent passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs. But, honestly, this is a sincere tribute to the man who brought us, at the very least, these commercials.

Here Drac and Zombie consider starting a network. Of course networking is easier for some than others.

Aspect Ratio - Dog Lover's Fair/ Frank 'N Con 2011

Ruben Rascon III comes to you live from, a dog show?!?! Oh! That's because he was there to meet up with Frank N' Con co-founder Berlin Arellano for an interview, and also to interview some other local guests who plan to attend the event, as well as hold Halloween themed events of their own

An Interview with Frank 'N Con founder Salvador Arellano

This past September we asked a few questions of Salvador Arellano, co-owner of Bersal's Chop of Horrors movie memorabilia shop, and founder of Frank 'N Con 2011, which will be taking place this year at the El Paso Airport Wyndham Inn, Saturday and Sunday, October 29th and 30th.


AR: What first got you interested in horror?

Salvador: My dad opened up a video store when I was a kid and all the great vhs cover art from the 80's made me wanna watch them. I liked most of them .

AR: You've been to many horror conventions in other parts of the country. What elements of those conventions stands out for you and what experiences will you bring from there to El Paso?

Salvador: What makes a convention is the guest list. Other than that most conventions have the same formula with stylistic differences. We will have events going on after the convention floor closes both days we will show movies and music in the theater area of the hotel.

AR: Why do you think El Paso needs a horror convention?

Salvador: I'm just doing this show because I'm a big horror fan and this idea had been brewing for Five years

AR: How have your experiences been promoting the convention so far. Do you think the city has been supportive of the idea of Frank N Con?

Salvador: The convention has many people excited. I get a lot of requests for certain guests but first we've got to show there is a market for a horror conventions.

AR: What kind of response do you hope to get from the public?

Salvador: Hopefully I will get a good response and this becomes a yearly event.

For More information on Frank 'N Con, please visit the webpage: http://www.frankncon.com/

Review: Swamp Thing-Dark Genesis TPB

Svartsot - Maledictus Eris

Being the season of all that is morbid, gory, and just plain awful I bring a treat! This is Alex and here I present to you a new installment of “Bands that Alex Likes on Ice in 3-D, the Halloween Version” today’s review will be on one of my most favorite bands Svartsot and their most recent CD “Maledictus Eris” that (in Europe) was released on July 29th, 2011. The third CD from Danish folk/death metal band Svartsot is a concept album about the Bubonic Plague arriving in Denmark in the 14th century and the death it left in its path. While the lyrical content sounds a little depressing/gory, musically it has surpassed the already high expectations I had hoped for it. This album was different from the first two albums “Mulmets Viser “(Darkness Shows) and “Ravenes Saga” which just made you want to go out and pillage some villages and drink while you were at it. “Maledictus Eris” has evolved Svartsot’s sound into something less pillage-y but still being true to the spirit of wanting to headbang along to the songs.

“Maledictus Eris” begins with a gloomy short intro: “Staden…”(City…) and goes in to the next track “Gud giv det varer ved!” (God give the goods in!) with full force…..and the force won’t stop, which is a good thing because you won‘t want it to. Blast beats, amazing guitar work, traditional folk, and a singer who has an unmistakable voice acoustics that just work so well together throughout this album. One of the tracks that blends this so well together would be track number four “Farsoten kom” (Plagues Came). Granted all of them sound great and each song has a different folk instrument that sticks out more than the rest. The only song in this whole album that isn’t brutal/heavy would be track number ten “Spigrene” (Spikes) is a sorrowful ballad of sorts telling the story of watching everything from the sidelines and feeling fear: The weight on a mans soul after locking people in their homes leaving them to die for fear of the spread of the disease.

The final track though “..Og Landet ligger sa ode hen” (..And the land is so desolate) is one of the greatest ending songs lyrically and musically. Seeing how a big part of the population is dead and seeing that only strength can keep who is left alive. The people look forward to the future that looms ahead.

While typing up synopsis on each of the songs would make this review easier to understand not to mention longer than it should be you will just have to hear for yourself. Only problem is I highly doubt you can get this CD at any record stores and might have to order it online from Europe which makes me a sad pillager. Below are some youtube links for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqOhnIXKv1E -“Spigrene”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06zqOfEbPU - “Gud giv det varer ved!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhLsjFaF5ko -“Farsoten kom”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tS0yeluQf8 - “..Og Landet ligger sa ode hen”

Journey into Mystery #622-#628

Oh hey there little duckies Alex here and I will indulge you guys with a really good series that I particularly enjoyed. As many of you might hear from everyone (I am looking particularly at you Alicia) I am a big fan of Thor (my favorite Marvel character, everyone). And Journey into Mystery is a sort of continuation/tie in after Thor #621, so I decided why the hell not and began to read. Written by Kieron Gillen and amazing art by Dougie Braithwaite and Ulises Arreola, we start our review.

Back the fuck up! before we go into this any further you guys have to know a little about the past issues ; Loki sacrificed himself in order from keeping Asgard from being destroyed (by his own fault). After finding out about this, every Asgardian is relieved of this news except Thor. He misses his lil’ bro and decides to bring him back (Thor#616-617) Finds Loki’s reincarnated soul in the body of a street rat kid in France. Thor brings him back to Asgard to the dismay of the rest of the Aesir (Asgardians)

This part of the Thor saga continues after Thor#621. Now on to where Journey into Mystery begins issue #622 (and so far to issue #628), Loki is finding it hard to fit in with the rest of the Aesir with the whole “they think he is still super evil adult Loki”. With the exception of Thor who loves his brother. As I am sitting here listening to some Enslaved and reading Thor , I wonder to myself “Wow it can’t be any better than this” HOW WRONG I WAS it became so much better because of one reason

This magnificent bastard

Loki has been written to be mischievous but in the snaky/smartass/funny way. As the story progresses Journey into Mystery centers around Loki and how he tries to prove to Thor that he isn’t the same evil as fuck Loki as when he died. In one of these misadventures he speaks to an echo of his older self who tried to persuade kid Loki into being evil again where kid Loki was all “Get dat shit outta here”. For those who don‘t speak ugly it means he denounced his old evil ways. While reading these you see the shenanigans Loki gets into and begin to think he is back into his old self (“ANOTHER LIE I BET, DAMMIT LOKI” you will say).

When in turn Loki just throws a curveball at your face and you see he fixed like two things at the same time! “Loki what do you think you are doin- Oh DAYUM!” Was my reaction throughout most of these issues. Being a tie in for Fear Itself Loki finds out about the prophecy that “Thor will lose fighting against the Serpent” so Loki does what he does best…..He will try to stop that prophecy one way or another with a crazy plan. One of his insane ass plans has to do with tricking Mephisto and stopping a war between Hel and him just to distract them long enough to steal the shadow of Surtur’s sword?! What the shit?! Then he proceeds to steal the Destroyer armor and with a rag tag team consisting of Leah (consort to Hela), The Disir (Cursed undead soul eating Valkeryies) and the (also undead) god of war Tyr. Loki faces the Serpent head on and declares to “Come at me bro”

And that is it for the time being, this is the terribly condensed version of those issues and we just have to wait till later on this month for issue #629 of Journey into Mystery (which I can’t wait for) and if interested I can do a review for that issue too. As far as these issues go, I think they are a great story and it shows a more human sentimental side to Thor and Loki that has rarely been touched. So I would definitely recommend for Thor fans and regular readers alike.

I'm a Drac - Stomach Ache

This "Augtoberfest" we decided to do a spoof of those hilarious "I'm A Mac" commercials produced by Apple. That's never been done on the web before, right? RIGHT?!

Anyway, this is the first video given to us by our new collaborative team the "Damn Dirty Apes," with contributors Cris Enriquez (Drac), PJ Moreno (Zombie), and Alex Gallindo behind the wonderful makeup and costume effects for this video. you guys rock. Hope to see more!

Review: "The Tomb of Dracula" Vol.1 TPB

Alicia's Stories of Scaryness - The Witch with the Golden Arm

Alicia, Augmented Reality co-founder, and survivor of many a circle around a campfire uses her exquisite storytelling skills in this Augtoberfest segment. Be aware, this is, like, pretty scary stuff, and junk, I guess...

SexyTaco Productions - Interviewing the Power Rangers

Sexy Taco Productions suddenly becomes the envy of all local comic scenesters by interviewing all of the Power Rangers-related special guests at EPCON 2011: Jessica Ray, Nikia Burise, Cat Sutherland, and Walter Jones.

Saya no Uta

(check this Guro article out by r//w[g])

WARNING: Augmented Reality is somewhat of a family friendly blog but this entry specifically is not for kids. I am reviewing a hentai game even though I played a version that had the sex scenes censored. So I am not responsible if any kids read this because I did put a warning.

October is a month to scare people and dress up as what ever you'd like (slut-tastic versions of your favorite characters included). It's also a month to be extremely grossed out. While I'm no fan of horror films, one thing I am a fan of is a little something called guro, not to be confused with ero-guro. Over here in the states, guro has been incorrectly used to mean gore when in all actuality it's a term that implies malformation, unnatural or horrific situations. A lot of guro that has come out recently is pornographic, but I'm a fan of ones that aren't and a few that are (Tokyo Akazukin for example). For today's review, I'll be going over a visual novel called Saya no Uta (Song of Saya) that was recently acquired by Jast USA for a north America localization. I played a fan translation of the game... only to be unable to sleep for a few days due to my dumb self choosing to play the uncensored version, but I'll go over that in a bit.


image copyright goes out to Nitro+



Saya no Uta was created by Nitro+ based on Lovecraftian horror elements, which makes sense when you think about how Japanese like their hentai- with tentacles. The game itself isn't really for your average H-game (adult visual novels with hentai scenes) player because it is a game that is hard to stomach due to the main characters "meat vision". I shouldn't have even played this game. It ended up making me stay up for a few nights without sleep or food because of how gruesome the backgrounds are >.> but I could more than likely stomach it now.

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Specs:
Studio- Nitro+
Platform- PC
Release Date- December 2003 (Japanese)
Rating- 18+
Mode- single player
Genre- horror
Synopsis-
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. [wiki]
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I had planned on making this a review, but it'll probably be more of me ranting about how creepy yet endearing this game is. Almost every review you will read online will say what I need to say in regards to if it is a worth playing game or not so here is a review I'd recommend if you need some internet word of mouth to decide if it is a game you should play.

You may be wondering what this "meat vision" I spoke of earlier was. WELL you see that picture of Saya? Ya, the background is how you would see the world if you had the form of agnosia the main character has due to that surgery he had; this is what I call "meat vision." I can only imagine how horrifying seeing the world in such a way would be. Heck, just playing the game made me depressed enough to be unable to eat and sleep for a few days. If I could actually feel the world as he did (you know, walls pulsating being all slimy. my good friends smelling like rotting flesh), I'd probably have committed suicide or gone back to the hospital and said "check me into a psych ward." Now I'm not the main character, and he didn't check himself back into a hospital 'cause of one thing- Saya.

While other humans appear as slimy monsters to the main character, Saya appears as an innocent little girl- the only one who looks human in this world of pulsating flesh, organs and a sense that the world will never be the same again. Saya is pretty much the only thing keeping the main character "sane," if that's what you could call it considering Saya isn't who she appears to be; her mysterious identity is the driving premise for this game and it is one creepy premise at that. Nitro+ is known for making creepy games (they made Chaos;HEAD which has an anime adaptation that I really love) and they didn't hold back with this one.

One thing this game does very well (besides some very tight knit writing) is with music. Some of the songs are painful to listen too while not playing the game, and almost as painful while playing. They create this sense of trying to survive in this messed up world as well as the innocence of Saya who if it wasn't for you wouldn't really have a companion to call her own. SCHIZOPHRENIA in particular has that fingernails on a chalkboard effect on the ears, and it's used very appropriately during the game. On the opposite side of the musical spectrum is SABBATH which creates a calming feeling as opposed to that creepy one SCHIZOPHERINA created. Shoes of Glass in particular is one of my personal favorites.

Saya no Uta can easily be played through in as little as 5 hours, which was really cool in my opinion considering I'm still trying to get through Fate/Stay Night... but that's a topic for another blog entry down the line.

While Saya no Uta is possibly the creepiest visual novel I've ever played through, it's still sweet and endearing in the end. While this VN has a medical theme like almost all tragic VNs, it isn't about some teenage girls getting a disease and dieing- it's about a male protagonist being given a warped view on the world and how a little girl named Saya helped him deal with it.

There are 3 endings, two of which could be considered bad ends so this game does lead itself to being replayed. I only got one of the endings and YouTubed the others as I didn't feel like making myself more depressed than I was. This is not a game for everyone. The gore content alone is reason enough not to play this game, but there is an option to blur out the content so it won't look as gorey so if that's the only reason you don't want to play this one I recommended using the bluring option because it is a great game. It has a really good linear story and is well worth the read so please give it a chance!