SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim, developed by SAFE HAVN STUDIO and published by HYPER REAL, has just launched for the Nintendo Switch. The game, which has already been out for Steam for some time, is a narrative-driven horror adventure set in 2000s Japan, in which you’re shrunk down and held captive by the mysterious giantess Saeko. As her most trusted prisoner, you are in charge of managing other captives during the day, and serve as her personal confidant during the night. However, this doesn’t mean that you’ll be a pampered pet of the alluring Saeko. She literally has your life in the palm of her hand, and if you make one bad choice, she won’t hesitate to crush you to death.
Recently, AUTOMATON got the opportunity to talk to the developers of Saeko, and ask them about how they managed to balance the elements of “terror” and “arousal” within the game – or, as our interviewer put it: “The strange experience of being overwhelmed with the feelings of ‘Wow her breasts are huge’ and‘I’m going to get killed,’ at the same time.”
“Balancing ‘arousal’ (Saeko’s allure) and ‘terror’ is something we were deeply conscious about throughout development. Actually, I think we put much more emphasis on presenting the fear factor,” the developers said. Ideally, they wanted the player to experience fear first, and then feel the allure of Saeko “slowly creep up on them” as they interact with her.
For example, the scene in the screenshot above shows how they applied this technique. “Composition-wise, Saeko’s breasts occupy a considerable area of the screen, and when you put it like that, it could sound like a rather pleasant situation. However, when you consider the fact that you’ve actually been shrunk to the size of a thumb and are looking at huge breasts ten times your size as you stand on top of a desk, the breasts don’t really feel like breasts, but rather give off the impression of ‘something of a ginormous mass,” the developers explained.
So, in order to make Saeko and her form look more ominous, the development team put a lot of thought into how she was animated. From making sure to place the camera at an angle from which her breasts aren’t fully shown, to carefully considering how they jiggled, and how they behaved under lighting, the developers’ goal was to make them look “not like breasts at first glance.”
“This turned out to be a brilliant choice in terms of direction,” the developers added. “When we first added the animations to the game, I remember getting so excited that we had to put development on pause.”
But while there are certain erotic and fetishistic undertones to Saeko: Giantess Dating Sim (the idea for the game came from an erotic novel that “kind of messed up” the creator’s life), it isn’t an actual sexy game, nor is it a dating sim in which you can butter up Saeko until she falls in love with you. So, the strong emphasis on horror, even in situations that may look like they’re coming from an eroge, makes complete sense in context.
As the developers explained, “The game is a psychological horror. If you look at the screenshots and read its description, I think you’ll be able to understand that it gives off disturbing vibes that are far detached from the idea of a romance game. However, it’s true that the story setting and title make it seem like the game has romance elements, and we even received many messages from overseas fans who had mistaken it for a sexy game in which you get to flirt with Saeko. We ignored all of them though (laughs).”
Saeko: Giantess Dating Sim is out now for PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
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