Say it in Red | Episode 35: Chaos;Head Noah (Part 2 of 2)

Say It In Red

Have you ever felt the prickling sense of a pair of eyes gazing at you from a place unseen? Are you able to instantly locate the sound of a cellphone ringing anywhere in your room? Do you sometimes see faces in the patterns of woodgrain or on a popcorn ceiling? And, most importantly, has a pink haired girl every broken your arm or hurled you from a building? If so, you may be entitled to damages.
This month, to close out 2022 and our coverage of Chaos;Head Noah, Sara, Runa, and returning guest Meowgon dig deep to excavate the remainder of the main story, play through the alternate endings, and experience the true horror of the Noah experience: The Girls' routes. After following Taku's growing paranoia and increasing entanglement in the NewGen murder cases and the vast conspiracy surrounding di-swords and their wielders, we arrive with him at the top of a skyscraper overlooking the scramble crossing as he finally lays eyes on his own sword. A mild earthquake has somehow caused a record number of casualties, Nanami has been kidnapped, and Rimi has vanished as Taku stands above a crowd of thousands, looks out across the crossing, and reaches for the outline of a di-sword. Unfortunately for him, it will be almost four more chapters until he claims it.
Chaos;Head Noah is a remake and update of the original Chaos;Head, originally released in 2008 and only now available in 2022 with an official English version. In this half of our coverage, we'll cover the last five chapters of the core game of Chaos;Head Noah, the additional Crying Sky ending, all of the Girls' Routes and their associated endings, and then the "Blue Sky" ending added to the Noah version, unlocked once you complete every other available ending in the game. After the earthquake that closed out Chapter 5, reports pour in of massive casualties with over 300 injured and over 100 dead, all from a simple 5.6 earthquake which centralized most of its damage exclusively within Shibuya. Taku, however, has far more dire things to worry about as Shogun has sent him a "present" - Nanami's severed right hand, still clutching her cell phone, and wrapped up carefully in a cardboard box. From there, things only get worse for Taku: A mysterious caller tries to force him to manifest his di-sword, his classmates sneer at him after he's humiliated on a live nationwide broadcast, more NewGen murders occur, Sena tries to kill him for inadvertently creating the formula that allows a mind control device to function, and worst of all he tries to go back home. In the end, no matter what path you take through the story, Shibuya lies in ruins.
As a note to listeners who want to read along with us, Chaos;Head Noah is a horror game with a long list of graphic, disturbing, and potentially anxiety-inducing topics. While we mention a few of them in our episode, because of the wide variety of delusions present in the game and the breadth of content included, it's impossible for us to list all of the things that come up in even just these first 5 chapters. We encourage you to seek out a list of content warnings before playing.
As always, if you enjoy our episodes, please rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts! You can also find bonus episodes at our patreon at patreon.com/sayitinred and follow us on twitter at sayitinredpod.
Content Warnings for this Episode:
General warning for murder, death, stabbing, unreality, mind control, discussion of assorted weird ableism, and gore.
00:36:20: Body Horror, Corpse Mutilation
00:53:30 to 01:00:00: Mind Control, Unreality, Vomiting, Infant Death, Mutilation, Suicide
01:09:00: Suicide Attempts
01:36:00 to 01:40:00: Body Horror, Mutilation, Graphic Violence, Suicide
01:50:30 to 01:52:45: Sexual Assault
01:53:00: Body Horror/Impalement
02:20:40 to 02:31:00: Discussion of the Incest romance route