I am re-reviewing this game as I feel like I initially didn't do this game justice.

Sayo is a small indie game made by oyu.
Oyu is an artist, they create amazing art and music, all of which can be found on their YouTube and Twitter channel;

https://www.youtube.com/@oyunoinu/videos
https://x.com/oyunoinu

Their work has a sense of melancholy, often displaying a singular character in a big place, which is much bigger than them.
Stuck in surrealistic worlds that are beyond their comprehension.
All of it has feelings of innocence combined with feelings of longing yet also serenity. Oyu seems to find the beauty in introversion

Sayo is the ultimate combination of oyu's skills as an artist, bringing their melancholic yet calming world into an interactive form.
The write-up at the beginning wasn't just merely to give a shot out to an amazing artist, the mood which their art is in full force here, it's as if you leaped into one of their beautiful drawings.

Sayo is an exploration game, you are thrust into a big city, with all sorts of houses covering up your surroundings as you try your best to guide Sayo through it in order to find items that are scattered across the map. You will find yourself being lost very quickly, as the game has no map or any seemingly obvious landmarks to speak of, but that's the point, it's not a flaw or an oversight.

Sayo is a game about being lost and getting lost.

Game's story is about the little girl, Sayo, waking up in the middle of nowhere in a city where snow never stops falling.
All what the girl wants to do is to find her puppy and find her way back home.

And due to how the game's built, the player will quickly relate to her as they'll surely struggle to find their way, but as they keep going, everyone will stumble upon an item, a different bigger looking building - anything that'll make them intrigued with some sense of hope returning that they won't get lost.

A big part of Sayo is finding stairs to get on top of a building and jumping across all of those houses.
Then it'll hit you, the way all of these houses are stacked up is made for platforming, there is a challenge to realize which jumps you can make and which you can't and some items might be covered in obstacles which Sayo has to jump through, whenever this happens stairs are nearby in that area.
There are other means of finding the items needed easier. There are light switches all around the game..I won't spoil it here, but you will find some kind of guide.

And soon, you might begin to ask yourself questions, about Sayo herself, the place we are currently in. You will start to think about the items and things you are seeing, if that happens to you, then the game grabbed you and hooked you in its own way.
At that point, you fully put yourself into Sayo's shoes.

I don't think any other game has made me have so much empathy for its main character.

The game also looks absolutely stunning, which is very important for an exploration game of this kind. It uses an aesthetic which reminds me of Playstation 1 game, completed with wobbly oddly twisting textures of the houses.
Everything's covered in low-poly pixels, yet it all comes together looking fantastic and to me pretty mesmerizing honestly...

I cannot let go of this game, so much of it speaks to me and hit me deeply. I feel like I went on a journey with Sayo as I played this game. To this day I play it sometimes and it doesn't get old or boring for me, even if at its core it's a big map covered in houses with snow, that's putting it in a very simplistic way, but I can imagine some might look at this game and not see much if anything at all..

Sayo is a game which some might hate and see as something very dull and even frustrating, and I won't blame them. I do recommend giving it a chance as it's an incredibly unique experience which I fell in love with.