Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo review – The cost of love

The real challenge with visual novels is creating a story that has a good narrative while also promoting a fair amount of interactivity. The story should be compelling enough to keep attention over a long period of time and the introduction of new mechanics can help with that. However, what will ultimately define the game is the beats of the narrative and how it culminates in the final act.

In Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, players will take part in a city-spanning adventure that will test their sanity and willingness to sacrifice others. It’s a really compelling story that also manages to be frightening in ways that will get you when you least expect it. It’s an interesting experience with a story that will keep you guessing the entire time you’re playing.

It’s a balancing act between trying to provide the necessary information while also keeping the players engaged with the game. While some of these efforts really work in the game’s favor, there are some moments that feel more tedious than they do engaging.

Choose your moves carefully

One of the best things about Paranormasight is the huge misdirection in the first half-hour, or longer, prologue to the game before the main logo even drops. It’s actually incredible how invested into this story before the game’s branching protagonist mechanics are even introduced, even if the scares in that time are packed kind of tightly. That didn’t stop me from jumping at most of them, though.

It’s a great introduction to the game’s mechanics as well, showing players how to engage in conversations and some of the most interesting puzzle mechanics in the game. Something to keep in mind is that while it doesn’t overtly state this, Paranormasight is a very meta game where the player themselves is the protagonist more than the different characters they inhabit, using the game’s systems to solve puzzles, completely bewildering the characters in the story.

That being said, these meta-actions aren’t present enough that they change the way the game is played and kind of work more as gimmicks than anything substantial. That doesn’t mean they aren’t fun and intriguing, but if you’ve heard about them through the grapevine, then you pretty much know what to do when the situation arises.

It’s a very subversive system that allows for really interesting opportunities between the player, the narrator-like figure, and the game itself. It’s amazing how Square Enix manages to create such a captivating story with these characters that keeps you engaged, while also creating a meta-story that feels even more interesting.

It really evolves on the traditional Japanese-inspired visual novel formula, which has already been proven to be scary beyond a doubt. It works in a way similar to the best horror movies, lulling you into a false sense of routine before throwing a young detective in your face and forcing you to drop your Switch. It’s completely worth it most of the time, though, with the majority of jumpscares being well-deserved.

A beautiful world to move slowly through

Unfortunately, the pacing of the game in some places leaves a little to be desired, with players forced to guess how to continue some conversations. Other dialogue options have strange breaks that don’t make a lot of sense, forcing the player to question how to continue the conversation. This often had me searching the room or area looking for something when I just needed to click on the person who just finished speaking.

These weird choices to segment every conversation force players to click on the same character or dialogue choice repeatedly and it’s unclear what the purpose here is. You are forced to sit with the idea presented to you for a second, sometimes with an updated file you can read, but the details are usually given to you in the conversation immediately after.

Thankfully, this isn’t as tedious as it could be due to the beautiful world where the game takes place. The artists on Paranormasight should really pat themselves on the back because the world’s environments, grain, and lighting go a long way to keeping you on edge. It doesn’t feel like there are any safe moments in the game, and that’s a big credit to the developer.

Overall, it seems that the goal was to create a more authentic design in terms of environments, basing them on Sumida, Tokyo in Japan, and characters. This makes what happens to some of them all the more jarring when you first encounter it and only seems to further the unease over time. It’s a great use of realism that works in a similar way to seeing a horror victim who only looks slightly uncanny, and that somehow makes it worse.

Those who played the Danganronpa series and enjoyed it will find a lot of similar excitement and dark themes, but on a much more condensed scale. There’s also a fair amount of mystery, one that’s even more compelling that the trilogy of murder-mystery games. It will be interesting to see how this series evolves now that the developer has stated it’s working on the next installment.

Let the bodies hit the floor

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website!