Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

Genre: Visual Novel / Graphic Adventure / Horror

Players: 1

.

Review:

Paranormasight is a Visual Novel with some Graphic Adventure and Horror elements released in 2023 on PC, Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch. This game has players taking the role of one of multiple protagonists in modern-day Japan in the real-life city of Honjo, where a local legend proves to have a deadly reality, with each of the protagonists coming into possession of a “curse stone” capable of killing anyone the user wishes under specific conditions, and with these users compelled to do so with the promise that killing others who possess the stone can empower the stone to grant its user the ability to bring someone back from the dead.

The way players are able to see the game’s events from different perspectives, and even change the course of those events through their decisions, plays like a fun take on a “Rashomon”-style story, where different perspectives of the same events are not only perceived differently, but can work out differently depending on your choices.

It helps that the different characters each have distinct personalities and their own motives. The young office worker who players are introduced to in the prologue aims to resurrect the girl he was with who died when he first got his curse stone, a young schoolgirl wants to resurrect a classmate who seemingly committed suicide, and a grizzled police officer doesn’t really want to use his stone at all, and only wants to confiscate the stones to keep additional murders from occurring. Of course, as these characters come into conflict with each other, even those who have no wish to kill may find they are forced to do so, and what’s more the stones seem to compel their users to become more homicidal as well.

One of the great joys of the game is trying to figure out how each of the curse stones work, making every conversation with anyone who has a stone (or who might have a stone) into a nerve-wracking situation where it’s not clear what’s the wrong move that will lead to your death. The prologue character’s own stone, for example, only works if the target starts to walk away, meaning that tricking an opposing “curse bearer” to do so is the one sure way to win in a confrontation. And of course, playing a different character changes these conditions, giving a different sort of dynamic to each character’s confrontations.

The game is very clever how it goes about having players figure out how these curses work and how to avoid or counteract them, and right from the start there’s some strong fourth wall-breaking going on, with these individual stories being contained within a framing device where players are taking the role of an unnamed person being guided through the stories of the other characters by a mysterious masked storyteller.

The visuals for this game feature some wonderfully-drawn 2D anime-style characters against drawn/painted 2D backgrounds, with most of the game taking place in the darkness of night. The character designs and overall art style are superb, though I do think it’s odd when characters make a pouty face, as it looks more like they’re trying to make an exaggerated kissy face or “duckface”.

Paranormasight’s soundtrack is mostly appropriately moody and atmospheric music that perfectly fits the game’s dark tones and Horror elements, though sometimes this tone is undercut by inappropriately cheesy elevator music or cheesy actiony music. The game does occasionally have its bizarre lighthearted moments, but I honestly wish it stuck with the ominous and paranoid tone that permeates through most of the game.

There are a few other issues I have with the game. Sometimes it’s not exactly clear what the game wants you to do. Also, frequently I found I had to press the A button twice to get it to register. Also, while there are a few brief voice clips in the game, mostly this game is text-only, and it’s disappointing that we don’t have full voicework for such a disparate cast of characters.

Finally, I have to mention the absurdity of the overall premise, treating these curses as a dangerous threat when a simple handgun would be far easier to use and just as deadly. At one point, the aforementioned cop mentions that having seven curse stones in the hands of potentially dangerous people is like having seven guns in the city and as an American I just had to laugh. Oh my, seven guns, how quaint.

(Yes, I know Japan has vastly different gun laws than America, but even so, as creepy as these curses are, it’s still amusing to take a step back and realize how exaggerated their threat is.)

These small issues aside, I had a lot of fun with Paranormasight. The Rashomon-style plot is delightful, the fourth wall-breaking puzzles are wonderful, and the art style is great, and at only $20 this game feels like a real steal. Despite a silly central story premise and a few minor frustrations, this is overall a truly excellent Visual Novel and Graphic Adventure, and fans of these genres and particularly those who love stories of murder and the occult will find this game to be right up their alley.

tl;dr – Paranormasight is a Visual Novel with Graphic Adventure and Horror elements following multiple characters who possess “curse stones”, and are enticed to hunt down and use their curses to kill each other to resurrect a friend or loved one. This game has a wonderful Rashomon-style plot, excellent fourth wall-breaking puzzles, and a beautiful art style, all for only $20. It has a few issues, and a somewhat silly premise, but overall this is an outstanding Visual Novel and Graphic Adventure, and in particular fans of those genres who enjoy dark stories of the occult should absolutely consider this a must-have.

Grade: A-

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