Square Enix’s Paranormasight was a pretty dark title before its release. But its unique story and aesthetic have been quite well received by its fans. We had the opportunity to interview Takaya Ishiyama, who was the writer and director of Paranormasight. He has also worked on Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wing, Blood of Bahamut, and Schoolgirl Strikers in the past.
Stephanie Liu: When paranormavista early development, and did you encounter any issues due to the pandemic?
Takaya Ishiyama: I can’t elaborate on the development period, but by that time Square Enix had already adopted a work-from-home system, so development went smoothly with no particular impact from the pandemic. Working from home is truly wonderful.
In terms of the structuring of the story with its multiple outcomes and controllable characters, what difficulties did you encounter?
Ishiyama: We had an ending to the story, but the hardest part was rearranging the story like a puzzle, trying to figure out the order in which events and information should unfold in order to fix all the character issues, while offering a .different experience. depending on how the player chooses between multiple chapters, and bring the story to its conclusion!
Why did you choose to set the game in the Showa era?
Ishiyama: For those of us who live in the Reiwa era, the mere mention of the Showa period evokes a sense of mystery. Culture and lifestyles have changed so drastically in recent decades that it feels like a vision of a bygone era for adults and a mythical world of historical fantasy for young people. If so, it is not surprising that supernatural phenomena, for example the appearance of a cursed shadow, can occur and are perceived as realistic.
Despite the game’s mystery-horror genre, much of the dialogue is fairly lighthearted, such as the banter between the cops, as well as the conversations between Richter and Harue. Was it a conscious effort to avoid making the game too scary? How did you create this kind of balance between comedy and dramatic tension?
Ishiyama: During peaceful, uneventful scenes, my style is mostly to indulge in comedic banter. I think that by doing this, we have fun progressing in the game, the attachment to the characters grows, and suddenly, the serious scenes intensify even more. So you could say it wasn’t a conscious effort to avoid making the game too scary, but rather an effort to reinforce the fear by creating that contrast. While the balance was adjusted to the touch, we made sure not to mock the duties of the characters.
Which character did you prefer to write for?
Ishiyama: The strong-willed characters in this title are all impressionable, and I love them, but speaking of easy-to-write scenes, I immediately thought of Tetsuo and Erio joking about whether or not they had a pen. Very funny. I have seen it over and over again.
What pop culture or specific Showa events influenced? paranormavista? The theme played for Tsutsumi and Erio sounds very familiar, as does the schoolgirl murder mentioned in the game.
Ishiyama: As you pointed out, when we designed the atmosphere of this work, we were familiar with Japanese TV series that aired during the Showa period, especially crime and detective series. The same thing happened with sound production. The “hidden madness” alluded to in the film was a real movement going on at the time, and we were aware of its atmosphere.
How were previous Square Enix adventure games? The case of the centenary there Nanashi sin game influence paranormavistaDevelopment?
Ishiyama: Although we don’t have a direct connection to these projects, we have released many ADVs in the past, so we knew the current release wouldn’t be that unusual and it’s a genre accepted by the public. Some of the ADVs released during the Enix era had a huge influence on me as a general user at the time!
paranormavista it has unusual character designs and aesthetics. How did you choose an artistic direction for them and what were your influences?
Ishiyama: According to the period settings, we adjust noise and filters based on concept art that looks like old CRT TV footage. Our titles are dominated by HD graphics with high color saturation, so our goal was to make this title stand out from the crowd.
And paranormavista It ended up becoming a series, what would you like to do in a possible sequel?
Ishiyama: What series ! It looks wonderful! I would like to ask for everyone’s support to make this a reality! It’s a completely blank slate at the moment, but paranormal activity and folklore will definitely be a theme, so send us your requests too!
Paranormasight is available on Nintendo Switch and Windows PC.