Paranormasight is a chilling yet intriguing mystery horror adventure game that focuses on multiple protagonists in a layered story. At the center of it all is the Rite of Resurrection, a ceremony that can bring the dead back to life. But how far will everyone go to revive their loved one? Paranormasight seeks to answer this question.
The prologue, or chapter 1, focuses on Okiie Shogo. Shortly after being introduced, he gets a mysterious curse stone that kills people when they get away from them. He must use this curse to collect Soul Dregs, which are the key to the Rite of Resurrection. Like a combination of Ace Attorney and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Curse Bearers like Shogo use items and conversations to activate their curse conditions to collect each other’s Soul Dregs. There are various characters and conversation topics that appear throughout the Shogo chapter without much development. These future plot points bring a new level of intrigue to the story, making me want to keep playing to see what happens with them.
All curses are inspired by the Seven Mysteries of Honjo. These are true urban legends and superstitions in Japan and paranormavista uses real ukiyo-e paintings of Kuniteru Utagawa III’s “Seven Wonders of Honjo” in its archive. The surroundings of the Sumida district have also been carefully recreated. Obviously, as a horror game, there are a few creepy jumps here and there, but nothing too bad. The whole game is more tense than scary. The real horrors of this game come from the actions of the characters and their willingness to kill people in case they bring back a loved one. Even so, there’s a bit of light humor here and there to keep it from getting too intense. Kai’s entire existence is an uproar (so far). Also, I particularly enjoyed the scene of Shogo eliminating Namigaki.
What has always interested me is the use of multiple protagonists in paranormavista. It is a storytelling technique that, when done correctly, adds a layer of mystery to the plot. The three you get after completing the prologue have very little characterization, so I’d love to see how they fit into all of this. There’s an interesting twist towards the end of Shogo’s story that had me scratching my head even hours after playing it. What happened that night? Besides the multi-layered approach to storytelling, there is a main storyteller: the storyteller. It adds a wonderful touch of meta-horror to the whole story without being overbearing. I really like the balance between its parts and the actual story so far.
Paranormasight is visually a delight in its early hours. It combines the retro showa-era setting in its creative use of a color TV as its primary interface (with satisfying sound effects to boot) with the softer, more modern art style of Gen Kobayashi’s art style. Kobayashi previously worked as a character art designer for The World Ends With You series. However, the characters have much less anime proportions in this area. From what I saw at the start of the Shogo route, the character design is pretty straightforward. But it gives a grounded feel to a story that’s otherwise full of supernatural twists. With its beautiful appearance and captivating story, paranormavista promises to be a new favorite for mystery and J-horror fans.
Paranormasight will appear on Windows PC via Steam on March 8, 2023 and on Nintendo Switch on March 9, 2023.