Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is Square Enix’s latest gem released with little promotion, and fans are starting to spot a trend.
The new horror visual novel launched earlier this week on PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile, although it didn’t follow its publisher’s enthusiasm, so it would be hard to tell.
As the tweet below points out, Square Enix didn’t just do that with Paranormasight. The likes of Neo: The World Ends With You and Theaterhythm are certified hits, though they also came out with little momentum. Not to mention hidden gems like Dungeon Encounters or Harvestella.
Square Enix is always weird. I think they threw almost 40 games in the last physical year. Once in a while you get something like Forspoken and Babylon’s Fall, but they release a masterpiece like Paranormasight, Neo TWEWY and Theaterhythm with no marketing pic.twitter.com/kpZdflcEA9March 10, 2023
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As Eurogamer journalist Liv Ngan points out in the tweet below, the Paranormasight soundtrack and footage is surfacing. Two features that could help the game find an audience among dedicated horror/visual novel fans.
okay paranormasight is REALLY good. I love the framing of the game, the introduction of the branches and the plot of the story from the start. The soundtrack is spectacular, the animations are solid. I guess one thing I’m missing so far is what’s really at stake: at 999 you can make a bad decision or worse. (1/3)March 9, 2023
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On top of that, as YouTuber Bowl of Lentils points out in several tweets below, Paranormasight marks the return of visual novel genre veteran Takanari Ishiyama. If you weren’t already familiar with Ishiyama’s work, he also worked on Metal Gear Solid as a sound designer before working on a Final Fantasy 12 spin-off.
Square Enix’s Paranormasight may seem like another random release from the Final Fantasy company, but the title actually marks the return of a veteran of the ADV genre named Takanari Ishiyama. His career is completely unknown in the west so I thought I’d make a topic about him pic.twitter.com/40Mf2YgxenMarch 9, 2023
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Ishiyama has a ton of visual novel credits under his belt. With the tweet above, it’s hard to see why Square Enix didn’t lean into that angle when promoting Paranomasight, casting it as the grand return of a visual novel master (or, you know , by simply doing it).
It’s hard not to criticize Square Enix’s marketing for some of its smaller games. The company released what seemed like a generous helping of gems at the end of 2022 in particular, including Harvestella, Dragon Quest Treasures, and Valkyrie Elysium, all of which received virtually no promotion before launch. Paranormasight might eventually find its way into the hands of fans who will appreciate it, though that seems to be through word of mouth rather than marketing.
Take a look at our new games 2023 guide to see all the other games Square Enix and other publishers have lined up for the coming year.