Happy about: Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse

Three years ago I enjoyed playing Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, that came out of nowhere and was made by Square Enix, of all companies. It was a fun and creative adventure game with the presentation that most people associate with Visual Novels and lots of inventive “meta” ideas. Given the modern state of gaming industry, I was afraid that it will stay a cool one-off, but no – we have a sequel now. Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse is exactly what one could want from a sequel – it’s “more but different”.

Just like the first game, this title plays like one would expect – most of the time you’re seeing scenes unfold with text driving the narrative and a mix of 2D and 3D visuals that enhance the storytelling, but then from time to time you need to make choices or perform actions. Some of those are quite straightforward, but some expect you to think of the game as a game and think outside the box, utilizing the conventions and concepts of the genre itself to get something done. This “meta” stuff is not overused, thankfully, and is mostly intuitive and fun. Though if there is one big complaint I could voice about the game, it’s the fact that this time around some of these “out of the box” elements are much less intuitive than in the first game and are harder to figure out without additional hints (that the game does provide).

I felt as if this game had a bit more jumping between points of view than the first title, though it was really well delivered most of the time. And, thankfully, even the sequel avoided the annoying Virtue’s Last Reward-like “hunt for all outcomes” grind requirements. There are more curious side-tracks with gameplay situations unlike what most of the game plays like. And also just like with the first title, the game is usually extremely smart about understanding the exact moment an attentive player catches on to the hints so it can instantly disprove or confirm your suspicions.

The biggest change, and the thing that might be most influential on whenever people who were into the first game will like this one as well or not, is the setting and overall mood of the title. The first game operated more like a murder mystery in an urban setting. The Mermaid’s Curse is set in a rural setting, with a lot more emphasis on pure folklore and even a love story as one of the central motifs. …It’s a very surface level comparison, but I’m still going to make it – it’s like Persona 4 after Persona 3 in terms of a setting, you know? No “better” or “worse” about it, just very different.

Apart from the already mentioned frustrations with several of the “meta” elements, I really liked Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse. It’s a worthy follow up to The Seven Mysteries of Honjo and I hope that we will be seeing even more titles in this “series” in the future. So I can easily recommend playing this game as much as I recommended the first one. If you have not played either yet – there’s really no difference which one you start with, as they are separate stories. If the setting of either game appeals to you more, start with whatever that one is. But it’s definitely worth playing both.