Even though I haven’t played the original PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, I heard some many great things about it from my late colleague, Fernando Da Costa. When I heard about a sequel to Square Enix’s critically acclaimed visual novel, I figured now would be as good a time as any to see what all the fuss is about. Was PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse able to wow as much as the original, or does it sink to the depths of mediocrity?

You don’t say?

PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse is set in the 1980s in Ise-Shima Japan, a region long steeped in mermaid legends. Taking place on the remote island of Kameshima, the story centers around Yuza Minakuchi, a young pearl diver (or ama diver) who encounters a doppelgänger while collecting sea life for a feast later that day. This encounter kicks off a series of curses that ravage the island and its inhabitants. 

The events of the disasters draw Yuza and several other characters together. There’s Azami, Yuza’s best friend, Avi, an American fantasy author looking for adventure, Circe, a young exorcist and Avi’s companion, as well as two mysterious strangers from the mainland who are conducting an investigation of their own. While seemingly unconnected at first, their stories begin to intersect as they dive deeper into the mysteries surrounding the island, its legends, and its curses.

This takes clammy hands to the next level.

Being a visual novel, gameplay is, for the most part, what you’d expect. The vast majority of the game is reading, and while I love reading, the way in which the game presents its information can feel a bit tedious and cumbersome, especially in the beginning. I won’t lie, much like the first game, the first hour is a bit of a slog to get through. However, if you can push past that, once all of the characters are introduced, the game’s pacing picks up exponentially. PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse provides plenty of twists and turns, resulting in a compelling and poignant mystery. 

It’s also worth mentioning that there are several endings, but not all of them occur at the actual ending of the game. You can see the first technical ending after only about two or three hours, but really, that’s just the beginning. Almost every ending opens up either new narratives or branching paths, allowing you to make different choices and affect the outcome of the story. The more endings you complete, the clearer the overall picture will be for what’s actually happening around the isle of Kameshima.

Different decisions and interactions will open up new narrative paths.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse‘s gameplay only diverges from simple reading when it comes to answering questions posed by certain characters. The questions aren’t usually difficult and all of the answers can be found in the game’s files. You also can’t fail by answering incorrectly, so that takes the pressure off (unless you were hoping for more of a challenge). There’s also a diving minigame, but honestly, I found this addition to be pretty shallow (pun intended).

Who’s the fairest of them all? Not you, that’s for sure.

Visually, PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse is a beautiful game. It features the same vintage hand-painted esthetic from the first game, just a bit cleaner than before. There are quite a few different locations in the game, which is always a welcome sight in visual novels. The character models are well detailed and expressive. My only issue with some of the character stills is that while they are wonderfully expressive, there’s an abundance of certain characters making weird puckering faces with their lips. This is fine when in regular talking scenarios, but several times a character would pull this face while sinister events were taking place all around them. Needless to say, in those situations the cartoonish expressions detract from the severity of the scene.

No, what’s obscene is that face you’re making.

The sound design is pretty solid, even if it’s somewhat minimal. Since it’s a visual novel, there’s no voice acting, but the sound effects are well done, especially with the ambient sounds of the waves and the birds, further selling the island environment. The soundtrack has some great melodies, that range from somber, to quirky, to full of foreboding. Being more of a budget title, the songs do tend to loop over and over, but they do so seamlessly, so it’s not inherently obvious at first. None of the tracks are grating, but you will start to notice the lack of a huge track list after a while. That said, I do find that I still have the tunes floating around in my brain from time to time, and I’m not necessarily mad about it.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse is a wonderful follow-up to the The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. You won’t need to have played the first game to understand this one, but there are a few references to characters and events from that game that will give fans of the first an extra layer of appreciation. The pacing is can be rough, especially during the opening hour or so, but beyond that is a game that has plenty of twists, turns, and thought-provoking themes. If you’re a fan of visuals novels, mysteries, and mermaid mythology, then you should definitely dive in to PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse.

PARANORAMSIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.

A copy of PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse was provided by the publisher.