PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo from Square Enix launched out of nowhere with barely any marketing. Square Enix however really knocked it out of the park with this game and if you’re a fan of visual novels and horror mystery titles, you absolutely have to play this game.
So what makes PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo so great? Let’s get into it shall we!
Paranormal Investigation
In PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, players will have to solve mysteries and piece them together. It sounds like standard fare for any horror mystery title but the way in which it is handled here is masterfully done.
As you progress throughout the game, you’ll read through character dialogue and get sucked further into the story.
Players will be introduced to the protagonist, Shogo Okiee and he’ll be the one that gets you up to speed with the game’s mechanics and overarching lore. Shogo’s friend Yoko Fukunaga is quickly drawn into the mix and you’ll soon learn about the Rite of Resurrection and how it’s tied to a popular horror tale involving “Seven Mysteries of Honjo”.
Without spoiling things further, the story of PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is truly fantastic and the way Square Enix have interconnected everything here with each character, their backstories and the events that unfold is masterful. As you progress throughout the visual novel, you’ll be piecing together parts of the story and this helps you get further into it. Make a mistake though and you’ll end up being cursed yourself in the process.
PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo starts out in a really gripping manner with a lot of information being presented to you about its overarching lore. The game tends to slow down and fall back into a more dialogue driven visual novel sense in later chapters but thankfully, you can go back and view all conversations and help refresh your memory at any time.
The entire game is around 15 hours long but it’s filled with a lot of character lore and information which can be a bit much to keep track of over time. It’s therefore best played over a few sessions. Square Enix have also made the game quite accessible since even if you end up being cursed, you’ll be given enough hints and information to prevent this from happening again. You also won’t have to sit through hours of dialogue to get back to where you were. The game’s story tries to funnel you towards the true ending as much as possible and once you start piecing together key story happenings, it really clicks with you and the payoffs are worth it.
Gen Kobayashi of The World Ends With You fame has created the character designs in PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo and they all look fantastic here. The game certainly has a creepy, horror vibe to it but it leans more into the mystery territory rather than outright horror. Honestly this works in its favour and I personally preferred this. There is definitely a creepy vibe here and a lot of dark story content though so younger gamers should be warned.
Being a visual novel, the backgrounds are quite important and feature as much as the character designs themselves. These backgrounds are all great, featuring realistic locations from the Sumida special ward of Tokyo that have been photographed and worked into the game as full 360 degree locations. Players can drag their viewpoint around and investigate the environment or characters and this adds more immersion and interactability to the game. This elevates it above and beyond what some more traditional visual novels do.
The game is quite wordy at times and you do have to pay attention to what’s going on so if you’re not a fan of visual novels or games that require you to think and piece together mental puzzles, you should look elsewhere for your gaming needs. PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is more suited to gamers who are fans of engaging story and solving mysteries or puzzles.
If you’ve played titles such as Danganronpa or any of the Zero Escape games, PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo will definitely appeal to you. Diving into the lore and information that the characters provide to you is quite satisfying and the game delivers enough revelations to keep you coming back for more even if you reach an ill-fated conclusion. The only drawback to the game is that it does tend to be a bit linear with the way it pushes you towards the conclusion despite the choices that you can make throughout.
The soundtrack of PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is excellent with the music being well suited to the type of game it is. The OST does a lot of heavy lifting here too because there isn’t any voice acting here unfortunately. There are quite a few tracks which are really great to listen to while reading through the text and dialogue presented to you.
Overall, PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is the type of game you’ll just have to play and see for yourself what’s so good about it. Talking about the story any further will ruin things and it’s best experienced by yourself. If you’re a fan of visual novels and mystery/puzzle solving titles, give this game a chance. You’ll most likely end up really enjoying it and it gets a solid recommendation from me.
Available on Switch and PC
This review is based on Nintendo Switch
Grab your copy here https://paranormasight.square-enix-games.com/en-gb/
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