What would you be willing to do to bring someone dear to you back to life? You will find out through this review of Paranormasight, a horror-tinged visual novel
Paranormasight it’s the new one visual novel branded Square Enix, an adventure with horror implications and which leads us to reflect on a fairly serious topic, human morality. In fact, in this adventure we will have to make choices, and we will discover in spite of ourselves what we will be willing to do in order to bring a person dear to us back to life.
The title, as we have already mentioned, by Square Enixis a very niche product especially for us Westerners, but which instead (also thanks to works such as Steins;Gate) is widely played in the lands of the Rising Sun. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo came out onMarch 8, 2023 per Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Android ed iOS. Despite being a niche product, it is still worthy of attention, perhaps a pity for the only localization in English or Japanese.
The Seven Mysteries of Honjo – Paranormasight Review
The plot is not very complex to understand, far from it, however in the course of the adventure there will be intrigued crossings between the various characters, in which it will also be necessary to carefully ponder one’s choices, but we will see this later. We are in Japanin the district of Missing a Tokyoand the adventure takes place around the 80s.
It all starts with Shogo Okiiean employee accompanying his friend Yoko Fukunaga at the park of Kinshiboriwhere the two are apparently investigating the Mystery Sette at Honjo. All this seems to be closely related to a Rite of Resurrectionand it is just when under the eyes of Shogo some things will happen, that events will start to get interesting. But Shogo you won’t be the only one interested in the Mystery Sette at Honjo, in fact, the various stories of the protagonists will gradually become linked to each other.
The initial plot is quite basic and does not present major innovations, it is nevertheless a must to tell you that it is in the long run that things will become interesting and very untangled. Just as you all may have understood, there will be the need to sacrifice some characters in order to bring others dear to us to life, through the use of some stones that grant this power and will be “loaded” with souls given in sacrifice.
Choices and Deceptions – Paranormasight Review
The average duration of Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo it settles down around 10 ore, therefore we are not dealing with one of those games that offer forty hours of gameplay and almost infinite replayability, which is definitely not a negative point, far from it. In fact, in this video game, we remember being a visual novelthe gameplay will be all about the choices of the various lines of dialogue to follow.
The game will be mostly static, and the only (or almost) possible interactions will be to rotate the view to 360° to look around us, and again using the mouse to move the indicator on the various points of interaction. Which could be elements such as objects or characters that will be present in the environment. There will be no other movement or interaction other than these. As it is also logical to be in any visual novel.
The whole game revolves around our decisions, taken through intricate dialogues, in which we will have to lead our interlocutors to overreach thus to discover their interests and their involvement (emotional and otherwise) in the story. Through the hours of play we will in fact be able to meet other characters with the power to sacrifice people to bring back to life the people dear to them.
However, each stone, in order to absorb the soul, requires certain criteria to be met, such as that our interlocutor turns his back on us or that you come to lie to us. This places the dialogues between the various characters in a very interesting perspective, every time we find ourselves in front of someone it will be important to choose the line of dialogue well to follow, in order not to avoid their traps designed to expose us to the power of their stones.
Obviously we will have to do the same, expose our interlocutor to intricate lines of dialogue useful to ensure that it can fall into a trap and give us the opportunity to activate the power of our stone. Stones that will show a “percentage of charge”, which once reached 100% will give us the possibility of being able to bring a person dear to us back to life. Interesting, don’t you think?
Style to Sell – Paranormasight Review
As far as the technical side is concerned, Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo it is not a title of who knows what technical experience, even if in its small way it represents a well thought-out work. It should be bound in its “original dimension”, which as already mentioned represents the dimension of visual noveli.e. relatively static video games that allow us to just observe the environment, and whose gameplay in its entirety is represented in the choice of lines of dialogue to follow.
The artistic sector is presented with settings and characters in 2dthe drawings are really well inspired as well as the soundtracks, all well suited to the adventure that we are going to experiencemade up of skilful lines of dialogue that will serve our purpose, and that is to embarrass most of our interlocutors in order to thus absorb their soul and sacrifice them for our purpose.
But let us return to remark how heavy is the absence of a localization in Italian, which can help the gamer to better understand both the plot and the various implications. Even net of the fact that on several occasions there will be a need to go and use subterfuges by manipulating the game menu to overcome some dialogues with other skilled characters that we will meet on our way. Kind of how it worked with Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid, use a trick on the hardware (or in the game options) to put our virtual enemy in difficulty.
Conclusions
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo it is a small masterpiece, a visual novel capable of entertaining and entertaining. Not only the plot, although initially redundant but in the long run intricate and mysterious, convinces and keeps the gamer glued to the screen, but also the game itself with its very inspired soundtracks and its gameplay keeps the bar of appreciability high of the title.
However, we return, in a heavy way, to remark the absence of any localization of the title in our language, which makes this video game not suitable for all palates, but only for those who have the patience (and the desire) to chew and digest a little English. Unless you want to play the title in its native language, which nobody actually denies you.
We have come to the end of this review Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjohowever, we invite you to stay up to date by continuing to follow the pages of TechGameWorld.com, and don’t forget to visit the Kinguin website where you can find a vast catalog of video games for all budgets.
A visual novel recommended for fans of the genre
Plus points
- The plot offers mysterious and intriguing implications
- Duels between articulated and thoughtful “stone carriers”.
- Artistic sector and soundtracks of great impact
Points against
- Visual novel gameplay, not for everyone
- Absence of the Italian language