Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse Review – Review
I missed out on the original PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, which released back in 2023. But as it goes, sometimes it takes a standalone sequel to discover something you’ve probably overlooked. Case and point, PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse is a wonderful adventure game that takes the familiar tropes of the visual novel and gives it plenty of unique twists of its own. Part horror, part mystery, and yes even part romance, The Mermaid’s Curse made me an avid reader in a way that books wish they could.
The story begins shortly after Yuna Minakuchi, a teenager growing up in 1980’s Japan, returns to his hometown on the island of Kameshima. He’s shunned by the village as most people believe his mother to be responsible for a terrible disaster that befell the island five years ago. Undeterred, Yuna sets out alongside his best friends Azami and Tsukasa to become a pearl diver. During one of his dives however, Yuna comes across another horrific version of himself that reaches out to him from the depths. Waking up in shock on the boat, Azami informs him about the legends of mermaids that have been passed down across Ise bay throughout the centuries. As the first of many paranormal events happening on Kameshima, it is up to you to figure out what is going on with the curse of the mermaids, help Yuna figure out what happened to his mother and how to save the island. At the same time, other mysterious people travel to Kameshima to investigate a series of mysterious deaths that seem to be related to mermaids as well.
That is about as far as I dare to go with a basic story synopsis for the game. Needless to say that there are plenty of twists and turns that happen during the story. When I saw the first trailer and a ‘story chart’ I was kind of put off initially. I rarely like it when stories force me to return to earlier parts and influence a story in specific ways to get a proper ending. But the way The Mermaid’s Curse handles this is both elegant and natural once you get into the proper structure of the game. Using both flashbacks and clearly telegraphed branching storylines with different characters, I found the experience more a breeze than a struggle. Especially since the majority of the time you will most likely be doing a lot of reading.
What I really like about the game is that it fully embraces its Japanese identity. You may be familiar with mermaids as a creature of folklore, but the way in which PARANORMASIGHT slowly unravels both the historical accounts, fictional histories, and real-world events is quite elegant. I adore it when stories use their local settings in order to approach a well known topic from a different perspective and here it is done masterfully. Occasionally you will be required to delve into the ‘optional’ histories and extended stories to fully understand what is going on, but the game uses both colored text, clearly updated profiles and the aforementioned story chart to make this as smooth as possible.
As with any good story, this would fall or stand depending on the characters and I’m happy to say that this is a very fun cast. Even side characters you will brush aside early on, turn out to have a lot more to do with the mysteries you’re investigating. In its concluding chapters it felt like I had cracked the pinboard with all the interconnected relationships and connections between characters, which felt very satisfying. This is also where some of the more meta aspects from the story shine. Some of these are incredibly well done, while others were a bit too obtuse for my taste. I got stuck a few times and I can only advise people to keep a level head, refer back to earlier obtained information and stay perceptive at all times. When this particular aspect of PARANORMASIGHT clicked it really clicked for me. Finally I wanted to praise its visual style. The game uses these panorama-like scenes where you can freely look around and inspect your surroundings. It helps to make the characters stand out and showcase their fun designs, designed by Gen Kobayashi who is most well known for his work on The World Ends With You. Striking this great balance between functional and memorable design helps set the characters apart, even with their minimal animations.
Outside of its story and world, PARANORMASIGHT can falter a little bit at times. I specifically do not enjoy the way the game controls in docked mode. It is clearly designed with a touch-screen interface in mind for the majority of the game. I found it annoying that in order to talk with characters I was required to move the cursor to their faces and press the a-button before being able to select my option from the dialogue menu. Especially with long and slightly repetitive conversations this became a bit of a drag. I also wasn’t too fond of the diving minigame. Thankfully most of this was optional, but the way in which you go out and increase your diver rank in order to better swim, find shells and harvest pearls felt so separate from the main game that I didn’t really bother to keep on playing this when the story kicked into gear. Finally, certain moments in the story require you to type out character names. While this is fine and requires you to really pay attention to your collected information, I did struggle with having to remember Japanese names and occasionally Japanese historical names. Thankfully there is no penalty for giving an incorrect answer, but it did remove some of the tension when I spelled out the wrong name four times during a critical moment in the story.
I was enthralled by the mystery and story of PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse. If you like mystery stories with a supernatural twist, I can recommend this game without any doubt. The cast of characters is a lot of fun, the ways in which the story unfolds are cleverly done and there’s even a dash of meta elements that make the game a lot more memorable. As a newcomer it has made me very excited to go back and experience the first game in the series. It has also added Ise and the Mie prefecture on my must-visit list for my next trip to Japan. I really cannot ask for much more than that. Well maybe aside from another entry in the PARANORMASIGHT series that is. Consider me a fan now!
