
If you’ve not heard of Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, then don’t worry. Although this curious visual novel is receiving a worldwide release on the Switch eShop, its reveal was specifically earmarked for the Japanese Nintendo Direct back in February.
So while we were undoubtedly smitten over Metroid Prime Remastered shadow dropping and the launch of Game Boy games for the Nintendo Switch Online service, the lack of a western announcement for Paranormasight means that many horror fans could have potentially missed out on what is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and entertaining visual novels we’ve seen in quite some time. Thankfully, we’re here to right that wrong.
Describing Paranormasight is a tricky affair. A lot of the joy we experienced in playing it was a result of going in with very little prior knowledge of the story, so we feel a certain obligation here to afford you, dear readers, a similar benefit. That said, we think we can safely lay out the general premise without ruining anything.
Paranormasight takes place in the real-life neighbourhood of Honjo in the Sumida district of Tokyo, where an old legend relating to the ‘Seven Mysteries of Honjo’ continues to permeate the day-to-day lives of its citizens. These mysteries form the basis of the ‘Rite of Resurrection’, which is a manuscript that allows the wielder to revive someone who has recently died. The catch is that in order to obtain the Rite of Ressurection, those looking to seek it are imbued with a ‘Curse Stone’; old netsuke carvings imbued with curses derived from the Seven Mysteries of Honjo.
Following so far? Good stuff. The Curse Stones require the user to kill indiscriminately in order to fill the vessel with ‘Soul Dregs’. Once full, the Rite of Resurrection will be accessible. Theoretically, at least. So this is where we find our story’s protagonists: each of them has found themselves in possession of a Curse Stone, but in terms of their motivations, their actions, and how their stories intertwine with one another, we’ll leave that for you to experience on your own.
How the characters’ stories actually play out is quite fascinating. Each narrative scene forms part of a ‘Story Chart’, which is essentially a visual representation of the various branching pathways you can unlock as you progress through the game. What’s great is that you can hop between the multiple protagonists between scenes and even replay certain scenarios at will. In fact, this is often necessary in order to move forwards. Certain story branches can bring a character’s story to a rather abrupt, gruesome end, so you’ll need to revert back to an earlier scene and deduce how you can alter events in order to trigger a different story path.

Branching pathways is a gameplay trope that’s been done to death in gaming, but the way it’s been implemented here is wonderful, requiring you to really stop and think about how one character’s story connects to another, and how you can take information gleaned from one narrative path and implement it into another. The puzzles found in Paranormasight are excellent, and although they won’t challenge you too much, there’s an undeniable satisfaction when you figure out how to proceed. There’s even one ingenious little head-scratcher near the beginning that breaks the fourth wall somewhat, and we reckon it would even have the likes of Hideo Kojima grin from ear to ear; we won’t spoil what happens, but it’s quite brilliant.
This would all be for naught if the story itself wasn’t engaging, but thankfully it’s one of the most intriguing and engaging narratives we’ve experienced in a good while. The game throws you in at the deep end and dumps a heap of exposition on you after the first five or ten minutes, and while we do admit that this is a bit overwhelming at first, you can always refer to the game’s menu, which lays out all persons of interest, files, the Story Chart itself, and more for a refresher. Make no mistake, there’s a lot of reading involved here, but if you’re willing to commit, the payoff will be exponentially more satisfying.

Paranormasight isn't just intriguing to play; it looks and sounds great, too. The visuals have an almost hand-painted quality to them, and the environments in particular look surprisingly realistic and lived-in. All of the characters feel completely three-dimensional thanks to the wonderful artwork provided by Gen Kobayashi, who you may know as the character designer for The World Ends With You and its sequel.
The animation is limited, with characters shifting from one pose to the next, but this almost works to elevate the experience even further. Because the majority of the experience is spent watching characters interact with one another, those brief moments of pure horror when you see a ghost or a dead body are communicated wonderfully, with the camera zooming in at top speed and the environment distorting around you. It’s jarring and it makes you empathise with how the characters might be feeling at that particular moment.
Considering its quiet release and lack of fanfare from Square Enix, Paranormasight is genuinely one of the most surprising games we’ve played in a long time. Horror fans are going to absolutely love this, but we’d wager visual novel fans in general will also get a lot out of the experience. It’s the kind of game that we suspect will find a decent-sized audience through word of mouth, and we sincerely hope it encourages Square Enix to explore where to take this new venture next.
Conclusion
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is one of the most surprising games we've experienced in a good while. Its overarching narrative, while initially quite heavy on exposition, is wonderfully told, interweaving the lives of multiple protagonists and tasking the player with progressing their stories in meaningful ways. The puzzles are fantastic, the characters well realised, and the visuals top-notch, making those brief moments of horror and terror exceedingly effective. It's an experience we fully recommend going into with as little information as possible, as this will prove to be an incredibly memorable experience; one that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Switch's best visual novels.
Comments 41
Glad to see another glowing review of the game! More coverage of this game is so good to see since SE does a poor job at it and its a shame. This game is SO good and especially for the price. And the art-style being used? Gorgeous. Almost feels like the Spirit Hunter VNs.
I had a hard time putting it down. Almost finished it in 1 sitting. Would have loved to have some voice acting, but considering its a low budget game its fair to skip out on it.
I’m pretty much sold on this game just a shame it comes out at a time with so many big titles that I need to save money for.
I'd like to get this right now, but I have to get around to purchasing Famicom Detective Club first. Still, this looks cool. Need to remember the name.
Normally I wait for a review from you guys before I purchase eShop only titles. But this one I bought upon release and I'm so happy I did. It's an absolute gem and a joy to play. I'd recommend this to everyone.
Oooo, I'm going to have to check this out.
Not sure exactly when I'll find the time to play it (Square Enix has been really piling up my backlog lately) but with all the praise it's been getting, it's rapidly shot up to the top of the list of games I want to play sooner rather than later. It's right up my alley and I've been curious about it since it was announced so I'm glad it turned out so well.
I've been looking for something to scratch a similar itch to Raging Loop for a bit and this sounds like it might do the trick, might look into it when the release schedule of games I'm interested in cools off a bit.
Tempted, but waiting in case a physical release is randomly announced in a month or two.
Hmm... There are no Japanese nor English voice-overs in the game, right?
Another one to add to the list if it ever gets a physical release.
@olliemar28 Totally forgot about this one, but, man, reading the review, I’m really interested. How long is this title? Just curious because you’ve sold me on the title, but I’m seeing if I would have time to beat it immediately before or after RE4 at the end of the month.
How spooky is it? Love me a good visual novel, but I'm too much of a scaredy cat for jumpscares.
I love what this article calls "story charts" as a narrative tool in video games. VNs specifically suffer from the "illusion" of choice, so showing you exactly when choice actually matters is great. Instead of trying to hide the "pick the right box or die" aspect of a VN with meaningless choices that makes you guess at what you did that actually resulted in that ending, this makes it part of the game play loop. Highly recommend this one. At the price, your basically paying a few buck more then you would for an e-book, and getting just as much reading but with a interesting twist.
If you like the "story chart" idea from this game but you're not really into VNs, might want to check out "Radiant Historia" before the 3DS shop closes. Great RPG with basically the same gimmick.
This has had glowing reviews across the board can't wait to get around to playing it.
Sounds great, certainly one I'd enjoy. It's weird that there's been very little mention or marketing of this game though. Outside of a few glowing reviews such as this one, I've barely seen anything about this game.
Will add to the wish list.
Thanks for post, will put on list for sure . perfect for long plane travel....
Flying to Japan tonight. Got this downloaded and ready to go for the plane.
Had no idea this was a thing until just before launch. Needless to say, given the theme and generous launch discount, I bought it almost immediately.
I'm going on a trip to Vegas in the next week, and I plan to check this out while I'm there.
I'll buy it tomorrow
I played AI Somnium Files...that's my fill of VN for my lifespan. Just can't get into not-video-games that could just be a long video file instead.
Playing this on iOS. Deserves all the praise it’s been getting!
Would someone who loves The Nonary Games enjoy this one?
@olliemar28 or anyone who might know. I found that this game is rated M. Without spoilers, can you explain what warrants the M rating?
Same question as above. My daughter loves visual novels. Ace attorney is her go too and she liked famicom detective club but I'd hate to get this for her and it's to much.
Just bought it since it looks right up my alley with the horror stuff, since I'm usually too much of a scaredy cat in horror games where I have to move around, this helps bridge the gap a bit and get a little bit braver, hehe.
@MindfulGamer You've got depictions of death throughout: murder scenes, corpses, etc. Some curse words show up too.
@thedudeabides05 Vivid corpse and death descriptions. Domestic violence and some hints about sex violence. F words. It's definitely not for kids.
@thedudeabides05
Has she played Beacon pines? its unsettling and a bit spooky but no worse than something like Stranger things. It has one bad word in it, but the timing is quite funny XD Its super cute and wholesome too!
This sounds like a Zero Escape game so there's no way I'm not getting it despite horror games not being my forte (still hope that series will eventually come to Switch and/or its successor)!
@HeadPirate Didn't know Radiant Historia also had a Flowchart, I'll absolutely try to get it before the eShop closes!
@rawzeku I'm soon starting the Spirit Hunter games, got them physically for about 20€ each, and they seemed interesting but always too expensive. This one also appeals to me, and is on my wishlist (I'll always wait for at least 50% off on digital only, no matter the initial price). Always found them interesting, and when seeing so many of the characters being available in Undernauts, and finding out they were cheaper on the official store of the publisher physically than they are on the eshop at their lowest sale price so far, I finally got them. Seeing them being praised gets me excited to finally actually start playing them.
Or reading. The lack of voice acting also puts me slightly off, in a narrative game full of mono- or dialogue. Disco Elysium would have been "unplayable" (not literally, I can read) for me in its original state, but with the excellent writing and voice overs, it quickly became one of my all time favourite games.
@alexkarco It'll definitely be a pass then.
Appreciatethe feedback. @Nanami_Ataraxia I'll show it to her. Looks like something she'll get into. Thank you.
Guess I'll be picking this up asap. Somehow the title ended up in my notification list on Android platform so I was aware of it and on the fence. But the review has solidifed the decision, thank you!
Cheers for the review. I didn't even have this on my monitoring wishlist so it's a surprise for me. I tend to be picky about this type of game genre but do enjoy the ones I have "picked". I think I'll go for it as the reliable review site review makes it too interesting too ignore.
@Shambo. Care to explain? Are characters from Spirit Hunter Playable in Undernauts? Are they DLC?
@Shambo Unfortunately the Spirit Hunter games on Switch seemed like it was a limited release outside of their own store. So makes sense they are expensive. But glad to hear you found them cheap. They are worth it.
@CPTNG They are just portraits. When you create your party members you can pick their portraits along with portraits from Experiences other games.
@rawzeku So was I really wanted to play them, but even on sale digitally I found the prices too expensive to take the leap of faith. For a somewhat rare physical game, the same price still seems more acceptable to the ex-collector in me so I bought them. Definitely curious about the experience.
@CPTNG as said, they are little more than portraits. I bought the physical version in case there is differences in content, and when you create your team (portrait selection, name, backstory, stats, class,..), many of the available options are existing characters from other Experience games, so other dungeon crawlers and the Spirit Hunter games, but it also has its own set of unique designs that are very nice as well and make up most of my team. I have not yet played any of their other games, but I can tell that my protagonist is a creepy black rabbit doll I'm quite sure is from another game, and another in my party is Mary Kujou from Death Mark, but the protagonists are also available.
There's very little I find to show it, but on youtube a character creation video (a Pt.01 of a playthrough, but it does have character creation in its title) quickly shows them, and this screenshot shows the same rabbit that is my protagonist and how he is probably from another game (art style, and he has a preset name and backstory but you can change that)
Here's hoping for a physical release over at PlayAsia! Looks very interesting.
@theModestMouse That's a shame. Island has the best narrative and dialog ever made in the world of fiction.
Thanks @Shambo and @rawzeku . Appreciate the Response!
Oh no, another must-buy all of a sudden. Hoping for a physical release.
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