PARANORMASIGHT is a bit deceptive in how it presents itself versus how it really is.

It presents itself as a horror game but…well, it’s a mystery Visual Novel with horror elements. This might sound like a who cares difference, but it is key.

If you’re expecting to be spooked for big chunks of the VN then yeah, no, that ain’t happening. Even on the VN/Game spectrum, it leans very much into the VN part of it. It has gameplay inside, but it’s pretty linear all things considered. I might use the term ‘game’ later on but this is an accident on my part.

Let me give you an idea of the structure. The first half of the VN takes place at night. It’s also far more exciting and tense than the second half of the VN. The second half takes place during the day and is much calmer and investigation-focused.

One reason for the difference in tone has to do with those cursed objects I mentioned in the opening text. Those can only be used at night and they accounted for about 70% of the tension in any given scene.

Yes, this is another situation like Cross Ange or Koutetsujou no Kabaneri where the story is split into two distinct halves. However, the transition here works quite well. It helps that it’s split along the time of day (or night), which helps with the tone.

The first half of the VN is basically filled with you, as the player, having to figure out what people’s curses are, while not getting hit with them yourself. It’s pretty thrilling solving this ‘puzzle’.

I feel this is a decent place to pivot into the gameplay. Primarily, this is a point-and-click style puzzle game, where you’re presented with a puzzle and, well…you solve it. The solutions to the puzzles are not difficult to land at, but they are creative and not immediately apparent in many cases.

However, this is also where PARANORMASIGHT falters: it doesn’t make full use of the mechanics it establishes. Among these mechanics are: recalling information; using items; using curses during parts of the VN. Basically, it’s very railroaded and that’s a bit frustrating.

Going back to the tone and the first half/second half stuff. The second half is the majority of the VN, so for most of it you’re calmly investigating and solving puzzles. The first half, the tense bit, is much shorter. Would PARANORMASIGHT benefit from having more tension besides the night segment? I’m leaning on ‘probably’.

I think it would have made sense to include a third part, which takes place during a second night, where the climax would occur. But…let’s keep a few things in mind: by that point, you (the player) already know what all the curses do, what their limitations are and so on. The tension in the first half primarily derived from the fact you didn’t know what those curses did. It wasn’t just the fact you were in danger. As a result…I’m not really sure if more tension could be injected into PARANORMASIGHT. It’s kinda…yeah. Although, while playing, I did feel anxious during the second half, because there was a deadline (the night) that I was getting worried about. That’s partially why I think a second night might have been a good idea…it’s what I was expecting to happen anyway.

Another thing to consider is that those tense standoffs primarily take place during the Prologue which, y’know, is even shorter. There is tension in the other parts of the night, but it’s primarily concentrated in the Prologue. PARANORMASIGHT kinda unintentionally screws itself, because the Steam discussions I’ve read indicate a decent number of players found the lack of ‘thriller thrills’ in the rest of the VN disappointing. Though, again, considering the circumstances, it would have been difficult to inject more tension into it.

Unlike with the first game, I did my best to avoid looking at a walkthrough. Unfortunately, I succumbed when I wanted to get the true ending. No matter what I tried and thought of, I just couldn’t figure anything out. So I glanced at it and…I don’t think I would have figured it out.

So as a bonus I’ll explain what the big flaw with these games is: they both rely on meta mechanics for puzzle-solving that appear so rarely that you can go most of the game without needing them at all…and then when you do, you never think of them.

I think that they’re clever, sure, but I don’t think the game does a good enough job at guiding the player towards the solution. I should be clear that what I mean by that is…that the game doesn’t really indicate that these mechanics even exist and sorta relies on you to figure it out…somehow.