Welcome to our full review of PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, a horror point-and-click visual novel hybrid that is out on Switch and mobile.
PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is one of those games where you clearly see it was intended to be played on a touch screen and that is possibly why it is currently on the aforementioned platforms and not some of the others. Games like these also come with the restrictions that they generally do not transfer very well to TV play and sadly this version on the Switch is no different.
Not to say it is a bad game or badly delivered, it just can not outshine its lackluster performance with a controller compared to how smooth it plays at times on the touchscreen in handheld mode. Now, while this is not a game-breaking feature, it is the one thing that I wanted to emphasize.
Now that that is out of the way, let us talk about the game, I did that on purpose to not let it influence you too much if you are into these kinds of games. For starters, this is a very deep Japanese horror-style game, where lore, myths, and the darkness all intertwine in a strange story where you basically end up either killing or getting killed.
Without going too deep into the actual storyline, it is all about cursed objects and their power to gather special items which in turn will let you revive someone. Now ask yourself the question, would you kill someone to revive a loved one? That is the same question you get while playing as the antagonist. As a question, this runs a lot deeper than you would imagine as it involves taking out friends and foes alike.
You are also not alone in this game, there are several of these objects and all of them can be as deadly as the next and it is your prime mission to stay alive, which is not always easy. You need to really focus on everything and everyone. This is also what makes this game a rather challenging one, as I have experienced firsthand. I was in between 2 opponents, though unsure if the woman was evil or really just a spectator.
The man in front of me, had a cursed object as well and no matter what option I selected or what I did, I was killed. Sure, the weird old man next to the TV revives you and gives a VERY obscure hint as to what to do, but how do you recover from a cursed object that supposedly got its feet cleaned to disable its powers but there is no such option?
A lot of soul-searching and sleuthing is what it takes to do the thing. It might be this game’s strongest point and it might also be its downfall in the long run. I honestly have not decided this yet, it is like I want to like the game, but getting stuck is such a massive pain in the ass, it is almost enjoyment-ruining.
In conclusion, despite having a good start on this game, everything from the second level on kind of got bumpy and it sure did ruin the enjoyment.
