“PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse” – REVIEW

2023’s “PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries Of Honjo” came as quite the surprise to all visual novel fans. In a year full of incredible games, it still managed to cement itself as one of the best, most underrated, most unpredictable stories of recent times.

Needless to say, I was excited for this year’s sequel – “The Mermaid’s Curse”. Does it live up to the original? I’ll spell out my thoughts in this review. Be warned – there will be some MAJOR SPOILERS ahead, so make sure you finish the game before reading what I have to say.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

EVERY Game I Played In 2024 – Ranked

Danganronpa – Every Chapter Ranked

Every Ace Attorney Culprit Ranked

Uchikoshi Games Ranked (ZeroEscape & AI: The Somnium Files)

Story

Visual novels tend not to prioritize their gameplay, so it’s up to the narrative to do all of the heavy lifting. Luckily, “The Mermaid’s Curse” has a fantastic story which hooked me from the get-go and never got stale.

It’s a tale of mermaids, curses and young romance, and the small island setting of Kameshima gives it a really cosy and homely feel. It takes place in the 80’s (a time I wasn’t alive in), and yet the chill vibe was oddly nostalgic.

More so than the last game, “The Mermaid’s Curse” used the Story Chart to its fullest potential. It frequently tells the story out of order, jumping back and forth in the chronology and building the mystery slowly. One of my complaints about “The Seven Mysteries Of Honjo” was that it could be a bit of a slow burn, especially in the middle, but this game’s constant time-hopping always kept me on my toes.

Speaking of the Story Chart, I thought this story’s use of POV was very clever. All of the characters were strong and compelling in their own right, and I liked how they each had their secrets and hidden motivations. It gave all of their interactions an infectious electricity – I couldn’t quit the game at points because I was so locked in.

I guess my only complaint about the story / Story Chart specifically is that the diverging timelines weren’t very in-depth. Games like Zero Escape use the alternate timelines to the fullest, whereas “The Mermaid’s Curse” had one major timeline difference which affected all the POVs.

“PARANORMASIGHT” isn’t known for its branching timelines, in fairness, so I can’t hold that against it too much. I’ll go over some more of my gripes in the “Not-So-Good” section later, but for now I can say that the story and writing impressed me yet again.

Score: 9/10

Gameplay

Visual novels hardly pioneer any gameplay mechanics, and “The Mermaid’s Curse” is no exception. It tells its story in a relatively plain format, but when new gameplay mechanics (or old ones, in this series’ case) are introduced it usually freshens the experience.

The same sort of mechanics from the first game make a return, though I felt they were underutilized. There weren’t many memorable 360-degree panning moments, or sudden scares, or anything like that. Even the “Curse” mechanic / prompt doesn’t see much use in this particular story.

The best parts of the gameplay were the new additions. The “Recollection” prompt led to some fun non-linear storytelling, the puzzles were solid (for the first two thirds of the runtime …) and the diving minigame was more addicting than I was expecting. I especially liked the more open-ended puzzles you are presented with, such as the final “plan” you need to come up with at the game’s climax.

The gameplay was good, but nothing special. But, like I said, that’s not the reason I bought this game in the first place.

Score: 7/10

Style

For visual novels – especially more mainstream ones like “PARANORMASIGHT” – its visual style is extremely important. It’s what separates a game from its contemporaries, and it’s also a crucial tool for easing the player into the world, story and lengthy run-time. Nobody wants to look at an eyesore visual novel for countless hours, after all. That’s what books are for.

The “PARANORMASIGHT” series has cemented itself as one of the more stylish visual novels on offer. The art and character design is always fantastic, the music is never in the forefront but never misses, and the eerie atmosphere makes every scene a thrill.

I also like how the developers always go above and beyond in these games when presenting the history and lore. Every character, moment and location is given a comprehensive dossier to view in the Files menu – and sometimes this extra information plays a crucial role in the main narrative. It encourages even more interaction with the game and narrative, which can never be a bad thing.

Is “The Mermaid’s Curse” the most stylish visual novel on the market? Far from it, but it knows its strengths and plays into them well.

Score: 8/10

The Not-So-Good

For my reviews, I tend to lump all of my gripes and criticisms into one “Not-So-Good” section. This part won’t get a score out of ten – it’s just a place for me to vocalize this game’s shortcomings.

My main “complaint” is one of tone – there are far fewer scares and curses in this particular story, which I thought was half the fun of the original. I didn’t necessarily want to go on another curse killing spree, but we only got three curses this time around compared to the seven last time. And there were only a couple of moments which made me jump!

The other major issue I have is with the ending – specifically, how to get there. Some of the last puzzles you are presented with are stupidly tricky meta puzzles, and I had to look up a couple of the answers online. I don’t think I would’ve ever naturally considered some of the solutions, like checking the save files or the text logs.

Also, some of the endings are really hard and unintuitive to get – Arnav Barnum’s ones specifically. I had to jump in and out of certain chapters over a dozen times before I could get the right combination of events, and that just wasn’t fun. And to make matters worse, both of Barnum’s endings were short and shallow, which only left us with three “real” endings (one of which was a generic bad ending as well).

My final issue with the ending is one that I’m sure nobody will agree with. Later in the story it’s revealed that Yuza and Sato are doing this all in the name of love. It’s a sweet turn of events which leads to a heart-warming True Ending … but the romance came a bit out of nowhere in my opinion. That’s what happens when characters lie and leave out details for 75% of the game’s runtime.

The last two gripes are more personal to my tastes. First of all, the lack of chronology made following the story quite hard at points. I struggled to recall who was still alive and what had happened in that particular timeline – though the game admittedly does well to recap the key events and get you back up to speed. And the other gripe is that the “Mockingbird Theatre” stickers are completely pointless. I thought there would be some sort of family tree minigame involving them, a bit like “The Roottrees Are Dead”, but your only reward for collecting all twenty birds is a meaningless comedy video featuring the stickers. I can’t believe I wasted my time finding them all.

Fun

I always end my reviews with a section all about the “Fun”, or how much I personally enjoyed it. It’s one thing if your game is a critical darling and gets a lot of its mechanics right, but it’s another thing entirely to be memorable and enjoyable.

So, did I have fun with “PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse”? Absolutely. The tropical vibes were a breath of fresh air, and the intense story led to some satisfying payoffs.

Though the atmosphere was less eerie and unpredictable compared to the original, and therefore there were less scares, I still enjoyed the horror and mystery on offer. I kept going to bed thinking about the plot and wishing to dive back in, which is always a good sign!

Score: 8/10

Verdict

While not as good as the original, “The Mermaid’s Curse” is still an excellent entry in the series, and a worthy follow-up to “The Seven Mysteries Of Honjo”. Hopefully “PARANORMASIGHT” can continue to release great mysteries in the future.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

PROS	CONS
+ Satisfying Story With Memorable Characters	– Not Enough Scares & Curses
+ Unsettling Atmosphere	– Unintuitive Meta Puzzles
+ Attention To Detail / In-Depth History And Lore	– Lack Of Timeline / Ending Variety

Aaaand that’s my review! If you liked this post and want to support me, please consider giving me a one-time donation. Even a few pence (or whatever currency you use) is fantastic! I’ve never monetized this blog before, but it would be great if I could do this comfortably and not have to worry about the yearly website domain costs. Thank you so much!