Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is a 2023 visual novel video game developed by Xeen and published by Square Enix.

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Square Enix[1]
Director(s)Takanari Ishiyama
Writer(s)Takanari Ishiyama
Composer(s)Hidenori Iwasaki[2]
Platform(s)Windows, Switch, iOS
Release
March 8, 2023
  • Microsoft Windows
  • March 8, 2023
  • Nintendo Switch & iOS
  • March 9, 2023
Genre(s)Visual novel
Mode(s)Single-player[3]

Plot

Set in the 1980s, in the Sumida, Tokyo, Japan.[3][4] The plot centers on supernatural urban legends named The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. One night, several different people are afflicted with deadly curses.[5]

Gameplay

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is a visual novel developed by xeen.[4][6] The player must work through each story in order to uncover the mystery behind the curses taking over the district.[7] The gameplay mostly focuses on the plot with brief sections for investigations and quizzes based on what the player has learned.[4] A flow Chart allows the player to go between the storylines and perspectives of the main characters.[5] Certain story branches and choices can bring a character to their death leading the player to revert to an earlier scene to deduce how to alter the events and trigger an alternative story path.[8]

Production

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is directed and written by Takanari Ishiyama.[2] Ishiyama has several visual novel game credits previously, as well as working on Metal Gear Solid as a sound engineer and on Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.[1]

It was revealed on the Japanese Nintendo Direct in February 2023.[8]

Release

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo was released for PC via Steam on March 8, 2023.[9][10] It was released the next day for Switch and iOS.[11][12]

Hirun Cryer of GamesRadar+ found that the publisher Square Enix did not do a lot of promotion for their game, similar to how they did with Neo: The World Ends With You and Theatrhythm Final Bar Line.[1]

Reception

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo received a score of 86/100 on review aggregate site Metacritic based on 24 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]

Joe DeVader of Nintendo World Report praised the game mechanics and art style, but opined that the horror gets in the way of the story occasionally, and deemed the Switch controls to be poor, noting awkward d-pad navigation.[13] Ollie Reynolds declared the game to be "one of the most intriguing and engaging narratives we’ve experienced in a good while", and praised the game's visuals, characters, and horror scenes.[8] Handley, while describing the game as having "few bells and whistles", said that it manages to be stylish, specifically with the wide panoramic backgrounds to search through.[4] Abraham Kobylanski of RPGFan admired the characters, but found the narrative too straightforward and felt that it relied too heavily on comedy over horror.[14]

References
  1. Cryer 2023.
  2. Orpheus Joshua 2023.
  3. "Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo". Metacritic. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  4. Handley.
  5. Lee 2023.
  6. "Paranormsight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo". Gematsu. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  7. Harripersad 2023.
  8. Reynolds 2023.
  9. "Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo". Metacritic. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  10. Romano 2023.
  11. "Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo". Metacritic. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  12. "Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo". Metacritic. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  13. DeVader 2023.
  14. Kobylanski 2023.
  15. Musgrave 2023.

Sources
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.