finished the whole thing on one long plane ride and it did not disappoint. mesmerizing and rewarding for sure, if it stuck that landing a bit better it'd be perfect
PARANORMASIGHT is a mystery VN with great visual aesthetics and underwhelming story.
I love the edited photos as background imagery, the character sprites look fairly unique and are expressive enough. The menus also look great. My only complaint about the visuals is that chromatic aberration is a bit annoying and there's no way to disable it. The music is fitting though repetition got to me a bit by the end.
That being said, the presentation is probably the weakest part of the game when the writing is concerned - most of the playtime will be spent reading character's accounts on the information you are already aware of, or on the cool stuff they apparently did offscreen.
The story doesn't really have a hook or an overarching theme that would give the player a reason to care about what's going on. I have seen every ending in the game, and I still can't tell you what the story is supposed to be about. The game tells you that it's about the different perspective on resurrection, but it doesn't really explore the concept, it just uses it as a prop. Stuff just happens until the story is over. Every mystery VN has at least one Epic Twist that's supposed to recontextualize what's happened before then, and in PARANORMASIGHT you guess this twist immediately if you've played games like this before, and then the ~10 hours between the start and the end are filled with faffing about doing things that don't really tie together into a cohesive narrative.
Random meta gimmicks would've been cool, if they weren't already overdone by dozens other games that do a better job of tying them into the narrative. The game has nominally non-linear structure, but the progression through the game's story is almost entirely devoid of actual choice on the player's part: the flowchart is full of arbitrary roadblocks that force the player down the single available path.
The characters personalities are fairly weak and I don't think I could recognize most of their lines without seeing their names/sprites. Their motivations are often contrived and the game even draws its attention to it, only to handwave it with a "women be shopping" kind of remark.
The bottom line is that this VN doesn't do anything better than the other VNs with a similar focus already have done.
I recommend PARANORMASIGHT only to people who are really desperate for another fix of a story similar to Zero Escape or AI: Somnium Files.
I love the edited photos as background imagery, the character sprites look fairly unique and are expressive enough. The menus also look great. My only complaint about the visuals is that chromatic aberration is a bit annoying and there's no way to disable it. The music is fitting though repetition got to me a bit by the end.
That being said, the presentation is probably the weakest part of the game when the writing is concerned - most of the playtime will be spent reading character's accounts on the information you are already aware of, or on the cool stuff they apparently did offscreen.
The story doesn't really have a hook or an overarching theme that would give the player a reason to care about what's going on. I have seen every ending in the game, and I still can't tell you what the story is supposed to be about. The game tells you that it's about the different perspective on resurrection, but it doesn't really explore the concept, it just uses it as a prop. Stuff just happens until the story is over. Every mystery VN has at least one Epic Twist that's supposed to recontextualize what's happened before then, and in PARANORMASIGHT you guess this twist immediately if you've played games like this before, and then the ~10 hours between the start and the end are filled with faffing about doing things that don't really tie together into a cohesive narrative.
Random meta gimmicks would've been cool, if they weren't already overdone by dozens other games that do a better job of tying them into the narrative. The game has nominally non-linear structure, but the progression through the game's story is almost entirely devoid of actual choice on the player's part: the flowchart is full of arbitrary roadblocks that force the player down the single available path.
The characters personalities are fairly weak and I don't think I could recognize most of their lines without seeing their names/sprites. Their motivations are often contrived and the game even draws its attention to it, only to handwave it with a "women be shopping" kind of remark.
The bottom line is that this VN doesn't do anything better than the other VNs with a similar focus already have done.
I recommend PARANORMASIGHT only to people who are really desperate for another fix of a story similar to Zero Escape or AI: Somnium Files.
I loved most things about the game; the narrative, the creativity, (most of) the characters, I was hooked until I beat it.
Then the ending kinda lost me. It was cool how to GET to the ending, but the finale of the story left me a little unfulfilled. That's just a personal gripe though, I still think its a worthwhile experience. While some mechanics/story beats go underutilized, it makes me excited to see what this team does next
Then the ending kinda lost me. It was cool how to GET to the ending, but the finale of the story left me a little unfulfilled. That's just a personal gripe though, I still think its a worthwhile experience. While some mechanics/story beats go underutilized, it makes me excited to see what this team does next
Great Story, Characters, music, and an amazing ending.
Paranormasight is a horror and mystery-themed visual novel/adventure game hybrid that stars multiple protagonists with intertwining stories. The game has a ton of really unique and strong ideas both narratively and mechanically. Unfortunately, this is ultimately its biggest downfall, as the game is rather overambitious. It tries to do way too much, and it doesn’t have the time to explore all of its ideas in a satisfying manner. As a result, the experience feels rushed and rather unfulfilling.
The game takes place in the city of Honjo in 1980’s Japan, a time when fear of the occult was on the rise. Throughout the city, several people with an interest in a ritual known as the Rite of Resurrection, which allows whoever performs it to bring someone back from the dead, come into possession of cursed stones. These cursed stones provide them with the ability to inflict a curse upon others if their victims meet specific conditions. Everyone in possession of a cursed stone must use it in order to kill people and obtain enough “soul dregs” from their murders to be able to perform the Rite of Resurrection, and other cursed stone users provide far more soul dregs than regular people. As a result, the cursed stone users must compete with one another in order to be able to use the Rite for their own purposes. You play as several protagonists, each with their own narratives that intertwine with one another.
The gameplay is heavily reminiscent of the investigation segments from the Ace Attorney games and A.I. The Somnium Files. You explore environments that have various objects you can observe and people you can talk to. Normally in these games, locations are comprised of just one or two screens that you can swap back and forth between, but in Paranormasight, the locations are actually full 360 degree environments that you can turn around in. This makes the places you visit a lot more immersive, and early on, the game establishes a sense of paranoia with a couple of jumpscares from behind you, giving you the impression that you need to be vigilant, as you can never be sure whether or not there’s something or someone behind you.
There are other unique mechanics as well. There’s one mechanic in particular that I thought was really clever and executed extremely well, but I can’t really talk about it because I feel like it’s a bit of a spoiler. Aside from that, there’s the story chart, which is where you can view and pick between the different characters and their stories. Sometimes, you’ll need to perform actions in or gain knowledge from one character’s story in order to progress another’s. This generally works rather well, and is one of the game’s biggest strengths. However, it can get convoluted at times, especially during a section in one specific character’s story, which hinges on experiencing one of the most random, out of pocket, highly specific conversations ever in another character’s story.
Despite these unique and well thought out mechanics, the game barely utilizes them at all. As a matter of fact, you don’t even really do that much investigating in general. The vast majority of this game is just talking to people. You rarely need to inspect areas, and that cool and well executed mechanic I mentioned earlier is only used like - twice throughout the entire game. The game as a whole feels too short, despite being a little over ten hours. It isn’t given the time it needs to explore its mechanical ideas to a satisfying extent.
This problem applies to the story as well. The story in general is very heavy on exposition. It’s heavily rooted in Japanese folklore as well as the culture of the era the game takes place in. This means that characters constantly have to explain said folklore, such as what the seven curses are, how they work, the history of the city of Honjo itself, etc. This is in addition to having to explain the different characters, factions, and events unique to the story. Exposition ultimately takes up a huge chunk of the overall narrative, which makes it feel like you’re waiting almost the entire time for the game to get on its feet and kick things off. But it never really does, and then it starts to wrap things up when it feels like there should be a lot more to it. Potentially impactful aspects of characters, certain plot threads, as well as social issues the game brings up aren’t explored to a satisfying degree, making the whole thing rather flat as a result.
I think what ultimately harms the game the most is the prologue with Shogo. It inflates expectations way too much by introducing the game’s mechanics and establishing a tone as well as a majority of the plot threads that you expect the game to have major payoffs for. However, that ends up not being the case at all, and it’s really disappointing.
I really like its presentation. The character art looks nice, the music is appropriately moody, and I think it's really cool how the whole thing is framed as if you were watching it on a colored television set from this time period. It's one of the better elements of the game, and plays a role in keeping you immersed in the story.
In the end, Paranormasight didn’t really leave me feeling much of anything at all. While I wouldn’t say that the game does anything bad, I can’t help but feel that the experience as a whole was rather mediocre. It promises a spooky and thrilling mystery, but it never really lives up to that promise. It is still an interesting read, but it evoked little out of me in terms of emotion. It has some unique spins on adventure game mechanics, but these mechanics are extremely underutilized. The whole game oozes potential that it sadly never quite lives up to.
The game takes place in the city of Honjo in 1980’s Japan, a time when fear of the occult was on the rise. Throughout the city, several people with an interest in a ritual known as the Rite of Resurrection, which allows whoever performs it to bring someone back from the dead, come into possession of cursed stones. These cursed stones provide them with the ability to inflict a curse upon others if their victims meet specific conditions. Everyone in possession of a cursed stone must use it in order to kill people and obtain enough “soul dregs” from their murders to be able to perform the Rite of Resurrection, and other cursed stone users provide far more soul dregs than regular people. As a result, the cursed stone users must compete with one another in order to be able to use the Rite for their own purposes. You play as several protagonists, each with their own narratives that intertwine with one another.
The gameplay is heavily reminiscent of the investigation segments from the Ace Attorney games and A.I. The Somnium Files. You explore environments that have various objects you can observe and people you can talk to. Normally in these games, locations are comprised of just one or two screens that you can swap back and forth between, but in Paranormasight, the locations are actually full 360 degree environments that you can turn around in. This makes the places you visit a lot more immersive, and early on, the game establishes a sense of paranoia with a couple of jumpscares from behind you, giving you the impression that you need to be vigilant, as you can never be sure whether or not there’s something or someone behind you.
There are other unique mechanics as well. There’s one mechanic in particular that I thought was really clever and executed extremely well, but I can’t really talk about it because I feel like it’s a bit of a spoiler. Aside from that, there’s the story chart, which is where you can view and pick between the different characters and their stories. Sometimes, you’ll need to perform actions in or gain knowledge from one character’s story in order to progress another’s. This generally works rather well, and is one of the game’s biggest strengths. However, it can get convoluted at times, especially during a section in one specific character’s story, which hinges on experiencing one of the most random, out of pocket, highly specific conversations ever in another character’s story.
Despite these unique and well thought out mechanics, the game barely utilizes them at all. As a matter of fact, you don’t even really do that much investigating in general. The vast majority of this game is just talking to people. You rarely need to inspect areas, and that cool and well executed mechanic I mentioned earlier is only used like - twice throughout the entire game. The game as a whole feels too short, despite being a little over ten hours. It isn’t given the time it needs to explore its mechanical ideas to a satisfying extent.
This problem applies to the story as well. The story in general is very heavy on exposition. It’s heavily rooted in Japanese folklore as well as the culture of the era the game takes place in. This means that characters constantly have to explain said folklore, such as what the seven curses are, how they work, the history of the city of Honjo itself, etc. This is in addition to having to explain the different characters, factions, and events unique to the story. Exposition ultimately takes up a huge chunk of the overall narrative, which makes it feel like you’re waiting almost the entire time for the game to get on its feet and kick things off. But it never really does, and then it starts to wrap things up when it feels like there should be a lot more to it. Potentially impactful aspects of characters, certain plot threads, as well as social issues the game brings up aren’t explored to a satisfying degree, making the whole thing rather flat as a result.
I think what ultimately harms the game the most is the prologue with Shogo. It inflates expectations way too much by introducing the game’s mechanics and establishing a tone as well as a majority of the plot threads that you expect the game to have major payoffs for. However, that ends up not being the case at all, and it’s really disappointing.
I really like its presentation. The character art looks nice, the music is appropriately moody, and I think it's really cool how the whole thing is framed as if you were watching it on a colored television set from this time period. It's one of the better elements of the game, and plays a role in keeping you immersed in the story.
In the end, Paranormasight didn’t really leave me feeling much of anything at all. While I wouldn’t say that the game does anything bad, I can’t help but feel that the experience as a whole was rather mediocre. It promises a spooky and thrilling mystery, but it never really lives up to that promise. It is still an interesting read, but it evoked little out of me in terms of emotion. It has some unique spins on adventure game mechanics, but these mechanics are extremely underutilized. The whole game oozes potential that it sadly never quite lives up to.
me and the bois on our way to
Do something that shows you won't forget
Do something that shows you won't forget
esse jogo foi uma grande surpresa pra mim, eu já esperava que ele fosse bom pelos visuais lindos e pelas notas na steam, mas pqp q narrativa bem contada.
Cada detalhe nesse jogo é surreal, é tudo muito bem conectado e a introdução dele é muito genial, e o final eu esperava q n fosse tão bom mas eu estava errado, eles conseguiram conectar muito bem toda a historia e pra um jogo investigativo isso é muito louvável, eles conseguiram fazer o jogo continuar interessante até o final, e justificar o porque essa historia esta sendo contada em um jogo do que qualquer outro tipo de midia.
Os visuais são lindos, os personagens são mt carismáticos, a musica é bem boa e os misterios são mt bons, recomendo demais!! Só não dou nota 10 pq a falta de sprites pra cenas mais impactantes me diz q poderia ser um pouco melhor, e a trilha sonora as vezes é mal colocada, como em momentos de tensão que só rola uma trilha engraçadinha, oq eu acho meio ruim.
mas no geral incrível!!! Uma das melhores visual novels que já joguei
Cada detalhe nesse jogo é surreal, é tudo muito bem conectado e a introdução dele é muito genial, e o final eu esperava q n fosse tão bom mas eu estava errado, eles conseguiram conectar muito bem toda a historia e pra um jogo investigativo isso é muito louvável, eles conseguiram fazer o jogo continuar interessante até o final, e justificar o porque essa historia esta sendo contada em um jogo do que qualquer outro tipo de midia.
Os visuais são lindos, os personagens são mt carismáticos, a musica é bem boa e os misterios são mt bons, recomendo demais!! Só não dou nota 10 pq a falta de sprites pra cenas mais impactantes me diz q poderia ser um pouco melhor, e a trilha sonora as vezes é mal colocada, como em momentos de tensão que só rola uma trilha engraçadinha, oq eu acho meio ruim.
mas no geral incrível!!! Uma das melhores visual novels que já joguei
Esse foi ótimo. Algumas partes me deram dor de cabeça de tanta informação jogada ao mesmo tempo, mas a história é muito criativa e bem feita e as mecânicas de storytelling vão agradar quem curte Zero Escape (me lembrou danganronpa também, mas por causa da arte e trilha sonora).
This was a neat game! I've always been into paranormal stuff so I gave it a chance blind and it exceeded my expectations, great detective story that kept me going until the end. It's fairly linear but I did like that I was able to make it through the whole game without looking up any hints (except the "true ending" but the creators admitted that they let that be obtuse because they expected people to search a guide) and I was able to piece together a lot of the mystery myself while still getting blindsided at points. Nice character moments too.
Loved the intrigue of the different curse bearers and their conditions, it was such an interesting hook that felt like it could have carried a full series on its own. The urban legend aspect was actually really compelling in general, the origins of the curses and their associated tales were well-written.
Some of the "meta" stuff the game asks you to do is a bit... forced, but they don't shove it down your throat too much so I'll give it a pass. Mixed feelings on the way the secret ending reflects upon the events of the game but it's not bad or anything like that, similar feelings towards the red herrings.
The Mocking Bird stickers were cute as hell.
Loved the intrigue of the different curse bearers and their conditions, it was such an interesting hook that felt like it could have carried a full series on its own. The urban legend aspect was actually really compelling in general, the origins of the curses and their associated tales were well-written.
Some of the "meta" stuff the game asks you to do is a bit... forced, but they don't shove it down your throat too much so I'll give it a pass. Mixed feelings on the way the secret ending reflects upon the events of the game but it's not bad or anything like that, similar feelings towards the red herrings.
The Mocking Bird stickers were cute as hell.
paranormasight is the 7/10 vn , definition of mid kino, its like I could see something being thrown at my face and I was like "yeah no way thats going to hit my face" so I dont move and yeah it didnt hit my face but it rammed my balls and oh god it hurts. A fun interesting vn with immaculate spooky vibes to bite into for a week
Enjoyed the story, I'm a sucker for 'separate stories coming together in the end' type deals, and it's especially well done here. Also a big fan of the detective who just wants to play on the playground and collect stickers
História cativante e criativa cheia de reviravoltas e com um desing e gameplay inovadoras que instiga ainda mais a jogar. Recomendadissimo
This must have had an unexpected scheduling or budgetary setback because after the exceptional first couple of hours it nosedives hard into jargon-heavy procedural territory. Once the game hits the daylight section, it brims over with red herrings, underexplored themes, and off-screen endings; it abandons its clever use of 3D perspective and the creeping sense of dread that perspective handily abets; and it tacks the compulsory VN metatextuality onto the ending as if it's embarrassed to even acknowledge it. The characters remain richly written and expressively designed, and you get an interesting feint toward disentangling common cultural mythology as a problem-solving method (think King of Dragon Pass), but when so many of its other ideas fail to even get off the ground, its successes feel accidental. Really disappointing.
I liked this a lot more than I expected to, honestly. Part of me still feels like I shouldn’t have liked it at all; I’m not a big VN fan but I’m a massive horror nerd, and while I definitely didn’t find this game particularly “scary”, the retro vibes & the unique quirks of the story were enough to draw me in and keep me engaged. I just…liked it. That feels like really fucking weird review, but it’s also the only one that fits. Call it the eighth (tenth) mystery I guess.
A very polished visual novel with an original setting and artstyle. The use of multiple protagonists gives flavour to the plot, which is interesting and full of plotwists. The cherry on top are all the metanarrative elements, either appearing on some puzzles or the story itself, that really makes your head explode.
lost interest..
This is some of the smartest use of the ADV format I've ever seen in a visual novel, a real fusion of medium and narrative that has a satisfying conclusion to basically everything you could ask for and leave you clutching your head with how it all works out.
There are also a lot of comforting VN-isms that anyone familiar with this genre would be either ecstatic or disappointed with, up to personal preference really.
Solid characters and all sorts of awesome twists and turns that are only bogged down slightly by a couple odd puzzles and narrative choices that have with weird solutions but do have their own justification, kind of not really i'm still mad over one of the solutions to a puzzle let me be.
Definitely not the kind of game you can binge in one sitting, maybe treat it like a replacement for a tv show or a mystery book.
I hope this gets the attention it deserves and more great things come from this team (despite being under Squeenix's thumb)
There are also a lot of comforting VN-isms that anyone familiar with this genre would be either ecstatic or disappointed with, up to personal preference really.
Solid characters and all sorts of awesome twists and turns that are only bogged down slightly by a couple odd puzzles and narrative choices that have with weird solutions but do have their own justification, kind of not really i'm still mad over one of the solutions to a puzzle let me be.
Definitely not the kind of game you can binge in one sitting, maybe treat it like a replacement for a tv show or a mystery book.
I hope this gets the attention it deserves and more great things come from this team (despite being under Squeenix's thumb)
Awesome visual novel that kind of falls apart towards the third act at least for me while I did enjoy the ending, all routes were interesting imo but does drag in the middle and gets a bit too trigger happy with unloading information onto you all at once
Starts out as a horror game that unfortunately the game dosent hold for too long as it becomes an occult detective game with a horror backdrop almost immediately that not being a bad thing
The chess match style tension that occurs when making some choices in this game are fantastic, really makes you think what you would do in the same situation, Harue Shigima being a standout character and the route I was most invested in
Fantastic artstyle and creepy vibe, hope to see Square make a follow-up someday, defintely going to go down as a cult classic if it hasnt already, extremly memorable experience and a great surprise, reminds me of those smaller DS/3ds titles that try new things
9/10
Starts out as a horror game that unfortunately the game dosent hold for too long as it becomes an occult detective game with a horror backdrop almost immediately that not being a bad thing
The chess match style tension that occurs when making some choices in this game are fantastic, really makes you think what you would do in the same situation, Harue Shigima being a standout character and the route I was most invested in
Fantastic artstyle and creepy vibe, hope to see Square make a follow-up someday, defintely going to go down as a cult classic if it hasnt already, extremly memorable experience and a great surprise, reminds me of those smaller DS/3ds titles that try new things
9/10
This review contains spoilers
Really intriguing concept that is beautifully delivered. Some of the technical design choices are brand new to me and completely fascinating. The use of a menu setting to beat an enemy was wild to me. I love being able to look around the environment and have things change behind my FoV. I was scared by that a few times. I expected crafted scenarios inside schools and other stereotypically creepy horror settings, but what I got was so much more fleshed out and intricate. When it came time to choose which character to play as after the prologue, I genuinely struggled to prioritise my interest, it was high for every character who had been cleverly introduced (and for some, killed off) by my prologue character Shogo. Each person has a genuine reason to desire using the Rite of Resurrection and it feels as though they all deserve it at first.
Peaks too early but the mystery is still compelling enough to give the game some momentum. The game does a lot with a little visually and the 2D art with panning camera angles, and simple film grain filter, make it stand out and have a filmic, j-horror on VHS vibe.
Esse jogo é bem criativo nos seus aspectos de gameplay. Um mistério bem interessante com ALGUNS personagens muito carismáticos.
richter kai autistic detective agency
Super good, innovative storytelling, great art and music overall i'm really satisfied despite it's short playtime
Incredibly creative, good music, good art direction, INSANE STORY
I wish this were a little better. The first third or so has incredible tension... but once that tension is gone, it's gone forever.
One positive point is the visuals and camera. Rather than screen sprites, characters are positioned to talk to each other, and the camera moves between them. Ex. there was a moment where characters on a bridge talk while looking out over a river, which made the scene more compelling and real.
One positive point is the visuals and camera. Rather than screen sprites, characters are positioned to talk to each other, and the camera moves between them. Ex. there was a moment where characters on a bridge talk while looking out over a river, which made the scene more compelling and real.
Tetsuo Tsutsumi te quiero mucho espero que te vaya todo bien :)
Interesting concept that just dies halfway through.
Would’ve been 5 stars if the ending wasn’t underwhelming but besides that it’s a phenomenal game. I adore the characters so much and how varied they are esp compared to other VN protags. I mean srsly how often do you get to see the perspective of a 36 year old mother? It stood out to me so much. The atmosphere and story was so good. I was scared but hooked. Incredible game. i hope the team gets to do more.
I absolutely loved my time with Paranormasight. It deserves the effort of a well structured review, but I'm not feeling motivated at the moment, so I'm just going to write.
Paranormasight is more of a supernatural mystery visual novel than horror as it bills itself. There are certainly horror elements, but the mystery is the focus and it's done extremely well. There was never a moment that I felt like something just came out of left field -- there were surprises, but they always made sense in the end. It was an excellently thought-out and written storyline.
I think the characters may have been the highlight here, even with the overall narrative and mystery being so well done. The diversity was nice -- from your standard anime high schoolers, to mid-20s, a mid 30s mother, a detective in his 50s, and so on. I found that they all behaved believably... well, unless there was a supernatural reason for them not to. The backstories and motivations were solid for each, and humor was used fairly liberally and effectively in character building moments.
The art and music were great. The creepy atmospheric tracks were spot on, the more dramatic choir themes were excellent, and I very much enjoyed the somewhat goofy jazz theme that would accompany a pair of detectives in the less dire moments. The character designs and expressions were top notch, and I enjoyed the scenery as I searched each of the games locations for the (optional) collectible Mocking Bird stickers -- which included such greats as a penguin with a pompadour and an eagle with a mohawk and biker jacket.
In the 13 hours it took me to reach the true ending, there was only one point that I found a puzzle to be annoying. It required advancing a completely unrelated and fairly easy to miss conversation in a different scene altogether. I generally made sure to exhaust all conversation options, so it was mainly bad luck that I missed this one and couldn't figure out how to proceed for a bit. Still, there was no indication of what I needed to do other than a brute force search. That said, all of the other puzzles were well done and required a bit of clever thinking. There are some meta elements to some of the puzzles that I found well done and enjoyable to figure out.
There's a couple of other quick things to mention. While the game features multiple endings, it is essentially a linear affair -- there's no real branching to be had here. Perfectly fine with me, but I know that's not everyone's cup of tea. Also, as mentioned above the horror elements are fairly light. If you want to be frightened, this isn't the game. Again, that's actually to my preference -- I love games that have a horror flavor without actually messing up my sleep haha.
Paranormasight is more of a supernatural mystery visual novel than horror as it bills itself. There are certainly horror elements, but the mystery is the focus and it's done extremely well. There was never a moment that I felt like something just came out of left field -- there were surprises, but they always made sense in the end. It was an excellently thought-out and written storyline.
I think the characters may have been the highlight here, even with the overall narrative and mystery being so well done. The diversity was nice -- from your standard anime high schoolers, to mid-20s, a mid 30s mother, a detective in his 50s, and so on. I found that they all behaved believably... well, unless there was a supernatural reason for them not to. The backstories and motivations were solid for each, and humor was used fairly liberally and effectively in character building moments.
The art and music were great. The creepy atmospheric tracks were spot on, the more dramatic choir themes were excellent, and I very much enjoyed the somewhat goofy jazz theme that would accompany a pair of detectives in the less dire moments. The character designs and expressions were top notch, and I enjoyed the scenery as I searched each of the games locations for the (optional) collectible Mocking Bird stickers -- which included such greats as a penguin with a pompadour and an eagle with a mohawk and biker jacket.
In the 13 hours it took me to reach the true ending, there was only one point that I found a puzzle to be annoying. It required advancing a completely unrelated and fairly easy to miss conversation in a different scene altogether. I generally made sure to exhaust all conversation options, so it was mainly bad luck that I missed this one and couldn't figure out how to proceed for a bit. Still, there was no indication of what I needed to do other than a brute force search. That said, all of the other puzzles were well done and required a bit of clever thinking. There are some meta elements to some of the puzzles that I found well done and enjoyable to figure out.
There's a couple of other quick things to mention. While the game features multiple endings, it is essentially a linear affair -- there's no real branching to be had here. Perfectly fine with me, but I know that's not everyone's cup of tea. Also, as mentioned above the horror elements are fairly light. If you want to be frightened, this isn't the game. Again, that's actually to my preference -- I love games that have a horror flavor without actually messing up my sleep haha.
This review contains spoilers
Outstanding visual novel adventure with amazing vibes and a unique (to video games, at least) setting of 80's urban Japan.
It starts with a fantastic intro when you play a hapless young office drone thrust in the central "Rite of Ressurection" intrigue. it explains the premise concisely while maintaining interest while building up to a thrilling mad dash around town that rivals the pace of a Safdie Brothers' movie, deftly encouraging you you go all-out with your new deadly powers in a deliciously dark "what-if" mini-arc. It also works as a great inversion of the standard "bland player stand-in and kooky girl" partnership and is generally an amazing exercise in setting the tone and stakes.
Once the prologue is finished, the pace settles down to allow you to get to know the 3 real protagonists, who you would have glimpsed (and maybe killed) in the prologue; A dour housewife grieving the death of her son, a grizzled veteran police detective with an unlikely tie to the supernatural and an impulsive schoolgirl trying to reveal the truth of her friend's alleged suicide. The story and characters are all well-sketched out, grounding what could have easily been a silly, over-the-top story and giving it a layer of believable grit. This is all aided by some truly beautiful character art, with expressive, cleanly drawn characters outlined in calligraphy styled- brushstrokes evoking both modern manga and classical Japanese art styles.
So now to get into some spoiler territory, I do have some minor nitpicks with the story. The intro is incredibly cool but the two characters rarely appear outside of these scenes but both are pivotal towards the ending, which makes a bit weaker due to them not being fleshed out much. Theres a forth playable character later on who has one really cool sequence but is then side-lined during the rest of the plot, I do wish they had been added in more organically while having more to do in the story. Also, I personally did not care for the method to get the true ending, it does makes sense after you do it but its the one time the game suffers from what is, in my own humble opinion, Adventure Game Logic (Derogatory), where you get the sense of what you need to do but have trouble working out exactly how the devs envision you doing it. This isn't helped by a red herring in one of the final conversations where you can get some differing responses by clicking conversation topics in a different order, leading you the incorrectly assume that that conversation is where the true ending is found. I had to look it up and, to keep it vague, it was a case of going to the right place at the wrong time and clicking something both before and after talking to someone. Admittedly this is totally a personal thing, and the fact that this is the most annoyance I had while playing this game speaks more it its overall enjoyability.
In spite of these relatively minor issues, I would definitely recommend this game, its an interesting, well-told story with a gorgeous art style and fantastic presentation.
(OK, I just wanted to vent about that ending thing, that really got to me, honestly....)
It starts with a fantastic intro when you play a hapless young office drone thrust in the central "Rite of Ressurection" intrigue. it explains the premise concisely while maintaining interest while building up to a thrilling mad dash around town that rivals the pace of a Safdie Brothers' movie, deftly encouraging you you go all-out with your new deadly powers in a deliciously dark "what-if" mini-arc. It also works as a great inversion of the standard "bland player stand-in and kooky girl" partnership and is generally an amazing exercise in setting the tone and stakes.
Once the prologue is finished, the pace settles down to allow you to get to know the 3 real protagonists, who you would have glimpsed (and maybe killed) in the prologue; A dour housewife grieving the death of her son, a grizzled veteran police detective with an unlikely tie to the supernatural and an impulsive schoolgirl trying to reveal the truth of her friend's alleged suicide. The story and characters are all well-sketched out, grounding what could have easily been a silly, over-the-top story and giving it a layer of believable grit. This is all aided by some truly beautiful character art, with expressive, cleanly drawn characters outlined in calligraphy styled- brushstrokes evoking both modern manga and classical Japanese art styles.
So now to get into some spoiler territory, I do have some minor nitpicks with the story. The intro is incredibly cool but the two characters rarely appear outside of these scenes but both are pivotal towards the ending, which makes a bit weaker due to them not being fleshed out much. Theres a forth playable character later on who has one really cool sequence but is then side-lined during the rest of the plot, I do wish they had been added in more organically while having more to do in the story. Also, I personally did not care for the method to get the true ending, it does makes sense after you do it but its the one time the game suffers from what is, in my own humble opinion, Adventure Game Logic (Derogatory), where you get the sense of what you need to do but have trouble working out exactly how the devs envision you doing it. This isn't helped by a red herring in one of the final conversations where you can get some differing responses by clicking conversation topics in a different order, leading you the incorrectly assume that that conversation is where the true ending is found. I had to look it up and, to keep it vague, it was a case of going to the right place at the wrong time and clicking something both before and after talking to someone. Admittedly this is totally a personal thing, and the fact that this is the most annoyance I had while playing this game speaks more it its overall enjoyability.
In spite of these relatively minor issues, I would definitely recommend this game, its an interesting, well-told story with a gorgeous art style and fantastic presentation.
(OK, I just wanted to vent about that ending thing, that really got to me, honestly....)