Reviews from

in the past


The prologue is absolutely incredible, and the game is very well written and designed... BUT it really does fall into the same camp as Raging Loop for me: I found myself wishing for less exposition and more chance to play with the really rich and interesting 'battle royale' mechanics that had been established.

Really liked the setup with the prologue with the whole curse bearer battle royale, was very interesting trying to discover who are the curse bearers and how exploit their weaknesses and/or trick them for falling for your curse. Unfortunately after that it meanders around for way too long only to have half its twists be super obvious or super eye rolly. The other half of the twists are quite good at least and I absolutely love the art style of the characters and how the camera moves around at different angles to frame different emotions and moods.

Decided to play this after Super Eyepatch Wolf's video and honestly am disappointed. It's not bad per se, but just mid as all hell with a lot of potential left out.
The game has a great prologue, but from there goes meandering throughout the entire story with the ending that has an interesting idea, but is really underwhelming.

Pros:
- It has gorgeous visuals. The game is undeniably one of the prettiest VN I've played.
- Has some great suspenseful and surprising moments.
- The story is rather engaging and complex, with some clever red herrings and foreshadowing. Though at times it can feel as a jumbled mess of coincidences.
- Some really creative 4th wall breakage.

Cons:
- No distinct gameplay or exploration, and VERY few puzzles. The game is just a series of simple click-through dialogues and a bunch of text entries.
- The story is very linear, with several dead-end fake endings consisting of a couple of minutes of text and are not even worth mentioning.
- Characters are underdeveloped. The story mostly focuses on the overarching plot or frequent exposition dumps and rarely does any notable character moments.
- A ton of missed potential. The first few hours of the prologue have some of the best moments in the entire game, where you try to outsmart the opposing curse-bearers. It actually feels like a thrilling game of cat and mouse. But after that, you barely do anything like that for the rest of the game.
- The game introduces you to some interesting mechanics and then uses them only once or twice more in the entire game.
- It is relying too much on the cheapest jump scares with a ghost.jpg flying in your face and making a spooky screeching sound. Particularly in the first quarter of the game. Especially made worse by the lack of voiceover or any ambient sounds.
- No voiceover, no ambient sounds and though the music that is in the game is good, it's a very limited number of music tracks that get extremely repetitive.
- A few really dumb anime tropes. Like not immediately shooting the bad guy and letting them get away, or making the player to sympathize with a potential mass murderer because they're sad and unloved, etc.
- Felt maybe a bit too long for how simple and repetitive it is.

In conclusion, not a bad game, but I just can't bring myself to like it much. If only between the endless dialogues it had some more puzzles or actual gameplay like Danganronpa or Zero Escape games. Then I'm sure I would've liked it that much more, and could ignore some of it's problems.
Maybe in the sequel, if there ever is one.

there's a very distinct sum-of-it's-parts vibe to Paranormasight- that feeling you get when you're absorbed in a cracking book- that i didn't want to end

always got time for games that tell stories by leveraging the fact it is, indeed, a videogame. to say any more would be spoilery

maybe the best prologue i've ever played?

using 360° camera pan is consistently cool, with some extra 4th wall puzzle gimmicks thrown into the mix. would have enjoyed a couple more of these!

slapped a star right off this thing for using one of the dullest tropes. high school teacher blackmails student to do shady shit. tasteless and overused, but mercifully portrayed well enough not to put me right aff the game

This is an absolute unit of a mystery game that was probably too ambitious for it's own good. The conclusion after about 17 hours of intense debating about theories with my friend was decidedly mediocre (which is probably a generous statement).
Disregarding the ending and despite somewhat questionable writing and puzzles at times, I can only see the time spent as very worthwhile.
I'd say my favorite parts were the atmosphere and the mystique and folklore associated with curses and getting to know an interesting set of characters (very) slowly unraveling horrors and mysteries ranging from last week to nearly 2 centuries ago.
This is one of those games that will stick with me. Not because it is the greatest to ever do it but because of that feeling of suspense and the fun of bouncing ideas about pretty abstract concepts with a good friend.
Thus in conclusion, give it a shot the vibes are immaculate and there's a delinquent dove sticker by the name of High Coo.

It's always hard to comment and review on story-driven games like this visual novel avoiding spoilers. Paranormasight is a well-put-together visual novel that provides a good narrative, interesting characters and plot, and an intriguing setting. The story and plot are interesting throughout the whole game and keep the player engaged in finding out more about the curses that are affecting the City and how the ultimate goal of the curses is/will be activated as well as finding out the story behind it.

Gameplay revolves around reading a lot and making decisions/asking questions to progress. Parts of the game involve a 360 panoramic view that allows the player to inspect different components within the view. There are some very clever uses of in-game files and observations that the player will have to use in order to progress through the game. The soundtrack and sound effects are very good and appropriate for the nature of the game and its setting.

All in all, this is a very solid visual novel that came out of nowhere and it's definitely worth exploring if you are a fan of the genre.