Here’s my one sentence summary: this game basically is Raging Loop (another horror-focused visual novel) crossed with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. If that sounds interesting to you, read on. If that comparison doesn’t make any sense to you, read on an I’ll explain.
Basic Stats:
- I Played On: PC and Steam Deck
- Developer / Publisher: Square Enix
- Cost: $19.99
- Game Style: Visual Novel
- Genre: Horror / Mystery
What Worked For Me?
- I enjoyed the art style. The heavy weight of the outlines give the characters more “pop” than many other visual novels I’ve played over the years. (With that said, the character models also have occasional “jaggies” that float in space. This wasn’t a deal-breaker for me by any means, but I did notice.)
- I was able to beat (and nearly complete) the game in approximately 12 hours. This was enough time for the game to tell a satisfactory story without overstaying its welcome.
- The game offers a number of “quality of life” design choices that fans of visual novels will appreciate (e.g. a branching story tree, the ability to jump to a specific part of a larger scene, a story log to review dialogue, etc).
- The playable cast is reasonably diverse, including everything from “generic male anime protagonist” in the prologue to high school girls, and housewife, and a hard-boiled paranormal detective.
- The ending was considerably better than Raging Loop‘s, which I reviewed some time ago. I think this is due in no small part to Paranormasight being half the length (12 hours vs 24 to thoroughly beat). While this meant less twists and turns, it also meant fewer plot-holes to patch up and less nonsense to disentangle.
- Also, for those wondering: the Jojo’s connection comes in by way of curses. You are sometimes given the option to defeat enemies by activating your curse, but each curse has a specific trigger.
What Didn’t Work For Me?
- The game has more jump scares than Raging Loop. They’re relatively few and far between, but folks who are sensitive to them may be turned off by this game.
- Some of the achievements are inane; I would not recommend completing this game to anyone but the most hardcore visual novel enjoyers.
- Square Enix as a company can fuck right off. (See: NFT bullshit, aggressive monetization of beloved properties like Final Fantasy, ending support for games after 9 months or less (Chocobo GP, etc etc)).
- The game only has 5 save slots. This feels like an arbitrary limitation, even if the story chart mostly removes the need for it. Seriously, I’ve played visual novels from a decade ago with more save slots.
- Some of the game’s endings felt rushed. One character’s* endings in particular were especially disappointing. Surely, the developer could’ve done better than white text on a black background.
- (Nit-Pick) You can’t scroll backwards in the game’s text while playing; you have to pause instead. This is an extra, unnecessary step that other visual novels have solved with the scroll wheel.
- (Nit-Pick) The game’s zoom feature was basically pointless; I never needed it over the course of normal gameplay. Even while secret hunting, it wasn’t required.
- (Nit-Pick) I wish the game had voice acting, music tracks, and locations. This is a nit-pick of most visual novels, though, and I absolutely understand how (what I presume to be) budgetary restraints prevent this from being a reasonable request.
Conclusion
If you like horror visual novels, this one is worth a look. It’s got a level of polish in both its presentation and storytelling that help it to stand above its contemporaries (like Raging Loop). The game is also Steam Deck verified, so you can play on the go if you wish. With that said, I doubt this game will convince players who aren’t already fans of visual novels to delve deeper into the genre. The game simply requires more reading (and focus, especially if you want the true ending) than someone who just wants a quick hit of dopamine might tolerate.
You May Also Enjoy:
- Doki Doki Literature Club Plus by Team Salvado
- Raging Loop by Kemco
Spoiler Talk
- (*) Harue has 2 sub-par (black background on white text) endings, and Akane has 1, if you’re curious.
- Here’s what I said with regards to Raging Loop‘s ending(s):
The game wants to have its cake and eat it too. First, the story goes for a Hound of the Baskervilles style ending where everything is revealed to be psychological / “man-made” and there is no supernatural element at play. For all the work that’s done to justify most of the proceedings, there is clearly something otherworldly going on by way of the “looping” mechanic and the supernatural powers at play. The game does little to explain or justify this part of its world, however. In short, I don’t think the game really “sticks the landing.” Sure, the game does offer additional context in its “Revelation Mode,” but if it can’t get its story across in a satisfying way in the first 20 hours, I don’t feel especially motivated to give the game more time.
My Raging Loop Review
- How does Paranormasight dodge this pitfall? It also uses time travel tomfoolery, but the player is able to jump to a point in the timeline before the curses were unleashed and prevent them from being used in the first place. I’d say this is marginally better than an “it was all a dream ending,” and just about the best I could’ve hoped for without world-changing events taking place (e.g. the revealing of the paranormal as a fact of life to broader society). In short, this ending allowed the game to “commit to the (paranormal) bit,” while still ending with a relatively grounded send-off.
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