PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
How far would you go to bring someone back from the dead? Discover the depths that some will go to in this horror-adventure game.
PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is a visual novel, adventure and anime game
developed and published by Square Enix.
Released on March 08th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 4 languages: English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
It has received 4,710 reviews of which 4,517 were positive and 193 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.2 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows® 10 / 11 64-bit
- Processor: AMD A8-7600 / Intel® Core™ i3-3210
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon™ RX 460 / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 750 / Intel® HD Graphics 530
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 2 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This review is like a curse :O I honestly feel like I don’t have much to say about this game. It’s a visual novel that presents a fairly traditional detective story with a paranormal twist. At first, I thought this game would be all about player choice, branching narratives and puzzle solving. The prologue of the game hints at all those things. However, it quickly dawned on me that this was all a mirage. Paranormasight is a game about curses. You switch between a bunch of playable characters who come into possession of curse stones. Upon fulfilling specific conditions for each stone, these can be used to… kill people :) The prologue introduces this concept by letting the player control a character who obtains a rather powerful stone. It is now the player’s choice to use this power or neglect it. Or is it? Even in those first minutes of the game, I was beginning to become a little skeptical. The game makes it seem like you can choose to take someone’s life or spare it by showing a button prompt whenever a curse is ready to be used. So, I tested this apparent level of player freedom. First, I wandered around like a maniac killing everyone in my sight and progressed the game. Then, when the story chart was introduced, I went back to the beginning, this time with the intention to play as the good guy, you know good as in not a maniacal psycho killer . But, alas, the game wouldn’t let me do that. It was all predetermined. The button prompt was displayed, I didn’t push it and yet, the curse was unleashed. I was pretty bummed out by this. Why even introduce an element of player interactivity when it’s absolutely pointless if the player makes use of it or not? Same goes for the game’s setting or even its genre affiliation. What do I mean by these muddled words? Well, on the store page, Paranormasight is described as a horror-adventure game . Watching the trailer and reading the synopsis make it clear that the horror aspect is at the forefront of this experience. Or is it? Again, the prologue makes it seem like this is a fitting genre categorization. The game starts off pretty scary. There are moments of genuine horror here. Every scene in Paranormasight is arranged as a first-person static scene. All you can really do is rotate the camera 360° around your point of view, move a cursor and click on items in the environment or click on people to start a conversation. The prologue plays with this simplicity in quite the elegant way. There’s a scene where a character you have a conversation with points at something behind you, their face distorted in sheer terror. So, you sloooowly turn the camera around and BOOM! Playing this at night on my Steam Deck with the lights out made me remember why I usually shy away from horror games that rely heavily on jump scares. But I have to admit that this scene was spooky and well set-up. And it wasn’t just one jump scare. The atmosphere in this first hour of the game is overall pretty dense and eerie. You walk around at night, always on the edge, looking for other curse-bearers to prey upon while not becoming their prey yourself. Sometimes, a scene would change ever so slightly. Is there a shadowy figure in your periphery? Was that there before? What’s that floating in the sky, it looks otherworldly and strange? This is what the prologue feels like. But sadly, the rest of the game is quite different. Following the prologue, the game focuses more on being a narrative experience rather than a horror game. That’s not a bad thing per se as the writing is pretty strong overall (with some caveat that we’ll get to in just a second). Later on, the horror returns to some extent but it never really reaches the heights (or lows) of the prologue. It really is all about the story. And the story is pretty good. The Seven Mysteries of Honjo are an intriguing foundation for a story about curses, resurrection and the sins of the past. I liked how culturally profound the game is with its countless allusions to the Edo period in Japan and how that age impacted Japanese culture and society. The setting of 1980s Tokyo is very interesting to me. You visit various places of the city and actually learn about their history and how their cultural relevance changed over the years. Almost all of this “educational” content is purely optional. You can read up on the rich lore and history of the places visited if you are interested but you’re not forced to. The game teaches you the most important stuff that you need to know in order to grasp the story on a fundamental level. But, if you wanna learn more, the archive is always there for you. I loved digging through the texts to learn more about the history and the mythology behind The Seven Mysteries of Honjo . It truly made me feel like a paranormal detective uncovering an old mystery. I was constantly reading up on everything the game threw at me while constructing new theories in my head about how everything was connected. It has been a while since a game’s narrative managed to intrigue me so. It’s one of those games that has you thinking about it even after putting it down. In a way, it reminded me of AI: The Somnium Files which did the same to me. It’s a very well put together story that had me hooked from the start and managed to keep me engaged for the 13-hour runtime of the game. Same goes for the characters. At first, they seem like your everyday stereotypes that you would expect in a detective story like this one. However, most characters have depth and multiple facets that go beyond their standard tropes. For instance, the old and cynical detective who’s seen it all isn’t just a rude, cold-hearted bastard but shows actual empathy, care and compassion. And it’s not like he pretends to be that hardcore tough guy in the beginning but then turns out to be a sweet softie. No, from the very first scene, he is portrayed as a layered character. One that surely has his edges but is still very human at heart. It’s a subtle difference from most character writing that you come across in other games like this and I like it a lot. It makes the characters feel real and relatable and not like templates who undergo the same arcs you have seen a million times before. Mind you, there are still some very tropey characters who really only have like one trait and stay relatively bland for the entirety of the game. That’s ok for me though. As long as a game has some shining diamonds, it’s alright to have some dull pebbles as well. Paranormasight is a good game. It’s a linear narrative experience with light puzzle elements disguised as a horror-adventure game based on player choice. It’s advertised as something it is not and I cannot shake some resentment I feel for the game because of that. In its early hours, the game is filled with horror, pretty original out-of-the-box meta puzzles and promises of impactful player decisions but drops all of that in favor of becoming a purely narrative experience. Thank God it’s a good one. It’s all about the writing and the writing is the strong suit of this game. Towards the end, some scenes start dragging a bit too much. I felt that, especially in the last third, some conversations would go on forever telling me things I already knew since I had figured out most of the case already. I was glad to find the game not dipping too deep into twisty anime bullsh!t territory and that it allowed me to solve the mystery based on the information I had. But I had that information about three hours before the curtain fell. Still, there were some surprises left for me and the finale definitely won me over. This world has potential and I’m curious about the sequel that’s apparently in the works. If you have a thing for visual novels with an eerie twist but don’t expect a game as dark as Corpse Party or one with a branching narrative like the Zero Escape games, this might be for you.
Read more
I'm not usually into VNs but this was a really cool game. The art is great, the plot is interesting especially in the early to mid game and while light on puzzles, the few puzzles it does have are very creative. Great music too, though towards the end you've heard all the songs plenty of times. Definitely recommend it, especially for the price.
Read more
BIG recommend if you're into any of the following keywords - Visual Novels / Spooky murder mystery stories Style of stories, gameplay, writing - Ace Attorney / Danganronpa / Zero Escape / AI Somnium Files Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Read more
This game can be described as "Oh... it makes sense now". It a great mystery with a lot of moving parts slowly giving you pieces of the puzzle and by the end you have a complex yet beatiful story filled with very different and charming characters. Although its supposed to be "horror" and it has some jump scares, the most memorable parts for me ended up being the goofy conversations that the characters had and the over the top reactions that some of them have in the story. The gameplay its self it like most visual novels, mainly reading but the encounters with the different curses ended feeling more like Stand battles (from Jojo's bizarre adventure) than anything. Having to understand the conditions for each one to activate and find a way to activate yours felt thrilling to do and the game having different ending depending on what you do in this "fight" makes you feel like every choice is a valid one. Overall it was a really entertaining game and its kinda short, I finished it in 14 hours but that's because I tried to get all the achivements, it's a perfect game to finish in a weekend, worth the price honestly. Hope to see more game like this from Square Enix.
Read more
I like this game but please BE AWARE. This game is not advertised well. This is not a bloodthirsty horror game. This is a detective story. You do not have free will in this game. It is just a telling of a story. I liked it a lot but you can be disappointed if you expect the game to be a bloodthirsty battle royal like Mirai Nikki/Squid Game or anything like that.
Read more
Similar games
View all
Dark Nights
Nothing is as it seems.
The Test: Hypothesis Rising
The second chapter in The Test trilogy. Answer a series of in-depth questions to reveal hidden truths about yourself and unlock secrets to discover how your life can change drastically with just a few, slight modifications. ...But are you sure you want the answers you seek?
The Shell Part II: Purgatorio
Detective Reiji Tokisaka is back to face down a mystery that spans decades, if not centuries. With the aftermath of his last case weighing on his soul and a long-silent cult resurgent, can he solve the crime—or will it become his curse?
Sanator: Scarlet Scarf
Scarlet Scarf is a visual novel inspired by the legend of Plague Maiden. Dive into the dark mysteries of a dying city with the fate of Sanator Richard Murdock in your hands. Perhaps it's not too late to stop the on-going calamity...
Suicide Countdown: 7 Days
Only 7 days remain until death embraces you -- the everyday life of a young boy begins to distort little by little, unfolding into a bizarre and ghastly series of events... When fate comes knocking, will you have the courage to make a choice?
Ghost in the pool
A bizarre campus legend, take you into the traditional Japanese black-and-white comic horror story. Witness the familiar scenes and contemplate the terrifying moments.
One Night Stand
After a night of fun, passion, and one too many drinks, you wake up the next morning to find a complete stranger lying naked beside you in bed. What do you do?
Night Shift Nurses
A washed-up mad doctor is hired back by a devious former test subject and asked to twist her hospital into a corrupt donation mill. Will he seize this second chance to practice his own vision of "science," or will his many failings drag him down once again in this pseudo-medical visual novel?
ghostpia Season One
"In my dreams, I can get out. In my dreams, I can fit in." 'ghostpia' mixes the adorable art style of an illustrated book with glitches-and-noise effects. There are no choices to be made. There's only a lonely girl in a ghost town and her story full of mystery, friendhood...and a bit of violence.
Shanghai Summer
Shanghai Summer is an adventure game set in the millennium. Our protagonist, Baichuan, goes through a series of "anomalies" over the length of twelve days. In his pursuit of the truth, he found that his hopes and regrets from the past finally seem to converge. Will he be able to "fix" it for good?
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates
| Steam data | 20 November 2024 16:02 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 16 January 2025 22:47 |
| Steam price | 23 January 2025 04:34 |
| Steam reviews | 22 January 2025 03:51 |
Online players
13
Developer
Square Enix
Publisher
Square Enix
Release
08 Mar 2023
Platforms
By clicking on any of the links on this page and making a purchase,
you may help us earn a commission that supports the maintenance of our services.