Hmm, I only reviewed two mystery games last year! I definitely hope to do better this year...
When the game Paranormasight File 23: Honjou Nanafushigi (Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo) was first announced in 2023, I knew I had to play it: not only was it a horror-mystery adventure game based on existing folklore/horror stories, the game was also written by Ishiyama Takanari, who was also responsible for the quirky series Kibukawa Ryousuke, which was one of, if not the longest running original mystery adventure game series released on feature phones in Japan. As far as I knew at least, Ishiyama had not really been involved with (major) game productions in a long time, so it was surprising to see Ishiyama heading a game released by Square-Enix. The result was absolutely fabulous by the way. I never got around to reviewing it properly here, but the game was excellent, presenting a dark tale of several persons getting their hold of Curse Echoes, which allow the user to cast a curse on a person when certain conditions are fulfilled, with each curse based on an existing legend connected to the location Honjo in Tokyo. The story follows all these characters as they move about one certain night, each having their own goals and agendas. This allowed for some interesting mystery storytelling, as the player had to make story-changing choices along the way in order to bring everyone to the best conclusions of all these intertwining storylines, while figuring out what everyone was trying to do exactly and trying to solve the mystery of why these curses were being "handed" out in the first place. The game also featured a cast of rather memorable, quirky characters, rather reminiscent of the characters in the Kibukawa Ryousuke series (and yes, lots of Paranormasight characters also have rather unusual names, like in the Kibukawa Ryousuke series).
So fast-forward to 2026, when a second Paranormasight was finally announced for Switch, Steam, iOS and Android. Paranormasight File 38: Ise Ningyo Monogatari, localized as Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse was released in February, 2026 and once again tells a story of mystery and imagination, revolving around centuries-old curses, local legends and history. This time, the story is set in 1980s Ise-Shima Peninsula, with the fictional island Kameshima (based on the factual Kamishima) as its main location. Yuuza is a teenager hailing from Kameshima. 5 years ago, he lost his parents in a great storm that took the lives of many that were out on sea: Yuuza was the miraculous sole survivor. While he moved away from Kameshima for a while, he's returned to take care of his grandmother, who got injured recently. Yuuza has trained to become an ama (a free diver), just like his mother and grandmother, but the local ama seem not eager to let him do his work, for many people think he might be cursed. His mother was an island outsider, and never really managed to become one of the community, and there are many, especially the older generation, who think it was Yuuza's mother who caused the unusually heavy storm five years ago. Therefore, they also don't want her son Yuuza to be anywhere near the sea. Yuuza however is desperate to search the sea, as he has a strange memory of the time when he survived the storm: he thinks he was saved by a... mermaid. Mermaids are a part of Ise-Shima folklore, as it is said they live near the portal to the Other World, which is located in Ise. In Japan, it is also said that eating the flesh of mermaids provides one with eternal youth. He and his best friend Azami start diving around the sea around Kameshima in search of the mermaid. Meanwhile, other parties also converge to Kameshima.
The story follows three other characters besides Yuuza: Sato, a girl who suffers from memory loss after being washed up on the Kameshima shore three months ago and who has become good friends with Yuuza, Azami and Tsukasa; Shiki, a completely ordinary housewife who investigates paranormal cases for the police, and Arnav, a writer of fantasy romance novels who is investigating the mermaid legends of Ise. While these storylines all intertwine deeply, with the protagonists of each storyline occasionally working together, occassionally working against each other, the storylines do all focus on different aspects of the Paranormasight narrative, with for example Arnav's storyline focusing more on Japanese mermaid legends and the legends of immortal people (like the myth of Yaobikuni, the 800-year-old nun), while Shiki's storyline feels more like a police investigation, and Yuuza's story focusing more on the local Kameshima traditions and beliefs (which are mostly fictional, though loosely founded on actual history) As they all conduct their own investigations however, an ancient curse becomes active on the island, threatening to take the lives of many. It's up to the user to prevent this tragedy from happening and figure out who or what is the origin of this curse.
Note that while this is technically a sequel to the first Paranormasight, set about a year after the first game, you can play these games independently of each other. This second game drops the names of a few characters of the first game a few times, and makes vague references to the events that occured in the first game ("People were using curses in Honjo"), but that's about it, so you could easily start with this one and then go back to play the first one.
In essence, Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is very similar to the first Paranormasight, once again featuring great atmospheric art design and immersive music. The player follows the stories of multiple characters that play out around roughly the same time (or in some instances, at exactly the same time), with each story scene being divided in distinct scenes. In each scene, you visit locations, which you can usually explore lightly via a panoramic view, and talk to people to move the story forward, though some scenes also allow for more interactivity, for example by offering story-changing choices, or adding small mini-games. Sometimes, a story-changing choice will lead you to a game over screen, though usually these bad endings do provide you with data that give you clues/more insight into the mystery, so it's never "a punishment" to see a bad ending. New to The Mermaid's Curse is the fact that scenes aren't necessarily shown in chronological order: sometimes you'll "reminisce" about earlier events. These scenes are added to the timeline and often offer more or even completely recontextualize the scenes that occur later and that you have already played through.
Because of this, the actual mystery of Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is very much aimed at the player: while the characters have a good idea of what they are doing and why, the player is more-or-less given control of them in media res, without much knowledge about what everyone is doing for what reasons. It's by proceeding in the game and unlocking new and older scenes one by one that you realize how everything is connected. The story it tells in this manner is definitely compelling, and it keeps teasing you to play on more, but I can't deny a lot of the mystery exists solely because the story is not told in chronological manner.
The Paranormasight games are explicitly supernatural mysteries, with actual curses that can magically people, though Ishiyama does a good job at incorporating these curses with an actual fair-play mystery set-up, like adding conditions for a curse to work and asking the player to deduce what that condition might actually be. The first Paranormasight was also most definitely a horror mystery and even contained a few jump scares, as well as being a more lethal story in general. Writer Ishiyama intentionally made its sequel less scary, because they wanted to appeal to a wider audience. This change in focus is definitely noticable, so if you thought the first game looked a bit too scary, you might find it easier to get into The Mermaid's Curse. Ishiyama therefore introduced more puzzles in the game: the game checks more often whether you have erally been paying attention, giving you question prompts which you have to answer manually. Often, "simply" paying attention isn't enough, as a lot of information is hidden in the very extensive database that gets updated each time you meet new people/visit new places/learn about new topics. While some entries are related to game-specific lore, a good chunk of the database entries are actually applicable to our real world, with entries on many cities on the Ise-Shima peninsula, entries on mermaid legends, entries on historical wars, and also many entries on the occult. A lot of the mystery-solving is actually done outside the game, as the game fully expects the reader to actually read the database entries and make connections on their own in order to solve The Mermaid's Curse's mysteries. While this isn't Flower, Sun and Rain or Project: Hacker, it's definitely fun being required to actually read the database to fully understand what's going on. And while The Seven Mysteries of Honjo also contained some meta-puzzling, The Mermaid's Curse goes beyond that, with Ishiyama really making clever (and sometimes devious) use of the game format to throw some screwball puzzles at you. The way he links these meta puzzles with the actual mystery narrative is clever though and it adds a deep, extra layer to the already fun mystery of The Mermaid's Curse.
By the way, while I do keep saying this is horror-based, the Paranormasight games are really full of comedy. Similar to the characters in the Kibukawa Ryousuke games, a lot of the Paranormasight characters are really quirky, with a strange sense of humor (the strange nicknames Yuuza and Sato constantly use!) or overall exaggarated expressions (Arnav!). Because the story being divided in distinct scenes does help hide the fact some of these very comedic characters end up in very dark and scary moments, it does sometimes feel weird realizing these characters are caught up in a story full of deadly curses and centuries-long grudges.
Because The Mermaid's Curse, more than its predecessor, focuses on the motivations of each character, I think the characters are fleshed-out better here han in The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, even if I do like the overall cast of that game better than that of The Mermaid's Curse. This game tells a much personal story, with especially Yuuza and Sato getting more attention and depth than any character in the first Paranormasight got. The way this story wraps up therefore also feels much more rewarding than that of the first game, with the many threads of the plot being tied up more neatly. Because of that, perhaps, I did find it easier to guess which direction the stories was going, exactly because I could see how the whole storyline was written more tighter than the first game. Not that I minded that really, as the story is presented in a way that keeps the player entertained throughout, and the game isn't that long anyway.
So in short, I enjoyed Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse a lot, just like I did the first game. I have to admit I like the subject matter of the first game better, as well as its darker atmosphere and the overall cast, but I think as a game, The Mermaid's Curse shows a lot of improvement, with a more tightly-written story and more interesting puzzles that are also well connected to the story. I can definitely recommend this game to any one interested in mystery adventure games, especially if you're also interested in Japanese folklore/myths. I don't think I will be doing a late review of the first game now, especially as ona technical and mechanical front, these two games are quite alike. I am reading the spin-off manga though, and depending on how that storyline unfolds mystery-wise, I might discuss it here on the blog too (though that will take some while, as the second volume won't release until this autumn and I'm not even sure whether that's the last volume).
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