Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse Switch Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Narrative

Summary: Another satisfying supernatural mystery that's well worth plumbing the depths for.

4.1

Murmaider!

It’s always a little disconcerting when a game tells you straight up to play the last entry in the series before you start, and Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse tells players to do just that.

Sure, The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is well worth your time, but I’m not sure you need to play it first. Although there are a couple of recurring characters, Paranormasight is more of an anthology series than a straight serial. So if you skipped Honjo and want to dive right into Mermaid’s Curse, you’ll be fine.

The first thing to say about Mermaid’s Curse is that it’s a slow burn, taking its time to set up all the pieces on the board and the little eccentricities of its setting and its main conceit before getting to the good stuff. Though it does come to a satisfying conclusion by the time the credits roll, the opening is a bit of a slog — something that can’t be said about Honjo.

Mermaid’s Curse sees players slide into the sandals of Yuza Minakuchi, a teenage pearl diver shunned by his fellow villagers on the tropical island of Kameshima, as they believe his mother is responsible for a disaster that befell the small fishing community five years previously.

But after Yuza encounters a horrific, undead vision of himself clawing up from the depths during a dive, Yuza resolves to discover what really happened to his mother with the help of his friend Azumi as the pair are drawn into a case revolving around a bizarre series of seemingly supernatural deaths tied to the titular mermaid’s curse.

What’s interesting, though, is how the story is told; rather than just a linear series of events, players are presented with a series of timelines tied to different characters that open up in a non-linear fashion as your investigation broadens and the deeper mysteries of the island and its inhabitants unfold.

However, the moment-to-moment gameplay is fairly simple with you observing conversations between different characters (though there’s no VO), examining your surroundings, and pawing through character profiles and in-game files containing what feels like a novella’s worth of lore, backstory, and extra info.

Depending on how meticulous you choose to be, and how fast you read, there is easily a weekend’s worth of visual novel here, and the game all but demands you exhaust every line of dialogue and interact with every part of the scene before it lets you move onto the next one, and even so sometimes you’ll need to press ZL at the right time to unlock new recollections from various characters on the timeline

This is broken up by the occasional spot of spearfishing that has Yuza diving off the side of a boat to grab as many shells, urchins, and the occasional lobster as he can, then swimming back before he drowns.

This is then converted into experience points used to improve your skills, like speeding up how quickly you return to the boat, extending your oxygen meter, making you swim faster, gathering more resources, and making them easier to see.

Although it’s a fairly fun little game, a nice break, and connects to the wider plot, it doesn’t mesh very well with the more traditional visual novel and adventure game elements, which is a shame.

It does fit the tone of the overall narrative, though, which is a lot brighter and less oppressive than its predecessor. Though it does still contain curses, you spend a lot more time looking into the history of events on the island and uncovering its mysteries. It’s still compelling, and there are horror elements, but it’s not particularly scary.

The puzzles remain as clever as ever and use some of the same fourth-wall-breaking hijinks from Honjo. There’s also more fill-in-the-blank sections and a rather clever brainteaser involving a treasure map.

One area Mermaid’s Curse does improve on Honjo is its visuals. It feels more cinematic than its predecessor with more varied camera work, and its cast appears more expressive in scenes. Likewise, the backgrounds are cleverly constructed using touched-up photographs of real-world locations, giving it some serious Waking Life vibes at times.

The soundtrack remains a treat for your lugholes with themes from the original making a welcome return alongside several fresh tracks that do a fantastic job accompanying Mermaid’s Curse’s more tropical setting, while still maintaining an eerie tone throughout.

Final Thoughts

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse is a compelling supernatural mystery that, although not as creepy as its predecessor, still features a gripping narrative with plenty of twists and satisfying puzzles.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse Switch Review