PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse

The game was provided by Square Enix for review. Thank you!

While Square Enix is known for their JRPGs, they do release some great other games. One of those is PARANORMASIGHT. This was an interactive visual novel where we went through a story through the eyes of multiple individuals to see the bigger picture of what’s going on. With distinct visuals and a fantastic tale, this is one of my favorite series from Square that isn’t part of their main repertoire. So, I was hoping the sequel, PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse, would give me similar feelings to the first game. Ultimately, it hits all the right marks, and I couldn’t be happier.

If you have played the previous game, The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, the layout, structure, and gameplay are all going to be very familiar. We play through different scenes in the story, following multiple characters on their own respective journeys, as they intersect and start to piece together the larger picture. You feel like a detective, going back and forth between events both past and future, to learn bits of each character and put everything together.

I will be doing my best to avoid discussing any possible spoilers, so there may be some vagueness when I talk about the story.

We start off playing through the eyes of Yuza Minakuchi, a wannabe Ama Diver who goes out to practice with his best friend, Amazi Kumoi. However, it turns out that he has his own reasoning for becoming a diver: he wants to find a mermaid. The tale quickly turns weird as strange events involving curses and the occult come up, throwing this investigation into finding a real mermaid for a loop.

This is where The Mermaid’s Curse really shines. The stakes take a while to settle in, but the curiosity and build up is fantastic. I was a little curious about mermaids at first, but after a scene or two where we meet other characters and start seeing their points of view, I found it hard to put down. The trickling of information, packed with twists and turns that reveal the truth behind certain characters, is captivating and exciting.

And once the stakes are in, it ropes you in even more. I was stunned after finishing one of the character paths and actually had to think to myself about what happened before continuing along to piece together the rest of the story. As I discovered more of what was behind the events being caused and learned about the characters, everything started falling into place and giving me those “Aha” moments that I relished. It helps that the cast stands out from each other, making them each feel unique in their own ways, but Square Enix did an amazing job creating this story through and through.

The story is accentuated by the visuals, which give the characters enough details to see their emotions and expressions clearly, with gorgeous backdrops. And there are some nice little minigames, like Ama Diving, to break up the tons of text we will be reading throughout the game. It’s a great way to break up the pace, though it never got to a point where I found it necessary.

If there’s one negative I could give The Mermaid’s Curse, it would be its information overload. There are some spots where they just pack on way too much information, especially the earlier scenes in foreigners Arnav Barnum and Circe Lunarlight’s character paths. We do have all the files that store this information for us to come back to and read on our own, but in the moment, it can be very confusing to learn about the details of 3-4 different big parts of history back to back, especially as they aren’t directly relating to the situation at hand just yet.

Still, it’s hard not to fall in love with The Mermaid’s Curse. Square Enix didn’t change much of its structure and mechanics from the previous game, and that’s a big reason why I fell in love with this one so quickly. It has a fantastic narrative, an intriguing cast, some great little minigames to break up the consistent stream of text we have to sift through, and wonderful visuals.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse – Steam Deck Performance

There should be no issues at all playing PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse on the Steam Deck; it’s just near flawless. I was running the game at 90 FPS with around 9W battery drain the whole time, whether it was in conversations with people or playing any of the minigames found throughout the story (like ama diving). The gamepad works perfectly, and there really weren’t any issues trying to play this on the go.

Accessibility

In the settings, we can toggle vibration, change language, designate text speed, adjust audio settings, and modify keybindings.

The game doesn’t support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

PARANORAMSIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse is exactly what I wanted it to be. It doesn’t change up much from the previous game, which is great. It keeps the fantastic structure and gameplay mechanics, while bringing in a new, exciting story and an intriguing cast of characters. It can sometimes feel like an information overload, and there’s a lot of information, but the tale is so engaging that it never bothered me enough to stop playing.

And with it being flawless on the Steam Deck, this is the perfect experience to take on the go, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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