A visual novel with impeccable presentation. Just on a purely visual note, Paranormasight doesn't put a foot wrong. The character art is expressive and striking, the detailed environments look almost photorealistic yet manage to blend in with the anime aesthetic, and the depiction of a grimy 80s-era Tokyo is an atmospheric one. All of this really enhances an unabashedly morbid story that's replete with murder and dark Japanese folklore. Throw in some great characterisation and fun meta stuff, and you've got yourself a gripping yarn.

But all too often, the thrust of the main narrative is bogged down by a sluggish pace. Scenes will frequently feature characters standing around statically and having conversations that go on way too long. I get it, it's a visual novel and reading is the main requirement. And that's fine. But there are annoying occasions when something exciting will happen and the narrative gets kickstarted into the next gear... only for it all to get bogged down in exposition dumps again in the next scene. I also felt a bit dismayed by the ending portion of the game, which didn't quite stick the landing and left me wanting.

Definitely worth a play if you can handle long bouts of slow pacing though.

I'm so so happy I decided to play this game. Mystery was good, it was researched well and well thought in all ways. I love horror so scary parts were super fun too. I disliked the first MC but all of the other ones were fun to play with. Art is amazing and they added depth and exploration to it too, I don't mind generic VN styles but I appreciate some uniqueness when I see them! In general I had a lot of fun. I only gave 4,5 because we had to learn some very important information from files, I think it'd be better if they implemented that into the game instead, but not a huge deal really. It's great.

With the disclaimer that I do not play games like this very often, I'd say that despite the handful of underutilized game mechanics that it gleefully dangles before you but ultimately rarely uses, I enjoyed my time with this game a lot - the setting, the mystery, and the character interactions are all very charming and I think the game is bigger than the sum of its parts. I'm glad there's still a space for lower budget, more experimental games like this to be made, even if it ultimately had the potential to be even better had it leaned harder into its more unique mechanics.