PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is a visual novel that seeks to answer the question of how far some people will go to bring someone back from the dead. Unravel the mysteries of Honjo by investigating, conversing, and finding clues that will help put everything together. With twists, turns, a cast of unique characters, and multiple points of view to reveal new information, you will push the story along, piecing together everything you accumulate, but be careful, you will need to think things through or you might meet your death sooner than you think.
One thing I have learned from Square Enix is to not doubt what their smaller games are capable of and PARANORMASIGHT is continued proof of that. The visual style is very pleasing and I love being able to look around in 360 degrees, the puzzle elements are fascinating and require some creativity (like going into the menu), and the storytelling is intriguing and keeps me hooked. I love the idea of having multiple viewpoints and branches that can bring in parts of the narrative to show the full picture.
I also really enjoy the way the game tells the story. It isn't just you looking at a picture with text coming up like a regular visual novel, it asks you to look around, investigate for clues, and then dive into very animated conversations that have the dynamic camera moving in different angles to highlight scenes. I even found myself going into the discovered case files to look for clues on how to talk to certain people, which is generally something I find tedious, so I have to give the game props for that. Overall, I am loving the game, and part of that is how well it runs on the Steam Deck!
Without any changes, PARANORMASIGHT runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck. At 60 FPS, you can expect around a 10W drain for around 4 hours of battery. The game also supports 1280x800 resolution, so the game will fit the entire screen of the Deck.
The game has no visual bugs that I encountered, so it was a smooth and wonderful viewing experience, and while I didn't have a huge problem with the controls, there is a slight issue I do want to bring up.
While PARANORMASIGHT was also released on the Switch, making it almost a guarantee to support the controller, the game does have a cursor that you control with the left stick (you can see it in almost all the images above). There are some moments you can use the Dpad to control selecting specific options, like in the menus, but for most of the game, including finding clues, you will need to move the cursor around. This isn't a huge problem, and I quickly got used to it, but it is worth noting since it controls important aspects of the game.
If you are looking for a fantastic, interactive visual novel with a fantastic story and incredible artwork, PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is the game for you. Everything fits together very well and I love the mechanics like being able to move around in a 360 degree view. The visual style looks gorgeous and the cast of characters really grow on me the more I play. Thankfully, the game plays perfectly on the Steam Deck without any changes, making it a Best on Deck game!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is a fantastic interactive visual novel that plays flawlessly on the Steam Deck without any changes needed!
