PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid's Curse

A sequel nobody expected, arriving fast

"PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo" was a sleeper hit for Square Enix, a cheap, strange, meta visual novel about a cursed ritual in modern Tokyo that built a devoted following almost entirely on word of mouth. "The Mermaid's Curse" is its follow-up, announced and released within weeks of each other, and the surprise of its existence shows up constantly in the reviews. "Imagine my shock when I heard that a second PARANORMASIGHT game got announced, with the game releasing mere weeks after. I thought the first game was a beautiful, underrated gem and I never could have guessed a sequel would be made," one player wrote, and that sentiment of grateful surprise runs through almost every positive review here.

What's less consistent is whether the sequel actually earns that goodwill. The reviews split cleanly into two camps: people who accept that this is a different, gentler kind of story than the first game and enjoy it on those terms, and people who wanted more of exactly what made "Honjo" distinctive and feel shortchanged.

From horror-mystery to seaside folklore

The tonal shift is the single most-discussed change in this game, and it's deliberate rather than accidental. Where the first game was an isolated, eerie detective story built around a cursed ritual, "Mermaid's Curse" moves to a warmer, myth-soaked island setting. One detailed review captured the shift precisely: "The game uses its distinct aesthetic, atmospheric soundtrack, connection to Japanese folklore, and the world of Paranormasight to tell a story that feels very different from the first entry. In short, you could say it sacrifices intensity in favor of charm... Mysteries of Honjo was a more isolated, atmospheric folklore mystery with horror elements and a detective flavor. Mermaid's Curse, meanwhile, has a much warmer tone and draws heavily from popular Japanese myths and history."

Plenty of players are fine with that trade. But several reviewers who came in expecting more of the first game's dread were disappointed: "its good. barely any horror compared to the first which is a shame since that was what i expected but what i got out of it instead was a story heavier on the emotions than the first one." A negative review put the same complaint more bluntly: "There is very little in the way of mystery (it was very easy to figure things out). There was no exciting meta aspect that tied in with the story."

The lore dump problem

The most frequently repeated technical criticism of "Mermaid's Curse" isn't the tone, though — it's how the game delivers its worldbuilding. Both the first game and this one lean on reading dense in-game documents, but multiple reviewers say this entry pushes that mechanic far past what the pacing can support. "However, the sequel has terrible writing structure. An incredible amount of lore is front-loaded, while the player has almost zero choices to make beyond 'click the next lore dump option.' I tried my best to wade through it, but not only is the lore obnoxiously front-loaded in the plot structure, but it's also largely dumped into your notebook to read. The writers couldn't bother to even contextualize the lore within character interactions/conversations," wrote one player.

A second, more scathing review made the identical structural complaint independently, describing entire sequences interrupted by walls of exposition: "The pacing is terrible - from start to finish. At first I thought it's due to the amount of exposition, because you spend around 70% of the game reading pages of text about local customs, mythology and geography. Every time you initiate a dialogue or any kind of interaction with your surroundings, you'll be cut abruptly with a word.doc of essential reading. It happens throughout the whole story and almost always ruins the flow of any conversation." That two players independently reached for the same "dumped into your notebook" framing, in reviews written separately, suggests this is a real structural choice in how the game is written rather than a matter of individual taste.

A promoted mechanic that barely appears

Square Enix marketed the diving minigame as a headline new feature for this entry, giving the game its title. Reviewers who actually played it consistently report it's used once and then abandoned. "The diving minigame was cool even if underutilized," wrote one otherwise positive reviewer, while another put a finer point on it: "diving minigame is kinda underutilized which was a shame aswell since i was ready to spend 100 fartillion hours grinding it from the getgo but alas." A third review, this one negative overall, agreed on the specific detail: "with how the diving was included in the game's promotion, i thought it'd be more important to the plot/overall game? maybe it's because i found the more important bits (e.g the seal) really early on, but i feel like it was only relevant the one time and never again." Three separate players landing on the exact same complaint, about the exact same mechanic, is about as corroborated as a criticism gets in this format.

The romance subplot and the True Ending backlash

The most polarizing element by far is a late-game romance subplot that resurfaces during the True Ending path, and it shows up as the specific trigger for several otherwise-positive players flipping to a negative recommendation. One reviewer's entire review, titled "With regret," explains exactly this arc: "I was not expecting to write a negative review for this game. I enjoyed it a lot for most of my playtime!... Then I started the True Ending path. I can't unpack my thoughts on this matter without spoilers, but in brief - the ending was bad enough to sour my feelings towards the game. On a rational, logical level, a majority of this game is well made. I enjoyed my time with it up to that point. But when a complete playthrough turns my positive feelings into negative ones, I feel duty bound to write a negative review."

Another review describes the same structural problem in sharper terms: "Whole story ruined by backtracking the entire story up until the very end to add in a forced and zero chemistry romance. Unbelievable waste of a fun and intriguing story (even if it does repeat every single story beat to you 3 times from separate characters like you're an idiot). Just play the first game and pretend it ends there." Not every reviewer who mentions the romance dislikes it, but the pattern of players singling out this exact plot beat, unprompted, across multiple independent reviews, marks it as the game's most contentious individual decision rather than a matter of general taste.

What still works

None of this means the game is a failure. The presentation carries real weight: the art direction and soundtrack are praised in nearly every review regardless of overall verdict, with several players calling the music a step up from an already well-regarded first game. The front half of the mystery, before the exposition and pacing problems compound, is genuinely gripping for most players, and the smaller, more focused cast is a real structural improvement that even some critical reviewers credit. Steam's achievement data reflects a game most owners are actually finishing rather than abandoning early — completion percentages climb steadily from the mid-40s in the opening act to the low-to-mid 90s for the final story achievements, a shape consistent with a linear visual novel that holds its audience to the credits even when it frustrates them along the way.

Verdict

"The Mermaid's Curse" is a legitimate PARANORMASIGHT sequel rather than a cash-in, built with real craft in its art, music, and opening mystery. But it repeatedly trades the mechanical rigor and dread that made the first game special for a gentler story it doesn't always execute cleanly, and its two biggest specific missteps — a front-loaded lore-dump structure and a late-game romance twist that several reviewers say retroactively ruins the ending — are corroborated across enough independent reviews to treat as real design problems rather than a vocal minority. Newcomers should start with "Seven Mysteries of Honjo" first regardless. Existing fans should go in expecting a warmer, more comedic companion piece rather than a second helping of the original's horror-mystery, and should be prepared for the True Ending to be a genuinely dividing line in how the whole package lands.