Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo was a delightful rarity. It was a niche title that was spotlit by a big publisher. While it had flaws, it was still a memorable and compelling game, but I also sort of expected it to be a one-hit wonder. I'm thrilled that Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse shows that Square Enix isn't about to abandon this franchise. However, I'm even more thrilled that The Mermaid's Curse shows the developers have learned a lot from the first game and published a sequel that is an improvement in almost every way.

While The Mermaid's Curse takes place in the same game world, the references between the titles are minimal enough that you can hop into The Mermaid's Curse without playing the original, or without having the original spoiled for you if you intend to go back to it after playing Curse. Instead, The Mermaid's Curse is set on the fictional island of Kameshima, during the Showa-era of Japanese history. Kameshima was home to a terrible tragedy many years prior, where a good number of fishermen died during a mysterious accident. The tragedy scarred the small community. Our story starts with a diver named Yuza Minakuchi, the sole survivor of the accident, although he was only a child and has lost all memory of it. Desperate to learn the truth behind his parent's death, he has taken up free diving. However, a bizarre paranormal experience during an underwater dive quickly draws him and his friends into the deeper mysteries of Kameshima.

Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is a less outwardly horrific game than the original one. There is a lurking sense of dread and fear, but it is notably less prone to moments of intense tension like the Curse Bearer standoffs in The Seven Mysteries. I don't think this is a bad thing. It's a different tone than the previous game but keeps itself well fixated on the concept of occult mysteries and what's behind them. It's also a bit more personal, with almost everyone involved being someone who lives, or lived, on Kameshima. This gives things a different feel, but it's equally compelling.

Mostly, I enjoyed the story. It's a slow burn and can be slow paced, but I was absolutely engaged with the world, characters, and plot. The somewhat lessened focus on horror means that when the game does pull the cord, it hits a lot harder. The sun-drenched atmosphere doesn't lend itself to being spooky, but that means the game works hard to create the atmosphere it does have, and it's far more impressive in that way. By the time I was done, I was immensely satisfied. A few twists and turns didn't quite land for me, but the ones that did made me wish there were more.

At its core, The Mermaid's Curse is a visual novel. You'll hop between multiple different protagonists as you gradually uncover the mysteries of Kameshima. For the most part, this follows standard visual novel conventions. You'll click on every object in the environment, go through every line of dialogue, and occasionally run into a dead end or alternate path where you need to figure out how to change things to proceed. You have access to a scenario chart, so you can easily swap between the different. This is very similar to how the first game progressed, and most things are the same in this title, albeit with a more aquatic theme.

It's hard to complain about a game that's executing well. The story is well paced, compelling and exciting, and new information is constantly popping up for you to read. The game perhaps goes a bit overboard with the text, as Kameshima's backstory, history and people are fleshed out to an incredible degree. This makes it feel like a living and breathing place, despite the fiction.

One very minor complaint is that the game uses a Recollection feature, where certain conversations unlock the ability to revisit an earlier chapter that is connected to that conversation. Early on, this leads to a sort of "Memento" effect where you're frequently hopping back in time to see the lead-up to scenes that you've already seen. Sometimes this is used effectively and sometimes not, but I thought the nonlinear storytelling tended to work against the otherwise excellent pacing of the game. Still, the times it does pay off are enough to feel worthwhile.

The Mermaid's Curse has its share of puzzles, and I'm loath to spoil the answers. Some are simple fill-in-the-blank puzzles, which are more of a test of whether you've engaged with the game's plot and read through the many notes about real and fictional history. Other puzzles are surprisingly clever and make interesting use of the game's perspective. If you recall the unusual mystery in the first game that required you to turn down the actual game volume to solve, there's more meta-textual stuff like this. Thankfully, it's deftly handled, and I came away feeling amused and delighted.

The one part I was a bit colder on was the game's free diving mechanics. This is a (relatively) simplistic minigame where you dive underwater to collect items, with a very basic RPG mechanic where the more you pull back, the more experience you get, and in turn, the longer you can stay underwater. For a good chunk of the game, this seems pretty minor, and while it eventually pays off, it's the most awkward part of the game. I'd rather have seen the game play with the horror of being underwater and less with the shallow (pun intended) minigame.

Visually, The Mermaid's Curse is a notable step up from Seven Mysteries. While it's still a fairly low-budget visual novel at heart, there's clearly a much larger budget than last time. There's more distinct art for each character, more clever use of camera angles and intriguing environments, and in general, it feels like the developers have learned from the previous game. The music and audio are also excellent, and they do a fantastic job of conveying the atmosphere of specific scenes.

Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is a sequel that is firing on all cylinders. While not as overtly horrific as the first game, it nonetheless shows that the developers have a clear understanding of what did and didn't work in The Seven Mysteries and still have plenty of ideas about how to make things compelling. An excellent game for those who've played the original and those who are new to the series, The Mermaid's Curse is well worth a shot.

Score: 9.0/10