Square Enix announce Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse, sequel to one of 2023's best horror mystery games

Square Enix have announced Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, a summery sequel to horror mystery visual novel Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. The original game earned itself a double thumbs-up from former RPS reviews editor Rachel Watts, shortly before she vanished while gathering blood-stained stones one moonlit night. (I am just joshing with you – Rachel is alive and well over at Thinky Games. Remember, there’s no such thing as ghosts and there definitely isn’t one hovering behind you right now.)

The Mermaid’s Curse should be good, then. It trades the first game’s gloomy streets for the coast of Japan, where young pearl diver Yuza Minakuchi discovers another version of himself at the bottom of the ocean. I routinely discover other versions of myself at the bottom of a bottle of Tuppersmith’s Old Peculiar, but nobody’s making any dang visual novels about me. Anyway, here’s a trailer.

According to the Steam page, you can expect another multiple-perspective story featuring “a girl of unknown origins, a treasure hunter from a foreign land and a mysterious housewife investigating a drowning”.

You’ll once again be combing 360 degree backgrounds for clues, but there are also new systems and mechanics, including a diving minigame. The backgrounds are “faithful reproductions of real locations and vistas in collaboration with Mie prefecture”. Imagine partnering with horror storytellers to boost tourism. I guess it worked out pretty well for Saga prefecture.

The Mermaid’s Curse is out… remarkably soon! 19th February, in fact. If you missed the first, I will risk being torn apart by Rock Paper Shotgun’s ancestral spirits and point out that it’s currently heavily discounted on Nintendo’s Switch.