izigame.me

You know this trope where you're constantly wondering, is it supernatural or is it just a crafty killer or something? Well, here you get hit by a ghost some 5 minutes in. Yes, it's a paranormal story, woopie doo, let's move on. I mean, it's in the title. That's not the point of the story.
To paraphrase Detective Daddy: Just because it's supernatural it doesn't mean that just anything can happen. And that's what Paranormasight is actually about; we know the framework of this particular phenomenon, now let's use that knowledge to figure out what's going on the old-fashioned way. Evidence, deduction, investigation, speculation, questioning... think Death Note. Someone is using the supernatural to kill, and it's going to be a battle of wits to get what you want.

Inspector HEE HEE

What YOU want, I’m guessing, is knowing what's up with the Michael Jackson-ahh dude. And the answer is: what you see is what you get. It's just a flamboyant private investigator who's otherwise an eccentric but great character.
Actually, all characters share this strange characteristic: they feel real, but also flat. So even though they are more human than most characters I’ve seen in Japanese visual novels, there isn’t much depth to them, no real development, no hidden truths. Well, alright, maybe there are some characters that are more than meets the eye, but they’re generally the exception.
What do I mean by human? The teenage girls actually feel like teenage girls, not some fanservice waifu fuel. Detective Daddy is not an old man archetype, not a mysterious mentor; you could age him down by some 20-30 years and he’d still make sense as a character. His Freshboi Subordinate is cheeky, cheerful, energetic and in with the times - often cracking jokes, partially at his boss’ expense - but you can clearly see that when sh*t gets real, he has nothing but absolute respect for his partner. And so on.

Technically a Visual Novel

The game’s presentation is unique enough that it’s easy to forget that this is, in fact, a visual novel. You have a 360 view of the scenes (is there something behind you? Or someone?). The shots are very dynamic, and the game makes the best of characters sprites, positioning them in ways that create lots of visual variety.
The dialogues themselves are mostly static, and there isn’t much of player choice, even if the game is decent at making you feel like there is. That’s fine for me, I’m here for a good story, and Paranormasight has given me a decent one. By itself it’s nothing special, actually; but the writing is good, and you care about the characters. Turns out this is enough.
But there’s one more thing that adds some spice to this already nice dish.

The culprit is… THE ROUTE CHART???

No, it’s not, it’s a joke. But the game does expect you to pay attention beyond what is available to the characters, and makes this clear almost from the beginning. I’d even say that it’s quite polite about it - perhaps even more than I’d like. But no worries, you’re not getting clobbered with the solutions unless you’re really stuck.
To avoid spoilers, let’s just say that there are puzzles that ask you to think in the scope of the whole story, and to make use of the ability to do so. You’ve probably seen stuff like this in many VNs (Kotarou Uchikoshi my beloved), but here it’s just fresh enough that it warrants a mention, even if you’ve been around the block for a while.

Conclusion

I liked it. And a lot of others did, too; the completion rate for the ending is either 53% or 58% (don’t ask, I’m confused myself) according to the achievements. For a 12-hour-long game this is a pretty outstanding result. If you start it, you’re more likely than not to stay engaged long enough to finish it, and solve the final puzzle.
And a parting gift from me: sing in your head Inspector Gadget’s theme, but replace Gadget with HEE HEE. Replace the “hoo hoo” part with HEE HEE as well. It’s awful. You’re welcome.
Inspector Cassander’s ongoing investigation into games that don’t make you want to kill yourself out of boredom