Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo director on using history to create atmospheric horror
Spooky visual novel Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is steeped in Japanese history. When you're not absorbing the sights of 1980s Tokyo or hearing ancient folk tales, Paranormasight feeds you bits of information about Japan during the wider Shōwa era and the earlier Edo period.
Whether from decades or centuries ago, elements of Japanese history are woven into the game, something which Paranormasight director and writer Takaya Ishiyama told me more about, in a discussion which revealed more about the team's approach to using history in the game's narrative as a way to balance realism and mystery.
One of the first things you notice when playing Paranormasight is the difference in visual style between the environments and the characters. The game's cast were drawn by Kobayashi Gen, and his distinct style stands out from the surroundings in-game. The 360-degree panoramas you explore were all created from photographs, though this wasn't initially what the team set out to do.
«We considered recreating the city in highly detailed 3D graphics or hand-drawing the entire panoramas from scratch but found this wouldn't have been possible to do with the resources we had,» Ishiyama revealed. Eventually the team came up with the idea of using 360-degree photography, and Ishiyama found using photos to create in-game environments helped strike the balance between realism and unique style.
The realism and mystery dynamic — a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar — was a core thread for the team to implement throughout the game. Paranormasight's central plot revolves around the Seven Mysteries of Honjo, a collection of centuries-old urban myths dating back to the Edo period. The number of these myths and their precise details
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