{"id":60176,"date":"2026-02-24T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=60176"},"modified":"2026-02-24T17:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:57:41","slug":"id-play-if-it-werent-for-the-jump-scares-paranormasight-devs-consciously-toned-down-the-horror-in-new-sequel-in-response-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/id-play-if-it-werent-for-the-jump-scares-paranormasight-devs-consciously-toned-down-the-horror-in-new-sequel-in-response-to\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019d play if it weren\u2019t for the jump scares.\u201d\u00a0Paranormasight\u00a0devs\u00a0consciously\u00a0toned down\u00a0the\u00a0horror in\u00a0new sequel\u00a0in response to feedback from the first game\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Square Enix\u2019s acclaimed 2023\u00a0mystery visual novel\u00a0Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo\u00a0recently got a sequel\u00a0titled\u00a0Paranormasight: The Mermaid\u2019s Curse<\/strong>. Launching to Overwhelmingly Positive reception\u00a0on\u00a0Steam<\/a>, the\u00a0game retains much of the original title\u2019s\u00a0supernatural and\u00a0spooky vibes, telling a story about mermaid legends on Japan\u2019s Ise-Shima.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, the sequel also tones down some of the more straightforward horror elements of the first Paranormasight. Talking to Game*Spark<\/a> in a post-launch interview, series director and scenario writer Takanari Ishiyama and producer Kazuma Oushu were relieved to hear that The Mermaid\u2019s Curse comes across as less scary, commenting that the subdued horror was something they purposely aimed for.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Paranormasight:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile there are still some scary scenes, we decided early in development not to make it a hardcore horror game. The reason is that with the previous title, we got a surprising number of people telling us \u2018If only it didn’t have horror elements\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019d play it if it weren’t for the jump scares.\u2019 So for this game, we want to loudly proclaim, We\u2019re not doing horror this time. Rest assured<\/em>,\u201d Ishiyama explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin with, the director considers horror elements an \u201caddition\u201d to Paranormasight (whose main focus is its mysteries), meaning it would be a shame if the horror were pronounced enough to drive players away. Still, that\u2019s not to say the goal was to eliminate horror \u2013 conscious of the part of their playerbase that enjoys the genre, the developers sought to do away with jump scares and outright horror elements, but still deliver a scary \u201coccult\u201d experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paranormasight: The Mermaid\u2019s Curse is out now for PC (Steam<\/a>), Nintendo Switch 2<\/a>, iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: Resident Evil 1 director Shinji Mikami was against jump scares, but sequels did not follow his ideals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Paranormasight series creators say a surprising number of people complained about the first game’s horror aspects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":60199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-60176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cI\u2019d play if it weren\u2019t for the jump scares.\u201d\u00a0Paranormasight\u00a0devs\u00a0consciously\u00a0toned down\u00a0the\u00a0horror in\u00a0new sequel\u00a0in response to feedback from the first game\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Paranormasight series creators say a surprising number of people complained about the first game's horror aspects.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/id-play-if-it-werent-for-the-jump-scares-paranormasight-devs-consciously-toned-down-the-horror-in-new-sequel-in-response-to\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cI\u2019d play if it weren\u2019t for the jump scares.\u201d\u00a0Paranormasight\u00a0devs\u00a0consciously\u00a0toned down\u00a0the\u00a0horror in\u00a0new sequel\u00a0in response to feedback from the first game\u00a0 - 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