{"id":66313,"date":"2026-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66313"},"modified":"2026-05-07T18:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:26:30","slug":"the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The success of Square Enix\u2019s 2023 visual novel <strong>Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo <\/strong>spawned the 2025 spin-off direct sequel manga Paranormasight File 25: Encounter with the Psychic Girl Kurozuru Miwo and a standalone sequel, this year\u2019s <strong>Paranormasight: The Mermaid&#8217;s Curse<\/strong>. While all three works are set in the Showa era (December 25, 1926 &#8211; January 7, 1989), a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famitsu.com\/article\/202605\/73245\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Famitsu interview<\/a> with series director Takanari Ishiyama reveals that future entries could take on a more \u201cmodern twist\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked about Paranormasight\u2019s future, Ishiyama said that he would like to keep it pretty loose. So long as the associated work involves supernatural phenomena and the Storyteller appears, he thinks that it can be considered a title worthy of the name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid&#039;s Curse \u2013 Announcement Trailer \u2013 Nintendo Switch\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q_Xf9RxOAh8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, while all of the previous works are set in the 1980s, Ishiyama thinks it would be fine to have an entry set in the Heisei (January 8, 1989 &#8211; April 30, 2019) or Reiwa (May 1, 2019 &#8211; present day) eras. Producer Kazuma Oushu followed up Ishiyama\u2019s statement by saying that Paranormasight could even be set in the distant past or future, likening it to Osamu Tezuka\u2019s multi-timeline manga series, Phoenix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though neither of the developers confirmed any future releases, they are appreciative of the franchise\u2019s episodic nature. Ishiyama designed the Paranormasight games so that players can experience them without prior knowledge of the franchise. While most people play them according to the order of their release, he is particularly interested in the impressions of those who started with The Mermaid&#8217;s Curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paranormasight: The Mermaid\u2019s Curse is available for Windows (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2701440\/PARANORMASIGHT_The_Mermaids_Curse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), Nintendo Switch 2, iOS, and Android.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/danganronpa-and-the-hundred-line-creator-kazutaka-kodaka-thinks-domestic-visual-novel-games-are-stagnating-developers-cant-hope-to-compete-with-novelists-with-story-alone\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Danganronpa and The Hundred Line creator Kazutaka Kodaka thinks domestic visual novel games are stagnating. Developers can\u2019t hope to compete with novelists with story alone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a 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\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cI\u2019d play if it weren\u2019t for the jump scares.\u201d Paranormasight devs consciously toned down the horror in new sequel in response to feedback from the first game<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent interview, Paranormasight series director Ishiyama and producer Oushu discuss the future of the franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":66315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-66313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent interview, Paranormasight series director Ishiyama and producer Oushu discuss the future of the franchise.\" \/>\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\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent interview, Paranormasight series director Ishiyama and producer Oushu discuss the future of the franchise.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-07T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260507-66313-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"In a recent interview, Paranormasight series director Ishiyama and producer Oushu discuss the future of the franchise.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"In a recent interview, Paranormasight series director Ishiyama and producer Oushu discuss the future of the franchise.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-05-07T15:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":864,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260507-66313-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers","datePublished":"2026-05-07T15:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/"},"wordCount":354,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260507-66313-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/","name":"The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260507-66313-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-07T15:00:00+00:00","description":"In a recent interview, Paranormasight series director Ishiyama and producer Oushu discuss the future of the franchise.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260507-66313-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260507-66313-header.jpg","width":864,"height":540,"caption":"Paranormasight"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-paranormasight-franchise-is-set-in-the-showa-era-but-potential-future-releases-may-open-the-doors-for-a-heisei-or-reiwa-story-according-to-developers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Paranormasight franchise is set in the Showa era, but potential future releases may open the doors for a Heisei or Reiwa story, according to developers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31","name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","caption":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor"},"description":"Automaton West writer. Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming. When he isn't playing video games, he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/carlos-zotomayor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66313"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66318,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66313\/revisions\/66318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}