Square Enix’s mystery visual novel PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo got a follow-up titled PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse, and fans of the original might notice it feels a little less terrifying this time around and that was entirely intentional. The sequel carries on the series’ signature blend of supernatural storytelling and Japanese folklore, this time centering on mermaid legends in the Ise-Shima region of Japan. It launched to Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam, suggesting the change in tone landed well with players.

In a post-launch interview with Game*Spark, series director and scenario writer Takanari Ishiyama and producer Kazuma Oushu opened up about the decision to soften the horror. Ishiyama pointed to direct feedback from players of the first game as a key reason for the shift.

“While 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 ‘If only it didn’t have horror elements’ or ‘I’d play it if it weren’t for the jump scares.’ So for this game, we want to loudly proclaim, We’re not doing horror this time. Rest assured,” Ishiyama said.

The director also noted that horror was never meant to be the heart of PARANORMASIGHT to begin with — the mysteries are. Because of that, he felt it would be a shame if the scary elements ended up pushing players away from the experience altogether. That said, the team did not set out to remove all sense of dread from the game. With part of their audience being fans of horror, the developers aimed to strike a balance: cutting out jump scares and overt horror moments, while still keeping an unsettling, occult atmosphere intact.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid’s Curse is available now on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch 2, iOS, and Android.