Often mispronounced as Panoramasight LOL
WARNING: This review contains spoilers.
Time to Beat
I hadn’t installed the parental controls app yet so don’t know exactly how long I played this haha. Switch says over 5 hours. I played it on two flights, probably about 3 hours each time plus maybe another hour while chilling at the hotel so I’m estimating about 7 hours. It felt like the perfect length, especially given the game events only span a day or so.
Writing
As this is a visual novel this aspect is arguably the most important and it sure delivered. The story was extremely cohesive and all the thread points intertwined in a very satisfying way. It was also written in such a way that you could quite easily piece the character connections together without feeling spoonfed.
The characters themselves were all really fun and a little quirky. I wouldn’t say I have a favourite, maybe Shogo (except due to circumstances you don’t really get to know him that well) for his quips, but I did really like the dynamic between Erio and Tsutsumi.
As an added bonus, the detailed files were all really fun to read. Usually I tend to zone out trying to read all the extra info in visual novels but I read everything for this game. Maybe it helps that it was short?
I especially liked how by playing the game (by continuing after Yoko dies) you kinda actually cause a lot of the tragic events 🤣 it was a nice gotcha.
It was fun trying to puzzle out what was happening. Two guesses I made that were wrong:
- I hypothesised that it was Yakko that was run over and ‘Yakko’ was actually Michiyo pretending to be her but it ended up being an occult situation, not sure why I assumed there would be a non-occult reason in a game about the occult LOL
- I thought the true end would also be a super happily ever after end where no one, including Yoko, died because I thought Yoko was just being possessed by her ancestors spirit, but nope she was the big bad mastermind in every way.
Gameplay
Overall pretty good and streamlined. A flow chart is always appreciated and the visual effect applied to the chapter thumbnails meant it was easy to tell which parts you didn’t need to return to. And the Suspend option when following particular paths meant I didn’t waste time when there was no more to be done in that route at that point in time. For the most part I managed without needing to refer to the guide. But I do have a couple of comments:
- There was a point where you needed two paths to converge and while I understood that, I misunderstood how the flags worked. I thought by going to each area the flags would all be set but actually by going to a new area the (single) flag was overwritten. I had to refer to a guide for this part. And my husband who is a veteran visual novel player also had issues in this section.
- Later in the game there is a new choice to End investigation instead of Suspend. I ended up wasting time when there was only one chapter available and I didn’t realise I had to End the investigation for new options to show up on the flow chart as previously this was triggered by the Suspend option. Another point where I had to use the guide.
The ‘player’ actions aspect of the game was a cool idea but not that fun in application. But it was very nice how it tied into the story and provided hints to what was going on. Some comments:
- My husband told me how to counter Namigaki’s curse but once you know each time you apply it, it just felt rote? I suppose it was comical since Namigaki is a bit of a loser.
- The way the game marks with a tick when there is nothing more to investigate/talk about was super handy and ensured I had all the info I needed for future segments. Very streamlined, I approve
- When you have to show Michiyo an action to help her pass on, my first thought was a screenshot. Apparently games can’t tell when you take a screenshot though so can’t be incorporated into gameplay? It wasn’t hard at all to figure out the actual action required though so this isn’t a complaint, just that I learnt something new for future 4th wall breaking games haha
- The shaking head part confused me because I first tried moving the camera side to side but it was slow and I’m not sure if that worked or if physically shaking the Switch was what triggered the flag, but physically shaking was annoying because you can’t read the screen while shaking so can’t tell if it worked/failed/just need to do the action longer, this part felt a bit obtuse to me
Lastly, the open-the-seals-in-the-right-order part was smart but switching between the files (which are quite lengthy) was annoying so while I knew what I was meant to do (figure out the order of events that led to the creation of the curses), I couldn’t be assed fighting with the controls so just used a guide.
Graphics
The art is so pretty! The wispy-ish line art in particular leaned into the semi-horror aspect of the game too, particularly with Harue who had certain poses that were quite unsettling while still looking beautiful. The curses and curse objects themselves were pretty damn creepy so good job there.
I didn’t realise it was set in the 80’s until I saw the old-school rotary phone in the Shigue house and read the entry about Harue’s son. Not a criticism, just a comment.
The delinquent birds were also pretty funny and a nice way to incentivise looking everywhere at each location (even though I only did this about half of the time).
Finally the background art was also very pretty in certain locations (the gardens) and probably realistic for the rest (an empty park and business district would probably be pretty boring scenery irl anyway).
Music
My main requirement for visual novel music is for it to not be grating and irritating and this game definitely succeeded. I only really noticed the music when the happy upbeat song played (it was a fun tune) and that one flashback when they used an instrumental version of, or at least a very heavily inspired by Sorega Daiji tune (which I only know thanks to Golden Bomber’s vocalist’s 90’s cover album lol) which almost made me laugh out loud, kudos to the sound team for that LOL.
Overall
This was a very good game that I would recommend to anyone who likes visual novels. It did all the right things for a visual novel and my complaints are all quite minor.
I vaguely recall being apprehensive to play this because I hate horror but it isn’t really scary and the ‘jump scares’ are pretty telegraphed so didn’t actually shock me. I’m so impressed by Square Enix’s forays into VNs (The Centennial Case, which I watched my husband play, was also executed extremely well with a very interesting story), it’s not a genre I would usually associate with them.
Categories: Games
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