PARANORMASIGHT devs considered 3D visuals at one point

Necessity is the mother of invention

20 April 2023
by rawmeatcowboy 1
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PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is an absolute gem of a Switch release, and it seems to have gone unnoticed by most. This visual novel is a work of art in terms of both storytelling and visuals, which makes it interesting to find out that the game almost had a very different look.

The visuals of PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo are incredibly striking utilizing real-life backdrops and hand-drawn characters in a very unique style to make for a beautiful, yet haunting presentation. In an interview with Eurogamer, director and writer Takaya Ishiyama reveals that the game’s visuals came about due to a lack of time and money.

“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.”

[director and writer Takaya Ishiyama]

This is a perfect example of how limitations can breed innovation. We’ll never know how PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo would have turned out with more traditional visuals, but we do know that what we got is certainly striking, standing out among other visual novels and most games in general.

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Comments (1)

autumnalblake

1y ago

The filters and effects they put on the backgrounds make them fit perfectly. If anything, the very realistic locations full of details a developer would never think to add just enhance the spookiness!

 
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