YMMV / PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

• Alternate Character Interpretation: In the true ending, Nejima, under a false alias, is shown asking Tsutsumi how Ayame is doing. Has Nejima given up on bringing Shino back from the dead, and now accepts Ayame as her reincarnation? Or is he still pursuing revenge against Tsutsumi and just wants to get close to Ayame to hurt her? For that matter, just how much of Nejima's cruelty throughout the game was caused by his curse echo's influence and how much was caused by his own moral failings?
• Angst? What Angst?: Shogo shows a shocking lack of hesitation when he kills multiple people in order to resurrect a girl who he doesn't even know that well. It's especially noticeable when he kills Yakko and expresses zero remorse after the fact, even though she was basically just walking by and didn't antagonize him in any way. Although most of Shogo's Lack of Empathy can be attributed to the Rite of Resurrection strengthening one's urge to kill, it's still extremely jarring when every other playable character either refuses to kill or has very sympathetic reasons for doing so.
• Anti-Climax: The true ending of the game is achieved by going back to the original timeline in which Yoko is killed by her own curse and making Shogo realize that this was a result of his ancestor's influence reacting to her casting the Feast of Shadows and using his own curse to neutralize her as quickly as possible, effectively undoing everything that happened in the timelines that the rest of the story had taken place in. From a storytelling perspective, this means that the Big Bad's true nature is largely limited to being presented in the form of an Info Dump or two, only being properly shown extremely briefly in the regular "Conclusion" ending, forgoing any kind of open confrontation between her and the viewpoint characters, and undoing the gravitas of Tsutsumi's death and all the other major developments in the main timeline. While the true ending is arguably more in line with the game's meta elements, it's hardly unreasonable to have expected some kind of showdown between Yoko and Shogo or Tsutsumi's surviving comrades rather than a Reset Button Ending that only reiterates information that had already been presented instead of offering anything new.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The fact that Michiyo is possessing Yakko is treated as a big twist, but most players probably figured that out during Hitomi's conversation with Yakko and Mio.
• Complete Monster:
  • Lady Ashino is the long-dead reason for the Seven Mysteries of Honjo, being responsible for the blood-filled "Honjo Incident". Living in the Edo period of Japan as an onmyōji, Ashino tempted Tsushimakado Seiman into researching the Rite of Resurrection, which would supposedly bring someone back to life at the cost of a few sacrifices, for Ashino to be granted eternal beauty. Although Seiman would be thrown out for this, Ashino would grow desperate for the information he had, deciding to go to the town where he resided and deciding to torture the information out of the people he had met. In order to do this, Ashino would manipulate the local daimyo and the chief retainer to cause seven people to be killed in different events, collecting their souls to turn them into soul dregs and use them for the rite. Her actions would cause Seiman to create the Curse Stones, so that no one would try to use the Rite of Resurrection again.
  • Yoko Fukunaga, Ashino's descendant, is the true mastermind behind the Feast of Shadows and the return of the Curses of the Seven Mysteries of Honjo. Disappointed by her lineage falling into mediocrity, Yoko ambitiously plans to return her family name back into prestige with the Rite of Resurrection to bring Ashino back. To this end, Yoko creates a death game of mutual slaughter with the Curses to gather the sacrifices for the Rite, bringing in deranged people like Nejima and Araishi to perpetuate kills before killing Hajime and Shogo Okiie, who were Seiman's descendants. Hiding in the shadows to watch the killings from afar, Yoko joins at the end to kill Mio and Erio when they are close to the truth before using the Curses herself to gather the last sacrifices to finish the ritual.
  • Kankichiro Iwai is the stepfather of Michiyo Shiraishi, and is the main cause behind both Yakko Sakazaki and Harue Shigima's stories. Originally a con artist, Iwai grew an admiration for Fumichika Nejima, and when he was sent to prison, met the man himself and became enthralled at his tales of Black Magic. Wanting to use this knowledge for fame and fortune, Iwai met Toshiko Shiraishi and became her common-law husband, only to show himself to be horribly abusive to both her and her daughter Michiyo. Forcing Michiyo to kidnap the young Shuichi Shigima, Iwai taunts the police and Shuichi's mother by asking a ransom while never intending to let Shuichi return to his mother, then forces Toshiko to kill him as a sacrifice for his ritual, ruining both of their lives in the process, for no reason other than greed and a petty hatred of society.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Michiyo and Yakko saying goodbye to each other and agreeing to meet in the afterlife. Despite Michiyo having committed murders through Yakko's body, Yakko still sees her as a friend.
  • Yakko comparing Mio working as a psychic to being a superhero is pretty sweet considering the latter's Friendless Background.
• Jerkass Woobie: Harue Shigima is a cold woman with a sharp tongue and is the protagonist with little to no reservations with performing the Rite of Resurrection, even suggesting that it's in part due to some homicidal urges and having no compunctions about her curse stone allowing her to kill people via immolation. However, she's also a grieving mother who was forced to go through her beloved son getting kidnapped and murdered years prior, which she blames in part due to her husband and father, both influential figures in the police, refusing to let her simply pay the offered ransom due to prioritising the pride of the police force over her child's life, creating resentment towards them that affected her marriage with the former, and some sense of guilt due to not persisting on the matter. This isn't helped by her later learning that even if she had paid the ransom, it wouldn't have saved her son as the kidnapper was always intending to use him for a Human Sacrifice to get back at her for something she did as a teenager, causing her to suffer a breakdown.
• Narm: While the game's soundtrack is used pretty well for the most part, Tsutsumi's and Erio's upbeat detective theme playing when Tsutsumi and Erio confront Nejima on the bridge creates a pretty jarring disconnect in tone between the music and the writing.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Yakko and Mio conversing with Michiyo and effectively saying goodbye. Through an Ouija-like table, they express their regrets at not being able to help her, and at the same time anger at how the adults on her life treated her, with Yakko angry at the fact that she kept that pain inside her, promising to give her a punch if she meets Michiyo again.
  • Tsutsumi's death in the Conclusion ending. Ayame activates her curse on him after he tells her that she truly is his daughter. Tsutsumi refuses to go down even while being beaten to death and repeats the sentiment to Ayame. She realizes all too late that Tsutsumi wasn't lying; he truly does see her as his daughter.
• The Woobie: Michiyo, full stop. She lost her father, and then her stepfather was an abusive Jerkass who physically abused her and her mother. Then she was forced to kidnap a kid, and forced to watch her mother kill him. Then her teacher used the kidnapping to blackmail and sexually assault her, and then she got run over by a car and killed for no reason.

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