Jinsye
She/Her- 10,487
- 1,623
Hello! I’d like to start a discussion on a nifty little underrated VN I have just read, known as PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. While the VN has a pretty great and intriguing story, we’re not here to talk about that interesting stuff. We’re here to talk about everyone’s favorite tier, 1-A. Spoilers below, obviously.
Yes, we’re getting meta. The game becomes meta as soon as you enter the game, as the very first scene that happens is you waking up in a void, being greeted by The Storyteller, who claims to be your guide going forwards. He begins to explain all of the mechanics of the game, very literally.
This includes saving, and options, including the volume. To confirm how meta this scene is, he will ask you for your name and will then answer back with your Steam Name instead. So, it’s pretty clear there’s something going on here.
The next thing the Storyteller does is introduce you to a quaint little thing known as a Color TV, which does not exist in The Player's current time. This is the framing device in which the Storyteller uses to discuss the story and how most of the game takes place. You will be playing a video game on this TV, at the Storyteller’s behest.
There are a lot of other meta-interactions in this game. You end up seeing a news report from a later point in time which almost spoils the story, in which the Storyteller responds by rewinding the time of the story to go back to the beginning. This is the first implication that the world of the story’s time is not necessarily perceived linearly from the perspective of The Player. But, it becomes far more clear later on.
After you complete the first route, you are then introduced to the Story Chart, which is a way to view the entire Story's structure, as well as travel through time to previous events in order to undo or replay them. And from this point on, you play the story and the routes that are presented to you with some meta alterations.
The Player possesses various “vessels” to continue on with the story, though each of them are distinct characters with their own motivations and actions. However, The Player can help them out in sticky situations using various meta-abilities. For example, there is a Curse that kills a vessel by the sound of its noise being heard. The Player can save their vessel however by reducing the “Voice Volume” of the game to 0, blocking the noise from being heard at all. Your vessel plays no part in this, and you are completely unaffected if they die. You can retry the scene as many times as you want, as if it was a video game. The game thrives on these meta interactions, as various mechanics like saving, and performing actions that your vessels have no knowledge of are crucial factors to progressing the story. Thus, it is likely that both you and The Storyteller view this game as fiction, necessitating an R>F Transcendence.
Thus, he resorted to sealing away nine of the implements used to make the ritual and an awakening spell to activate the stones if the Rite of Resurrection were cast again. This is what sets in course what happens in the modern day. In order to stop the curse stones and ritual, the characters must gather three items in order to cleanse the spell. These are Seiman's soul, mind, and body.
How does this connect to The Player? It is simple, The Player is Seiman’s mind. One of the three components of him.
You have been awakened by the Ritual as a disembodied consciousness, released from the seal but without your memories. You learn that your original goal is to stop the ritual in the present, and that the entire game so far has been building up to your realizing who you truly are. You used the Story Chart to manipulate time and space, influencing the character’s actions, and jumping from vessel to vessel in order to understand who you truly are. The way you combine Seiman’s soul, mind, and body is by possessing someone who was a descendent of Seiman and meeting with his Curse Echo, which allows you to truly remember who you are.
Thus, this comes with a question. With all of the new information presented here, is it still 1-A? Well, we’d need to discuss on what the Void is, but we’re never given a truly great answer on what it is. So, we’ll need to intuit on what it is not.
Is it a mental representation or metaphor for Seiman hopping through bodies?
I can say with full certainty that this is not the case. Despite the framing that you are Seiman’s consciousness, I believe the Void is very much a literal place that exists. The presence of the Storyteller is my proof.
The Storyteller, whenever he speaks about the world, speaks in very literal terms. This is understood by his talks about saving and the options menu. Especially when he brings up how Seiman manipulates time and space through the story chart, that is interesting phrasing. It is as if Seiman is actually manipulating the world in order to achieve his goal, rather than it simply being a metaphor for his possessing adventures.
There is also the implication that there are other stories out there that the Storyteller knows of. The final line he speaks after the game ends is to "look upon the fruit of your efforts, and we shall leave this world behind for good". This is further backed up by the fact that the Storyteller reappears in the sequel manga to introduce the new story, after everything has transpired in the main game. So, the void and the Storyteller are very clearly real things, and not just a metaphor for Seiman.
How did Seiman enter the Void?
This one is a hard one because of how little elaboration the Void gets. This is important because it can be seen as a disqualifying factor for 1-A. However, there are some potential arguments to be made here.
You are specifically Seiman’s mind, one of the three parts that make up a human. In essence, you are Seiman's sense of self. This is compared to driving a car, in which the body is the car, the soul is the control system and the mind is the driver. This already puts a bit of a difference between the physical world and the mental world, but that is not all. As Seiman’s disembodied mind, you meet the Storyteller, who describes himself as Seiman's guide throughout the story and that he already knows why Seiman is here. Since we’ve already established that The Storyteller probably is not a mental construct of Seiman, this leads to a potential explanation as to why Seiman is in this realm. It is that the Storyteller let him.
The Storyteller already knows that you are Seiman, and his entire goal was to help you through the story to remember who you are. He is also the one directly presenting the tale to you, and he purposefully misleads or tricks you at points all for the goal of remembering who you are. Thus, I find it to be a notable and reasonable explanation to say that The Storyteller is the one who let you into the void, in order to help you find out who you are.
TLDR: The Storyteller was probably helping Seiman's consciousness, so its entirely feasible that they reached the level of existence as a result of The Storyteller telling their tale. The entire story is being told by him after all.
However, I believe the possibility is there, and it’s very much in consideration. With how Seiman can manipulate the world from the game, and view it as a non-linear set of events that he can jump between, the possibility that there is qualitative superiority is present.
So, I would like to present the two characters that would scale to this (The Player and The Storyteller) as Unknown, possibly 1-A. This is to account for the vagueness regarding the Void, and what its nature of existence necessarily entails. However, if one believes in a more solid rating or disagrees, those are also possible options. So, the three potential tiers for these profiles are as follows.
Unknown:
Unknown, possibly 1-A:
1-A:
Thank you for reading.
What Could Be 1-A?
To be frank, most of the verse isn’t very impressive physically. They have some nifty hax, especially various versions of death hax upon fulfilling certain conditions, but most characters end up at around 10-B and Average Human speeds. This makes sense, because it is primarily a mystery story and not a combat story by any means. However, there is one thing that could be argued to be 1-A, and that is the presence of The Player.Yes, we’re getting meta. The game becomes meta as soon as you enter the game, as the very first scene that happens is you waking up in a void, being greeted by The Storyteller, who claims to be your guide going forwards. He begins to explain all of the mechanics of the game, very literally.
This includes saving, and options, including the volume. To confirm how meta this scene is, he will ask you for your name and will then answer back with your Steam Name instead. So, it’s pretty clear there’s something going on here.
The next thing the Storyteller does is introduce you to a quaint little thing known as a Color TV, which does not exist in The Player's current time. This is the framing device in which the Storyteller uses to discuss the story and how most of the game takes place. You will be playing a video game on this TV, at the Storyteller’s behest.
There are a lot of other meta-interactions in this game. You end up seeing a news report from a later point in time which almost spoils the story, in which the Storyteller responds by rewinding the time of the story to go back to the beginning. This is the first implication that the world of the story’s time is not necessarily perceived linearly from the perspective of The Player. But, it becomes far more clear later on.
After you complete the first route, you are then introduced to the Story Chart, which is a way to view the entire Story's structure, as well as travel through time to previous events in order to undo or replay them. And from this point on, you play the story and the routes that are presented to you with some meta alterations.
The Player possesses various “vessels” to continue on with the story, though each of them are distinct characters with their own motivations and actions. However, The Player can help them out in sticky situations using various meta-abilities. For example, there is a Curse that kills a vessel by the sound of its noise being heard. The Player can save their vessel however by reducing the “Voice Volume” of the game to 0, blocking the noise from being heard at all. Your vessel plays no part in this, and you are completely unaffected if they die. You can retry the scene as many times as you want, as if it was a video game. The game thrives on these meta interactions, as various mechanics like saving, and performing actions that your vessels have no knowledge of are crucial factors to progressing the story. Thus, it is likely that both you and The Storyteller view this game as fiction, necessitating an R>F Transcendence.
The Complicating Factor
At the end of the game, you learn of the Honjo Incident. The historical tale from the Edo Period of a battle for the Rite of Resurrection and the Record of Fates which corrupted and destroyed an entire town. The battle brought about a clash between two powerful Onmyoji, Ashino and Seiman Tsuchimikado. The two of them fought and killed each other, but Seiman revived himself with the Rite of Resurrection but could not find the Record of Fates to seal away.Thus, he resorted to sealing away nine of the implements used to make the ritual and an awakening spell to activate the stones if the Rite of Resurrection were cast again. This is what sets in course what happens in the modern day. In order to stop the curse stones and ritual, the characters must gather three items in order to cleanse the spell. These are Seiman's soul, mind, and body.
How does this connect to The Player? It is simple, The Player is Seiman’s mind. One of the three components of him.
You have been awakened by the Ritual as a disembodied consciousness, released from the seal but without your memories. You learn that your original goal is to stop the ritual in the present, and that the entire game so far has been building up to your realizing who you truly are. You used the Story Chart to manipulate time and space, influencing the character’s actions, and jumping from vessel to vessel in order to understand who you truly are. The way you combine Seiman’s soul, mind, and body is by possessing someone who was a descendent of Seiman and meeting with his Curse Echo, which allows you to truly remember who you are.
Thus, this comes with a question. With all of the new information presented here, is it still 1-A? Well, we’d need to discuss on what the Void is, but we’re never given a truly great answer on what it is. So, we’ll need to intuit on what it is not.
Is it a mental representation or metaphor for Seiman hopping through bodies?
I can say with full certainty that this is not the case. Despite the framing that you are Seiman’s consciousness, I believe the Void is very much a literal place that exists. The presence of the Storyteller is my proof.
The Storyteller, whenever he speaks about the world, speaks in very literal terms. This is understood by his talks about saving and the options menu. Especially when he brings up how Seiman manipulates time and space through the story chart, that is interesting phrasing. It is as if Seiman is actually manipulating the world in order to achieve his goal, rather than it simply being a metaphor for his possessing adventures.
There is also the implication that there are other stories out there that the Storyteller knows of. The final line he speaks after the game ends is to "look upon the fruit of your efforts, and we shall leave this world behind for good". This is further backed up by the fact that the Storyteller reappears in the sequel manga to introduce the new story, after everything has transpired in the main game. So, the void and the Storyteller are very clearly real things, and not just a metaphor for Seiman.
How did Seiman enter the Void?
This one is a hard one because of how little elaboration the Void gets. This is important because it can be seen as a disqualifying factor for 1-A. However, there are some potential arguments to be made here.
You are specifically Seiman’s mind, one of the three parts that make up a human. In essence, you are Seiman's sense of self. This is compared to driving a car, in which the body is the car, the soul is the control system and the mind is the driver. This already puts a bit of a difference between the physical world and the mental world, but that is not all. As Seiman’s disembodied mind, you meet the Storyteller, who describes himself as Seiman's guide throughout the story and that he already knows why Seiman is here. Since we’ve already established that The Storyteller probably is not a mental construct of Seiman, this leads to a potential explanation as to why Seiman is in this realm. It is that the Storyteller let him.
The Storyteller already knows that you are Seiman, and his entire goal was to help you through the story to remember who you are. He is also the one directly presenting the tale to you, and he purposefully misleads or tricks you at points all for the goal of remembering who you are. Thus, I find it to be a notable and reasonable explanation to say that The Storyteller is the one who let you into the void, in order to help you find out who you are.
TLDR: The Storyteller was probably helping Seiman's consciousness, so its entirely feasible that they reached the level of existence as a result of The Storyteller telling their tale. The entire story is being told by him after all.
Is It 1-A?
Despite all this, the story itself is still pretty vague on what the Void is, and we do not have a clear explanation as to why Seiman is in the Void. It seems pretty direct that the Void is a literal location that is capable of seeing the world as just a mere story and video game, but the nature of the superiority may be called into question.However, I believe the possibility is there, and it’s very much in consideration. With how Seiman can manipulate the world from the game, and view it as a non-linear set of events that he can jump between, the possibility that there is qualitative superiority is present.
So, I would like to present the two characters that would scale to this (The Player and The Storyteller) as Unknown, possibly 1-A. This is to account for the vagueness regarding the Void, and what its nature of existence necessarily entails. However, if one believes in a more solid rating or disagrees, those are also possible options. So, the three potential tiers for these profiles are as follows.
Unknown:
Unknown, possibly 1-A:
1-A:
Thank you for reading.
Last edited:
