Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse is a quite complex visual novel developed by Square Enix that features multiple endings that depend entirely on the player’s investigative skills. That’s because, in this experience, you act as an omnipresent force, navigating a narrative that frequently breaks the fourth wall to challenge your perception of the story.

The plot is told non-linearly, meaning you will piece together the puzzle one chapter at a time. And often, you will find it necessary to replay specific chapters to trigger new timelines and unlock different paths. This “trial and error” approach is a core part of the experience: you are encouraged to test various branches, gather new information, and use that knowledge to alter the course of history in a different chapter.

In total, The Mermaid’s Curse features five distinct endings, ranging from tragic outcomes to the elusive “Good” or “True” ending. Unlocking all of them requires specific actions and can add several hours of gameplay for completionists.

So, to ensure you don’t miss a single detail of this Square Enix hidden gem, we have put together a comprehensive guide detailing how to trigger every ending and what each one entails!

Ending #1

The Tragedy of Kameshima

This is the most common ending, since unlocking it is basically necessary to be able to reach the other ones – so it is also the most tragic outcome to The Mermaid’s Curse.

In order to unlock it, you need to focus primarily on Yuza’s and Sato’s chapters (ignoring Yumeko’s and Arnav’s narrative branches). First, play every available chapter for Yuza until you reach the “Time to Meet Up” chapter, which leads to a dead end for the character. Just make sure you tell Azami about the clone in the “Tomokazuki” chapter.

Now, focus completely on completing Sato’s episodes, and you will eventually reach “The Tragedy of Kameshima” chapter, which is set at the Lighthouse. Play it to discover the person behind the curses, and when the time comes, make Sato surrender to Kikuko Tsutsui.

Now, enjoy the rest of the story and the game’s Ending #1 – I mean, there’s not much to enjoy, because it is pretty sad, but you get the idea.

What happened in the story? In this ending, Yuza is dead, and soon after, Sato, Azami, and Tsusaka are cornered by Kikuko, who is the culprit for the curse echo that killed almost everyone on the island. The player only finds out that the Hand Mirror is the condition that allows the curse to strike, but there is nothing else to do except surrender to the villain. Also, you don’t find out anything about the mermaids, Mare Minakuchi’s mysterious past, or the Curse of Raging Waves that has inflicted on Kameshima for 800 years.

Ending #2

The Glory of Arnav Barnum

I feel that this is one of the most incomplete endings (right next to Ending #3) for Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, since it practically only focuses on Arnav Barnum, forgetting the rest of the characters, the curses, and Kameshima.

However, it is quite simple to unlock it, since it only requires that you have unlocked Ending #1 and two specific actions in two chapters from Arnav’s narrative line. Here they are:

“Possessions” (Arnav Barnum): Refuse the hand mirror while talking with Kikuko and throw away Ikoma’s business card to steal the Curse of Tomoshige from her. This will make Kikuko stay alive.

“Claim” (Sato Shiranami): Don’t convince Avi to give the tamatebako to Sato by being completely honest in the answers (choose “Deny” and “I want to thank one”).

“An Exciting Ise-Shima Adventure” (Arnav Barnum): Finish the chapter.

What happened in the story? In this ending, Avi is the main focus since he is transformed into an 800-year immortal, where he becomes a true adventurer to write more fantasy novels. He ends up being famous and quite wealthy, selling millions of copies! However, you don’t break Curse of Raging Waves in the scenario, you don’t discover Ikoma’s true identity, and Kameshima’s destiny is not even mentioned (but it probably isn’t good news).

Ending #3

The Fall of Arnav Barnum

The Ending #3 is basically an alternate version of Ending #2, meaning that it also feels a bit incomplete by focusing again only on Arnav Barnum, forgetting the rest of the characters and most parallel plots.

It also requires Ending #1 and only two specific actions in two chapters from Avi’s narrative line (but going in an opposite way). You can check the steps right below:

“Possessions” (Arnav Barnum): Refuse the hand mirror while talking with Kikuko, but don’t throw away Ikoma’s business card. This will force Avi to kill her in order to steal the Curse of Tomoshige from her.

“Claim” (Sato Shiranami): Don’t convince Avi to give the tamatebako to Sato by being completely honest in the answers (choose “Deny” and “I want to thank one”).

Replay “An Exciting Ise-Shima Adventure” (Arnav Barnum): Finish the chapter.

What happened in the story? In this ending, Avi is the main focus since he is transformed into an 800-year immortal, but soon after, he is accused of murdering Tsutsui with a curse (Kikuko is the one to blame for that). This makes him disappear to never be seen again. Also, you don’t break Curse of Raging Waves, you don’t discover Ikoma’s true identity, and Kameshima’s destiny is not mentioned (but it probably isn’t good news).

Ending #4

Taira no Tomoshige’s Desire

After unlocking Ending #1 (#2 and #3 are not required), keep progressing normally through the story until you reach the “Possessions” chapter, featuring Avi – because from this point on, you will have to make some important decisions that will reflect in the outcome.

Since we are going after Ending #4, you will need to choose some specific decisions and actions in some chapters, so we will leave all the orientation and the order right below.

“Possessions” (Arnav Barnum): Refuse the hand mirror while talking with Kikuko and throw away Ikoma’s business card to steal the Curse of Tomoshige from her.

“Claim” (Sato Shiranami): Convince Avi to give the tamatebako to Sato by being completely honest in the answers (choose “Admit”, “Please, I need it!”, and “Tell the truth”).

“To the Sanctuary” (Yuza Minakuchi): Break the Curse of Raging Waves.

Ignore the “We Need a Plan” chapter and don’t play it.

“Real Name” (Sato Shiranami): Choose “Obey Tomoshige” when the time comes.

What happened in the story? In this ending, most people on the island are safe, and the Curse of Raging Waves has been broken, but Sato had to “sacrifice” herself in order to achieve that. Consumed by his resentment that has lasted over 800 years, Tomoshige wants Sato to die with him, meaning she won’t get a happy ending (nor will Yuza).

Ending #5

Sato Shiranami’s Curse

Entering the bittersweet kind of ending, we have Ending #5, which pretty much unravels like Ending #4, but it requires you to refuse Tomoshige’s last demand to Sato and also set a plan correctly to stop his curse from killing the people on the island.

The last touch for this one is not completing Yuza’s and Sato’s secret plan to turn her into an 800-year immortal again, so all you need to do is simply do nothing on the “Conclusion” chapter. Here’s every step you need to follow:

“Possessions” (Arnav Barnum): Refuse the hand mirror while talking with Kikuko and throw away Ikoma’s business card to steal the Curse of Tomoshige from her.

“Claim” (Sato Shiranami): Convince Avi to give the tamatebako to Sato by being completely honest in the answers (choose “Admit”, “Please, I need it!”, and “Tell the truth”).

“To the Sanctuary” (Yuza Minakuchi): Break the Curse of Raging Waves.

“Real Name” (Sato Shiranami): Choose “Refuse” when the time comes to face Tomoshige in the Kantekisho Ruins.

“We Need a Plan” (Yuza Minakuchi): Choose Circe with Shikigami and Sodo with Feast of Shadows to stop Ikoma’s evil plan of cursing most people on the island.

“Conclusion” (Yuza Minakuchi): Choose the option “…” when everyone asks if there is nothing they can do to avoid Sato’s death.

What happened in the story? In this ending, everyone on the island is safe, the Curse of Raging Waves has been broken, and Tomoshige was stopped and taken into custody to die alone when his time comes. This means that Sato can spend her last moments with Yuza and her friends. However, Sato will die the day after, since her 800 years of existence are coming to an end, and she won’t be able to spend the rest of her life with Yuza.

Ending #6

True Ending

As you have probably figured out up to this point, the True Ending requires a happy ending for pretty much everyone – except for Tomoshige, the main villain of the game, since screw him –, especially Sato!

So, for this one, you must have at least unlocked Ending #1 and Ending #5 to gather enough information and also trigger some specific details. And this ending also has a meta-touch, since it requires you to load a mysterious save file and even talk to the mermaid that is sitting on the main menu. Here are all the steps:

“Possessions” (Arnav Barnum): Refuse the hand mirror while talking with Kikuko and throw away Ikoma’s business card to steal the Curse of Tomoshige from her. It doesn’t matter if she lives or dies, actually.

“Point of Contact” (Sato Shiranami): Find the Kameshi-maru Keychain on the ground, right behind Sato, to make Tsusaka the point of contact (instead of Sato).

“Claim” (Sato Shiranami): Convince Avi to give the tamatebako to Sato by being completely honest in the answers (choose “Admit”, “Please, I need it!”, and “Tell the truth”).

“To the Sanctuary” (Yuza Minakuchi): Break the Curse of Raging Waves.

Unlock the Ending #5 (jump to its section to check its requirements, which involve specific choices on the “Real Name”, “We Need a Plan”, and “Conclusion” chapters).

Unlock the Mermaid’s Memory: Go to the Load screen on the main menu and load the last save file, which is a mysterious and blurry file that wasn’t there before.

Replay “Claim” (Sato Shiranami): Select “Start from Minakuchi Residence” and interact with the Altar Shelf to find the mermaid’s scale. Then, select the “Put it in the tamatebako” option and check the chat log for a secret message.

Select “Return to Title” in the menu (while the scale is inside the tamatebako) to go back to the Title Screen

Click on the mermaid 3 times (wait 3 seconds between each click) and answer “Yuza”

Replay “Conclusion” (Yuza Minakuchi): Select “Start from Bay” and choose the option “Actually…” when everyone asks if there is nothing they can do to avoid Sato’s death.

“An Eternal Conclusion” (Yuza Minakuchi): Hear what the Storyteller has to say and enjoy the best ending for Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse.

What happened in the story? This is the true ending, where everyone on the island is safe, the Curse of Raging Waves has been broken, and Tomoshige was stopped and taken into custody to die alone when his time comes. Yuza and Sato managed to find a way to get a mermaid’s flesh to give her another 800 years for them to live together, happily ever after! And you also have a glimpse on what happened to Azami and Tsusaka.