Hey guys...
I'm back...
And we're doing another one of these.
If you haven't noticed yet, you may see I have two PS1's.
...The other PS1 that I have is NTSC-J region-locked.
But what else do I need a Japanese PS1 for?
I mean, I could play Japan-exclusive PS1 games and something special.
And that special something... IS THIS.
"LSD: Dream Emulator" is one of these rare...
...diamonds that will make you say...
"WHAT THE F*CK?"
It was released on October 22nd, 1998 exclusively in Japan.
The guy who created the game, Osamu Sato, took all this inspiration
From a dream journal an Asmik Ace employee, Hiroko Nishikawa
Had kept updating for the longest possible time.
For a game that's based solely on a dream journal, I actually think it's a very smart game concept.
Osamu Sato has stated that despite his work closely resembling some sort of video game,
His intent is not actually that.
Osamu Sato is not just known for "LSD: Dream Emulator". He is also known
For the game "Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou".
Released in (mid-to-)late 1994 in Japan, then in August the following year (1995 in North America).
As for LSD, due to the game's eccentric nature, the game, no surprise...
...flopped!
Once again, Osamu Sato is not just known for "LSD: Dream Emulator",
Although this is what he's most known for.
"Eastern Mind" is a great game as well, but I don't have a physical copy of the game.
However, I do have a physical copy of "LSD: Dream Emulator"
Which, I sh*t you not, costs between 200 to 500 dollars on eBay.
Now, I got this one for about NOK 2,500, which is about $263 dollars.
That's...
That's... that's a sh...
D'yah, YAH!
Da... that's a sh*t-ton of money
I think it's actually smart though, since copies of the game are in fact super rare!
The game also comes with an "OBI" spine card, which didn't come with mine, unfortunately.
The game comes with a beautiful bright-yellow CD-ROM with minimalistic disc art and the classic black PS1 underside.
And since only the deluxe limited edition of the game was released, most copies also comes with a bonus CD,
...which contains a whole hour of acid techno music composed by Osamu Sato.
What's interesting with the booklet is that it's not a booklet at all.
It's actually a bunch of 12-by-12 centimeter cards that has different cover art and instructions on the other.
With that, you can put the cover artwork that you like on the most on the front.
I don't understand why this wasn't utilized a lot in this world.
A standard CD booklet is about 8 or 12 pages long.
Alright, see. This is Duran Duran's "Seven and the Ragged Tiger".
This one is 8 pages.
But what's inside of this? It's just a bunch of playing cards.
Uh. Whose turn is it?
YOURS!
Oh, ok.
 
Anyways, I'm gonna shut up now.
Let's play the f*cking game.
Yeah, one thing you may have noticed is that the video capture footage...
...is rather low-res and the brightness is a bit off.
I increased the hue/saturation and brightness/contrast to make it less straining to look at, but whatever.
The intro is... uh...
This one is not very interesting so I'll just skip over it.
And then we get to the menu and...
(Honestly, I don't give a sh*t. I just wanna play.)
The game looks kinda normal at first.
I'm just doing a 180 with my head for SOME REASON.
Also, if you look down in front of this particular room on the first day, this...
...giant... thing will appear.
I've only played this game for, like, 20 seconds, and I'm already expecting worse.
This... (oh my god, what am I going to call it?)
...big human... I DON'T KNOW!
takes us to Violence District and... (sees stiffs)
(exaggerated reaction)
Yes, these areas in the game have names in case if you're about to make up a name for them.
We have Bright Moon Cottage. The area we were just in previously.
The Natural World, a big outdoorsy area with lots of beautiful flora and fauna.
An ancient-type Kyoto...
An overly trippy yet somehow nostalgic dream land HAPPY TOWN (it's written in all caps).
The Violence District, a dystopian city area with lots of crime
and Pit and Temple which is an...
...OK area.
Pit and Temple, I gotta be honest, kinda looks like an empty swimming pool.
But if this was real, what if some random guy so happened to fall into it.
(yet another exaggerated reaction)
Well, that was one jumpscare!
Oh my god, I'm getting the f*ck out of there.
Oh, we're back here again.
This cottage, so called, also has a rooftop you can explore.
Sometimes you may see an astronaut hovering away from the cottage... I think that's what's causing these horns to be played in the background.
Also, forgot to mention this: If you touch anything or even run into a wall...
You'll end up in a completely different location.
After playing through 5 minutes of this sh*t, I eventually get to this area.
...and it's Happy Town.
Really the last place I'd expect to be in the real world.
But something about this feels so nostalgic and it kinda reminds me of...
Super Mario 64, these funhouse levels from Pac-Man World, those education games from the mid-to-late 1990s
...and that Pizza Planet scene in Toy Story.
And also, my video capturing software seems to have some sort of buffering problem...
...which has happened more than once.
Everything here is so colorful and cartoonish.
I'm pretty sure if you don't know this game very well, you'll probably get lost around here
And I'm just walking, and I'm walking, and I'm walking until I reach this ferris wheel and this bench that kinda looks like Pac-Man.
And I stumble across these "Toy Soldiers".
(This reminds me of something)
Anyways, physically touching the ferris wheel frame actually sends you to this location.
Which is just a bridge in space. Far above the Earth's atmosphere.
I'm not really expecting anything to happen so far...
Oh.
Oh! No.
No x2
No x3
No x4
Ah, yup. Yup. That's the case.
UFOKENB*CH!
Oh and guess what, it leads me back here again!
Cool! Just... f*ck! Just f*cking lovely dude, just... that's... f*ck! Yeah, f*ck!
What am I expecting in this game?
At this point, I'm surprised this level hasn't ended yet. So I'll just jump into this empty pool or some sh*t.
This is interesting.
This is a chart that gives you information about the previous level.
In easier words, how great you were doing in the level and where you'll spawn next.
It also foreshadows which mood your dreams will have.
Alright, so let's just move on to the next day and...
Well, all I see is just a bunch of Japanese text.
Well, while this is going on, let's talk about the controls.
If you're playing this on emulator, you're probably more familiar with A, Z, X and S.
But for the main controls, it's something like this.
The D-pad controls the standard walking movent of the character that you play as.
To strafe... you'll either have to click the lower trigger buttons to do so.
The upper shoulder buttons tilts your head in a 180-degree angle for some bizarre reason.
Start pauses the game, obviously.
You control the game with all four buttons, of course.
But you won't be using the circle button very often.
It's only meant to be used on the menu screen.
The square and triangle buttons lets you look up and down, which is kinda nice of the programmers to do...
since I'd like to have full view of my surroundings.
And the cross button is used for sprinting.
Out of all these combinations on this controller, the only button that's omitted from any use is... yeah...
It's... it's the select button.
Nobody seems to use the select button anymore. In fact, some controllers that I have simply don't have it.
And for some reason, I just noticed it right now.
I'm staring at the screen, and it's already over!
I didn't edit that. This is one of these text dreams that has no dream on that day.
So the game decides to shoo me into the third dream and we're back here again.
And I encounter this miniature dragon of some sort.
(calm the f*ck down CJ)
So anyways, now it's time for me to properly criticise, praise and talk about every single part of the game.
And not talk about what happens in the game in my perspective.
The music in this game also plays a very big role in my interest in this game.
I sh*t you not, there are over 500 music patterns (actually 491 so that means less than 500).
Osamu Sato composed all the backround music using samples
This is standard.
Lovely.
Ethnova.
Human.
Electro.
Cartoon.
And then we have the relaxing ambient type.
I actually recognize some of the instruments used on the tracks.
There is a TR-909 drum on the D-variant of the Standard style of Happy Town's music.
There are two patterns in the game that kinda reminds me of Orbital's 1989 song "Chime".
As you continue to play the game, the texture starts to change.
There are actually four texture sets in the game.
We have "Normal" texture. Kanji, which is just a bunch of Japanese text everywhere.
Downer, which shows things in a much more distorted and creepier way.
And the "Sexual" texture.
The sky texture also feels somewhat aesthetically presentable in the areas themselves.
Oh yeah, and I was so wild about the game first time that I just ignored that the sky was an unnatural green color.
There are several colors to the sky texture. We have blood red, blue, dark blue, sea-green, bright green, black, white, light-blue, olive brown...
An early morning sky texture on a few occasions and
The sky is grey and the whole area is foggy.
The one thing that I've wanted to talk about is the Gray Man.
He's essentially some sort of gangster-looking guy
who sort of... steals your dreams.
It removes an option from the main menu, the "Flashback" feature.
The Gray Man is viewed by many as the main antagonist of the game.
I've heard something about looking up while approaching him which prevents him from flashing away from your eyes.
One thing I actually managed to trigger was for him to appear in Monument Park.
The thing is, the location has the lowest possibility of the Gray Man appearing.
So I managed to capture something precious on video.
Difference between native hardware and emulator is not that evident until you see this.
The water is flashing like crazy while the original hardware version has natural flowing water.
The only areas in the game to not have any dynamic objects are Long Hallway and Sun Faces Heave.
I can't really figure out what more I have to say about this game so...
Here's some footage that I think is very interesting.
Well, if there are some things I missed out on, let me know.
But anyways, that's my review for "LSD: Dream Emulator".
Interesting? Yeah, I would say so.
However, I think the graphics are a tiny bit inferior to other PlayStation games, but that's what I like about it.
I like it just for how it is.
It is one of my favorite video games of all time. Not my all-time favorite, but definitely a game worth checking out.
My rating is 9 out of 10 orange pyramids.
For now, I'll just enjoy a nice glass of ice tea and listen to some new-wave music.
(editing error)
("The Seventh Stranger" by Duran Duran playing)
bye.
