LSD: Dream Emulator is a video game released in Japan in 1998 for the Sony PlayStation video game console and is one of three products (the others being a music CD and a book) based on a diary of dreams that a staff member at Asmik Ace Entertainment had been keeping for a decade. It has a small cult following and is recognized as being genuinely disturbing at times.
Gameplay:
In this game, the player simply navigates a dream world. There is no action or experience points, nor is there any clear goal. The idea is simply to walk around and enjoy things in a dream environment. There are many bizarre environments in this world, and one way to travel through them is by foot. However, if you bump into walls or other objects in the game, you will be instantaneously transported to another environment, the system of which is called "linking". Bumping into people, animals, or special objects usually gives a stranger dream.
Each dream can last up to 10 minutes, after which the player will 'wake up', when the screen turns black and the player is sent back to the game's initial menu. However, if the player falls off a cliff in the dream, then the player may wake up immediately. There is a graph that appears at the end of each dream that keeps track of the player's state of mind; the states are Upper, Downer, Static and Dynamic, as referring to the environments and the general feel of the dream the player just went through. Past states may have effects on later dreams.
While the player walks through an environment, the surroundings may suddenly change. For example, eyes may suddenly appear on the walls and stare at the player. Even if the player visits the same place twice, it may look quite different- sometimes the textures of walls will change to subtly different versions or new items will appear for the player to encounter. One may also encounter strange creatures while roaming around, including a celestial nymph flying through the air, a wild horse running through the prairie, or a huge man filling up an entire room.
The game is set in a first-person environment. The player may use the LEFT and RIGHT directional buttons to look and change direction, the UP and DOWN buttons to initiate or reverse movement and the shoulder buttons to strafe left or right. The player may also hold the X button while moving to run, the SQUARE button to look down and the TRIANGLE button to look up.
The number of "days" are kept track of. As the player progresses, the pattern on walls and the form of the player may transmute. Occasionally the player may come across a man in a gray coat and hat, commonly referred to as *the Grey Man*. He walks in one direction only. Getting too close to him will make the screen flash, the man disappear, and removing the ability to recall the dream in a Flashback.
After roughly 20 days of gameplay, a new option will appear in the main menu, called "Flashback". This mode lasts for only around 3-5 minutes versus the main game's 10. Flashback's purpose is to revisit locales and characters from past dreams. Due the the heavily random nature of the game, Flashback mode is often the only way to see an area with the same textures twice. Taking the same steps in Flashback as in the normal dream it is redoing will allow one to completely do over that dream.
Presently, the game is difficult to procure, and it sells for high prices at some Japanese auction sites.
Audio:
There are over 500 patterns of background music in the game. These are called patterns, not tunes, because they all share the same musical score, but are played in different tones.
Some of the music was made by Ken Ishii, a Japanese techno DJ and producer who also made a track for the game Rez.
The Limited edition Includes a CD-single "Lucy in the Sky with Dynamites".
Manufacturer's description:
Dream emulator with the motif of the dream. Wandering the field, encounters various characters. Or feel good and bad feelings or color is a game for people that feel.
Features:
- First person perspective.
- 3D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- Fantasy theme.
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