Let's Play PSX: D (Full Game)
0So, just for starters: This game is pretty short. It has multiple endings, so this only shows off the ending that I got. It's more or less an escape-room. You solve puzzles to get keys so that you can find more puzzles. There is some "plot" if you can call it that, but for god's sake, half of the spoken dialog is just the villain saying "Laura, Laura!" over and over. Apparently it was a mildly popular game in Japan, and began a short series of games based on the idea of "Digital Actors".
Essentially the idea was that they'd create multiple horror themed games (D, D2, Enemy Zero), and the main character would look the same and still be named "Laura", but they would be different people: just like how actors play different characters in different movies. While an interesting idea, it mostly confused fans who assumed there was some kind of plot connection between the different games when none existed. I think today, the closest example I can think of is how Clamp re-uses character designs in multiple anime. The characters look the same, but are different people (e.g. Cardcaptor Sakura, xxxHolic, Tsubasa Chronicles, to name a few). Most companies stay away from this because more often than not it's viewed as the artists lacking creativity and using previous series as a crutch for intellectual laziness. The "Digital Actors" idea as a result never really took off.
This game actually has a time limit of 2 hours (or else you get a Bad End). I'd heard that on a first play through a person might have trouble finishing in time, but actually it wasn't a problem at all. I wasn't going particularly fast, and still had another 20 minutes to spare. I guess I could imagine missing that time limit if you weren't aware of it, and dropped the controller to go make a sandwich in the middle of the game, only to be surprised when you came back to find a game over screen. But a person who is just playing through casually should have no trouble here. Maybe it's because I've beaten Myst (~almost without help~) that something like this game isn't really a challenge, but more like a slow paced movie.
I think for this reason, this game can't really be considered any good. The puzzles aren't challenging, the plot and acting are terrible... this game really just doesn't have much *positive* to say about it other than that it's a pretty unique entry on the PSX, and easy enough that finishing it in a single sitting should be possible for almost everyone. That's a point not to be ignored, since a good number of adventure games offer insanely obscure puzzles that necessitate a walkthrough to get past (cough cough, looking at you Discworld).