Game:

Psycho Dream (1992)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 51:07

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“Nightmares are outside the realm of logic and there is little fun to be had in explanations”. Stephen King

With my Golden Axe Warrior playthrough done, I usually do a full playthrough of a random game. On that note, Halloween is around the corner, so Ive chosen a game that certainly has the creepy, strange factor. An underrated horror/supernatural SNES game that was only released in Japan.

Psycho Dream (サイコドリーム) is a 1992 horror/supernatural themed action platformer game developed and published by Riot/Telenet Japan for the SNES. The game was released only in Japan. An intended North American release was also planned (with full English translation and some revamping for the American market). However, this was later cancelled. Though the game features two different characters to select, it is single player only. The game has six stages in total, which are called “Tracks”, with tracks divided into chapters. Chapter totals vary from track to track, with earlier tracks/stages having around two chapters and later tracks having around four or five.

As previously mentioned, there are two characters to select from: Ryo Shizima is a red cloak wearing, armour clad, sword wielding demon hunter with great power, while Maria Tobari is a leather clad, dominatrix, whip wielding female warrior with great agility. A featured game mechanic centres around collecting coloured gems to increase power and gain new abilities. That is, after defeating certain monsters, coloured jewels will be dropped. Each coloured gem granting a specific ability. Yellow gems have a power up effect for melee attacks: For Ryo, a yellow power up sees him growing blades from his armour, while Maria will grow claws and have a claw attack. Red Jewels help the character evolve to their strongest forms: Ryo will start shooting out lasers at every direction and Maria will grow wings and have a homing missile attack. Other coloured gems include Purple gems which give a powerful screen clearing attack. Blue gems grant ranged firing attack abilities and Green Gems provide a temporary shield for protection.

Perhaps the strangest element of this game is the convoluted plot. Set in an alternative 1990’s Earth reality, a popular form of media entertainment is something called “D Films”. D Films is a cyberpunk like, computer system that requires one to neural jack into (think V.R, but with a neural connector interface added in) Unfortunately, people have become too immersed in D Films, that they have lost their senses and lost touch with reality. Called “Sinkers”, these D Film users though active in the cyber/dream world, fall into a deep coma in the real world. One such “sinker” is 12-year-old Japanese school girl, Sayaka Kaori, the daughter of a high ranking government official. To deal to this Sinker epidemic, and save Sayaka, the Japanese government create the National Public Safety Committee, who in turn create the Diamond Dogs Taskforce: a pair of demon hunters/dream soldiers (Ryo and Maria) tasked with saving Sayaka. Using a special device, the pair enter Sayaka’s dream world in an attempt to rescue her… Yeah, not convoluted at all.

Gameplay wise, the stages are short and have a strange and creepy tone. Track two takes place in a subway filled with fog, eyeball monsters and other nightmare inspired beasts. While Track 4, Chapter 1 has a cityscape background with creepy cherry blossom trees, further adding to the dreamlike feel of the game. Enemies are also strange, usually snake or sea creature like, while bosses are huge insect like demons (I wonder if Sayaka had a fear of insects in the real world, and the D Film fed into that phobia, which could explain the insect bosses). The game soundtrack is very 90’s pop synth heavy and is by renown gaming music composer Michiko Naruke (she would later go on to do the Wild Arms games music). The music has a somewhat classical and carnival feel to it, that just adds to the games dark atmosphere. Also, see if you can recognise what the final boss stage music (a very familiar piece of classical music) and the end credits song is just…unsettling.

Here, I do a full playthrough of the game with demon hunter Ryo Shizama. Overall, a decent underrated action platformer with plenty of supernatural and creepy atmosphere, an interesting, though bizarre story, quirky music and unique characters.

Definitely worth a try, especially for fans of underrated and obscure video games.

(All rights reserved to game developers and publishers Riot, 1992)

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