Game:

Psycho Dream (1992)

Duration: 18:01

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Psycho Dream is a strange one-off title developed in 1992 by Riot, a subsidiary of Telenet Japan, and was at one point going to be released in the U.S. under the title of "Dream Probe", but was cancelled late in development. I will shed some light on this title as not much is known about the game although it has a fairly detailed plot for a Super Famicom game and a strange setting, though this isn't clear from playing the game as it illustrates almost none of the plot in-game but features seven pages of story in the manual (a general plot describing events several years before the start of the game and a two page epilogue for after you clear the game). The story was written by Kenichi Nishi, who later founded the short-lived company, Love-de-Lic, which is most known for "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure" and innovative game concepts.

In Psycho Dream, which takes place in Japan in Winter of 1992 (the same year as the game's release, aka present day), you are in the subconcious mind of Sayaka Yuki, a seventeen year-old girl with suicidal tendencies who has fallen into a coma due to a dangerous apparatus known as "D-Movie", which is a cassette tape which transports the listener to a virtual space where things that happen there affect the user in reality, though the human host is unaware until they are either freed from the trance or die in one weeks time (from a variety of issues, whether it be death from entities in the virtual space or bodily neglect in the real world). While the D-Movie experience varies from user to user, Sayaka is unfortunately more negative than some and her virtual space is based on her sadness from her unhealthy relationship with her mother and a tale she recounts called the "Ruined City Story", which when combined with her natural negativity and dreamscape monsters and parasites means big trouble for all involved.

To save Sayaka and learn more about the effects of D-Movie, two agents of the National Public Safety Commission (codenamed "Diamond Dogs"), Ryo Shizima and Maria Tobari, infiltrate Sayaka's mind and are tasked with probing the source of her turmoil and removing Sayaka from harm's way. While talented in their own rights, these agents' abilities are enhanced in the dreamscape by consuming various proteins that creatures have pilfered from Sayaka's body (I kid you not) and they'll need them to put up with the twisted abominations that have plagued her subconscious. Ryo is a swift swordsman (who looks a lot like Sadler in Exile MD by default) who becomes more machine than man when he consumes large quantities of protein and Maria is a femme fatale who likes to dominate her adversaries with whips, claws, and guns. When maxed out, Maria becomes a deadly butterfly with homing energy blasts. Max forms are powerful but vulnerable; getting hit three times makes you revert back to your weakest form. Proteins come in various colors and have other uses besides altering a characters' attacks. They can also give a character extra special power (think bombs), restore some health, and offer brief invulnerability. One thing to note is that yellow protein enhances a character's close-range abilities while blue protein is weaker but offers ranged attack abilities.

The presentation is generally good but a bit glitchy in some spots with lots of flickering and does suffer some noticeable slowdown in some spots. Ryo and Maria have smooth animations and are not super deformed, and the game has a few interesting enemies and large bosses. Stages are designed fairly well (with the exception of the last level, which is a bit cheap due to the game's screen scrolling and cheap boss) but feature a time limit that is wholly impractical as it doesn't change between difficulty settings and resets between areas. The music is very samey and in a word, weird. Composed by Michiko Naruke of Wild Arms fame (and the third known game she composed for behind Valis III and Tenshi no Uta), the music is a bit repetitive in some spots and slightly annoying in others, though the approach taken was at least admirable as it projects a dreamy vibe (and the final boss theme is a modified version of Schubert's "Ave Maria", which is neat). The game is fairly short, weighing in at only six levels and there isn't much incentive in replaying the game. The game's different difficulty settings do affect the game, but only hard difficulty will provide any real challenge (though you have seemingly unlimited continues) as damage taken increases and there is no green (invincibility) protein, but clearing it in a single life is fun.

Overall, the game is decent, but is pretty forgettable when put side-by-side with some of the better Riot/Telenet games (and seems a bit rushed) but fairly impressive for only 8Mbs (Megabits, not to be confused with Megabytes). This is a video showing roughly half my playthrough on Hard difficulty. The intermission screens have T.V. glitches from being captured on original hardware. Enjoy.