LSD: Dream Emulator

LSD: Dream Emulator, is an exploration video game developed by OutSide Directors Company and published by Asmik Ace Entertainment for the Playstation. The concept for the game was based on Asmik Ace's employee Hiroko Nishikawa's dream diary, which she kept for a decade. The dream diary was later released as a book called Lovely Sweet Dream.

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It was released in Japan on October 22, 1998, with a limited release. Released alongside it was the music CD LSD and Remixes. The game recieved a D rating from the CERO

The game was later rereleased on the Japanese Playstation Store on August 11, 2010, under the PS1 Classics section, for ¥617.

LSD: Dream Emulator has gained a cult following because of its surreal contents.

Gameplay

The game takes place in a first-person perspective in a 3D surreal environment. The player's "goal" is to explore said environments. The controls are tank controls; the player can move forwards or backwards, turn, strafe, run, look up and behind.

The game is played in short sequences or "dreams". The initial location of each dream is randomised. The player can access other environments by bumping into objects or going through tunnels, a mechanic named "linking". Bumping into certain special objects, like animal and people, will result in a "stranger" dream.

The environments are usually the same, like a Japanese village or a house, but they may be populated by random objects and the default textures swapped with other textures.

Each dream can be about 10 minutes long, then the player will "wake up". However, if the player falls off a pit or a hole, the dream will be cut short.

After a dream, another "day" passes in-game, and the dream is marked in a graph. The graph rates the dreams in relation to it being an Upper, Downer, Static or Dynamic dream. The more the player plays the game, the textures of the environments change more often. Also, there's the possibility of encountering Shadow/Grey Man, which will remove the ability of recalling the dream in Flashback.

After a certain number of days, the Flashback option wil appear. It allows the player to play an abbreviated version of the last dream they played.

Sometimes, a video plays instead of the playable dream.