On October 22, 1998, a company known as Asmik Ace Entertainment released a game for the Playstation called LSD: Dream Emulator in Japan. It's a horror/exploration game which is based off a dream journal made by an employee at Asmik Ace Entertainment who's name is Hiroko Nishikawa. The game never made it outside of Japan. Was there a good reason for that? Or is the game worth playing? I'll let you know by making this review.

Graphics: 5/10 This game has some of the strangest visuals I've ever seen in a video game. There are many strange objects such as a giant hand statue, a giant foot statue, and creatures like a two-sided face with arms and legs, and an inflatable elephant. There are also some strange environments you'll see such as flashing lakes. There's plenty of other strange things you'll find throughout the game. My biggest issue with the graphics have to be the strange colors that the floors and walls of certain areas. These areas sometimes have a bunch of bright colors around each other, creating a distorting and unpleasant environment to look at. Overall, the graphics in LSD: Dream Emulator are certainly not the best the Playstation has to offer, which isn't good for an exploration game like this one. For these reasons, I give the graphics a 5.

Sound: 7/10 The music in this game is very fitting for a horror game like LSD: Dream Emulator. It definitely fits perfectly for a game where you're exploring creepy dreams. One issue I have with this category is the footsteps that you make when you move around. They're very loud and it blocks out the music that's playing in the background, and you're going to be moving around a lot in this game. I was going to give the sound an 8 but because of the annoying footsteps, I'm giving the sound a 7.

Addictiveness: 4/10 The gameplay in LSD: Dream Emulator involves you walking around and exploring various areas in a dream world. Touching anything will cause you to be teleported to a different area, thus giving you a new area to explore. Unfortunately, you never know where you'll end up, so you may possibly end up in a similar area you were in at a earlier time. In a game where the main premise is exploring different areas and touching stuff, not having any control where you'll end up can get frustrating. There are some areas that don't have much of anything to look at, such as a desert themed area that's just full of seemingly never-ending sand, so finding interesting areas is luck based. This would really hurt the replayability of any exploration based game. In addition, when a day ends, you're moved from the area you're currently in, which isn't fun if you've just arrived at a new area and you want to explore it, but you've run out of time. Overall, the fact that you never know where you'll end up and the fact that some areas have little to see hurts the game's addictiveness, which I'm giving a 4.

Story: N/A This game doesn't have a story, so I'm leaving this category blank.

Depth: 7/10 LSD: Dream Emulator has many different areas to explore, though the order in which you'll see these areas is completely random. Each day in the Dream World lasts about 10 minutes, unless you fall of a cliff, then the day ends right there. The game lasts 365 days, so this game has a massive amount of play time. Unfortunately, though there are plenty of areas to explore, there aren't enough different areas to make going through 365 days worth doing. However, the game has enough area variety for me to give the depth a 7.

Difficulty: 1/10 In LSD: Dream Emulator, you explore areas and you touch objects or walls to teleport to a random place. There's nothing else to this game. You don't get hurt, and you don't get game overs. In a game where you can't even get hurt, you can't expect it to be tough. Since there's no way to lose, the difficulty score needs a 1.

Overall Score: 6/10 LSD: Dream Emulator has to be the strangest video game I've ever played. The premise is very unique, but there are definitely better horror games out there. The visuals are definitely not up to the standards of other PS1 games, the walking sound is extremely annoying, and the fact that ending up in a new area you haven't explored yet is left to chance cause LSD: Dream Emulator to not be as good as a game as it could've been. Overall, I give LSD: Dream Emulator a 6 out of 10. I'd only recommend it to those of you who absolutely love seeing disturbing and creepy environments to the point where you don't care how good the game is.

gamerforlifeforever2 : I've always been meaning to try this game but never got around to it. Partially because the drug reference seemed dumb. You may have saved me the trouble. I don't think I ever get that bored. 

I want to play this game so badly, but the name (and probably inspiration) keeps me from it. Also I heard you can actually see someone jumping off of a bridge (suicide) which kind of disturbs me. I hate stuff like that and always wish I could unsee it. Good review by the way.



Ferdinand : Actually the person behind this game claims LSD isn't a drug reference I'm told. They say LSD stands for "Lovely Sweet Dream" and the game was made based on a dream log she(?) kept over the years, though I hate to think anyone dreams about things this disturbing when not under the influence of drugs. lol The bridge jumper, the gray man, the...foot statues? I mean gosh, I'd be afraid to sleep. xD But more than likely it was inspired by LSD induced hallucinations.

Eirinn : Yeah, I believe that. Just like I always believed that 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was based on Julian Lennon's nursery school drawing. It took Paul McCartney 40 years to even acknowledge what everyone always knew. They were just scared of being banned back then if it came out. 'The girl with kaleidoscope eyes' please. She had colitis more like. lol

Ferdinand : You know I actually started to reference that same song. xD

But if nothing else this game is at least cool for being one of the first games to be solely about exploration. I absolutely love that concept and I'm thrilled to see the idea finally being picked up on by others. So if this was indeed the first or even ONE OF the first to do this, we could owe games like Journey, Wander, and WiLD to it, and maybe even Everybody's Gone To The Rapture and games like it could be credited to this one. For that much I am grateful. It was a pioneer in some good ways.

gamerforlifeforever2 : Nice job on this review I remember I actually watched a semi-unknown youtuber play through a lot of days inside the game (someordinarygamers) and yeah though it is very interesting when things do occur with how it randomly drops you off in different areas and the timer for each dream xD it makes the addictiveness and setting kind of annoying and uninteresting to play through for so long. The only real interesting thing I find with this games depth is how whenever your day ends an...Alien invader like face comes up on screen and rates how your dream was (upper, downer, static, and dynamic) meaning you could have events where a polygonal woman would have her head cut off and that'd count more as a downer and static dream since it was sad but not much happened in the dream.

The game actually has no relevance to the drug LSD when it was being made, as it is actually listed as a Lucid dreaming simulation based off the diary like you said and can be horrific or just plain wacky at times. Although even if it's not based on that it can give an idea of what being on the drug may possibly feel like....mind/memory wise. Great job on the review again though <3


Eirinn : And yesss scary things can happen in this game xD as I said with the woman having her head cut off, to seeing a person hanging from a tree and more x"D it can be shocking and spooky. While other times you're like o.O?!?! what the heck kind of room am I in (the walls a plastered with a young girls face).

Eirinn : Holy cow! Is the glass always half-full with you? I'm just kidding. You're right of course.

Nice review! I've heard of this game before and I was wondering what it was about. I'm glad that I now have a better understanding about this weird looking game. It was a good read.

Ferdinand : lol you're welcome! Like I said, there are way better PS1 titles out there to spend time playing than this one.

Eirinn : Yeah, it's definitely a good idea to stay away from this one because there's a lot of creepy things you'll find in this game, so it can be very unpleasant to look at.

sonicthehedgehog57 : Thanks man! I'm glad you liked my review. Like I said, this game is not addicting because of the luck based teleporting and the timer for each dream. Those are terrible for a game that's sole purpose is exploring dreams.

With a title such as LSD, I guess having it as a dream simulator is appropriate .

Anyway, you wrote a good review, with excellent structure, lots of details and some comparison with other PSX games. However (in my view) you could have made a few more comparisons (for music, e.g.). But it is still worth a 4