you hear the one about avid players of tetris? their minds basically get rewritten because of exposure to the damn thing. thing is, this is true of any earthly activity that brings together body, mind, and soul. its psychosomatic, kinaesthetic. any activity that informs consciousness will bleed into the subconscious. my dreams aren't really like the ones LSD presents, but my fear is that they will be.

a product of its time in all the ways that matter and bolstered as a result. psx architecture struggling under the weight of hell and failing to load in the density of its worlds in time leaves the mind incapable of guarding itself for whats going to happen next - legitimately unsettling, unpredictable, uncanny, uncaring. youre sieved through textures and atmospheres at a rapid clip. no barriers exist here, everything is simply a permeable membrane. every scene, vignette, happenstance, and interaction a stitched-together quilt one night and a tesseract the next. like any work of its kind it requires a certain level of maturity and commitment - particularly these days when the only thing you can reliably bet on about an audience is their urge to demystify - but you ought to take the leap. this is really affecting work here that i cant possibly be cynical about and a great alternative to melatonin

As long as dreams keep providing a subconscious creative outlet of jumbled feelings and emotions wrapped in absurdism, the motivation to interpret them in any attempt to shed light into the human condition right before they dissipate from our lucid grasp will always be a fascinating fruitless endeavor. Dr. Melfi once said said that you can't really determine the meaning of someone's dream, as "the meaning is illicit, it's re-verbalization", to which Tony understandably replied "yeah, and the gehoxtahogen is framed up by the ramistan".

It's a bit surprising that there really aren't that many videogames out there like LSD fully commited in recreating the actual feeling of being inside a dream. The barrage of familiar but alien imagery and mundane uncontextualized scenes that assaults the first half hour of LSD successfully transmit the hyper awareness of color and space that accompanies a lucid dream, and the allure of constant discovery through the mere act of touching anything sells the flimsy stability of dreams and their propensity to evade settling clarity. It sadly doesn't last long, as you quickly expend the limited set of wacky scenarios LSD has in store for you and the initial wonder of an ever changing landscape is ultimately replaced by a familiar comprehensible demystified 3D space.

Continue to push onward though, and LSD becomes a much more fascinating interactive painting of low poly deterioration. As the textures suddenly shift into an aesthetical mess of offputting and unmatching color and images, LSD becomes an interactive museum of early 3D counter intuitive beauty that doesnt stray too far from contemporary art like Cruelty Squad, ENA videos, or vaporwave aesthetic, and the landscapes that were previously exhausted turn into uncanny tone pieces that further illustrate the accidental artistry of old videogame technology.

LSD is not meant to be deciphered and you shouldn't play it as something to be "beaten". Created during an age where colaboration between the videogame industry and outside artists was simultaneously a novelty and a way to legitimize the artform, it constitutes a cultural artifact that has gained significantly more relevance over its "datedness", and will continue to elude its tourists by keeping its secrets so closely sealed. Refuse interpretation and let yourself get lost in its simulation of a dreaming PS1.

One of my Resolutions for 2023 was to play LSD Dream Emulator per day, considering that the game takes place in a span of 365 days.

While I wasn't able to play through the game every day due to being busy, procrastinating, and more; I finally made up for it by reaching the end of the game and exploring the many dreams I was able to experience. This was one of the draining Resolutions of Last Year because I take advantage of logging my games with notes, and LSD is a great example of me going overboard noting the many changes on this chart that change each day you play into the game. Either being highlighted at a new or old spot and describing either an FMV or text-based dialogue. Some of the days would last either within 4-5 minutes, and would often last to the maximum of 10 minutes -- the longest time you can spend via a dream per day.

To describe my experience, it was a strange journey as I kept playing. What's unique about LSD is that it's different for every player due to how we explore many areas but with the slightest tweaks, and the chart being an indicator of the many dreams we'll explore in terms of its balancing. As I kept playing, I found my playthrough of LSD to slowly turn horrific due to how I was curious about the darker aspects of these dreams and why are we experiencing them -- only to be swayed off by disbelief of how it's about a person's Dream Journal adapted into a video game leading so many questions.

Despite not being able to finish it last year, I at least made up for it by finishing LSD Dream Emulator and seeing the end of it (which felt redeeming).

Photo compilation of my journey through LSD Dream Emulator, along with the chart that progressed until Day 365.

I honestly don't remember which taught me about video games as an art form first, LSD: Dream Emulator or Shadow of The Colossus... But anyway, I'll always appreciate this game for that, even if I didn't quite understand it at first (I remember a childhood friend in primary school talking about this game and I thought it was dumb hippie stuff, lol).

Coincidentally, I've just played a few dream logic games before this, and they didn't quite grab me. I think what LSD excels at is creating those dynamic unique moments, be it scary, bizarre, or beautiful. I guess those previous game felt a lot more linear... like there's a trail to follow, but at least to me, that's not really how it works in dreams. I mean, just a few days ago I had a dream where I was in Asgard(?), a golden city full of people, then the dream turned into a horror scene where I was being chased by a dark figure in a tunnel, which that figure turned out to be Orlando Bloom in a monster(?) suit. After, I remember an image of a car getting out of control, and I woke up hysterically laughing from that image. Pure nonsense, just like this game. Perfect.

It's manic and babbling, full of sudden scares, serene vistas, silly little guys, and ominous poetry. It's dream-logic at its finest with an elaborate and cleverly implemented system of hidden values and un-communicated mechanics keeping players from deciphering any patterns unless they dive in full force.

The game does have a rhythm based on what you encounter and what colors flash on screen, if it's on odd or even numbered day...only look into it if you're hunting for something specific or have already gone in quite a bit blind. But this game definitely capitalizes on the unique limitations of the PSX to make an experience that's timeless. There's a reason people fixate on it to such an extent.

When I was 15 or so and I first discovered this game by way of AzuriteReaction throwing his controller at a CRT over a low-poly dragon slowly floating towards the screen, I think it would be a while before I actually appreciated this game for what it was, an ambitious, way-ahead-of-its-time, baffling and insanely creative piece of interactive art.

LSD: Dream Emulator, to this day, is one of the most confounding and strange experiences someone can have playing a video game. It's purposefully confusing and obtuse, its a bit of a clunky mess controls wise, and the dated, low-poly, jaggy graphics might put some off, but honestly, to me, they only add to how surreal the experience of playing this thing is.

Think about it though, this is a true to form walking simulator decades before that would even become an accepted term, and a really good one too, honestly. The atmosphere ranges from chipper to darkly surreal on a whim, there are tons of random events and oddities to stumble into, the game gets more and more gleefully warped as you progress, and despite the limitations, this game is graphically speaking, perfectly ugly-beautiful.

Did I mention the soundtrack? Not even joking when I say the LSD and Remixes CD that originally came with the game might be one of the best IDM albums of all time. Banger after banger.

If you ever get the chance to play it on an actual PS1 or decide to set up an emulator for it, I think it's a game that everyone into more experimental games should experience at least once, it's perhaps the first example of its kind and it deserves its reputation as one of the most gloriously twisted games ever made.

well the universe is shaped exactly like the earth

you walk a little farther, you will end up where you were

-- 'third planet' - isaac brock, frontman of modest mouse,
---

there was a point where i was halfway between christmas and now when i asked myself why i kept playing on and on? why did it take me this long to stop? i wasn't expecting there to be a limited amount of areas to explore, isn't that the "point" of exploration games? the fact that i said that very word - point - is so fucking embarrassing, even with my limited knowledge of video games. the obvious out of the way, this game does not have a point; i get to explore one of the most beautiful worlds i've ever seen designed and just let my gut and heart be my guide, bumping into anything like a kid running away from his mom outside because there was something shiny in the distance. that is always bait for me, letting most of the barriers that hold back bursts of creativity and spontaneity loose. hell, this entire game perfectly emulates that sense of wonder that the kid who chased the light felt, running away from the grip of mommy's hand to feel the beauty of defiance and freedom that slips away far too soon

but the light will go out, and then what will i be chasing after?

the next day after the halfway point, there was a moment where i came across a pit that i jumped in and, sure enough, died and came back as if it was nothing. i kept doing this over and over again every time i ended up there, until one day, i bumped into a wall, and landed me in a floating island, and most jarring of all, there was none of the bounce of the chillout rush in the form of the music playing, and i just stood there, looking at the screen, realizing i was in my room again; night was settling in and all felt still

the next days were shadowed by that feeling; for all i could know, i was basically doing what i do on my walks outdoors or times when i am doing absolutely nothing as a rush of nameless people, weird colors on different walls and areas of nature, and the soundtrack bubbling around my world. the lines between the game and my life forced me to confront how longer would all of this go on? existential dread only amplified here not just from what i mentioned before, but the very fabric of its concept as a game with no goal, no battles, nothing of what i am used to when it comes to how i perceive this medium making me ask why i continue the journey

it's like that with a lot of childhood games, ain't it? animal crossing, pokemon; you can put so many hours into them and at a certain point, you get bored and buy the next thing from gamestop or steam. but those funny people on the screen...their lives extend deeper then how much one would usually engage with them like texting someone who won't message back and hasn't for many months or even years. mechanics meant to keep you entertained and coming back to the game as much as you can until turn it off, look at your computer screen and say "hey...were those wrinkles on my face there before?"

and for all the better, for all the ways our constructions and interpretations of time vary and show up in our logs, i feel extremely blessed for a game this silly and nonsensical to remind me why i play the game until the flatline closed the curtains, game over not a sign of defeat, but of peace

I went into this like "ok time to do all 365 days!", but after 6 or so hours and ~75 days (plus another 20 I had to play through again because the game hung? So ~95) I feel like to keep going over and over would just ruin the experience. I was starting to tire of it! And what a shame that would be.

It's not a "game" like that; you don't really "complete it", maybe eventually you get to a full year, but I don't think that's the point. It's like a nice bonus if you come back for a whole year of emulated dreams. The ending on day 365 goes through the traditional symbols of a Hatsuyume. That is to say, it's a dream journal. Your dream journal.

It was really fun after the fact to go and see how the procedural generation worked, but in the process of playing through it I found it really easy to just want to sit and look at the scenery. I ended up taking a lot of photos. A single batch of those is here.

I think it's a cool vibey piece of digital art. It's something you can come back to and revisit. It's something I could pull up for an hour or two with friends if I was entertaining and let the ambiance play with people. If you let the menu sit for 10 seconds a video starts anyway — it wants to keep the scenery going, to set and maintain its tone.

Finally I want to point out just how unobtuse it is. The game doesn't want you to get stuck. It doesn't want to be a puzzle. It puts the atmosphere and mystique first and foremost and designed the entire game around the surreal traversal of the dream world. So you can't "lose", you can't have an obstacle in your way; it's all just ways of moving to another image, another set of symbols. Within its constraints over time the maps felt repetitive but the textures didn't. I felt like I would occasionally be given an exceptionally rare symbol in a sea of patterns.

I feel like in a sense it got a lot of mystique in the late 2000s/early 2010s when I was young, and it felt overrated for a moment? But I don't think it's scary or creepy. I think it's cool. Neat. Etc. It runs at like 12 fps at best too but don't think too hard about that.

ENG: Compilation of dreams and fantasies. Nothing more and nothing less. Pure ramblings. There will be those who do not like it, I consider it a most extravagant experience. It must also be said that it wouldn't be the same experience if it weren't for the low poly aesthetics so typical of the PSX.

ESP: Recopilatorio de sueños y fantasías. Nada más y nada menos. Puras divagaciones. Habrá a quien le sepa a poco, yo lo considero un ejercicio de lo más extravagante. También hay que decir que no sería la misma experiencia sino fuera por la estética de bajos polígonos tan propia de la PSX.

After 50 in-game 'days', I feel like I've run up against my limit with this fascinating thing. There's so much more to it than I was expecting, but ultimately not enough to sustain my interest for the ending that occurs after 365 days.

LSD is great! Abstract, unique, atmospheric, and makes tremendous use of multimedia; Osamu Sato brings his full artistic skillset, utilising filmmaking and compositional skills to craft fascinating short films which are intercut between the regular 'days'. The short film which played on day 2, disquieting and Twin Peaks-esque, was an early indicator that there was more to this game than met the eye.

There's not much to the actual 'game' part, which is a testament to how compelling and surprising LSD's mood and structure are. What feel at first like total nonsense begins to suggest a logic behind where you end up and what you see. The digital artistry is technically dated, but there's a surreal quality to them that feel very specific to the period. LSD is a wonderful thing to pick away at...

...until it isn't! Some people here seem to have managed to stay interested for the entire 365 days, but I feel like I'm not being surprised as often as I'd like. Best to stop here and reflect positively on the time I had rather than wring it dry and become jaded. I definitely recommend giving LSD a try if you're willing to go for something a bit more abstract and less goal oriented than your typical game.

very conflicted on this one.

it's incredibly cool that something like this exists, and that it existed back in '98, and it's often very effective at being unsettling and weird, but i don't think i really got the experience i wanted out of it. all the recurring locations and not as many crazy wtf moments as i hoped for kinda left me disappointed, and maybe i just need to play it more to get to the weirder stuff but after 35 days it got really repetitive. might just be me doing something wrong, since i have no idea how the linking system works. the fmv sequences were pretty sick though.

i don't really enjoy the actual experience of playing this, either. moving around is kinda weirdly unfluid and slow. the sound design is also very weird. this is some truly penis music and it's kinda neat that they went with this approach as opposed to just making some boring dark ambient, but the footstep sound effects and many others just take me out of it. just feel like this could've been presented in a better way overall. as far as games like this go, i much prefer yume nikki, or even something like 2:22 AM.

Trippy novelty game that is more like an art experience than an actual game.
It somehow manages to evoke emotion out of you sometimes. For example, the dark street section always felt eerie to me and I was expecting to get jumpscared or run into something horrific everytime I found myself there. Another time I got freaked out was when I entered some kind of room with a strange device in the middle that was INCREDIBLY SIMILAR TO SOMETHING I ACTUALLY HAD A DREAM ABOUT.
I think it's a bit silly that the game expects you to play it everyday but eh, it's whatevz.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone just for the novelty of it, it's a neat experience.