Psycho Dream


Psycho Dream is a 1992 video game for the Super Famicom. An attempt to release it in North America as Dream Probe failed; so it remained exclusively in the Japanese market.
Unlike the developer's popular Valis series of video games, Psycho Dream's experience is focused primarily on the gameplay, and less on story.

Plot

In the early 1980s, rumors begin to circulate about a new entertainment medium called "D Movie," which allows people to immerse themselves in a world of virtual reality. As D Movies gain traction, a trend emerges of disaffected young people taking permanent refuge in the virtual world while abandoning their physical bodies to atrophy. To retrieve these so-called "Sinkers," Japan's National Public Safety Commission establishes Public Security Division Four, nicknamed "Diamond Dog", in 1984. The agents who enter the virtual world and perform these rescues are known as Debuggers.
In 1992, a seventeen-year-old girl named Yūki Sayaka sinks into "Story of the Ruined Capital", a D Movie directed by David Visconti. Three days pass before she is discovered, and combined with her weak constitution, she is expected to die within twenty-four hours. Two Debuggers, Shijima Ryō and Tobira Maria, are dispatched to rescue her before that happens.

Gameplay

The player takes control of either Ryō or Maria. Ryō is a swordsman while Maria is an angelic warrior who uses a whip that can be upgraded into metal claws or a laser gun. Demons can even be summoned to destroy most of the monsters on the screen. Many of the stages are set against the backdrop of 20th century Japan.
Having a limited amount of time to defeat enemies, the focus is on advancing through the stages as quickly as possible.

Reception

Super Play gave the game a 33% score.
Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a score of 52/100.
Famitsu gave it an 18/40.
Italian magazine Game Power gave it 75%.