Madness and Genius: A Kenji Eno Retrospective - Act 1 - D
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
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The work of WARP and Kenji Eno are some of the most important video games in the history of video games for many reasons and Eno more so than any other video game developer in the 90s embodied the concept of the auteur more than Kenji Eno with his original 3DO game D, also known as D No Shokutaku in Japan as well as D's Diner Directors Cut! He trained in part Fumito Ueda who would go on to create Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian and in many ways would go on to shape the history of video games through his narrative structures and experimental gameplay techniques.
Sadly Kenji Eno passed away early but he left behind a legacy not only as a video game designer but also as an accomplished musician and composer...and also a bit of a hilarious troll
Up first: D's Diner on the the 3DO. The Directors Cut of D that also released on PS1 and Sega Saturn. One of the most influential video games in my opinion and a perfect example of early horror gaming.
Questions? Comments? Just leave them below and I will do my best to answer each and every one of them!
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Laura seems inspired by Laura Palmer. The Japanese were very affected by Twin Peaks.
There are some tangential relationships between Laura and her father in D and Laura and Leland Palmer for sure
who drink arnorl palmer?
lol
I recently watch/listened to interview with colleague of mr Eno in Archipel Channel, its very interesting and make me trully understand who he was in the eye of their colleague. One particular story I remember clearly was between him and Tetsuya Mizuguchi, when they went to north part of US West coast and the road back struck by storm for days before being picked up by Helicopter send by Sega. Mr Eno was the most chilled one because he was the only one brought cash enough for them to survive during that wait period
He seemed like a super interesting person
I never quite picked up on it before now, but D is a bit of a throwback to silent films from the German Expressionist movement. It's like if you took a film from that movement and somehow made it into an interactive experience and integrated a bunch of experimental narrative techniques from more recent art house films.
It's like they mashed up a silent film, an escape room, and a nightmare into a singular experience that completely gives in to dream logic from the very moment you enter that hostage situation at the hospital.
Those stairs really feel like a thing that would happen in a dream and I'm inclined to think that it's deliberate that the events and layout of the castle don't make sense.
I don't know if the entire game is a dream created out of childhood trauma, or if Laura dissociates and escapes into a fantasy world to try and protect herself after seeing all those dead hostages, but it is compelling.
I'm curious about the research you found on D2, as the original concept seemed to imply that Laura's experience was entirely real and literal. On the other hand, I could see the return of the historical setting as being a similar trauma response passed down through generations, kind of like how in the Locke and Key series you have multiple generations of children in the same family, who discover doors that don't lead to the same place every time and allow them to manifest their imagination through accessing other dimensions, where those things are real and anything is possible, before ultimately growing older and forgetting those experiences entirely as adults.
It does have early cinema silent movie vibes here and there. And I’ll have a whole vid on the M2 version storyline in this retrospective
Kenji Eno was a brilliant game designer and a madman. He understood how to create a haunting interesting atmosphere. I’m a big fan of his work I won’t spoil the ending to D’s twist ending in this comment section because I’ll spoil his other 2 twist endings on the other two games.
D ending: woah I didn’t see that coming that was an interesting ending!
Enemy Zero ending: didn’t he do that on the last game?
D2 ending: don’t do it Kenji Eno! Let’s go a different direction for this one! Oh my god he did it again…
Little nitpick his last name is pronounced “eehh”no in Japanese. Majority of Americans would pronounce his name “eee”no as a fellow American I support your freedom to pronounce it that way, but in Japan it is pronounced “eehh”no. e like in “eh”nter (enter) or “eh”did (Edd). Japanese “e” is different from our English language.
If anyone deserved a retrospective it’s Kenji Eno look forward to it!
Pronunciations will never be my strong suit
I remember playing through D on the 3DO with my wife on a walk through years ago, it was fun. As a kid my buddy had it on PS1 and it scared us all, not sure how far we actually got LOL
Haha it has its moments. Maybe not scary today but back in the day sure
I played through the PS1 version many times, love this game. The atmosphere and mood were top notch, i always got a creepy uncomfortable feeling no matter how many times i beat it.
Yes there is this undercurrent of creepiness at the edges of horror
I love stuff about Eno, great! Gonna watch now. D2 was nuts. I enjoyed it
D2 ends the retrospective in four weeks but I’ve got some D2 surprises in store between now and then
Ohhh Dis is incredible. Dese games are amazing!
The cheese flows through you
Awesome video! Love those kinds of recommendations
Glad you enjoyed. This was a “for me” retrospective. I just hope people watch haha
D definitely is in a league of it's own. Although I never played the other 2 games in the series, so I'm looking forward to the rest of this retrospective.
I got this for the PSX and it is fascinating to play, but I've only played it the once, and I didn't get the good ending.
I can't sit myself down now for a 2 hour stretch to do anything.
Time is the scarcest of commodities!
I loved D on my 3DO. I have the entire "trilogy".
Enemy Zero is such an odd game out but I love it
Idea!
How about a retrospective on horror video games this Halloween?
This is kind of that haha
If you are going to do a retrospective could we cover his whole catalogue? Maybe a bonus episode of the games leading up to D? Feels weird starting in the middle.
Probably not. This is wholly focused on the D trilogy / Laura trilogy
I still have D2 for the Dreamcast. What a game that is VGE. I mean, it still spooks me to this day. 8^)
Me too. Well I have like four copies 🤣
D had such strong horror mystery and surreal vibes. I felt it had lots of quiet suspense and subtle tension, which is even today very rare in this genre of games. When you feel kinda weird and uncomfortable all throughout the game, even though you can't really explain why - it's not in your face horror and it doesn't try to scare the shit out of you each and every second. I only wish it was a much longer game, one of the few games in my life when I definitely had an issue with how quickly it ended. I mean, as a rule I usually prefer shorter games, but not that short.
I think Eno’s intent was always to have D be a feature length film you could control. Hence the run time and the “lose” condition if you go over the time limit. It was meant as an experience. Which is hard if you bought it day 1 for full price
@@VideoGameEsoterica Yeah, I get it. Still, I always felt like it ends right when you're beginning to get a taste of it and want more.
That’s the best time to end haha. Leave some intrigue
@@VideoGameEsoterica BTW, I wanted to ask you if you know about any differences between versions of D for different consoles? And if there are any, which one is the best version.
The 3DO version is the most complete. PS1 has the best fmv quality
Haven't played the first game, but i absolutely love D2. Played it before Code Veronica and think I preferred it.
D2 is a wildly weird an entertaining game. Def follow along with the series. You’ll find out D2 on DC wasn’t the game we were supposed to get
@@VideoGameEsoterica Looking forward to it. First thing I think of with Kenji Eno is that Enemy Zero press conference where he trolled Playstation with that logo change!
@bombjack1984 haha dude loved to have fun that’s for sure
I'll wait for the Hiroyuki Kanno trilogy one 😅
Great video! Makes me sad that I never played this one back in the day.
I think what really comes through is the artistry of the visuals even though they look super low res by today's standards There's still some quality that cuts through.
Although a very different aesthetic I think this principal also hold true for the PS1 version of MGS.
For its time it’s cinematic, well framed and well paced. You didn’t get that very often back then. Sure it’s aged but it’s aged gracefully
Potentially interesting but I could not get a vibe from whether the mysterious and dark visuals were backed up by the audio.
It’s mostly environmental audio
D, D, D!
Haha quite the comment
I was wondering about the slow pace of walking around, was that just the limitations of the render hardware or for thematic pace? I loved it on the PS1.
Its pre-rendered movement speed is not an issue.
@@goatbone you’ve never tried the PAL version on PS1 😂. Speed not a complaint but they were using an Amiga 4000 and was interested in the whole concept of pace etc.
Alright, I'm intrigued. I have a modded Sega Saturn with a Fenrir ODE, how does D stack up on Saturn compared to PC, PS1, and 3DO? Sucks that the Director's Cut is exclusive to the 3DO.
Saturn version is great too. There really isn’t a bad version
Kenji Kino
Eh?
Is this in response to limited run finally shipping out the fixed discs?
No I had this planned all year. Videos were finished in like June then held for October
Hi
I was in asia when i got a copy of D's on 3D0 it was and still is the best
I have a question though
Since the game was rendered (prerended) in 3D I am surprised someone didn t reproduce the first game in real time actually
Could it be possible to do ?
I dream to see that...😉
Def could be done but no clue who owns the rights these days
Yeah it's a shame. The same has been said about the character renders for Donkey Kong Country on the SNES and the backgrounds/cut scenes of FF VII on the PS1. Sadly I think the originals are lost to time...
Some things sadly are seemingly lost. Like the original version of D2
🎉🎉🎉
Indeed
What is your thought on the PS1 version and is it good to play as me as a PS1 fan?
Great version. Give it a shot
The entire game is FMVs. There's no sprites or 3D models at all, you're only interacting with a video.
And? The 3D models are within the fmv. As in part of the art design. It all had to be modeled, rigged, animated, etc.
@@VideoGameEsoterica It is a curious trick the game employs. Something that might've taken a long time to make, considering the game plays a different video for every multiple choice and interaction the player can make.
Its totally unlike the usual FMV game, where the player's interactions are minimal.
Yes this would require a ton more work in modeling, animating and framing everything