This Week in Retro: Kenji Eno's D (Patreon)

April 1, 1995: Kenji Eno makes us all hungry for D

by Diamond Feit

Before we begin, a true story: when I realized I wanted to completely discard my birth name, I initially (lol) tried to treat "D. Feit" as my full name. I still use that version in a lot of places as a middle ground between my legal nomenclature and how I want to be addressed. It didn't stick in part because no one could accept an initial without a name—I was continually asked, "Well, what's the D for? I can't just call you D."

25 years ago this week, a young Kenji Eno attempted just that with D, a 3DO horror-adventure game all about the question, "What's the D for?"

D tells the story of Laura Harris, daughter of respected physician Richter Harris who is at the center of a murder/hostage crisis in his own hospital. Laura walks in (alone) to see if she can reason with her father, only for the hospital to disappear in favor of a strange castle. She has no weapons, only a pocket watch (time is an important factor in the game), and a compact mirror which serves as a hint system, allowing up to three uses before it shatters. 

D debuted when the FMV-game genre was still hot, and D had the added appeal of being entirely rendered in 3D graphics. There was no HUD and no live-action footage; the whole thing was 3D, which helped sell players that they weren't just playing a game, they were exploring an unsettling world apart from their own. Japanese gamers had seen another horror/adventure game pull this off with Doctor Hauzer, a 1994 release (also on 3DO), but that was a more challenging experience with death traps aplenty. D, unlike most adventure games at the time, doesn't want you to die. D wants you to finish the game in one sitting. In fact, it's a requirement: D has no save function and a strict 2-hour time limit which cannot be paused. Nothing in D will trigger a "Game Over" except for the timer and the final choice, which leads to one of two endings.

{Spoilers follow}

A big reason that D resonated with players and critics alike wasn't just the 3D graphics (which I swear were impressive at the time) or the time limit gimmick; it was the genuinely shocking nature of the story. As Laura explores the castle, she can encounter flashbacks of her childhood. The flashbacks are somewhat hidden and can be missed, but they reveal a grisly sight of Laura stabbing her own mother and eating the body. Director Kenji Eno had a hunch that even in the gross-out 1990s, a killer cannibal child might be too much for the publishers, so he told EGM/1UP.com that he kept those graphic scenes out of the game until the very last minute, personally sneaking them into the final version on his way to deliver the master copy to the manufacturer. The gambit worked: Despite having played hours of Mortal Kombat, my friends and I were floored when we discovered the secret of Laura's past.

Also shocking at the time, but comical in hindsight: Richter, who communicates with Laura throughout the game, reveals he is turning into Dracula. Yes, the D stands for "Dracula"—an unexpected twist to be sure, but one that's totally overshadowed by Laura's own secret. (One has to assume that Kenji Eno was a big Rondo of Blood fan to include the name Richter in a game featuring Dracula.) Richter warns Laura that to complete his transformation, he will have to consume her as well, leading to a fateful choice at the end of the game: Do you approach him, or not? Choosing to walk towards him triggers a grim (if unseen) ending where sounds of munching and chewing play over the credits. Again, for a kid who had never played anything like this before, D was packed with unexpected, horrific moments that I never could have anticipated.

If D had been trapped on the Japanese 3DO (like Doctor Hauzer), it might never have achieved cult status. However, it was soon ported to the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, and PC, and it was quickly localized into English. Today, it's available digitally on GOG and Steam and routinely sells for $5 or less. 25 years later, it remains a unique work of art, as neither of its follow-up games (Enemy Zero and D2, both of which star blond women named "Laura") continue its story or feel anything like it. Of course, "unique" is not synonymous with "timeless," and your experience with D in 2020 will depend heavily on your patience for early 3D graphics, "puzzles" that seem more like speed bumps to keep the threat of the ticking clock alive, and a lead character who walks impossibly slow. If D ever received a realMyst-style remake, it could be finished in six minutes or less.

If D doesn't hold up in 2020, it's because less than a year later Resident Evil debuted on the Sony PlayStation, defining a genre and shaping players' expectations worldwide. In an infinite universe, however, there's a version of Earth where D was that megahit and we'd all still be hyped for the latest "interactive movie" on our game consoles—just as there must be an Earth where Kenji Eno did not pass away at the age of 42 and was able to enjoy the current indie game renaissance. On our Earth, sadly, he died just weeks before the first BitSummit, which was subsequently dedicated to his memory.

For me, D will forever stand as a mad example of how video games can literally be any kind of story or experience we make them to be, and no matter how trends change and technology improves, a memorable game remains just that: memorable. And as stated above, it'll always have a personal connection to my search for a na—wait a minute, the D in D stands for Dracula! I could have been Dracula Feit/Feit Dracula??

I need to lie down.