D (video game)

In the mid-nineties, inspired by the rise of Full Motion Video and the concept of treating video games as interactive movies, Kenji Eno decided to take what he deemed the next logical step: creating a digital actress. Laura would go on to star in three games, Enemy Zero and D2, portraying a different character with a different surname each time. After D2's commercial failure, its publisher, WARP, folded, bringing Laura's career to an end.

D tells the story of Laura Harris, a college student. While attending school in San Francisco, she recieves word that her father, the respected Dr. Richter Harris, has started randomly murdering everyone at his Los Angeles hospital. Rushing to the scene, she enters the hospital and is confronted by a bloody scene... one that swiftly alters to a mysterious abandoned castle. Despite visions of her father warning her to leave, she makes her way deeper inside, coming ever closer to the Awful Truth of what exactly caused her father's rampage...

Tropes used in the D series include:

• Fake Difficulty: Each of the games has at least one gimmick intended to make the game much tougher than it would be otherwise.
  • D must be beaten within two hours, with no saving or even pausing. Some of the game's puzzles include blatant time-wasters, such as the Wheel puzzle.
  • Enemy Zero makes Laura a One-Hit-Point Wonder: die to the invisible enemies, and you have to start all over again.
  • D2 makes Laura stand still while fighting.
• Legacy Character: In each entry, the main heroine is named Laura and has blonde hair. The surname changes to indicate each character is meant to be different.
• Let's Play: supergreatfriend did a run through D and D2.
• Virtual Celebrity: Laura, as outlined above. Several of the cast members introduced in Enemy Zero also reappear in D2 in new roles.

Tropes used in D (video game) include:

• Amnesiac Dissonance: The scarab beetles, if collected, give Laura visions that reveal she murdered her own mother and ate her flesh.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the Good and Golden endings, Laura survives her ordeal, but was forced to kill her father.
  • In his Let's Play, supergreatfriend points out that this is more of a Downer Ending, as Richter is dead, all the hostages are dead, and Laura now remembers what happened to Mommy. D:
• Dracula: The origins of Laura's family.
• Eye Scream: The box art implies this, with bloody tears running down from mercifully shadow-veiled sockets. In-game, sharp and pointy things seem to love stopping juuuuust short of Laura's eyes...
• Final Death: Couldn't make the time limit? Well, there goes two hours of your life.
• For Science!: Richter implies this was why he allowed himself to succumb to Dracula's curse despite the fact that he'd seen Laura fall under it before and was able to reverse it then. He wanted to know how he would be affected.
• Full Motion Video: The entire game is done in this fashion.
• Gratuitous English: In the original Japanese 3DO version, the scene where a hand reaches out from the mirror in an attempt to grab Laura, there is creepy voice saying "Come here, little girl." For whatever reason, this voice was not carried over to the English ports.
• Hint System: Laura's compact offers a single-screen vision hinting at what she should do next. Each time she does this, however, the mirror cracks a little more... If used three times, it shatters.
• I'm a Humanitarian: This is required to transform into Dracula. Laura attempted it in the past with a side of her mother's arm.
• Loophole Abuse: A Real Life example: in order to ensure that D was published in the form he wished, Eno actually tricked the censors. First, he developed the game with no storyline, concealing the cutscenes from his own staff, then submitted a 'clean' version to the board for approval. He then delibrately submitted the master late, knowing that he would then have to deliver it by hand to the U.S. manufacturers. That gave him time to 'switch' the clean disc with the version he intended, bypassing the censors completely! ^[1]
• Mad Doctor: Richtor, who went on a killing spree, massacring his patients.
• Multiple Endings: There are four:
  • A Good Ending where Laura reaches her father and Just Shoots Him.
  • A Golden Ending where along the way to the Good Ending, Laura finds all of the glowing scarab beetles and views the optional cutscenes detailing her mother's death.
  • A Bad Ending where Laura lets her daddy eat her so he can become Dracula.
  • And the Time Elasped Ending where she fails to get through to Richter in time and falls through her pocket watch.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Just shoot him? She does... in the Good Ending, at least.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Laura and her lineage.
• Poor Communication Kills: Seriously, Dad, you couldn't have warned Laura off before she entered your Mind Mansion?
• Press X to Not Die: A brief QuickTime event occurs when Laura confronts the suit of armor. Failure doesn't mean immediate death; you merely fall into a pit, and have to waste time climbing back up.
• Recut: D's Diner: Director's Cut, a rare edition that included new sequences, background information on Laura and her family, and a soundtrack disc.
• Save Game Limits: There are no saves. You can't even pause.
• Spooky Painting: A painting of a little girl suddenly smiles and laughs when examined, suddenly swirling to briefly show a set of 4 animals. This shows the orientation of the miniature carousel the player should set it at to open the next door.
• The Stinger: If the player collected all the scarab beetles and got the Good Ending, the credits end with a baby's cry.
• Timed Mission: You have a mere two hours to finish the game. If you fail to reach the ending in time... Laura falls into her pocketwatch. ...Wait, what?

1. ↑ And doubtlessly damaging his reputation with them once they figured out the ruse, but apparently that was Worth It.