Psycho Dream
"Psycho Dream" is a side-scrolling action-platform game developed for the Super Famicom by Riot, a division of Telenet Japan. The story takes place in a virtual reality medium called “D-Movie” and follows two agents, Ryō Shijima and Maria Tobari, as they enter a dream world to rescue a girl trapped there. Players can choose between Ryō, who fights with a sword, and Maria, who uses ranged attacks and transformation attacks. The game consists of short action levels featuring enemies, hazards, and boss battles, and combines science fiction with horror elements. It was released in Japan in 1992, while a planned North American release under the title “Dream Probe” never materialized.
Story
In the early 1980s, rumors circulated about a new entertainment medium called "D-Movie" that allowed people to immerse themselves in a world of virtual reality. As d-movies become increasingly popular, a trend emerges where disaffected youths permanently escape into the virtual world while allowing their physical bodies to atrophy. To track down these so-called "sinkers", Japan's National Public Safety Commission establishes the Public Safety Department, nicknamed "Diamond Dog", in 1984. The agents who enter the virtual world and carry out these rescue operations are called 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 Tobari Maria, are sent to save her before that happens.