PREFACE: Before I discuss the game itself, I feel it's important to discuss this version of the game; Firstly, it is based on the PlayStation release, which by all accounts is a pretty good port, but it is missing content from the 3DO exclusive "Director's Cut", released Jan. 1996 only in Japan. That version featured revised scenes and a multitude of bonus features. The Director's Cut is undoubtedly the best version of D, however it is only in japanese, so as a first playthrough it's a no-go, unless you understand the language, of course. Save it for your second time through, I highly recommend it. As the title of this review suggests, this is the most accessible version of the game, and as the (second) best version of the game, that's all well and good. *However*, this version looks pretty darn ugly, as it has some sort of scanline filter over the image, it completely butchers the game. Thankfully, there's a pretty easy fix: just head to its PCGamingWiki page (just search D: The Game in there) and download the fixes there. Boom, you got a pretty decent version of D. THE GAME: D is a horror first-person adventure by WARP, but rather than transitioning from screen to screen like in Myst, you have to watch an FMV of the character *slowly* walking there! (This game has a 2 hour limit btw) Jokes aside, it's a good game for what it is, you have two real-time hours to escape and find your father in this gothic castle, filled with fairly simple puzzles and charmingly amateurish CGI from an indie studio trying to fiddle with Lightwave on Amiga 4000 machines. In 1995! Mystery! Tension! Atmosphere! What does "D" stand for, anyway? You'll have to play to find out.
First and foremost, if you own these games or plan on buying them, I recommend- nay, *implore* that you check your 'dosboxEWJ1.conf' and 'dosboxEWJ2.conf' in their respective folders, as for some reason whoever configured DOSBox for this release set 'frameskip=1' by default, this means the game essentially runs at 30fps, making it slower and jittery, on top of creating some graphical oddities. Please open the '.conf' files and set 'frameskip=0', this makes the game run as intended. Now with the technical problems out of the way, let's discuss these versions: EWJ1 is a strange beast here, an amalgamation of previous versions: mostly the same game as the SNES version, but with the red book audio from the SEGA CD and a password system (thank goodness), though it isn't the *ultimate* version of the game, unfortunately, as it is missing features from the Genesis and Special Edition. Still a pretty solid port nonetheless. As for EWJ2, I'm tempted to say this is the best version of the game! I absolutely dread the Saturn port, as most people do, as it replaced some of the beautiful backgrounds from the original SNES and Genesis release with some really crummy looking 3D renders, though it did have the upside of including a CD-quality soundtrack. The port included in this release is the best of both worlds, maintaining (mostly) everything from the original release, but including the CD music! Unfortunately, it is missing a stage for some reason? It's not *that* big of a deal, but it is the only thing holding this port from being virtually perfect. All in all, it could've been better, but this is still a really nice release! These are near perfect ports, though I'd still recommend checking out the other versions of these games, especially the Special Edition of Jim1 on SEGA CD and Win95. The extras included are very much appreciated, especially the soundtracks on FLAC, those are a godsend.
