serial experiments lain video game

Serial Experiments Lain (video game)

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Serial Experiments Lain is a video game release for the PlayStation in November 26, 1998 two months after the last episode of anime .

It was designed by Chiaki J. Konaka and Yasuyuki Ueda , and made to be a "network simulator" in which the player would navigate to explore Lain's story.

A guidebook to the game called Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide was released the same month by MediaWorks.

1 Development
3 Fan Translation

Development [ ]

On November 26, 1998, Pioneer LDC released a video game with the same name as the anime for the PlayStation. It was designed by Konaka and Yasuyuki, and made to be a "network simulator" in which the player would navigate to explore Lain's story. The creators themselves did not call it a game, but "Psycho-Stretch-Ware". The aim of the authors was to let the player get the feeling that there are myriads of information that they would have to sort through, and that they would have to do with less than what exists to understand. As with the anime, the creative team's main goal was to let the player "feel" Lain, and "to understand her problems, and to love her".

Gameplay [ ]

The gameplay is close to the visual novel. The player is limited to unlocking pieces of information, and then reading/viewing/listening to them, with little or no puzzle needed to unlock. Lain distances itself even more from classical games by the random order in which information is collected.

The player can still follow a story as each information is in a chronological order (despite being available in a random order). For example, the player can read Touko's dairy (named Tda in the game) by following this order: Tda001, Tda002,... but the player may have access to Tda028 first since that's the closest to where you start from at the beginning of the game.

At the beginning of the game, the player can select files by moving Lain around the select menu. The select menu, called Site (there are two sites: A & B), has 22 levels that can be accessed by moving Lain up and down with each floor having one to nine parts accessible by moving to the right or the left.

Files are floating around each floor. You can separate each files in category:

Touko's diary (Tda): Touko's personal thoughts.
Lain's diary (Lda): Lain's personal thoughts.
Diagnosis (Dia): Lain's diagnosis after their interactions, provided by Touko.
Counseling (Cou): Lain and Touko's interactions.
TaK: Random quotes by Lain.
Dc: Videos.
Collectibles (P2)
Mr. Recovery (SSKn): An "upgrade requirement" to unlock some media.
GaTE: A "gate pass" to unlock Site B

Sometimes, when you try to open a files, Lain will fall over and won't be able to open it, it means that the files is locked and need a Mr. Recovery upgrade to unlock it.

Collecting all the Collectible (P2) will give you access to two extra idle media files.

Fan Translation [ ]

As the videogame has never been officially translated, a team of fans has recreated the entire game in English and made it playable entirely in a web browser. The translation was released at the end of May 2021 [1] .

The project was titled lainTSX and was in work since July 2020. The team opted for a Webgl implementation of the game instead of hacking the PS1 game. This decision made the translation, especially the integration of the subtitles easier, and gave the opportunity to smooth the gameplay and the animation using a better framerate and overall timing.

Gallery [ ]

↑ https://www.otaquest.com/serial-experiments-lain-ps1-game-english/
1 Lain Iwakura
2 Serial Experiments Lain

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Serial Experiments Lain

The game might take place in an alternate reality from the series, features a cast of new characters, however it shares similar themes to the anime.

Serial Experiments Lain was developed concurrently with the anime, and was released shortly after its conclusion. Calling it a "game" may be a bit of a stretch, and the creators actually define it as "psychostretchware". Instead of actual gameplay, it acts more as an interface to access parts of Lain's story, presenting a multimedia experience that includes video, diary excerpts, and notes from Lain's therapist.

This game contains examples of:

Adaptation Dye-Job : Lain's dark brown hair has a heavy purple tint. It's probably Purple Is the New Black .
A-Cup Angst : Lain experiences this in comparison to her classmate Misato.
Alternate Universe : The game might take place in a separate continuity from the anime and features a completely different plot. Major characters from the anime like Alice are totally absent, leading to a much different characterization of Lain.
Anguished Outburst : Lain suggests Touko's work is full of "miscellaneous chores" and it causes Touko to snap.
Art Shift : Despite being animated by the same team around the same time as the anime, the art style is very different. This was likely done to accommodate the Playstation's technical limitations, but also underlines how different the game is from the show.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence : Lain ultimately kills herself to live forever in the Wired as a ghost, much like Chisa Yamoda and Masami Eiri do in the anime .
Bloodier and Gorier : The anime is relatively tame on its gore. This game? Not so much. It has a lot of blood and dead bodies. Lain slashes her throat, kills her therapist, beats up her dad's half-finished android, and ultimately shoots herself .
Break Them by Talking : Lain does this to Touko, to the point where Touko begins causing her own anguish by anticipating what Lain will say .
Darker and Edgier : If you thought the anime was already dark. This suprisingly managed to be more grim and graphic than the anime it was based on.
Driven to Suicide : Lain shoots herself in the end. Played with in that she possibly only killed her physical body .
Freud Was Right : There's a video of Lain cuddling with her android father . The video is titled "Libido".
Go Mad from the Isolation : Much of Lain's instability comes from how lonely she is.
The Hero Dies : Lain dies by shooting herself .
Hope Spot : Lain gets into 8th grade, makes a new friend names Misato, and seems healthy. Misato is at best an imaginary friend, at worst a hallucination, and realizing this causes Lain's mental health to collapse
Replacement Goldfish : After Lain's parents divorce, Lain creates an AI replica of her father. She later tries to make a physical android in which to place the AI .
Self-Harm : At one point Lain smashes a mirror and sinks a piece of glass into her neck.
Unreliable Narrator : Lain has hallucinations and Touko experiences Sanity Slippage so the diary entries sometimes contain information that is later contradicted.
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