Honestly, I would love something that takes this concept and approaches it in a way that couldn't have been done back in the 90s. Imagine having all the enemies in the game only be visible through their influence on the environment. Don't even have any models, just track where they are and have a physics simulation imply their presence. If there's a puddle, show splashing as they move through it. If there's a set of crates, have them move a bit when the monsters are passing them. That sort of thing. Different areas would have different giveaways for the things you're trying to evade and the last area could be a homage to this game: lots of long, dark corridors with barely any objects for the creatures to bump into, with only a tiny little beep to keep you updated on where you are relative to anything else until you're close enough to hear them breathing.

Kenji Eno was a promising game designer. He passed away too young, too suddenly.

Man, I'd be so happy if Kenji Eno were still alive. Just imagine the batshit crazy games he could make on modern consoles/PC. #F

Criminally underrated. The sound design in the game is fantastic. It goes from low drone sounds to loud pounding & screeching outta nowhere. I remember that cutscene where the Enemy ambushes Laura in the elevator. 💩‘ed my pants just from sounds. What Eno got right was that with monsters; the more you see them, the more they become comical. So making them invisible creates horror in the mind. The pinging & monsters screeching just fans the flames. It’s an unforgiving game, but what it gets right, it nails. Really unique.

When I first played Alien Isolation it reminded me a lot of Enemy Zero - it’s a really special game and the only Saturn game I still have in my possession

I don't really care to play horror games but I like hearing about them! Kenji Eno was based

I agree with you, I hate those people who say, “oh, that? That’s soo easy! I beat it on my first effort!” Even if I don’t have problems with something, I understand that my circumstances might’ve been different than another player’s.

So awesome to see someone speak of this crazy game! I have it on the Saturn and no one seemed to remember it

I literally got PTSD upon hearing the VPS again. This game and Alien the movie was enough to fuel my teenage nightmares for years.

Since you asked, and since I work as a deputy coroner: severed fingers really don't sound like anything - but given how limp they are, that likely indicates that Marcus died within the past 6-9 hours or so (depending on the ambient temperature) since rigor mortis would start to become apparent after that. And now you know!

Alien references: 1- Alone in a ship 2- The 'transport enemy as the highest priority regardless of crew safety'' directive 3- David being an android 4- Android being called ''David'' this is a coincidence tho, prometheus came out like 20 years after 5- ''Enemy'' plants baby on main character 6- Spaceship selfdestruct at the end Not complaining tho just pointing similarities

Wow, I *never* want to play this game. So I'm glad you made a video about it, so I don't have to. That's a real service to us baby gamers!

I'm glad you did this wonderful video covering this interesting game because man, the combat was just too intense and difficult for me, I had to shut it down and go cry in the corner. I really love the aesthetic of these old Saturn games and I'd love to see some retro throwback games adopt this style in the same way other games have adopted the style of SNES and Playstation games.

David being an android who didn't know he's an android and confused about how he could feel may be another reference to "Aliens" universe, but this time to Dark Horse's comic series

3:42 I love 90's era 3D animation in games. It really felt like the future to me at the time.

I played this game, blind, for a Halloween event a group of friends do online, and whooo weee you hit the nail on the head with this review! I loved this game, even though it was hard as shit, and kept me nervous as hell throughout. Subbed because of this and the Cosmology of Kyoto video. Keep up the great work!

okay, so you've completed the D Trilogy! congrats! Now, just for a lark, do Dark Dreams Don't Die. Because it's called D4.

Dude, you’re amazing! These kinds of games don’t get nearly enough love, so it’s totally awesome to see people like you giving them the attention they deserve. Much love 😁

Enemy Zero was one of those first horror games I played outside the most popular horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. When I first read about the game mechanics, I became absolutely interested with the invisible enemies and spatial-sound tracking. I was expecting difficulty after a background check on it, but what I never knew was the recorder that uses batteries. The recorder has the most terrifying mechanic in this game, because it is absolutely a permadeath system when you run out of battery life. It’s game over when it reaches 0 and I have to restart the entire game again from the beginning. It also doesn’t matter that whether you load or save the game, the battery will continue depleting either way. And that is even harder than classic Resident Evil games that only deplete ribbons when you save, not when you load. The last parts of the game were the most terrifying and most difficult. Even if accompanied by a pistol with infinite rounds, the complex maze of same corridors can easily make you lost and knock off your sanity, and will make you panic for your recorder battery life every load. It’s a little close to being a YOLO scenario. Regardless of all that, I am one ridiculously stubborn player, and I finished the game at last. With only 2% recorder battery life remaining, Laura Lewis was able to escape the ship safely. My eyes welled up a little bit from almost getting permadeath, and I was cheering her on as the shuttle cutscene was running. A very difficult experience indeed, but a game that is possible to beat with effort. The horror, gameplay, the lean plot and the puzzles were the peak of this game. Being able to beat it is a rewarding experience. D and D2 (which really was fine storywise but I love the soundtrack especially the ending) I played right after Enemy Zero just to get something good from all of them. Even if they now pale in comparison to the games we have today, I love the innovative mechanics that Kenji Eno put in them, makes them more engaging to play if we go back to the 90s. When I compare the 3 WARP games, Enemy Zero is the best. I had a good time playing it for a week, and include the fact that I just played it on February 2020, which was the time that lockdown seriously started in our country.😂 Just the perfect time to play an “isolation” space horror game :> Now, to add more challenge in the game, I’ll be replaying it again, but this time around I’ll be recording it and upload my gameplays (I just dunno when). You mentioned this was the Saturn version, right? I played the PC port, and it was mentioned the PC port includes 2 additional monster types in the game, hence even more masochistic in my situation LMAO. But what I’m not sure about both versions is the resolution. The game display only occupies 1/4 of my PC screen, and I don’t know how much it occupies from the TV screen of the Saturn version, if it’s in fullscreen or more like windowed as well.

Alright phew theres a lot of stuff in my mind atm but I hope I can communicate it clearly. When I watched that intro about the invisible enemies and the audio ping used to locate them, the first thought that crossed my mind was about Death Stranding's BTs. They actually feel very reminiscent of the enemies in Enemy Zero, as they are only able to be located thanks a direction and and approximative distance given to you by that little funky arm on Sam's back. Now what gets even more interesting is the parralel between Enemy Zero and Alien and how that actually relates to Death Stranding. From what I remember from the first movie, Alien deals with a lot of themes surrounding motherhood (the central computer being named Mother, Ash bleeding what looks like milk while emitting baby cries, the Xenomorph gestating inside its host etc...), motherhood themes which can also be found in Death Stranding (Bridge Babies being harvested from still mothers, BTs literally having an umbilical cord floating around them, Sam having a C-Section scar on his belly...) Now idk what the fuck you can do with this information other than deducf that Kojima probably played and was influenced in some measure by Enemy Zero and its definition of motherhood and femininity for the making of Death Stranding but its a pretty fun thing to consider.

Games like this where you die over and over stop being scary and start being frustrating. Horror, more than most other genres needs to strike a balance. You need to fear death, death has to be POSSIBLE, but if it's too frequent players will just become annoyed and the fear wears off

Invisible enemies? Either the cheapest, laziest idea for an enemy ever, or a stoke of mad genius.

Eno's three Laura's may have been inspired by Osamu Tezuka's "cast" of characters with the same design and similar personalities that populated his works.

Great review. I have owned it for ages and have been meaning to play it beyond disc 0. Had to skip the spoiler section so I can discover it for myself.

Huh; That tumor creature thing on Laura's neck does remind me of the time I had a lateral cyst on the left side of my neck some years ago. Ended up getting my first surgery experience. It was some primordial remnant organ thing back from when all life was in the water, gill-related or whatever.

I actually saw a review for this in a gaming magazine forever ago. I had forgot the name until just now. Thanks!

This game kind of reminds me of Robotica, with the maze-like corridors in a space station and aliens, but that was a FPS shooter, this is more survival horror. I think the tension of hearing beeps as invisible enemies get closer to you would drive me batty, but I think there would also be a bit of a thrill in being able to shoot them correctly. Another one I missed out on. This Kenji guy, I like his style. Especially the tentacle stuff. I wonder where that comes from? Because that goes back pretty far to ancient scrolls having women attacked by octy.

I really love the games Kenji Eno made that I have played: D, Enemy Zero, & D2. Since he has passed, I wonder who owns the rights to the three games. I would love a nice collection of his works to be made available on current platforms.

Thank you so much for covering obscure and forgotten games like this. I absolutely love taking a dive into old horror and scifi games and trying to figure out how it was all pulled off. Im only in my 20s and didnt get a chance to experience these fascinating saturn and ps1 titles in my childhood, but I enjoy getting to look back on them now. Games like these are just works of art and they werent afraid to get creative and controversial with their game design. There's a lot of soul in titles like these. Also, im definitely subscribing. Your commentary and presentation are well executed and i couldnt get enough! Im going to dive into the other D titles next!

Gosh I remember this game back from like one of my first game magazines. I didn't know Sega Saturn was a thing back then but I remember being so into the 3d images of games I would re-read the captions and stare at the pictures several hours into the night (I was like seven and ADHD hyperfixation HO) and I remember being slightly spooked by Enemy Zero preview as it showed Laura in the cutscene seeing the butterfly and the sliced fingers. Oooh creepy for me back then. Nice to finally be able to put a name to the game.

"Program (x-sa) should be used for such case." Is it a coincidence that a few years later, Metroid Fusion, set on a space station where the protagonist is hunted by an alien lifeform, uses SA-X for the name of its enemy?

Thanks for taking some of us down memory lane. I vaguely remember finishing this. This was the closest we got to Alien until Alien Isolation.

Wow! I'm genuinely at a loss for why you don't get more attention for these videos. Awesome stuff! Keep it up dude!

Kim's self game end makes sense. She was in on the mission and the thing she was knowingly transporting killed the most important person to her. He's probably feeling very guilty and very alone in San incredibly stressful situation. It does suck, though.

Was way too hard for me back then. I couldn't get anywhere and basically gave up. But damn, those corridors look really nice! Not even because the 3D engine runs relatively smoothly for a Saturn game, but also due to the textures. Very good art direction imho. Also that Soundtrack is just amazing.

the soundtrack was composed by Michael Nyman, a very well regarded avant garde minimalist composer who agreed to do it on a whim reportedly!

What I find most interesting about Enemy Zero is that as a kid (12 - 13) I found it scary as hell but was determined to finish it and plowed through. Now as an adult, this is the type of game I would probably read about and give a hard pass both because of the difficulty and fear (I've become kind of a baby when it comes to horror games). Funny how punishing difficulty as a kid translates to frustration as an adult.

I've never heard of most of the games you cover, but I adore how you cover them. Witty, chill, insightful, detailed reviews of games I never had the chance to play. Keep up the impeccable work.

I learned about this game years and years ago when Happy Nerd aka Derek from Stop Skeletons From Fighting covered it. Retro games were still affordable then so I was able to grab a copy from eBay. It's such a cool and unique game, and you can see how it influenced Alien Isolation. I'm just glad to see someone else talking about it!

Love when youtube recommends me smaller channels, youre great man

I actually played Enemy Zero. It is trully an unique experience, with the invisible enemy and the sound orientarion device. Also, I still love the soundtrack (specially when you discover the true nature of David). The map detail, I had a draw of the sections that were super hard, it was fun. The ending is super exhilarating too.

13:57 - her reaction is perfect. the looks at the gun and be like "ah, an improvement, that doesn't exactly help"

It feels like this was to be a alien game, but did not get the license, so changed thing to make it a different game, not uncommon back in the day, great video love the Saturn 👍👍

Deep Fear is another Saturn exclusive game that gave some good nightmares. I played the first D for Playstation, I didn't have the opportunity to play E0.

Never even heard of this game and i'm amazed it escaped me until now, always nice to see people covering games like this, great video.

I put “Ladyfingers” by Luscious Jackson on every party playlist. Song slaps.

I was running out of Grimbeard videos and this magically appears.

When I was a kid the scariest thing I had ever witnessed was a hand reaching out of a toilet at a certain Inn in Clocktown...

17:00 "drop the gun, that's not gangsta! That's very not gangsta!"

I loved this game back then, scariest thing i ever played... maybe still today... was amazing.... You forgot to mention the Scariest part of this game: the SAVE SYSTEM... each time you save, it depletes a battery... but each time you Load... it ALSO depletes the battery.... so you're limited... Also i played the game several times to Beat the Hard Mode... 'cuz beating the game in Hard Mode unlocked a secret Shower scene in the new game plus :D You dont see anything really, but as a horny teenager, it was totally worth it :D

I played Enemy Zero to the end on Saturn and D2 to the end on Dreamcast. Great games. Expensive now especially in UK.

21:28 "ENOUGH!" now I have no choice but to subscribe.

Considering that back in 2015/2016 I was trying to look up survival horror video games, or horror video games in general that would give me the spooks, something from the past or in the present I haven't tried out that I could play on an emulator. And sadly this game wasn't on that list of the most popular survival horror games on say Google's search engine. So seeing this one mentioned, well, I'll have to watch a longplay with no commentary to sleep to and get the full experience myself.

Honestly if an indie dev made this in a modern engine i think it would do well

just googled Kenji Eno...damn, he died at 42😢 I've never played any of these 90s games...now i just might

I just googled La Blue Girl, wtf did i just watch.

duuuude you're my new favorite channel! I'm binging all your content and it's all so well made and edited. love your stuff, you deserve so many subs

Omg the level of 90s in that opener makes me feel like they allll thought the world was going to end in 1999. That was just beautiful 😍 pure joy. I can picture everyone in the office just .. bumping. Thank you for showing us the amazing piece of art !!

Damn, that death scream is nuts.

3:38 the good old days. 90s marketing is undefeated.

The opening movie for this game feels like something that would be in the background of serial experiments lain to slowly drive people insane

Luscious Jackson was an alt rock band from the 90s! Check out their big song “Naked Eye”

It isn't 90s until it sounds like a night club in a Blade movie

you give me massive grimbeard vibes in the best way possible, loving your work so far

Wow, real Alien Isolation vibes here - I wonder how much inspiration that game drew from Enemy Zero.

I remember this well! Really loved these fmv games back in the day.

I never played this game, but I really love the graphics and the ambience. The pixellated looks of the corridors are so satisfying to watch. Also, I recently your channel, and I'm really enjoying your videos ! Please keep it up !

Luscious Jackson? That's a blast of nostalgia. Vivian Trimble did have a great voice. Their big hit was "Naked Eye." Unfortunately she died April 2023 from cancer.

Boo's Mansion from N64 was terrifying as a kid, but still compelling, so I played through it. That music.

Damn that opening cinematic was so 90s I’m now wearing plaid and talking like Chandler

Hi, i played the SegaSaturn version and if you unlock Hard Mode and finish it you get a cut sceen that shows you the video of the alien breaking the dor but this time its visible! Great review and yes , its was hard to figure out how to turn one some power in some areas that needed a sequence of buttons to press but all of that makes ir realistic ! Not like having an arrow pointing where to go like in other games! 😂 Really makes you feel the story and situation you are on.

Dude, not gonna lie.. Sometime around the early/mid 2000s I've found La Blue Girl on the interwebs. That small insert bring me back some funny memories hahaha. Time really goes by fast.

LMAO THE PIANO ROOM? 😂😂😂

Thank you very much for the review. :^) I played it the day it came out on the SEGA Saturn back then.. first the Japanese then the English, and loved it so much.

David looks like one of the actors from Aliens, I reckon. But also the fact that he's basically a synthetic human is like, yeah I get the reference my G!

6:02 Holy Jesus, I didn't remember this game at all... Until I saw this guy and then the memory of reading about it in Hyper Magazine came flooding back to me. The screenshot of this guy's face really stuck with me, for some reason.

I finished that game when I was a kid, and yes I can confirm that it's an anxiety inducing game, i never touched those 4 discs ever again

I played quite some years ago, and remember enjoying the atmosphere the most, specially the later sections where the areas are pretty long, if I recall correctly the PC version is a little easier (not by much) since you have more mobility when charging the weapon

It looks like Enemy Zero has that subliminal space vibe going.

The intro straight up looks like an Ape Escape intro

Very interesting gameplay! I would not be able to play the third, because I would have a lot of trouble distinguishing the high an dthe medium sounds if they're really close together.

That was so 90’s I feel like I should be wearing a shell suit and a Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt.

If I recall correctly, it was less that Kenji Eno "convinced" the sountrack composure after six hours, and more that he literally stalked and then locked him in a hotel room together and more or less held him hostage for six hours until he agreed to do the game. Absolute maniac, the gaming scene isn't the same without him. Look up his unfinished game Kakexun sometime. An seemingly impossible to understand game that looked to be about dying of a heart attack right before he died young of a heart attack. Tragic.

This is what I miss from gaming in the 90s. They weren't afraid to experiment with genres and tried things different. Games didn't need to sell Millions of copies to be profitable. Nowadays a game like these is just not possible unless is an indie game that is not a pretentious visual novel or a metroidvania.

I love the idea of “digital actors” who appear in different roles in different games. It would be so cool to have Sony create a cast of reoccurring characters who always look and sound the same and have more or less have consistent personalities, appear in multiple genres of games in different roles.

Still one of my favorite games and I still glad I own it.

Man I played this game when I was about ten years old and it was really horrifying.

This was my mother's favorite game of all time. Child me couldnt understand the mechanics.

22:00 At least Dave doesn't stick a rolled up magazine down your throat. ;)

I love how this is like a precursor to Alien Isolation with an invisible alien

This game is definitely Kenji Eno presents Ridley Scott's Alien. It has many elements of that film

This game deserves a remake.

The piano room 🤣 My worst nightmare as a kid

I'm an old (literally) fan of the WARP/Kenji Eno stuff. It's been super fun seeing them again here. Makes me want to bust out the trilogy, but that means some system setup. Great vid.

I think it’s super interesting that even in the cutscenes the models are relatively segmented. The fingers are separate from the palms, George’s shoulders are stuck to the sides of his torso. There’s clearly some sort of soft body deformation going on because things like their mouths animate that way, which makes me wonder what the segmentation is for. Easier control/rigging? Inexperienced modelers? Technical limitations?

That interviewer was either having a great time or falling asleep at the end there, haha.

Man i hated this game growing up. I remember accidentally walking into my older cousins room who had this game blasted on our old tv and yelling at me because this game had them on edge and me bursting in freaked them out so bad, which of course scared me seeing them so shook. Now that Im older and having watched this video, I think I should give this game a go. Excellent video.

Absolutely never heard of Enemy Zero or Kenji until this popped into my recommended. Was a really fun watch! The VPS surely inspired Silent Hill's radio, that feels all too coincidental - but also having tone changes depending on DIRECTION is absolutely heartpounding, what a brilliant game.

My first thought while watching this was, why aren't there any androids? How on earth will you incentivise your crew to the point where they would put themselves in harm's way rather than sacrifice an alien creature? That's why you need a robot who can heartlessly committ the will of The Corporation. The other option: bring the thing back, with you dead or alive, or else you'll all die as soon as you land. In that case, if the crew knew anything about it, they'd likely just fuck off without the alien. Then you'd need children/family held at ransom back home, or again an android who is able to enforce the death threat while they're still in transit.

Michael Nyman is great. Interestingly enough, it sounds like he reused some of this score for his score for "Man With a Movie Camera" in 2002.