Headed by "Swery" (creator of the 2010 cult-classic Deadly Premonition), D4 is an episodic adventure game following the surreal mystery of David Young, a private detective with the power to "dive" into past events in order to investigate the murder of his wife.
Overview[]
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die is a cel-shaded mystery adventure game developed by Access Games and published by Microsoft for the Xbox One (in downloadable form only) on September 19, 2014 (and later published by Playism for the PC, via Steam, on June 5, 2015).
The story follows David Young, a private detective from Boston who loses his memory after his wife, Peggy, is murdered. For mysterious reasons, this event imbues him with the power to "dive into the past" (although he can only do so with "mementos", items that refresh his memory of the events surrounding them). He must use this power to investigate the events leading up to the murder and attempt to change the past.
The Xbox One version supports gesture-based controls using the Kinect. Unlike other gesture-based games, D4 focuses on simple hand gestures (not requiring players to stand up and move vigorously). Using either these controls or a cursor controlled by the mouse (in the PC version) or controller (in both versions), players navigate David by both directing him to pre-determined areas and rotating his field of view, allowing him to investigate the surrounding areas and interact with nearby objects and people. Action sequences focus on completing a variety of simple gestures in quick succession (similar to Elite Beat Agents). The Xbox One version also supports Kinect voice commands as an option for specific voice responses.
Headed by game director Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro, the game shares many similarities with his 2010 game Deadly Premonition, including a surreal storyline with both absurd humor and an eccentric protagonist. The game is also stylized as a television series (with fake intro and credit sequences), split into different "Episodes", and includes some of his trademarks (such as an overweight bespectacled character known as Forrest Kaysen).
The game as it exists is only Season One (the Prologue, Episode One, and Episode 2 chapters). Originally it was planned for more seasons to be released continuing the story, but with Swery's departure from Access Games who holds the rights, these further seasons are not likely to be developed any time soon.
Each version of the game also received exclusive cosmetic DLC (including free cross-promotional clothing for David in the Xbox One version). The PC version received a bonus Deluxe Edition, with an additional costume set, voiceover script, art book, and mini soundtrack.
Season One of the Xbox One version was a Games with Gold title for January 2015, free to all Xbox Live Gold members for that month.
Gameplay[]
The game's action segments have been compared to Elite Beat Agents, in that the player must complete a variety of simple gestures in quick succession, and with correct timing, in order to affect the flow of the current scene. Gestures consist of swiping up, down, right, left with 1 or both arms. While not in action scenes a player can move to investigate the surrounding areas looking for clues or collectibles.
Stamina[]
Interacting with any object in the game uses your stamina meter. In most areas, you can find food that replenishes your stamina meter allowing you to continue to interact with everything around you. The other ways of replenishing it are buying food from Amanda in the shop or jumping back to your apartment during a "dive" and having Forest make you food which fills the meter all the way up again.
Downloadable Content[]
Xbox One Version[]
The game received a variety of free cross-promotional downloadable "Clothing Sets" (featuring several tie-ins with Microsoft Studios franchises and other indie games), each including four upper-body clothes (t-shirts and hoodies) for David to wear:
- Killer Instinct (released September 23, 2014)
- Powerstar Golf (released September 23, 2014)
- Crimson Dragon (released September 23, 2014)
- Gears of War (released October 1, 2014)
- Fable (released October 1, 2014)
- Super Time Force (released October 15, 2014)
- Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (released October 15, 2014)
- Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (released October 22, 2014)
- Tentacles: Enter the Dolphin (released October 22, 2014)
- Wind-up Knight 2 (released October 29, 2014)
- Happy Wars (released November 5, 2014)
- République (released December 10, 2014)
- Rock Band (released December 17, 2014)
In addition to the above Clothing Sets, there has been four free "Beard Sets" (released on October 15, October 22, October 29, and November 5, each adding four new facial hair types for David) and one special "Customize Pack" for Spy Fiction (released October 7, adding a cosplay outfit for David, Amanda, Forrest, and Olivia while adding five music tracks from the game to listen to).
PC Version[]
At launch, the game received an optional Deluxe Edition (for an additional $14.99), which includes the below costume set, a 44-page art e-book, the entire script for all voice overs in the first season, and a mini 4-song soundtrack. All of these can be purchased separately (for $2.99, $4.99, $4.99, and $3.99 respectively).
- Special Costume Set -12 Beers-: Includes a set of three t-shirts for David (D4 Lager, D4 Ale, D4 Stout), three outfits for Forrest (Lieutenant Style, Avant-Garde!, and Cool Biz), three outfits for Amanda (Police Academy, Avant-Garde!, and Monkey Dance), and three outfits for Olivia (Agent Style, Avant-Garde!, and AG Pilot).
In addition, the game received two additional pieces of DLC at launch:
- SWERY'S Choice Costume Set -4 Cups of Coffee-: Released on June 5, 2015, for $0.99. Includes four pieces of clothing for David: Café SWERY65 Hoodie, Sebastian the Sleuth T-Shirt, "Making My Point" T-Shirt, and #65 Hockey Jersey.
- SWERY'S Choice Costume Set -4 bottles of tequila-: Released on June 5, 2015, for $0.99. Includes four pieces of clothing for David: Predatory Demolition T-Shirt, False Courage Hoodie, Sharapova T-Shirt, and Upper Body Tattoo.
Soundtrack[]
Shortly after release D4 received an Original Soundtrack Release on 11/20/14. The soundtrack is composed of 44 songs separated into two releases each costing $14.99. One titled "David Young Disk" and the other "Peggy Young Disk". A physical copy release was sold at PAX East 2015.
- Title: D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die Original Soundtrack
- Release Date: November 20, 2014
- Lead Composer: Manyo
- Composer: TECHNOuchi, Rio Okano, Atsushi Yamaji
- Access Games Bandcamp (David / Peggy)
- Amazon, iTunes
Track Listings[]
| 01 | Neuron | 1:43 |
| 02 | Salvation | 2:20 |
| 03 | Introduction | 0:31 |
| 04 | Theme of D4 | 3:40 |
| 05 | Detective of the Past | 2:34 |
| 06 | Calling | 1:58 |
| 07 | A String | 2:26 |
| 08 | Happy Go Lucky | 2:05 |
| 09 | Blue Cat | 1:55 |
| 10 | Amanda Shop -Head Office- | 0:57 |
| 11 | Conspiracy | 1:54 |
| 12 | Real Blood | 1:26 |
| 13 | Impatience | 1:45 |
| 14 | Nu Movement | 1:57 |
| 15 | Compulsive Desire | 1:52 |
| 16 | Romance | 2:45 |
| 17 | AROUSAL | 2:59 |
| 18 | Violent Storm | 1:43 |
| 19 | Drank Dead DOM Die | 2:21 |
| 20 | Rock it Out | 2:03 |
| 21 | From the Darkness | 2:13 |
| 22 | Previously on D4 | 1:07 |
| 23 | Steps Ahead | 1:52 |
| 24 | Urban Closet | 3:21 |
| 25 | Recollections | 2:05 |
| 26 | My Little Peggy | 2:14 |
| 27 | Tiptoe | 1:40 |
| 28 | Prime Suspect | 2:02 |
| 29 | Side Connection | 3:04 |
| 30 | Start the Investigation | 1:42 |
| 31 | Amanda Shop -Branch- | 1:49 |
| 32 | Reasoning | 1:39 |
| 33 | Perverted Feeling | 2:10 |
| 34 | Only Love -Staffroll Edit- | 2:08 |
| 35 | The Best of Detective Sebastian | 0:26 |
| 36 | A Solitary Shadow -Edit- | 0:35 |
| 37 | Salvation -Edit- | 1:06 |
PC System Requirements[]
Minimum[]
- OS: Windows 7 64-bit edition or Windows 8 64-bit edition
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz or an equivalent AMD CPU
- Memory: 6GB RAM
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 or AMD Radeon HD 6870 (VRAM 1GB)
- DirectX: DirectX 11
- HDD: 10GB of free space
- Sound Card: A DirectX 11 compatible card
- Other: Keyboard and mouse necessary. Compatible with XInput controllers such as the Xbox 360 controller.
Recommended[]
- OS: Windows 7 64-bit edition or Windows 8 64-bit edition
- CPU: Intel Corei7 4770K @ 3.5GHz or an equivalent AMD CPU
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7850 (VRAM 2GB)
- DirectX: DirectX 11
- HDD: 20GB of free space
- Sound Card: A DirectX 11 compatible card
- Other: Keyboard and mouse necessary. Compatible with XInput controllers such as the Xbox 360 controller.