Honor to a fallen rival.

[xyzzysqrl]

Kenji Eno was my archnemesis. Then he died.

Many years ago I bought a game simply called "D". It was a creepy horror-puzzle game that took around two hours to solve... forced, because if you took longer the game ended. This was to make it more cinematic, you see. It featured a digital actress named Laura whose every motion radiated dull surprise, some of the slowest movement ever seen in a timed game, and a surreal plot with a last-minute twist that has provoked the same reaction in everyone I show the game to: A stunned "WHAT THE FUCK!?" and hysterical laughter.

This game was made by Kenji Eno.

Enemy Zero for the Sega Saturn also starred Laura. This was a first person shooter where all the enemies are invisible and can one-hit-kill the player.

This game was made by Kenji Eno.

D2 was the psuedo-sequel to D, although it didn't follow the first game's plot at all. It featured plant monsters, my first exposure to Japanese-flavored tentacle rape, people who melt into green slime, clones, a scientist who made a sentient talking computer and promptly married it, giant vagina monsters, and I'm not even getting into the really nonsensical stuff.

This game was made by Kenji Eno.

All of these games reduced me to incoherent rage and bafflement. All of them have lived in my mind forever, unforgettable. I used to joke that someday I would fly to Japan and jab Kenji Eno with a barbeque fork.

Then he died. I honored him not as a friend but as a valued rival, someone I felt incomplete without.

Today I learned of a crowdfunding effort. People are continuing his final work, the last game he left unfinished before his death.

"With the help of the gaming community, we will bring KAKEXUN's themes of cosmology (the origin of the universe) and philosophy to life in video game form. This is the purpose of KAKEXUN. Using online game features to battle with numbers and geometry, encounters in unknown dimensions, and brutal battles with enemy creatures, we will create a game world that everybody can enjoy.

The video below shows the primitive form of UI we currently seek. The “Cloud of Numbers” emitted from the unknown space region, n dimension, asks game players to do the calculation. The numbers here are encoded as number figures on dice. It shows the addition in this video.

The calculation is asked in the rhythm of music, and players answer in the rhythm."

I read this and all I can think is...

This game was made by Kenji Eno. I will hate it. I will rage at it. I will be absolutely baffled by it. And I must play it.

Please give generously.

Comments

[houraipeach]

I like to believe that Kenji Eno is seated at the right hand of Izanagi, explaining a game concept where you are a blind man who must paint a series of successively-more-complicated portraits using only the sound of the brush strokes while a toilet monster threatens to eat you, as Izanagi's face steadily goes from curious interest to 'oh-god-this-man-is-insane' twitching horror. And this is as it should be.