The term ‘innovator’ is one that is thrown around quite liberally these days. This person’s an innovator and that person’s an innovator. But most have never heard the name Kenji Eno. Well, my friends, I will attempt to fix that here and now.

Kenji Eno was born in 1970 in the Arakawa prefecture of Tokyo and tragically succumbed to hypertension at the young age of 42. But before he passed away he managed to create some truly innovative video games was also an accomplished pianist and composer.

Kenji san and founded the company WARP in the mid 90’s and had developed his first serious game, the horror survival game known simply as ‘D’ for the Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn and Panasonic 3DO.

sales of the game were a bit lackluster but Sony was impressed enough with its innovative ‘time’ system and survival horror elements that have been recycled in many other survival horror games to follow including Resident Evil, which came out almost a full year after D did, that they green lit a sequel…aptly named; ‘D2’.

In-between D and D2 Kenji san had been working on a game called ‘Enemy Zero’. Sony didn’t like it and passed on it so the game ended up being published on the Sega Saturn.

Enemy Zero is super unique in that you cannot see your enemies so you have to hear them. This was truly innovative at the time and was also quite cinematic. Game was tough as nails, especially if you didn’t have surround sound and/or could sit right in the center because the distance between you and the creatures that were attacking would be accurately represented via depth of sound thru surround channels. I truly wish someone someday decides to remake this game with modern game engines.

Another innovative game that WARP released on the Saturn and then Dreamcast was a game designed specifically for blind gamers called ‘Real Sound’. I owned and played Real Sound on the Dreamcast. The game would feature a black screen and you’d tap buttons on controllers to sounds coming out of surround speakers. The game also came with seeds to plant. Yes, you read correctly…seeds! Since I don’t know Japanese (Real Sound was Japan only) I couldn’t play the game or understand the connection between it and planting seeds but it was pretty cool.

The game I really want to spend time on is ‘D2’. Third and final game in the series of WARP survival horror games as there is a connection between D, Enemy Zero and D2; slight, but its there.

I’m going to back up to the release of first D game. Sony execs were not too happy with its lackluster sales but nonetheless they green lit Enemy Zero for the Playstation but did not provide any development support or funding for it’s development so WARP went out of pocket 100% on it and several months into PSX development of Enemy Zero Sony reneges on their initial agreement to publish, enraging Kenji san. This upset him so much that at that years Tokyo Game Show Kenji san, during a press conference, pretending to stick a Crash Bandicoot plush doll up his ass…further pissing off Ken Kutaragi himself, who went on record saying ‘that man will never make a game for Sony again as long as I live’. WARP had struck a lucrative publishing deal wit SEGA, who couldn’t be happier about the whole turn of events.

While Enemy Zero had come out Kenji san was now working on D2 for Panasonics ill-fated M2 machine. A complete tech demo was shown and everyone was blown away by it. Keep in mind at the time of the tech demo only the PSX, Saturn and N64 were out.

Then another set back sit when Panasonic announced they didn’t have the will to compete against Nintendo, SEGA and Sony and pulled the plug on the M2. WARP went to SEGA and immediately a deal was struck to move development to their upcoming system that would revolutionize 3D gaming; the Dreamcast. SEGA had learned from the mistakes of the Saturn and decided to offer 2 operating systems to develop on; a Windows-based one and their own proprietary. This made porting the game engine from the M2 to the Dreamcast a cinch and in December 1999 D2 was released in Japan with a censored version to hit the US market the following year.

D2 was quite innovative for 1999. An open world exploration game complete with hunting for animals that you’d shoot with your rifle, cook and restore your health with and random enemy encounters akin to a turn based RPG where you’d level up weapons, bullet strength, accuracy and health via experience points.

D2 also had a very dark story, set in the snowy Canadian wilderness, you played Laura Parton. You are on a plane when it’s taken over by hijackers. Plane crashes near a mysterious cabin and factory where these crazy creatures who are a cross between John Carpenter’s The Thing and the hentai anime series Urotsukidoji. Kenji san again was upset that the ESRB ordered the game censored for the US release. The Japanese version features a tentacle creature phallicly inserting itself into the mouth of a female character resembling a blow job and also one of the characters eludes to molesting his very young grand daughter and when it’s time to defeat him he turns into a multi tentacled creature who spouts semen at you.

I played and finished both the import and the US version. The import version for completeness and the US version to understand the story.

D2 did was a good seller in Japan but didn’t do so hot over here. It wasn’t marketed at all and never really found it’s audience. But that can be said about the other WARP games. They were all innovative and original yet would fail to find its audiences.

Kenji san shortly afterwards closed WARP down and went on to make flip phone and then smart phone games right up until his untimely death in 2013. I actually had him as a friend on Facebook for a few years and would message him at times and he’d reply.

So I dedicate this article to the memory of a legend. He did things his way and stood up to the biggest of companies, refusing to compromise his vision no matter the cost.

Please enjoy this little tribute video I found on youtube:

Thank you.

-OGA