Serial Experiments Lain (game)

Released on November 26, 1998 for the PlayStation, the Serial Experiments Lain game consists mostly of pieces of information collected in a random order that allow the player to piece together Lain's story.

There is guidebook for this game titled Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide.

About the game

Source: [1].

This file is hosted on 'thought experiments lain' - http://www.cjas.org/~leng/open.htm - by Lawrence Eng

        >I have played Lain PS game about a month ago. I have a mixed impression.
        >But, now I know there are many people who want to know about it, I'll try
        >to write.
        >
        >
        >I can't recommend this "game" to other people. especially non Japanese
        >speakers. But It really has a completely another Lain story.
        >
        >It contains about 5 minutes anime movie and fragments of dialogue by recorded
        >voice (total about 2 hours?). There is no Japanese texts. English text
        >won't help
        >to understand the story. You have to understand from the japanese dialogue
        >without Japanese text or character animation. I know that it is hopeless
        >for non
        >Japanese speakers. But I think that the release of the English version is also
        >hopeless.
        >
        >I can't say that it is a "game". I think that it is like a database
        >software which
        >has it's own interface. There is always Lain wearing special costume at
        >the center
        >of the screen. Whenever you command to Lain by Pad , Lain picks up one icon by
        >animation and play the fragments of animation or dialogues of the icon.
        >The story
        >was recorded like radio dramas and they were chopped and dispersed randomly to
        >each icons. You have to seek out the fragments and you have to think what is
        >going and what it means by yourself.
        >
        >At first,  you can see only a little data fragments. And you can't play
        >the data by
        >time order. As you find out more data, You'll see more about what was going in
        >past.
        >
        >Good thing:
        > -The atmosphere is similar to TV series. Very odd and complex.
        > -Cool display design. Same designers as the CG scene of the TV series.
        > -Many AB's artworks.
        >
        >Bad thing:
        > -I think this is NOT a game.
        > -User Interface is horrible. You'll feel frustrating by the slow response.
        > -Character design of anime part is not so good compared to the TV series.
        > (I think that Lain's character design in TV series is almost perfect.)
        > -You have to think by yourself what is going from the fragments of the story.
        > (But it was made so on purpose.)
        >
        >Same as the TV series:
        > -Lain's producer Ueda Masayuki. Lain was originally planned to make 2
        > different stories.
        > -Lain's voice actress Shimizu Kaori.
        > -Lain's hair style.
        > -Wired space.
        > -Philosophy(?).
        >
        >Different:
        > -Character design.
        > -All of other characters. (There is no Alice, Deus, Knights...)
        > -Story. No connection to TV series timeline.
        >
        >Summary of the story <spoiler>
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        >----------------------------------------------------------------------------
        >
        >Iwakura Lain is a 11 years old ordinary girl.
        >
        >Yonera Touko is a 27 years old psychiatrist.
        >
        >This game(?) contains Lain's personal diary, Touko's personal diary, Touko's
        >council records with Lain, Touko's medical records and few others, and
        >animation
        >movies for about 5 minutes which was chopped to about 30 pieces.
        >
        >Lain visited to Touko. She had been annoyed by hallucinations. Touko began
        >to councel her. When Lain was asked about her hair style, she answered.
        >"It enters from right. And perhaps it goes out from left. so..."
        >
        >Lain became interested in psychopathology, and asked many things to Touko.
        >She answered the expert knowledge about psychopathology in order to keep
        >close to Lain. Lain became to like Touko.
        >
        >Lain entered junior high school. She had her best friend Misato. And she
        >became to hook on network. She became to communicate to other people
        >in the wired, and also to be able to cracking. Lain always talked to Touko
        >about Misato and the net. There are also many things about them in Lain's
        >diary.
        >
        >One day, Lain's father disappeared. No one told where he went. Lain began
        >to make her own robot "father". She made an AI and his body by a machine
        >connected to the computer. But the "father" doesn't have the head and the
        >lower half of the body. Her "father" began to study from net.
        >(Her true father was killed by someone. But it is not certain who did it.)
        >
        >Touko felt frustrating that she can't do enough her own study because she had
        >to help her boss's own study, and because her only patient Lain looked no
        >problem. She became to hate her boss. After for a while, her boss killed
        >himself.
        >
        >3 years passed since Touko began to councel Lain.
        >
        >Touko thought that she has no problem now. But other patient was not assigned
        >to Touko. Touko began to be impatient. At the same time, Touko knew that her
        >lover Takashi married to the other woman.  She became to love the other guy
        >Yoshida who was a salesman in Tachibana Lab. He gave her a trial piece of
        >machine for relaxation. But he also refused her.
        >
        >One day, Touko found out that Misato doesn't exist. But Lain denied the fact.
        >Touko began to diagnose Lain again.
        >
        >Lain realized that the "father"'s machine body is not necessory. She
        >programmed
        >her father into the wired, and broke the body. And she also began to program
        >herself into the wired.
        >
        >Touko became emotionally unstable. Lain began to worry about Touko, and
        >now Lain
        >has even more knowledge than Touko. So, Lain began to diagnose Touko. Touko's
        >medical records became Lain's medical records. (It seems that the machine from
        >Tachibana Lab. made Touko unstable on purpose.)
        >
        >"Close the world , Open the nExt."
        >At a girder bridge, Lain met another Lain, and talked to each other.
        >"It ended. It began."
        >Lain put her gun out and shut herself.
        >
        >Lain appeared to Touko. Touko knew that she was taken in by Lain who is an
        >existence
        >more than human beings. Touko died.
        >
        >Lain "What will I need in the wired?" "Existence, will. Others are only data."
        >
        >Now Lain and Touko only lives in the wired and began to talk to "player".
        >Lain "From now, I am always with you."
        >
        >----------------------------------------------------------------------------
        >
        >It made me feel as if they really exists in my PlayStation. Many thinks
        >that this ending
        >is fearful and too hopeless (including me)...
        >
        >This story was not arranged by time order. I have seen all data (perhaps)
        >and I
        >estimated that this story is like above. It seems that there are still
        >many mysteries.
        >But this game(?) seems to be aimed to make us think about the story by
        >ourselves
        >and to have empathy for this story and Lain.
        >
        >I think that It is similar to what Lain's TV series aimed to. It makes us
        >confusing
        >the fiction with our reality. And It will also make us feel as if Lain
        >really exists.
        >You'll see what I mean at the end of the TV series. But it is not so
        >hopeless as
        >this.

Connections between the game and the anime

This game explains many elements in the anime that are taken for granted or left unexplained. It can be considered an alternate timeline to the anime, perhaps one where Lain is incarnated into a different environment.

• Lain's haircut

In the game, it is revealed that Lain cut her own hair. The longer lock of hair where she clips her hairclip is meant to prevent something that "enters from the right" from "going out through the left". Not much is known about the context of this statement (at least to the English-speaking fandom), but it has been theorised that Lain's hairstyle wards off demons or prevents her memories from disappearing.

• The chip from Layer 09

This may be the same in nature as the machine that Touko received from Tachibana Labs.

Serial Experiments Lain media

Anime • Game

Books

Omnipresence in Wired • The Nightmare of Fabrication • Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide • Serial Experiments Lain Ultimate Fan Guide • Scenario Experiments Lain • Visual Experiments Lain

Music

Duvet (opening theme) • Tooi Sakebi (ending theme) • Serial Experiments Lain OST • Serial Experiments Lain: Cyberia Mix • serial experiments lain BOOTLEG • LPR-309 • Cyberia Layer 2 • Cyberia Layer:03 • Twilight