System Played: Playstation
Year Released: 1998
Year Reviewed: 2018
Parasite Eve is a sort of ‘SquareSoft does Resident Evil’. A horror themed JRPG that is also a ‘kind of’ sequel to a Japanese novel.
There are several references to some ‘past incident’ in Japan throughout, but familiarity with the source material isn’t a prerequisite for playing the game (nor is it a good read according to the Amazon reviews), which takes place in New York City, Christmas Eve, 1997.
You play as NYPD Officer, Aya Brea (25), trying to enjoy a night at the opera, when people start spontaneously combusting all over the place, and you’re attacked by a bunch of mutant freaks. Not really want you want on a night off…
The game plays out over 6 days following ‘the incident’ at the opera house. What’s going on? Who is this mysterious Eve? Is it all (very obviously) related to Aya’s overly mysterious past? Detective Brea is on the case!
With real world New York City as your setting, you’ll visit several landmark locales (more than once) during the course of the game, between trips back and forth to the precinct, to jog the story along. You are given some freedom to go where you want, selecting from a map, but unless it’s where you’re supposed to be for the story, there isn’t really anything to do...
On the ground, you run around in a familiar fashion, encountering enemies and item chests. Some of the larger level layouts I found confusing. The park, and the museum especially I spent a couple of hours retreading the same rooms over, having absolutely no fun.
Enemy encounters don’t seem random for every so many steps you take, more like scripted for when you walk into certain boundaries within a room.
This sees the screen transition in familiar JRPG style, with enemies and menus appearing to postpone your progress again.
The combat uses an Active Time-style system, where you can run around the screen in real time, while waiting for a meter to fill, and ideally outside of enemy attack range. Once charged, it’s your turn to attack/use items/etc.
Your main form of offense comes from the guns you find and upgrade throughout. You also earn new ‘Parasite Powers’ as you level up, which is just like your ‘magic’ in most other JRPGs. These abilities are more defensive than offensive, so you need a decent gun at all times.
Ammo is limited, but there is usually plenty around. Not having experienced any shortage throughout, I fucked up spectacularly on the penultimate chapter by switching to a machine gun which ate through my vast supply in not time at all, only becoming evident when I had none left. Rookie mistake.
As well as the usual ‘XP’ you get from battles, you also get ‘bonus points’ from combat which can be used to upgrade the either the refill speed of the Active Time battle meter, inventory capacity, or equipment stats.
Well, I assumed the best attribute to sink all my bonus points into would be the AT gauge. Having that refill faster means more turns. Makes sense? But apparently no, this is the worst thing you can waste it on it turned out. I was supposed to be increasing weapon damage the whole time. Maybe this is why I never warmed to the game?
A weapon levelling system where your surplus arsenal can be broken down with ‘tool’ items to strengthen and modify others, I couldn’t especially get into. Likewise the limited inventory space means you frequently have to leave stuff behind. Unless you want to spend points on it. Which nobody does!
So the exploration and the combat are a bit ‘meh’. How about the story?
Not so great. Without spoiling it, the “connection” between Aya and Eve is utterly predictable. There’s lots of pseudoscience’y talk about biology and mitochondria which you might not find all that interesting.
It’s B-movie stuff, complete with the awkward dialogue, but not the “good” B-movie stuff.
In typical Square style, there is a generous smattering of FMVs throughout and the poly characters on 2D pre-rendered backgrounds still works, conjuring up fond memories of the likes of FFVII and Resident Evil. But make no mistake, Parasite Eve is neither of those games.
Despite the talents of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Tetsuya Nomura and Takashi Tokita, PE certainly isn’t up to the quality of their best, nor does it have the scope of a typical Square RPG.
Runtime is around 8 hours on the initial playthrough (even with a couple wasted hours walking around in circles), and finishing gets you a kind of NewGame+ called ‘Ex Game’ which requires you to fight your way through 77 floors of the Chrysler building to see a brief ‘proper’ ending. Which is a lot of work.
Maybe you can put it down to the fact that the game came out in that post-FFVII era when Square was limiting development time on titles and pushing them out regardless (Xenogears) to get some money in the door? ...something the company should probably revisit given how long it took FFXV to surface. And where’s Kingdom hearts 3 still?! Anyway, Parasite Eve is certainly not Square's best.
5/10
0 Yorumlar