Parasite Eve

Christmastime in Hell

The decision of developer Squaresoft to produce titles for the Sony PlayStation was a turning point in the history of games, in part providing the system’s significant rivalry to the dominant Nintendo. Sony’s use of compact discs instead of cartridges in part played a role in their rise in the videogame market, certainly appealing to companies like Square with the medium’s flexibility. In addition to several Final Fantasy titles for the PSX, Squaresoft branched out into other attempts in the RPG genre, including Parasite Eve, a follow-up to the Japanese novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena.

The game opens with the protagonist, Aya Brea, a New York City police officer, attending an opera with her blind date, when the lead actress, Melissa, takes especial notice of Aya and incinerates the entire audience, although Aya survives. She pursues the supernatural Melissa through the depths of the theater, finding she’s evolved into a being that calls herself Eve, and Aya spends six days trying to protect Manhattan from the chaos she causes. The story is generally well-told, with good pacing for the game’s length, although the main ending is rather esoteric, and the translation, while coherent, overuses ellipses and capitalized words.

Throughout Parasite Eve, Aya battles various kinds of mutants with encounters triggered in many different chambers of the various maps, at most one per prerendered area, indicated by a monochrome flash of the screen. During combat, Aya can move around the battlefield, necessary to avoid the attacks by her adversaries, with an active time gauge akin to most Final Fantasies filling and allowing her to perform various commands when full. Actions to take include shooting enemies with Aya’s current firearm, changing her weapon, using a consumable item, and using Parasite Energy-consuming powers.

Should Aya choose to attack with her weapon, whether firearm or club (although the player probably won’t want to use the latter often, given the generous amount of ammo for her arms), a green hemisphere appears indicating the range in which she can execute her assault. If a weapon allows her to fire multiple bullets, the player can choose different enemies at which to shoot them, with her firearm eventually running out of ammunition and necessitating reloading in the middle of battle, although she’ll continue firing afterward, players needing to wait for the active time gauge to recharge, whilst avoiding enemies.

Aya can also use the various Parasite powers she acquires throughout the game, with the action of battle thankfully pausing as she does so, critical to things such as her healing magic. Luckily, her ability points gradually recover during the action of battle, although the recharge rate is slightly lower the less her current amount. The action also stops during her use of consumable items, with the limit the game places on how much she can carry at a time adding to the battle system’s effectiveness and challenge. One issue certain players may bemoan, though, is that things such as reloading Aya’s firearm and changing weapons wastes her turn.

Battles end when either Aya exterminates all her foes or she loses all her health, although having revival items in her inventory or casting a revival spell prior to death will resurrect her with some HP. Should Aya die standardly, it’s Game Over and back to the title screen, with no opportunity to restart the lost battle, and progress to the battle lost, which can sometimes waste the player’s time. Should Aya succeed in combat, which typically doesn’t take a long time in most cases, she acquires experience points for leveling, which happens frequently, and grants Bonus Points the player can invest in additional inventory space or quicker active time, along with occasional items.

Aya can also equip body armor, with the player able to use tools to transfer armor effects, such as automatic use of health-recovering items at low health, to other equipment, the same going for weapons. She can also use modification permits to add skill slots to weapons and armor, although these aren’t fairly common. Overall, the battle system works decently, although the potential to waste time, given the dated use of save points, is a main turnoff, and the endgame is fairly irritating, with the ability to get a Game Over after the last boss, and the potential to lock oneself into an unwinnable situation without keeping multiple save files.

Although Squaresoft billed Parasite Eve as a survival horror RPG, its most frightening aspect is not its narrative, but rather its control. While the player can pause, except during CG cutscenes, and the main interface is generally straightforward, there are serious issues such as the inability to skip any story scene, the inconsistent save system and consequential potential to waste time, the lack of maps for more complex areas, the limited inventory that constantly warrants discarding items, and the lack of indicators for interactable objects throughout the game. Overall, the first game isn’t user-friendly.

Yoko Shimomura composed the first game’s soundtrack, which has a central theme and good remixes of it, alongside realistic sound effects, although there are many areas without music, and most of the ambient tracks aren’t exactly memorable.

The visuals of Parasite Eve are one of its more positive aspects, with plentiful CG FMVs that look good even today, and lots of photorealistic prerendered environments, although there is occasional blurriness in this regard. The character models also contain nice, realistic anatomy, but have some pixilation and don’t show emotion other than flailing around. Even so, the game is far from an eyesore.

Finally, playtime is fairly short, form as little to six hours if one is lucky to twelve if grinding becomes necessary, with an EX Game allowing for additional playthroughs, with an extra dungeon unlocked upon completing the game the first time. However, the inability to skip cutscenes may be a hindrance to those who wish to go through the game again.

Ultimately, Parasite Eve is at best an okay start to the survivor horror RPG franchise, although it does have many things going for it such as the ideas behind the battle system, the storyline, FMVs that look good even today, and lasting appeal. However, it does have aspects going against it such as the irritating endgame, its user-unfriendliness, its general lack of memorable music, and portions of the visuals that haven’t aged particularly well. Regardless, it’s a superior experience to its more survival horror-leaning sequel, and warrants just a glance or two.

The Good:
+Quick gameplay with good ideas.
+Nice narrative.
+FMVs look good even today.
+Plenty lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Annoying endgame.
-User-unfriendly.
-Too quiet at times.
-Parts of the graphics haven’t aged well.

The Bottom Line:
An okay survivor horror RPG.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation
Game Mechanics: 6.5/10
Controls: 1.0/10
Story: 7.5/10
Localization: 5.0/10
Music/Sound: 5.0/10
Graphics: 6.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 7.5/10
Difficulty: Hard
Playing Time: 6-12+ Hours

Overall: 5.5/10