Squaresoft - 1998 - PS1
I'm really not sure why I didn't try this game before now. It's got "me" written all over it. Parasite Eve is a text heavy horror RPG by Sqaresoft for the PS1. I love horror, I love RPGs, I love story and I love Squaresoft games. Classic Squaresoft, of course - not necessarily Square-Enix. Okay, so full disclosure: I haven't finished this game yet, but I'm on the 5th of 6 chapters. I usually try to complete every game I review here, but I wanted to play a bunch of new horror games in October and I think I bit off a few more games than I had time to chew this month. I'll admit to not finishing Clock Tower last week either. But I'm quite excited to wrap up Parasite Eve this weekend as opposed to Clock Tower which felt too aged for me to really enjoy.
Parasite Eve is actually a "sort of" sequel to a novel of the same name by a Japanese author named Hideaki Sena. The characters and themes of the novel were adapted to be used in the game, and a lot of new narrative was written by Takashi Tokita, who also helped direct Chrono Trigger. There's actually a lot of well-respected industry talent that worked on this game. Hironobu Sakaguchi and Tetsuya Nomura, both of Final Fantasy fame, respectively produced and did lead artwork for Parasite Eve. The game's excellent soundtrack was composed by Yoko Shimomura who is arguably the most prolific video game composer of all time who is not named Nobuo Uematsu or Koji Kondo. "Primal Eyes", "Missing Perspective" and "Out of Phase" are examples of Shimomura's great work on the soundtrack.
Parasite Eve tells the story of Aya Brea who is a cop working for the NYPD in a fictional New York City during Christmas of 1997. The game opens as Aya and her date are at Carnegie Hall watching an opera. During her solo performance, the lead actress of the opera starts to creepily stare directly at Aya and while the two gaze across the theater at each other, everyone else in the room suddenly begins to catch fire and spontaneously combust. It's a pretty crazy and horrifying opening scene. Aya then learns that the lead actress is being possessed by a being named Eve who is the source of the body melting fires. Eve eventually escapes Carnegie Hall and Aya must spend the rest of the game unraveling the mystery of who Eve is, learning what she's trying to accomplish, and finding a way to foil her plans. Parasite Eve isn't the greatest written game, but the story has its moments and keeps you interested by teasing a mysterious relationship between Aya and Eve.
One of the first things I noticed about Parasite Eve is how beautiful and detailed the backgrounds were. I love and miss all of the hand drawn backdrops that are present in all of Square's PS1 RPGs and I hope some of the modern RPGs will start to take a crack at this art style again. Parasite Eve's battle system is in some ways an evolution of Chrono Trigger's. There is no "battle scene"; encounters happen seamlessly while you're exploring. You also have full control over Aya's movements during the battle. You can move around to dodge enemy attacks and move closer when your ATB gauge is full to deal maximum damage at close range. All of Aya's weapons have range rating which determines how far away you can be from enemies and still successfully make an attack. I found I was constantly managing Aya's spatial position while my ATB was charging, which was an interesting mechanic. I know this is back-to-back reviews where I'm complaining about this, but really I found Aya's move speed to be too slow, both in and out of battle. Aya's snail-like move speed combined with the slow screen fade transitions made exploring a bit tedious at times.
Summary:
Parasite Eve isn't the most pulse-poundingly terrifying game out there, but I still found it be enjoyable. The game's creepy themes, excellent artwork and eerie soundtrack work together to make Parasite Eve an interesting play, but it's probably not anything that will make you want to sleep with the lights on. The combat was overall pretty decent, but it was hampered by Aya's slow move speed and the battles lacked that real addictive hook that's found in most of Square's games around this era. The story has its moments, but could really be aided by a little more character development early on. I did enjoy the realistic setting of New York City as opposed to the imaginary fantasy locations that are in most RPGs. I'm excited to finish this game up and to eventually move on to Parasite Eve 2 in the future
EDIT: Finished the game. The highlights of the game for me were the 4th chapter which is spent locked in a creepy abandoned hospital basement during a power outage and the 6th chapter final boss fight. Without spoiling too much, my first real moment of terror in Parasite Eve came during the final boss fight. I'd recommend this game, but only to players who can tolerate the pacing of older RPGs
Parasite Eve is actually a "sort of" sequel to a novel of the same name by a Japanese author named Hideaki Sena. The characters and themes of the novel were adapted to be used in the game, and a lot of new narrative was written by Takashi Tokita, who also helped direct Chrono Trigger. There's actually a lot of well-respected industry talent that worked on this game. Hironobu Sakaguchi and Tetsuya Nomura, both of Final Fantasy fame, respectively produced and did lead artwork for Parasite Eve. The game's excellent soundtrack was composed by Yoko Shimomura who is arguably the most prolific video game composer of all time who is not named Nobuo Uematsu or Koji Kondo. "Primal Eyes", "Missing Perspective" and "Out of Phase" are examples of Shimomura's great work on the soundtrack.
Parasite Eve tells the story of Aya Brea who is a cop working for the NYPD in a fictional New York City during Christmas of 1997. The game opens as Aya and her date are at Carnegie Hall watching an opera. During her solo performance, the lead actress of the opera starts to creepily stare directly at Aya and while the two gaze across the theater at each other, everyone else in the room suddenly begins to catch fire and spontaneously combust. It's a pretty crazy and horrifying opening scene. Aya then learns that the lead actress is being possessed by a being named Eve who is the source of the body melting fires. Eve eventually escapes Carnegie Hall and Aya must spend the rest of the game unraveling the mystery of who Eve is, learning what she's trying to accomplish, and finding a way to foil her plans. Parasite Eve isn't the greatest written game, but the story has its moments and keeps you interested by teasing a mysterious relationship between Aya and Eve.
One of the first things I noticed about Parasite Eve is how beautiful and detailed the backgrounds were. I love and miss all of the hand drawn backdrops that are present in all of Square's PS1 RPGs and I hope some of the modern RPGs will start to take a crack at this art style again. Parasite Eve's battle system is in some ways an evolution of Chrono Trigger's. There is no "battle scene"; encounters happen seamlessly while you're exploring. You also have full control over Aya's movements during the battle. You can move around to dodge enemy attacks and move closer when your ATB gauge is full to deal maximum damage at close range. All of Aya's weapons have range rating which determines how far away you can be from enemies and still successfully make an attack. I found I was constantly managing Aya's spatial position while my ATB was charging, which was an interesting mechanic. I know this is back-to-back reviews where I'm complaining about this, but really I found Aya's move speed to be too slow, both in and out of battle. Aya's snail-like move speed combined with the slow screen fade transitions made exploring a bit tedious at times.
Summary:
Parasite Eve isn't the most pulse-poundingly terrifying game out there, but I still found it be enjoyable. The game's creepy themes, excellent artwork and eerie soundtrack work together to make Parasite Eve an interesting play, but it's probably not anything that will make you want to sleep with the lights on. The combat was overall pretty decent, but it was hampered by Aya's slow move speed and the battles lacked that real addictive hook that's found in most of Square's games around this era. The story has its moments, but could really be aided by a little more character development early on. I did enjoy the realistic setting of New York City as opposed to the imaginary fantasy locations that are in most RPGs. I'm excited to finish this game up and to eventually move on to Parasite Eve 2 in the future
EDIT: Finished the game. The highlights of the game for me were the 4th chapter which is spent locked in a creepy abandoned hospital basement during a power outage and the 6th chapter final boss fight. Without spoiling too much, my first real moment of terror in Parasite Eve came during the final boss fight. I'd recommend this game, but only to players who can tolerate the pacing of older RPGs
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