Parasite Eve

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

Clock Tower

Human Entertainment - 1995 - SNES

Clock Tower is a true survival horror game that actually pre-dates Resident Evil and was released on the SNES in 1995. This game is not to be confused with the 1996 PS1 game Clock Tower 2 which was released in the U.S. simply as Clock Tower because the original SNES game never made it outside of Japan. So the Clock Tower series has the old Final Fantasy numbering problem where no one really knows which game you're actually talking about until you clarify with the year or system. I think we should all just universally agree to use the Japanese numbering for these games to minimize the amount of unnecessary confusion. 

It actually surprised me that the original Clock Tower was never released outside of Japan because on the surface at least, it seems like a very American styled game. You play as the very American-sounding "Jennifer Simpson" who is a young teenage girl and an orphan. In the beginning of the game, Jennifer and a few of her friends are sent to live at the "The Clock Tower" which is a giant old mansion owned by the wealthy Barrows family. Shortly after arriving, Jennifer finds herself separated from her friends and can her distant screams from somewhere in the mansion. She eventually encounters "Scissorman" - a short boy with a deformed face who wields a gigantic pair of hedge clippers. Scissorman is a villian who is totally straight out of all of the American slasher films that gained popularity in the 80s. Even Clock Tower's opening music sounds remarkably similar to Michael Myers' theme song from Halloween. 

Mechanically, Clock Tower is a blend of Survival Horror and a Point and Click adventure game. You move a cursor around the screen with the SNES d-pad and can interact with items or objects by pressing the "A" button. Moving Jennifer around the screen is done in a similar fashion. I know Clock Tower is nearly 20 years old now, but there were a few things about this game that really felt outdated. Actually, moving Jennifer is actually one of the first things I noticed that really irked me. WHY IS HER MOVE SPEED SO SLOW????? Out of curiosity, I went back and timed how long it takes Jennifer to cross the the main lobby from one end to the other. It literally takes 36 seconds. Think about how long that is. Even once I figured out that you can double tap A to run (why would I not ALWAYS want my character to run??), it still takes 13 seconds. Too slow!! Even in 1995, players had to have gotten fed up with this.

Each encounter with Scissorman is resolved by running away from him; there is no combat in the game. Scissorman usually shows up randomly while you're exploring the mansion or trying to solve puzzles, but some of his appearances are triggered by certain actions. The puzzle solving in Clock Tower is not really a strong suit, but the game does build tension somewhat effectively. Like any good horror game, there is a fair amount of suspense when Scissorman ISN'T around, because you're not sure when he'll appear next. But when he does appear, dealing with him is really more of an annoyance than a terror. Moving Jennifer around often felt unresponsive and even when Scissorman killed me, the game just took me right back to where I was before I died. So really death in Clock Tower is just kind of a mild annoyance. I felt that this game could have benefited from knowing that the player's enemies are always the most scary when you can't see them. The best parts of Clock Tower were when Scissorman was nowhere around. Like Alfred Hitchcock said, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it". 

Summary:

I can't really whole-heartedly recommend this game unless you're a huge fan of classic horror games or classic point and click games and can overlook this game's faults. I'm afraid it really hasn't aged that well. It does suspense somewhat well, but everything else will feel very old. I could see how this game would have had its place back in 1995 with like young kids staying up late and playing this at a sleepover with the lights off or something like that. I've heard subsequent titles in this series improved on the formula of the original, so maybe I'll check one of them out eventually. If you do decide to go back to the original, I'd advise doing so on an emulator that has a "speed up" feature. Seriously, that walk animation...

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

LucasArts - 1993 - SNES/Genesis

I'm cheating a little bit here by labeling Zombies Ate My Neighbors as a horror game. I don't think it's truly a horror game, but it is horror themed if you can make a distinction between those two things. So remember when LucasArts was a thing? Well back in the 90s before all they were doing was milking the Star Wars license, LucasArts used to be known for quality point-and-click adventure games like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango. It was around this time that the creative talent at LucasArts broke away from their traditional fare of PC adventure games to produce Zombies Ate My Neighbors, a co-op shoot-em-up game for the SNES and Genesis. Yes, the game can also be played single player - but find a buddy if you can. The real fun is had in multiplayer.

So you, and hopefully a friend, will play as Zeke and Julie - two teenage neighborhood kids who witness an attack on their suburb by just about every horror movie monster you can think of. There's zombies, mummies, werewolves, aliens, vampires, you name it. Zeke and Julie arm themselves with all sorts of unconventional weaponry like squirt guns, soda cans, dinner plates and fire extinguishers to combat the threat. Each weapon's effectiveness varies depending on which enemy it's used on. For instance, mummies are weak vs. soda cans. Because, you know, reasons.

The game features 55 levels, but I'm not sure I've ever even made it past the twenty something range levels in this game. It gets pretty hard pretty quick, even with co-op help. The main objective in each level is not to kill all of the enemies, but to save all of the neighbors in each level. Each level's map is a non-linear, giant block of terrain and you must rescue each and every one of the neighbors hidden in the level. You don't have a hard time limit, but the longer you take, the more likely it is that neighbors will start being killed by the infinitely respawning monsters in each level. Once neighbors die, they won't come back - even in subsequent levels - so rescuing them as quickly as possible is paramount. The game is over when all of the neighbors die or if you lose all of your lives. Ammo management is also a key mechanic as each weapon has a finite amount of ammo. You can find more ammo, different weapons, health packs and other helpful items in each level, but you'll have to look carefully as these upgrades are often well hidden.

Summary:
There's not much else that can be said about this game. It's a classic co-op shooter that still holds up very well today. It's difficult, but it's still a great game to share with a friend. Discovering the game's secrets, fighting huge mutant babies and frantically running away from chainsaw killers in a giant hedge maze is still just as fun as it was 20+ years ago.

Off

Mortis Ghost - 2008 - PC

I stumbled across this game while searching for new stuff to play and looking really deep into the internet for recommendations. I often like to try lesser known games that are passionately appreciated by a very small group of people. I saw that Off was a game that was getting this kind of love and decided I wanted to check it out. Off is a French indie game released on the PC in 2008 which was eventually translated into English in 2011. It is a weird, weird, trippy game. I think I would pitch it as: "What if Earthbound was a horror game? And then it was given an extra dose of weirdness"

In Off, you play as "The Batter" (possible Earthbound reference?) who is tasked with "purifying" various zones of the in-game world that have become infested with ghostly specters. The Batter is guided through the game world by a well-spoken and eternally smiling feline known as "The Judge" whose in-game artwork looks like it was likely influenced by Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat. The Judge provides The Batter with knowledge and background story about the in-game world and often provides hints for the puzzle solving sections. The Batter is also assisted by a masked merchant named Zacharie who sells The Batter equipment, items and upgrades. He always greets The Batter with a signature creepy chuckle and will occasionally wear a cat mask to impersonate the Judge for some bizarre reason. Most of the characters in the game, especially The Judge and Zacharie, are quite aware that they are characters in a video game and will sometimes directly address the player as though you were a character in the game. In most games, this sort of 4th wall break is done for comedic effect, but that's not the case with Off. Here, it's used as a story element which helps construct the creepy, surreal atmosphere. This is my favorite type of horror game. Off mixes its dark and disturbing subject matter with bizarre, surreal imagery to mess with the player's mind. It uses atmosphere and storytelling to deliver its chills in lieu of jump scares.

I was initially not very taken with Off's art style. It looked cheap, minimalistic and low quality. But as I played the game, the artwork really grew on me and I think it helps to give this game a sense of style. Some of the monster designs are really horrifying too. The soundtrack also helps to create the unique and wacky feel of the game. Just give a listen to "Pepper Steak", Off's battle theme. It's a remix of an old jazz song set to a Cajun beat. It sounds completely insane and a little horrifying, which fits in perfectly with the game thematically. The one complaint I will level against the sound design is that Off repeats some basic sound effects much too often. And I'm not sure if it was just my copy of the game, but the music was very poorly looped. Minor complaints, but these are little things that can be easily cleaned up to give a game more polish.

I found the storytelling to simultaneously be a strength and weakness in Off. The dialogue is very well written, but the story is often ambiguous at times. For a good portion of the game, I felt like I wasn't sure what I was doing or why I was doing it. There are also a lot of events that take place in the game that are a little vague about what's happening, especially near the end. While narrative ambiguity is a definite problem with the game, I still felt interested to explore the world and learn about all of the characters which speaks to how strong and engaging the writing still is. The actual gameplay for Off is where the game falls flat on its face. The RPG combat is very basic and extremely repetitive. Without any interesting battle mechanics, Off's combat system started to stale very quickly. I found I could just use the same attacks and strategy regardless of which enemies I was facing. The game's designers chose to include an "auto-battle" system as well, but I feel this is actually a detriment to Off. It's never good when a game can play itself. The player always needs to feel engaged. The puzzles in this game were almost equally as disappointing as the combat. A lot of the puzzles weren't very well communicated and even the ones what were weren't very clever or interesting. There were times when I wasn't even sure if what looking at was even intended to be a puzzle or not. It's a shame because a little more polish, thought and depth on the gameplay would have done a lot to improve the playability of this game.

Summary:
If you play Off, you're doing it for the story, not the gameplay. The puzzles are weak and the combat is mind-numbingly repetitive. To its credit, Off still manages to create a very unique and bizarre world through strong writing and stylistically appropriate artwork and music. The story lost me at times, but it was still an interesting and engaging ride. Off is certainly not for everyone though and it will likely be doomed by its faults to continue to only be appreciated only by a small group of hardcore horror game fans. If you do decide to try it though, don't say I didn't warn you about that combat system.

EDIT: You can download Off completely free here if you're interested in giving it a shot

Resident Evil

Capcom - 2002 (1996 Original) - GameCube/Wii/PS3/X360

Ahhh, October. October has always been one of my favorite months. Maybe it's because I was born in the beginning of the month, or maybe it's because October means football season is in full swing or maybe it's because the oppressive Florida weather where I live starts to cool down a bit and you can go outside again without feeling like you're going to die. Or maybe it's because October is home to Halloween, which has become one of my favorite holidays in my adult life. Aside from eating candy and dressing up like ridiculous characters, the fact that Halloween is a sort of celebration of fear and scary things has always been a novel concept to me. Last year, I observed Halloween by watching a bunch of horror films and exploring specifically why I did or did not find them scary. This year, I'm planning to do the same thing here, but with games. I'm going to kick things off with one of the most obvious and well-known horror games of all time, but I promise in the coming weeks I'll cover some horror games you probably haven't played before. Also if you're looking for other horror titles to try, check out anything I've labeled with the horror tag so far. All of those titles are interesting in their own way and definitely worth a look with Silent Hill 2 being a particular favorite of mine.

The original Resident Evil made its debut on the PS1 in 1996 and is considered to be the genesis of the survival horror game genre. It was very well received critically and commercially and it of course spawned many sequels, spin-offs and movie tie-ins. Starting with Resident Evil 4, recent entries in the series have been more action/shooter than survival horror, but the original Resident Evil is certainly true survival horror. As important and influential as the original is, the game I want to specifically talk about is the 2002 remake for GameCube that was then ported to a bunch of other consoles. The 2002 remake contains completely redone visuals and cutscenes, alterations to gameplay, completely different puzzles and re-recorded voice acting, sound effects and music. This sounds like total blasphemy, especially to remake a game as iconic as the original. But the remake is SO well done; it's faithful to the vision of its predecessor and it's a testament to the quality of the remake that the remake is arguably even more well received than the original. Aside from more immersive sound and graphics, probably the most important thing the remake did was re-record the voice overs. The voice acting was, well, pretty terrible. I think the enhancements made in the remake enable this game to age a little more gracefully and stand the test of time as a horror game masterpiece.

If you've ever played any of the other entries in the Resident Evil series, you know that the story is kind of ridiculous and throw away. There's all sorts of plot holes and inconsistencies and it can get pretty absurd at times. Most of my other favorite horror games use excellent writing to help create their creepy mood, but not really so with Resident Evil. What it lacks in storytelling, it makes up for with superb audiovisual presentation and excellent game design. One of the first unusual things you'll notice when playing the game is that it uses a fixed and stationary camera. The game is still rendered in full 3D, but the camera never moves, only the the player and enemies do. This can be a little disorienting at first, especially when changing scenes, but I'm surprised I haven't seen this elsewhere in other Survival Horror games. It makes the game feel very cinematic and gives the designers complete control over exactly what they want the player to see. In first person games or games with an adjustable camera, the designers have to design set pieces and jump scares around knowing or guessing where the player's camera will be. Resident Evil is freed up to design its scares however it pleases, and it does so very well.

Resident Evil does a great job of not only creating creepy atmosphere with its audiovisuals, but also by creating stress and nervousness through gameplay. Encountering an enemy in is scary in its own right, but that fear is also accompanied by the stress of considering how to deal with the enemy. You may have a pistol, but ammo is limited. Should you still shoot it? Knives don't consume ammo, but are also more risky as you have to get close to the enemy in order to kill it. And even if you do manage to "kill" a zombie, it will actually eventually reanimate and become stronger and faster. You can prevent a zombie from reanimating by burning their corpse, but that means you'll have to carry around kerosene and a lighter which take up precious inventory slots. Burning corpses will also consume kerosene which is preciously finite resource. Is the corpse in a key corridor that you'll have to walk through frequently? It might not be worth your kerosene. And if ammo or health are low, sometimes the best option may be to simply run away.

Another smart game design choice was the limitation of the player's inventory slots. You'll eventually find a giant crate in the game that can store all of your items, but you can only take so many of them with you at a time when you leave. You'll have to make strategic decisions about how many healing items you want to bring, how much ammo you want to bring, whether or not to bring the kerosene/lighter and you'll also want to think about how many inventory slots you want to keep open in case you find something interesting while exploring the mansion. There's also a finite number of saves you can make while playing Resident Evil, which is a really interesting mechanic that I'm surprised more games haven't copied. Your character in the game saves their progress by typing on an old-fashioned typewriter, but using a typewriter requires ink ribbons which are then consumed. When you burn through all of your ink ribbons, you can't make any more saves until you find more ribbons in the mansion. This keeps the player from just killing a few enemies and quickly running back to a save their progress. There's an ample amount of ink ribbons to find in the mansion as to not make the number of saves an annoying issue, but it still makes you think twice before making a save with minimal progress. Very smart game design.

Summary:
Resident Evil is a horror game classic, and the remake is a masterpiece. You absolutely must play this if you're a horror game fan, but if you call yourself that you probably already have. For those looking to test the waters of the survival horror genre for the first time, the Resident Evil remake is a great place to start. It excellently builds and maintains tension through superb audiovisual presentation and smart game design. In the most Capcom of moves, I hear they're remaking the remake for next-gen consoles and PC and it will be out early 2015. I think this is just going to be an "HD remaster" of the remake, but this will still hopefully give more people a chance to play this game. Shinji Mikami, the creative director of Resident Evil, also has his latest game "The Evil Within" coming out later this month. From what I've seen of the game so far, it looks very interesting. Hopefully he can recapture the terror and suspense he created so well initially with Resident Evil