Parasite Eve, are you going to become Square's next bitch?

Parasite Eve is a video game series that is based off of a book with the same title. The series is quirky and kind of unsettling. Parasite Eve 1 was mostly a Japanese RPG with an awesome battle system. It was a pseudo real time system that allowed you to dodge enemy attacks and then when you make actions, it pauses everything until you finish it. It truly was one of the best battle systems for a PS1 RPG. While Parasite Eve 2 decided to borrow the system from the Resident Evil games, and this angered many fans. However, doing this actually made the game a bit more scary, since the first one was definitely not very scary at all.

So for the past few weeks I have been playing tons of PC games; the typical ones (League of Legends and Team Fortress 2) and then with the recent steam sale I have been playing some bad indie games. Anyhow, with what little time I have left, Parasite Eve has been dominating it. Now these games are extremely short, I hit the end of the first one at around 7 hours, and I have only played the second one for about two or three. They are mostly cinematic RPGs; the first one had over 40 cut scenes.


The story focuses on an American/Japanese NYPD officer named Aya. On Christmas Eve 1997 she decides to go to a play. At some point during the show, the star actress stares in Aya's eyes, showing somewhat of a connection, and then everyone in the auditorium bursts in to flames. Going into the story any further would ruin it, and for how short the game is, there is plenty of it.

 

Parasite Eve 2, on the other hand, caused much controversy because it simply did not use the same system as the first one. It is a straight-up action packed Resident Evil with RPG elements. There are not that many parasite eve powers compared to the first, are very basic and have no relation to the FF spells (like the first one did) and there are no levels. You use experience points to level up your parasite powers and to get more HP or MP, you must use certain items. Armor gives both of these stats, but not all of them do.


The story takes place two years after the first, and Aya is now part of a FBI branch called MIST (Mitochondrial Investigation and Suppression Team). She is sent to many places to locate and destroy the Mitochondrial monsters.

Even though this one is not exactly like the first, it's still very enjoyable. I tend to hate Resident Evil games, but this one is much easier to play for the fact that you get tons of ammo, powerful weapons and the parasite eve powers. People who love the survival horror games, though, would enjoy it more than the typical Square Soft fan.


The first Parasite Eve did not really have any puzzles. To go through areas you simply navigate through the maze of hall ways or hit a switch to open the door or area. In Parasite Eve 2, there are very simple puzzles that require you to remember certain papers from walls, or find items to get other items. I really enjoy this aspect, since many video games now a days rarely have puzzles and its very disappointing.

The main reason I have picked these games up is for the anticipated release of 3rd birthday, which from my understanding is a spin off. There are no Parasite Eve monsters, nor any powers, and it focuses on the twisted attacking a major city and Aya Brea is sent to fight this mysterious force. There are multiple costumes you an unlock, one being Lightning from Final Fantasy 13, and the game is coming out in Japan on December 18th. The release date for the American release is within the first quarter of 2011.

It seems like Square Enix pulled this franchise from the dead just to see if they can make some money off of it. If they truly wanted to continue the series they would have much earlier, rather than waiting a decade to resurrect it. It frustrates me to see some of Square's best action RPGs and turn based RPGs to be resurrected and not be similar to the previous iteration at all (IE Brave Fencer Musashi and Musashi Legends, Valkyrie Profile 1 and Valkyrie Profile 2) albeit this one has not been very consistent. Anyways, I am still interested in 3rd birthday, since I heard a rumor that they will continue the actual series if this does well enough. But who knows? They may have bastardized this game as they did with other franchises I love.