Parasite Eve

"Parasite Eve starring Aya Brea: A hauntingly beautiful masterpiece!"

Parasite Eve is a very fun and gorgeous cinematic RPG from Square. It has a heavy horror theme. And, there are far too few horror RPGs. So, I'm very pleased that Square created Parasite Eve. Which just might be the best horror RPG ever made.

STORY AND CHARACTERS - Aya Brea is a rookie NYPD detective who is out on a date on Christmas Eve in New York City. She is at the Carnegie Hall for an opera. When a horrifying scene occurs. While the lead opera singer Melissa is into her aria and singing. Everyone including viewers in the balcony and the other performers on stage suddenly erupt into blazes of fire. Panic ensues as everyone is being consumed by the horrible fires. However only Aya and Melissa aren't self combusting like everyone else is. Seemingly they aren't affected by it at all. So somehow she and the rather suspicious Melissa are the only ones to survive that horrifying incident. There is definitely much more than meets the eye to both of these lovely ladies.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. As you progress you will discover some very intriguing things about characters like Aya, Melissa, Eve and others. And other horrifying and tragic events. Not to mention the fact that this main storyline is very gripping & filled with suspense, horror, mystery, action, and even some humour and romance.

But, the most important part of any story are it's characters. And, Parasite Eve's characters are very fascinating and memorable. From the beautiful blond haired, green-eyed police officer Aya Brea, who must not only figure out why she survived but also put a stop to Eve's devious plans. To Daniel Dollis the tough NYPD veteran policeman who has a mighty big temper, who cares greatly about his son and his rookie partner. To the mild mannered Japanese scientist Kunihiko Maeda who is very interested in Aya and what has happened to her. Yet sometimes (at the worst times for him) he has a hard time expressing his feelings and words to her. And to the mysterious, beautiful and sly Eve herself along with her many interactions with Aya. Plus, many other interesting characters.

Parasite Eve truly does a great job with the main characters, their personalities, interactions and backgrounds.

STORY (10/10) CHARACTERS (10/10)

GAME PLAY - Parasite Eve's game play is very unique and creative. It is a mix of action and turn based RPG. Plus, the exploration and horror aspect of the game makes it have
a survival horror feel as well.

The battle system is very interesting and fun. You are able to fully control Aya just like in an action RPG. The only difference is that there is an active time bar dictating when you can take actions. The enemies have them too only you can't see the enemy's time bar. And, you can run and avoid enemy attacks even when the time meter isn't full yet. Plus, as you defeat enemies and increase in levels you will earn BP or bonus points. You can assign BP to quicken the time bar, to increase item capacity, or to strengthen your weapons or armor.

And, it has a lot of customization regarding the weapons and armor. With tools or supertools you can customize such things as stats (like attack, range, PE defense, critical evasion % etc...) or attributes (like tranquilizer effect, 2X or 3X command, burst, rate of fire etc...). There are also items which you will find that will add to your weapon's or armor's stats. Plus, with permits and trading cards you can actually add even more customizable slots to your weapons or armor. But, that said trading cards do take quite a bit of effort to find.

Since, Aya is a very special lady she has Parasite Energy which is kind of like magical abilities or spells. A very wide variety of PE like haste, cure, preraise, liberation, etc...One nice thing is that PE regenerates during the fight so you don't have any need for any special PE items to fill the PE bar. Although the more you use PE it will eventually regenerate slower during that particular fight. But, there are a few ways to speed it back up while fighting. Change of armor during battle is one way. Think of it as jump starting the PE. Another more undesirable way of speeding PE regeneration is dying with a revive item in your inventory or dying having cast preraise earlier in the battle.

Unlike most RPGs there are no ''stores'' in Parasite Eve. You will basically find all that you need and more during the game play. Meaning there are ample ammo and healing items to be found. There are also some secret places that hold nice items and equipment. Some are easier to find than others. And, like some RPGs you are able to store items and equipment at a particular place. In Parasite Eve's case with Wayne at the police station. One nice touch is that you can actually store or replace items in boxes that you've found. So, there really is more than one place to store items.

All in all the game play is great. With a very fun and addictive battle system along with the exploration in the perfect dark horror atmosphere and settings.

GAMEPLAY (10/10)

GRAPHICS - Parasite Eve is billed as a cinematic RPG. And, it definitely delivers. You can tell the people at Square who created this game really have an eye for the camera. Despite not being live action. It is the closest thing to being live action. The cinematography is outstanding and would make any live action cinematographer jealous. The great camera angles, wonderful settings (such as New York Cities Skyline, The Atlantic Ocean, Central Park, it's Zoo, the Statue of Liberty, Museum of Natural History, etc...) and great lighting all add up to many gorgeous scenes. These scenes are practically perfect and pristine. The opening scene of the Statue of Liberty with the snow falling at Christmas Eve as the view eventually travels toward a limousine which stops at Carnegie Hall. Along with the right music really captures the mood and atmosphere perfectly.

The in-game graphics are very nice as well. The character designs are very nice and creative. You have to love whoever created Aya's dress for the opera. Very keen and adept fashion sense there. Plus you have to love all the creative character designs for Eve. Lovely and very unique. The settings also have the proper atmosphere & a good look and feel to them.

CINEMATIC GRAPHICS (10/10) IN-GAME GRAPHICS (9/10)

MUSIC & SOUND - Parasite Eve's music is first class. The hauntingly beautiful opening music pulls you in right away and never lets you go. And, Parasite Eve's score continues to please as you progress. The opera music and the ending music are both outstanding. So, too are the battle music and boss music.

The sound in Parasite Eve is also quite good. The sounds during the cutscenes are great. There are distinct different noises each foe/creature makes. The weapons sound good. Even the sounds when walking on particular surfaces are nice such as soft red carpet, snow, glass, etc....

MUSIC (10/10) SOUND (9/10)

CHALLENGE - Many RPGs don't have that much challenge (even for a first time through). So, many people replay with self imposed limitations to make the game more difficult. Well, for a first time player Parasite Eve has pretty good challenge. Quite a few of the bosses are very tricky and fast. It has just enough difficulty to make it a fun challenge. And, if you throw in the EX Game's Chrysler Building which I will mention briefly in the next section the challenge is great.

CHALLENGE (8/10) Much higher if you include Chrysler Building.

REPLAY - There is definite replay value in Parasite Eve. First of all for those that want ''revenge'' on those tough bosses. The EX-Game (available for replay) allows you to keep one particular weapon and armor plus everything you've kept stored with Wayne. Except of course for most special story items like keys. So, armed with the best equipment from your previous time through you can make the next run must faster and easier.

That said the REAL point of the replay is the ''diabolical'' Chrysler Building. It is a mammoth of a tower with far more difficult enemies and bosses. And, to make things more difficult it's a maze where most of it's floors actually change once you leave the building. To complete the Chrysler Building truly is a huge challenge. But, well worth it. And, it definitely requires you to have both a superb weapon and armor. Thus the necessity of the EX Game's carryovers.

It is recommended that you replay more than once before you try finishing the Chrysler Building. But, since the Chrysler Building keys do carry over (if you stored them) you probably will at least want to do the early part of it in your first replay.

REPLAY (8.5/10)

OVERALL - I think Square created a magnificent RPG for a number of reasons. First of all they did a truly superb job of blending turned based and action RPG into a very fun and addictive battle system. But that's not all because you have to add that to the great story and memorable characters they created. Plus, they also must be highly commended for the painstaking amount of time it must have took to create all those fabulous and gorgeous scenes for Parasite Eve. Cinematography at it's finest. Some of you may think it is a bit funny that I describe them as gorgeous scenes about a horror RPG but they truly are. And, lastly it's a RPG that has the right amount of challenge in it and also has very good replay value.

OVERALL (10/10)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/10/03, Updated 02/10/03