Parasite Eve

aka: PE
Moby ID: 3593
PlayStation Specs
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Description official descriptions

An ordinary day in New York for rookie police officer Aya Brea. Christmas Eve is the present day, and you've decided to visit the opera theater. Now this is where the fireworks begin. Suddenly audience members are set on fire, toasted completely, and it appears that the lead vocal is the source of this burning terror. Yet you appear to be immune, and as a police officer you're always on duty, so you must confront the danger.

There has to be some connection between the two of you, as that seems the only rational explanation. What if mitochondria are a species on its own, more advanced then humankind, and using them only to create environments and civilization for themselves? What if humankind are just hosts? What if mitochondria are the natural enemy of humankind? That would make Aya their natural enemy, so the battle for survival and uncovering the truth has already started.

The game is played over six days, each day bringing its own quest. Environments range from Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History to a police office and hospital, all of them modeled like realistic places and most of them crawling with bloodthirsty mutant animals. Combat is different from traditional RPGs, as while you still take turns attacking and/or using parasite powers, you'll be able to run across the battlefield and dodge enemy fire or even strike from a better angle or behind. As Aya levels up she will gain access to parasite powers, such as healing or supercharging a bullet with energy. These powers will deplete a recharging energy bar, although the bar will recharge slower the longer combat drags on. Aya will find many guns of various types throughout the game, and every gun can be modified with extra stats, either with special items, or by breaking down another gun to move over its bonus stats or special effects. The same is true for armor Aya finds.

Spellings

  • パラサイト・イヴ - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

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Credits (PlayStation version)

152 People (136 developers, 16 thanks) · View all

Producer
Director/Story/Planning
Battle Design
Character Design
Music
Based on a novel by
Localization Director
Executive Producers
CG Supervisors
Character Animator
Main Programmer
Event Design
Senior Vice-President of Technology
Technology Team
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 62 ratings with 4 reviews)

Great CGI, not much else. Or how Squaresoft lost Mida's touch.

The Good
what i liked? uhmm...Parasite Eve presents an interesting and hardly ever touched genre which is the urban-rpg, you just don't see too many rpg's based on NY for example, so you could call the game somewhat "innovative", also the "make your own weapon" concept is cool.

The real-time battle sistem is fantastic, you run around freely and when you press the fire button the game pauses and a globe appears around you showing your weapon's range, making a real cool effect (nevermind that assault rifles don't appear to have a range of more than 12 ft or so). what else, what else... well nothing much, the game boasts incredible production values, so you get great sound, great graphics and some of the most amazing CGI cutscenes ever, but that's it.

The Bad
Ok, the fun part.

This game marks Squaresoft's answer to Capcom's foray into non-arcade games. The success of the Resident Evil series brought a wave of survival/horror games to the console market and this caught the eye of the makers of Final Fantasy who decided to make their own version of the product (with their own touch, of course). Hence Parasite Eve, a survival/horror/rpg game with as much horror as a bad Night of the Living Dead clone, and even less rpg than you would expect in a console game.

Now, suspension of belief goes a long way into making a succesful gaming experience, being a very atmosphere-craving player I found the whole premise of Eve completely laughable and unnapealing. The plot is a convoluted mess that makes you raise a few eyebrows whenever it makes an interesting turn, but always let's you down with some stupid "convenient" resolution. Sure, the amount of cliches doesn't reach the level of Resident Evil, but Capcom's game never takes itself too seriously. Capcom's story of a special armed forces made up of twenty-something part-time models is so out there that you don't give it a second tought and get inmersed in the game. Square tells us the story of a part-time model cop who alone can save the world with nothing but her designer clothes, but makes the mistake of telling it like its a "based on an actual novel" grade-A psychological terror/thriller. The result is that you can never quite get into it.

The rpg system also works against the game by detracting from the experience. Since it isn't a controlled enviroment, you can face endless hordes of random-generated foes, with gazillions of ammo and health at your leisure, this completely ruins the seat-of-your-pants, "holy st i've got just one bullet left!" feeling you get on say...Residen Evil. This and touches like having snakes spit out ammo clips and the like whenever you kill them completely kill any atmosphere there was left (no, not mutated giat snakes, just regular plain old reptiles). And the non-linearity of the game goes as far as the tipical console rpg "which place you wanna go First?" addagio, not "which place I wanna go?" or "what do I want to do?".

The Bottom Line**
In the end Eve is not that bad a game, I can tell the intention was to make a good game, and as I said earlier it's got all the money in the world trown at it. But you should ask yourself what's left after you finish the game, did you have fun with it? the answers are nothing, and No.

PlayStation · by Zovni (10504) · 2001

Loved by some. Misunderstood by many.

The Good
I'm not sure exactly what drew me to Parasite Eve. With a handful of screenshots and some insight into the new combat system that Square developed, I was intrigued. I reserved it and picked it up on the day of release.

Parasite Eve puts you in the role of Detective Aya Brea, just as her date at the opera is beginning. The events that occur here will set the stage of things to come and reveal an enemy who is now only a fraction as powerful as they will become. Aya herself will become stronger in more ways than she can imagine and she will find that there is more between her and her foe than the opera.

There are several things that set this game apart from other RPGs, namely the combat and equipment systems:

Combat - During combat, you're free to run around and avoid the enemy attacks as your AT (Attack Time) meter fills up. Once it's full, you're free to attack using a weapon or magic. Depending on what you choose, a dome-shaped grid will appear around you, showing you your range. Range will differ, of course, depending on weapon and magic. There are plenty of combat screenshots, so I recommend that you Google them for reference if you are thinking of trying this one out.

Equipment - Unlike most RPGs, your primary weapons will be guns and tonfa-styled batons. Armor, in traditional RPG fashion, isn't physically shown on your character. What sets Parasite Eve in this department is the customization of weapons and armor. As you'd expect, weapons and armor will become stronger as you progress. However, you can make them better through the use of tools. Got a pistol that allows you to input two commands, but you wish that you had it on your shotgun? Remove the option from the pistol and put it on the shotgun (assuming you have an option slot open). Beware, as standard tools sacrifice the gun that you remove the option from. Better tools that allow you to keep the gun that you steal from are available if you accomplish certain tasks, but you'll probably want to play through the game once before even thinking of attempting them.

The game is split up into chapters, such as Day 1, Day 2, etc. While you will level up normally, at the end of these days, you'll recieve Bonus Points to apply to different stats and to up you item capacity. Depending on your performance in battle, the number of Bonus Points you get could be higher or lower. Needless to say, if you want to build up, you definately want to get a good grasp of the combat system.

The visuals in the game are very well done. The pre-rendered backgrounds are beautiful and the enemy designs are creative. Of course, the character and enemy models aren't going to be on-par with the CGI versions found in the cutscenes(which themselves look rather out of date these days, though still great), but this is PS1. Don't expect grand beasts from old mythology, though. This is science fiction-based, and many enemies have been mutated on a cellular level just prior to your arrival, in order to slow you down or eliminate you.

The sound effects are standard fare, but nice and clear. Enemies shriek and roar, gunshots ring out, and there's plenty of footsteps to hear. The soundtrack isn't what you're probably used to hearing from Square. Some people despise it, but it's one of my favorites. High-energy, mellow, menacing...it's all here. It may not be anything you'd want to listen to outside of the game, but when combined with the story, visuals, and gameplay, sets the mood quite nicely.

The Bad
Many people's complaints with the game is that it's too short. I'd have to agree that the main game is a bit too short, but that's only because I got into it and wanted more. Ever wanted to play through an entire RPG in a full day or a weekend of gaming, without having to use an emulator with fast-forward or using a cheat device? This is your game. Some have stated that you can beat it in 9 hours, but for the first time gamer, I'd wager that it's going to be in the 15-18 hour range. Good for leisurely gaming, but not good if you get hooked.

You also may have heard something about Aya's movement speed during exploration. You see, she has two speeds of movement, walking and running. However, running is more like watching her do the Running Man while moving forward. Her legs show that she should be really hauling, but her feet are sliding more than they're moving her. Not fun in long hallways. This is a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

The Bottom Line
Is this game worth getting for the measly prices it fetches these days? Yes. Did I think the same thing after getting it in 1998 for $50? You betcha! It may not have the largest following (the real gems rarely do), but it's a unique experience. Those of you who have had a bit too much Final Fantasy might enjoy the change of pace.

PlayStation · by DarkBubble (342) · 2005

Mitochondria's never been so dangerous!

The Good
Parasite Eve is one of those strange games that every recognized company has on its catalog. This game wasn't a best-seller, but it has a recognition because of its unusual mix of genres. Parasite Eve combines RPG with some Survival Horror elements... at least that's what Squaresoft attempted.

Reality is a bit different. Parasite Eve is just a RPG with a sci-horror story staged in New York City, which is an unusual stage for a RPG, in fact, I don't remember much RPG games in real contemporary places. That's something that makes the game unique from the start. Maybe Squaresoft sold this game as a RPG with some Survival elements just because of Survival Horror's boom, with games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill being successful for Playstation.

Storyline is as fantastic as most of Squaresoft games are, the only difference is the stage where everything happens because this time is a real one. Of course, like all the other Japanese RPG games, there are many mysteries and unsolved things in the story that will have their answers once you go further in the game.

Taking a deep look at the game, we take control of just one character during the whole adventure (again, something unusual for a RPG), a cop from NYCPD who is involved in a case from the beginning. Gameplay has the same structure that any other RPG, you control your character in static stages talking with different characters to get clues of the story and taking items to progress, like keys or security cards, as well as other items for the battle, like healing potions or better weapons.

As you may suspect, you don't have swords or any other strange weapon because of the context (and yes, it's a RPG). We only have a gun from the beginning, and then we'll find many other weapons like grenade launchers, shotguns or machine guns. Here we have something new, we have ammo for our weapons, but it's not a big problem because we have a lot of it. Every weapon has different properties, like attack power, range, rate of fire and special slots with some "powers" like freezing, or double turn. You can also customize your weapons with the correct item (a tool). With that you can translate your upgrades to a new weapon without loosing them (you'll only use the weapon with the original upgrades). The same with the armors. A good point for the game.

We have also PE, which works as PM in most of RPG games. With that we may use our special powers. To be clear, what we all know as "Magic", like healing, confusing our foes or making an energy shot. We have an explanation for the use of our PE during the game, so, it's not something out of place.

Battles are a bit random, but not as we know from other RPG games. We have the classic level system, the more level we have, the more attack power, HP, defense and other parameters we'll have. We have special points called "bonus points" to distribute them to our active time, inventory capacity or just upgrade some parameter of a weapon/armor. There are not many battles during the game, and we don't even have to spend a lot of time gaining experience to level up our character.

The battle system is good. It's not an action RPG system, but we can move our character as we please avoiding enemies while we're waiting for our turn. It's not a classic RPG battle system, but not an action RPG system either, it's something in between.

Talking about graphics, sound, and other technical parts, they're good. Characters' graphics are similar to Final Fantasy VIII in the way they are and scenarios are huge and full detailed (but that's not something good because it have a bad effect on gameplay as I'm going to point later). There are many different cinematics during the game, as good as they are in other Squaresoft games, with really good visual effects. Sound is on a par, with a main operatic theme for the game including real voices suitable with the game's aura. To sum up, technical aspects of the game has nothing to be reproached.

The Bad
The worst point of the game is the gameplay out of battles. Our character moves really slow and many of the stages are enormous, so, we can spend a lot of time just walking around looking for items or any other things. That's so frustrating that you won't inspect every place of the game just because you'll have to come back to that place, and it'd take a lot of time. There's a button to run, but the speed is still ridiculous. During battles speed is better, but sometimes you'll have the same problem avoiding some concrete enemies.

Story's not clear. You'll have to pay a special attention to it if you want to understand everything, so, sometimes it's a bit confusing for the casual player. RPG players are used to this kind of disconcerting stories, but Parasite Eve is not a classic RPG, that's why I think that maybe a story much more accessible would have been better for this game.

Game's short, specially if we consider it a RPG. Besides, the classic point of no return near the end of the game comes soon, and you won't be able to be back once you've reached it. The problem is that there are some important battles after that, and it's possible that you don't have enough level to beat them, so, if you didn't save your progress in different slots you'll have to start the game again from the beginning.

Item capacity is a big problem in Parasite Eve. You can increase the number of slots that you have on your inventory by distributing your bonus points, but when you do that you'll realize that it's not worth because you'll only increase one or two slots, so, you'd rather increase your attack power or your active time.

The Bottom Line
Trying Parasite Eve as a Survival Horror game is a big mistake, as well as trying it as a classic RPG. However, the game is a good RPG with some interesting new features making this game an unique experience for the player. A nice offer by Squaresoft far from mages, swords and fictional worlds.

If you survive the annoying speed of your character movements you'll enjoy this game, and you'll realize that Parasite Eve will come off well in this strange combination of different genres.

PlayStation · by NeoJ (398) · 2010

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Inspiration

The concept for Parasite Eve was based on a Japanese novel of the same name. The events of the novel take place one year before the game, and, while no characters from the novel show up, the events are referenced. There is also a movie and a manga series based on the novel.

Soundtrack

Like most Square Soft releases, a soundtrack for Parasite Eve exists. Of course, music from the game cannot even be compared in quality with the soundtrack score, as this is orchestrated, far more better quality and digitized.

Information also contributed by Lain Crowley and Satoshi Kunsai

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MAT.

PS Vita added by Fred VT. PSP, PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0.

Additional contributors: Alaka, formercontrib, DreinIX, Trypticon, Rik Hideto.

Game added March 29, 2001. Last modified December 22, 2023.