Parasite Eve

Parasite Eve has been one of the only RPGs since Final Fantasy 7 to genuinely deserve any kind of hype, or at least anticipation.

Parasite Eve will leave you thrilled, chilled, and a little hungry, but it’s well worth the price of admission.

As an RPG there are very few characters in PE, however the lack of characters is more of a feature than a bug since it gives you a closer tie to the few main characters and more of a role in guiding their destiny.

It's a full scale epic that completely engulfs you from the off and squeezes out so many different emotions that after a long stint, you're left wondering whether you really do like it or not. [JPN Import]

While the game isn't terrible, it is a bit of a let down. With all of the sci-fi qualities that could have been implemented, it is a shade disappointing to see that the story didn't go as far as it could have.

A classic overlooked by other heavy hitting JRPGs on the system, Parasite Eve is an excellent blend of Resident Evil with Final Fantasy for the gameplay. It has that tense, survival horror vibe, mixed in with surprisingly deep RPG mechanics. It also boasts one of the best stories for an RPG, and some deep lore. It does have some slow moments that do drag on, but Parasite Eve's strengths are able to overcome these weaknesses. It's always being sold inexpensively on PSN, though you would have to dust off your PS1, PS3, PSP, or PS Vita to play this game.

Probably one of my favorite games I've ever played. The RPG elements are super fun, and story is deep and interesting. The atmosphere is also so perfectly built as well with its stellar soundtrack and beautifully rendered environments. Its just a fun experience overall. It may be a bit outdated, but that's what made it feel so refreshing to me personally. It truly needs a port for ps5.

​Rezension: Parasite Eve – Squares mutiges Horror-Experiment ​Parasite Eve war Squares ambitionierter Versuch, auf den damals boomenden Survival-Horror-Zug aufzuspringen. Was das Spiel sofort versprüht, ist der typische Charme der PS1-Ära von Square: wunderschöne, vorgerenderte Hintergründe, die stark an Final Fantasy erinnern, gepaart mit den gewohnt spektakulären CGI-Sequenzen. Auch wenn diese heute technisch überholt sind, ist ihre filmische Inszenierung (man denke an die Ratten-Transformation) noch immer sehenswert. ​Gameplay: Ein ungeschliffener Hybrid ​Das Kampfsystem ist eine eigenwillige Mischung aus Echtzeit-Bewegung und rundenbasierten Kommandos, ähnlich wie man es später in Ansätzen bei Grandia sah. Man steuert Aya Brea aktiv durch den Raum, um Angriffen auszuweichen, während sich die ATB-Leiste füllt. ​Hier zeigen sich jedoch die Kinderkrankheiten: ​Fehlendes Feedback: Es gibt keine Radius-Anzeige für gegnerische Attacken und die Trefferzonen wirken oft unpräzise oder schlicht zu groß. ​Mangelnde Transparenz: Zwar zeigt das Spiel je nach Waffe ein entsprechendes Feld an, eine Anzeige für die Trefferchance fehlt jedoch völlig. ​Unfertiges Design: Das System ist zwar funktional, wirkt aber in vielen Momenten nicht zu Ende gedacht. ​RPG-Tiefe und Story ​Die Story ist für Square-Verhältnisse eher dünn und braucht lange, um wirklich Fahrt aufzunehmen. Auch das Gameplay entwickelt sich schleppend; erst mit der Zeit lernt man mehr über die "Parasite Energy" (PSI-Angriffe) und die spezifischen Schwächen der Gegner, wobei letztere oft vernachlässigbar bleiben. ​Ein echtes Highlight ist hingegen das Waffen-System. Waffen können nicht nur geupgradet, sondern Werte und interessante Perks gezielt von einer Ausrüstung auf die andere übertragen werden. Diese Tiefe beim Modding war seiner Zeit eigentlich voraus. ​Atmosphäre und Frustfaktor ​Die große Stärke von Parasite Eve ist die phänomenale Atmosphäre. Das düstere, winterliche New York und der unverkennbare Soundtrack von Yoko Shimomura (ein Mix aus Oper und Elektro) erzeugen eine ganz eigene, beklemmende Stimmung. ​Ab dem letzten Drittel zieht der Schwierigkeitsgrad jedoch massiv an. In Kombination mit dem starren Speichersystem führt das – besonders in langen Abschnitten wie dem Museum – zu echtem Frust. ​Fazit: Parasite Eve ist kein makelloser Hit. Dafür ist es spielmechanisch zu unausgereift und mit einer Spielzeit von etwa 10 Stunden für ein RPG ungewöhnlich kurz. Dennoch bleibt es ein faszinierendes Experiment, das durch seinen Mut zum Genre-Mix und sein unverbrauchtes Setting bis heute Kultstatus genießt

Overrated. The gameplay is not particularly fun, the story is ludicrous at best.

Parasite Eve is definitely a sea of great ideas that I've been meaning to dive in for a long time. After spending over 9 hours with it, I can say that it surely shines, but not as much as I hoped it would. The story of Parasite Eve is quite mature. It's lovely to see how far a game can go when the writing is strong like this one. It takes a while to grasp everything going on, but by the end of the game I felt fulfilled. In addition to being an elegantly well told tale, it also packs memorable characters and a great protagonist. Aya Brea is very well designed, from her style to her profile, and the fact that she's tied with the main villian (who's also quite memorable, by the way), just enhances your time with her, making her one of the main reasons why the story and setting will stick to your mind. And it all just immerses you more and more as you go through it. Part of the reason why this game vibes so well with its theme is due to its beautiful renders, amazing environments and epic cutscenes that, while they don't hold up to today standards, they can still pack quite a punch. On top of that you have Yoko Shimomura composing the sountrack, hitting you with beautiful, classy, intense and diverse songs that refuse to leave my mind even after the credits rolled. Indeed, a genius of video game music. As for the core gameplay, it's a unique mix of RPG and Survival Horror. Not a perfect hybrid, but a very good one, I must say. I had a lot of fun with the combat. It's a near perfect marriage of Vagrant Story and Resident Evil 2. And, yes, I know it sounds weird to say it, but it just works. Great enemy variety, challenging bosses, good collection of magics and tons of guns for you to manage your way to the end. The problem with this game lies in how archaic it is. Regardless of the time it was made, I just felt like things should flow a bit better and, definitely, faster. Aya's movement speed is probably the worst thing in the game. She's slow when outside combat and extremely clunky during fights where mobility is key. In a game where you have to backtrack to get everything you want while taking the least amount of damage as possible, movement is essential and it just doesn't work well. In fact, many other things doesn't work as well as it should. The gun tuning system is very rough, the UI takes a bit to get used too, for an RPG the game can be extremely short (which usually doesn't bother me, but now it somehow did), cutscenes are unskipabble and inventory management is a HUGE mess. Why didn't they just add an item box instead of forcing a very repetitive trip back to the police department? And while the boss fights are very well done, I have to say that the final boss is an unnecessary difficulty spike. A pseudo-bullethell shooter with a toothless chase afterwards. Parasite Eve is a pleasant and nostalgic trip back to the 90's. It works great, brings new ideas to the genre, manages to be a unique hybrid and introduces Aya Brea, whith a great soundtrack to boot. But it's archaic design, slow pace clumsiness breaks part of the experience. A great game, nonetheless. Just not one of the best RPGs of an era filled with wonderful RPGs.