Parasite Eve 1 & 2

Out of the many games I have played, Parasite Eve is one of the most forgettable I have played, and I mean specifically the first Parasite Eve.

I can still remember that very night when I bought the game at a bazaar just downstairs of my apartment. That was back in March 1998, shortly after the US verison of the game was released.

Being a fan of Final Fantasy 7 then, I have a good feeling about this new game, having read about it being the No.1 game of the week on a magazine, and most obviously, the fact it was by Squaresoft too.

And so that night I bought 2 games. One was Parasite Eve while the other was Guardian's Crusade, also a new game then.

I tested PE that very night, and I never stopped till I reached the end of the game. The game is so well equipped on almost every level such as suspense, concept, music, story pacing, gameplay, graphics that I was totally blown away. I really felt like I was playing a novel, one which was superbly written.

The game plays throughout the 6 days of the protaganist, Aya Brea, a female NYPD officer as she pursues the unstoppable parasitic being, named Mitochondria Eve who is capable of combusting any living thing near her. The first day began on the night with her date at the opera performance, where the audiences and the performers suddenly burst into flames except for the actress Melissa Pearce herself and Aya.

From then on, it's an engaging thriller right up to the closing credits of the game. It's that good. The good and bad thing about the game was probably its short length. But I rather to keep it that way, with the quality over quantity.

The 2nd Parasite Eve, unfortunately suffers from an inferior script compared to the first. And the gameplay style kind of mimics Resident Evil. Instead of being able to explore around freely like before, player is constrained to specific settings and bound there for a long time.

Music is more atmospheric in the 2nd instalment, but is often too subtle to inject a powerful memorable impression like the first Parasite Eve did. The main theme can hardly be heard, and at times I felt like I was just playing a half hearted Resident Evil copycat game. The good old feeling was nearly all gone, despite its superior graphics and FMVs, which was the only thing that amazes me.

Like Resident Evil 4 to the earlier instalments, PE2 plays very light on story and heavy on item fetching and running from places to places.

After the 2nd PE, there were little to no news of a 3rd one in the making until some years ago saying that it would be on the PSP, which I have no idea why. But no matter which platform it will be on, I harbor little hopes that it would be even half as solid an experience as the first. Game developers at Square just aren't inspired to create good stories in games anymore. A super duper sad fact for me and probably anyone out there who sees the essence I am talking about.