Product Description

Action RPG

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3514 in Video Games
• Brand: Sony Playstation Parasite Eve
• Released on: 1998-09-08
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: PlayStation

Features

• played not to long a go worked perfict.

Editorial Review
Parasite Eve tells the story of Aya Brea of the NYPD on a case involving mass spontaneous human combustion, mutating animals, and the mitochondria revolution. Sound fun? Confusing? Parasite Eve is both.

It begins when Aya is attending an opera at Carnegie Hall. The soloist bursts into song and the audience bursts into flames. Somehow, Aya is the only attendee who isn't affected. Not surprisingly, she wants to know what's going on. This curiosity, coupled with her duties as a police officer, grows into a full-scale investigation.

Parasite Eve's mechanics are simple, yet elegant. From combat to level advancement, the game runs easily and smoothly, making it ideal for someone new to role-playing games (RPGs). Experienced RPGers should still enjoy it for its brilliant storyline.

Technically speaking, the game's graphics and sound are good, but not spectacular. The full-motion cutscenes are superbly done. Parasite Eve is a good game--there's just not enough of it. While it doesn't feel crammed together, the story seems to resolve quickly. Brilliant while it lasted, Parasite Eve left me wanting more. --John Cocking

Pros:

• Mutating dogs
• Involving storyline
• Elegant game mechanics

• Too short, and it's confusing

GameSpot Review
Parasite Eve spans six days, over the course of which the human race's continued existence shall be called into question. A fateful night at the opera house triggers in one woman the power to cause all those around her to incinerate as the mitochondria in their bloodstream generate staggering quantities of energy, and in another woman an innate resistance to the deadly effects. You assume the role of that woman, the young New York cop Aya Brea, as she comes to realize that the fate of humanity will depend upon her actions. As Square Soft's biggest release since Final Fantasy VII, Parasite Eve offers high production values and an intriguing storyline in what Square Soft has dubbed "the cinematic RPG." Its gameplay blends action and horror with traditional RPG elements to create a game that is all too easily described as the marriage of Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil. But even as Parasite Eve takes up many of the best aspects of both these games, so does it bring along many of their shortcomings.

True to its claims, Parasite Eve often looks sleek, inspired, and beautiful - like a good film. The scenery throughout the game is composed of still 3D-rendered images of mostly authentic New York locales, and the quality and detail of these various settings is astounding. Whether you're searching through Central Park in the middle of the night or rummaging through the slums early in the morning, Parasite Eve looks consistently real. The background art looks so good that you will often find yourself admiring your surroundings instead of forging onward in your quest. The various polygonal characters aren't quite as sharp as the backdrops, but their motions and actions during plot sequences are expressive and believable. As Aya, you will have to shoot your way past scores of monsters, all of which are your typical mutated urban animal variety and thence not particularly imposing. And though some of the boss monsters are both creepy and fearsome, like a particularly large and ill-tempered three-headed hound, for the most part your opposition will fail to impress.

Even a discriminating connoisseur of computer-generated cinematics would be awestruck at several animated cutscenes over the course of Parasite Eve. While the cinematic sequences are never particularly long, they are frequent and almost always amazing - all the more so toward the end of the game. Among other things, you'll witness breathtaking panoramic shots of New York City, grisly deaths or even grislier metamorphoses, and even some good old-fashioned military intervention. Though there's hardly enough CG here to make up a feature-length film, there's plenty of the stuff to keep you going all the way through. It's integrated seamlessly into the game and makes key plot sequences much more dramatic and the entire game more memorable overall.

Meanwhile, Parasite Eve isn't much to speak highly of where sound is concerned. Much like Final Fantasy VII before it, there is no speech to be heard anywhere in the game. Unfortunately, while the text-driven plot felt appropriate in Final Fantasy VII, the brevity of the story, scarcity of characters, and the real-world setting all dictate that Parasite Eve would have seriously benefited from full speech. It took Parasite Eve half a year to reach the audience of the country where the game takes place, but that time was spent merely translating the short script rather than adding speech, let alone Dual Shock force-feedback support or anything else. At least the English script reads well enough.

Parasite Eve also would have benefited from a more consistent soundtrack. Most of the music in the game consists of appropriately moody techno tunes, and it's all quite good, if forgettable, much like techno tends to be. However, the battle theme is uncharacteristically mellow, while the opera sequences are thwarted by an awful warbling opera-sounding keyboard instrument that doesn't sound anything like a real voice. Furthermore, some gameplay sequences are conspicuously devoid of any background music. While silence, when implemented skillfully, may lend drama or tension to a scene, it just feels really awkward most of the time in Parasite Eve. In particular, it's difficult to believe that a New York City street might ever be silent at any time of day. Meanwhile, the various sound effects in the game share a common trait of being subdued and muffled. Aya fights through the game using everything from pistols to rocket launchers, but the sound never does any of these weapons due justice. --Greg Kasavin
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Customer Reviews

Mitochodria Takeover!
I have to personally say this game is one of the best games Squaresoft has ever come accross. They also need to create more games like this one. An organism which is dubbed Mitochondria has been living within humans ever sense the birth of Eve. Since all humans are descended from Eve it is only a matter of time before this living organism breaks free. You play the role of a rookie cop named Aya who is attending an opera on Christmas Eve 1997. The singer in the opera named Melissa makes eye contact with Aya and all of a sudden people in the crowd begin to spontaneously combust. Following this, Melissa mutates and declears that Eve has been awakened and takes off. From there on out Aya tries to figure out what happened at the opera house and why her and Melissa are some how connected.

A thrilling story which brings the human imagination into a battle against not only a race against time and mutations, but a battle against yourself. Seeing as though the Mitochondria is in every human being on the face of the Earth, players can put themselves in that position, and feel as though they are battling against themselves before there Mitochondria takes complete control over everything logic in their bodies. It also can make you think this could happen in reality b/c of the Mitochondria is part of your body.

The best part of Parasite Eve is without a doubt the innovative battle scenes. The Parasite Eve battle engine contains an excellent mix of action and strategy that has yet to be seen in any console game before. Just like Final Fantasy VII, Parasite Eve makes use of an action bar. You can't attack, heal, or use an item until the bar is fully charged. You can however during this time dodge enemy attacks waiting for it to fill. You also have a PE bar which will fill slowly throughout the course of the battle. The PE bar allows Aya to perform special tasks such as healing herself or increasing her attack power. Overall, the battle system is extremely innovative and makes the game fun to play through. I don't think i've played an RPG in awhile in which I've actually looked forward to gaining experience and doing battle.

True to its claims, Parasite Eve often looks sleek, inspired, and beautiful - like a good film. The scenery throughout the game is composed of still 3D-rendered images of mostly authentic New York locales, and the quality and detail of these various settings is astounding. Whether you're searching through Central Park in the middle of the night or rummaging through the slums early in the morning, Parasite Eve looks consistently real. The background art looks so good that you will often find yourself admiring your surroundings instead of forging onward in your quest. The various polygonal characters aren't quite as sharp as the backdrops, but their motions and actions during plot sequences are expressive and believable. As Aya, you will have to shoot your way past scores of monsters, all of which are your typical mutated urban animal variety and thence not particularly imposing. Though some of the boss monsters are both creepy and fearsome, like a particularly large and ill-tempered three-headed hound, for the most part your opposition will fail to impress.

Even a discriminating connoisseur of CG cinematics would be awestruck at several animated cutscenes over the course of Parasite Eve. While the cinematic sequences are never particularly long, they are frequent and almost always amazing - all the more so toward the end of the game. Among other things, you'll witness breathtaking panoramic shots of New York City, grisly deaths or even grislier metamorphoses, and even some good old-fashioned military intervention. Though there's hardly enough CG here to make up a feature-length film, there's plenty of the stuff to keep you going all the way through. It's integrated seamlessly into the game and makes key plot sequences much more dramatic and the entire game more memorable overall. The music also adds a dramatic effect that makes it seem even more real. They need to add this music to more of their sequels to this game.

If Squaresoft works hard enough I honestly believe more sequels to this like the Nintendo's Zelda could be created but these would without a question blow Zelda out of the water. I truly think a movie should be created about this game. Including part 2,3,4 whatever how many, following up on the "Ultimate Being". Also the music needs to be added to the movies.

My overall rating: * * * * * out of 5 stars. My overall rating: 10 out of 10 Would I buy a sequel: yes without a doubt Would I pay to see a movie about this: yes, of course and I know others who would too.

Unique and unforgettable
This is definitely a game for people who like there to be a strong storyline, and who want to think a little along the way. Parasite Eve is extremely absorbing, but even if you're not paying close attention to the plot you can enjoy moving through the different levels and fighting a wide variety of opponents. The strongest points in this game, I think, are the following: Your ability to modify your weapons, and combine them to create a custom super-weapon. The variety between the levels is quite nice as well, taking you through Central Park in NYC, a museum, hospital, police station...each with its own unique monstrous inhabitants. The end of the game is incredibly challenging but not impossible. The only annoying things are the extremely long movie segments that you can't skip past...the subtitled dialogue (no voiceovers)...and the interminable "bonus level" in the Chrysler building that is much more trouble than it's worth. I liked this so much that I sought out the book that it was based on, even though it's only available in Japanese. Oh yeah, and although the movie segments are long and unavoidable -- they're breathtakingly gorgeous, for the most part.

Simply Put, the MOST Amazing PS Game in a LOOONG Time!
This game was amazing. A cinematic masterpiece. I am a college student and borrowed this game from my younger brother, who hated it. I played it in my friends' apartment. After 5 minutes of gametime, we had 12 people sitting around the television completely hooked. The storyline was incredible - debates among us were constant as to the next twist in the plot. The graphics were incredible, especially in the movie scenes... they rival the PS2 graphics EASILY. The fighting system takes some getting used to, but is very easy once you get the idea. The characters really start to rub off on you right away (Yells of "NOOOOOOO" were constant when we thought one of the characters would die... we honestly became attached!). So to put this whole synopsis into a single line: buy this game. If you're under the age of say 15 or so... don't - it gets really tough. However, for the rest of us, it's a definate must have. The replay value is great, too - I've played it three times already, and I'm STILL not tired of it!