idlethreats
Member
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE GAMES IN THE OP!
I played the original Parasite Eve way back around the time it was released and loved it, but never finished the sequel or even started the PSP one; since they're all up on the PSN and Vita compatible, I decided to go back to the start and play through the whole series recently. Thoughts on each one:
Tbh, I went into this expecting the game to have not aged very well and prepared myself for disappointment. Was I ever wrong. It's held up incredibly well and is every bit as fantastic now as it was in 1998. Even the visuals, which are clearly very dated, still look amazing - Squaresoft's New York City is a beautiful and creepy place. Wonderful atmosphere.
And the music, oh boy, the music. Yoko Shimomura has an extraordinarily impressive body of work but I think if I had to choose, I'd say that the Parasite Eve soundtrack is the best she's ever put together. Some standout tracks (but really, it's all great): Primal Eyes, Plosive Attack, Out of Phase, Arise Within You, Matrix, Somnia Memorias
While the story isn't necessarily anything ~amazing~, the premise is pretty interesting and it's something pretty unique for a video game (possible because it was written as a sequel of sorts to a Japanese novel). The pacing is also quite good - it's fairly short as far as JRPGs go and I like how it's broken up into separate days/phases. Can't forget to mention the characters, as well: Aya Brea was a great addition to the SQEX pantheon. She's not super fleshed out, but what we learn of her character over the course of the game's six days is that she's pretty damn gutsy and smart on her feet. I like her a lot and the fact that the game has a female protagonist was actually the main reason I tried it out when I was a kid. I also liked how the villain was handled, how she's sympathetic in a way and we find out more and more about her past as we play through the game. Well, Melissa wasn't really the villain, but every time I went up against Eve, I'd feel sad about the poor opera singer inside.
I could go on and on about all the things I like in Parasite Eve, but for the sake I've brevity I'll just wrap up with this: a fantastic game in nearly every way.
One question for GAF: is the Chrysler Building worth the slog? I made it to the 30th floor back during my first playthrough, but abandoned it because my equipment sucked (made some dumb choices w/my upgrades and ended up w/mediocre guns and armor). Didn't attempt it this time around, but was thinking of giving it a go soon.
So, I started this game over a decade ago and got about half way through before screwing up my save file in a way that made it impossible to progress. Coming back to it, I was a little wary. I've never been a big fan of Resident Evil-type games thanks to the controls, and Parasite Eve II is basically a RE clone w/fewer and dumber puzzles and light RPG elements. In terms of gameplay it's...really not the sequel anyone was looking for to Parasite Eve and I was pretty disappointed with it from what I'd played years ago. I think knowing this helped the second time around, because I found that I actually enjoyed Parasite Eve II a fair amount by the end of it. They pretty much threw out almost everything that made the original so great and replaced it with something new and different, but if you can get beyond the fact that as a sequel, it's pretty much crap, there's a decent game underneath.
I really enjoyed the Dryfield part of the game - I think it captured the ominous, creepy feeling that pervaded the original game the best. Take a mundane, normal American setting, then twist it into something mutated and sinister. Dryfield also resonated w/me a bit because I grew up in a rural goldrush town not too far from the Nevada border, so I'm not unfamiliar with those sort of "blink and you'll miss it" dots on the map out West and it made this part of the game more nail-biting for me
I wish the plot wasn't so lackluster. It felt like it was conceived as an afterthought and is very weak compared to the first game's narrative and poorly presented. I think if you somehow miss checking the computer log in one of the Shelter's rooms, you never even really find out wtf happened in there. That said, the things Aya thinks to herself when you inspect objects could be pretty amusing at time.
Anyway, not a good sequel but not a bad game either.
Oh, this game. Where to begin.
I was super hyped when it was first announced, and when they switched development to the PSP halfway through, it became one of the main reasons I picked up that system. Alas, after all of the lecherous hype around the disintegrating costume feature, the fact that they'd devolved Aya into a "vulnerable" amnesiac and the gross and unnecessary shower scene, I'd basically lost all interest in the game by the time it came out. Still, I wanted to finish the series so I tried to put all that aside and just keep my expectations really low for this one. And, well, I'll just come right out and admit it: I have some serious reservations about this game, but overall I loved the 3rd Birthday.
Super fun 3rd person shooter, looks great, sounds fantastic, hearkens back to the first game w/its creepy, mutated NYC setting. There's a lot here that was really well done. But the story? Good gods, the story? Hot, hot garbage. Just, wtf. W.T.F. Wtfffffffff. My first thought when I beat the final boss was "Great, now they'll finally explain what the hell has been going on the whole game." My second thought was, "Wtf is that game that I have to wait til the ending cutscene to understand the plot." The way the narrative is laid out is just terrible. A bunch of cryptic cutscenes that don't make any sense all game, sprinkled with datalog entries that actually do the heavy lifting in explaining the setting, capped off with an ending that finally attempts to de-mystify the ridiculously obtuse narrative w/a BS, poorly explained twist. Just, come on. I don't hate Toriyama, but this game really helped me understand why so many people hate the way the story was presented in FFXIII.
And man, Aya...:-( A great character w/a lot of potential and oops! Turns out she's not really in this game! I guess on some level, it's maybe better that the constantly whimpering, docile young woman that I ran around NYC w/was actually Eve sans her memories, instead of the game just dragging Aya's characterization through the mud. And when Aya did show up for a few minutes in the end, she was her old self. And, um, maybe there's something badass about the fact that her psychic death births a new species that destroys the world? (lol no) But, uh, yeah. No. This was...not a good direction for the series narrative to take, not at all. I mean, they clearly were trying to take the series back to its roots somewhat with this installment - returning to NYC, remixing and reusing the original's soundtrack in some great ways - so why on earth did they decide that when it came to the plot, the heavy lifting would come from the narratively desolate and uninspiring sequel?
Also, this is probably the dumbest thing to focus on in this game's dumb story, but Aya and Kyle got engaged in 2008. Why did they wait two years to get married if their wedding was only going to consist of them + Eve in a empty church. It took two years to plan that? And how did Kyle survive his gunshot wounds but Aya, who has regeneration powers, die from hers? (or was dying? in the original timeline?) Or maybe she wasn't really going to but Eve just panicked, I don't even know. And if there are forces out that that are trying to track you and your fiance down and kill you, why are you - you know what, no. Nevermind. Just no.
So, idk. I feel pretty conflicted about the 3rd Birthday. I had a ton of fun playing it, but everything about the game's narrative and the way they treat Aya's character is just horrifically awful and inexcusable. And yet, as soon as the credits started rolling, I wanted to play through it again.
Overall
tl;dr: a worthwhile series that has gone in bizarre directions at every turn, but is consistently fun to play. I wish the original game had a proper sequel that iterated on the solid gameplay and advanced the narrative in a meaningfully interesting way. I think PE II and the 3rd Birthday may have been better off as new IPs and SQEX shouldn't have tried to piggyback the PE name/story onto otherwise competent games (and maybe they would have been better received by fans of the original if none of us had been expecting them to carry on the PE legacy) but what's done is done. Part of me wants to see the series continue but honestly, if they made a 4th game, who knows what it would even look or play like. I think I would be happy if they announced another one, but if the 3rd Birthday killed the series, perhaps that's for the best as well.
I played the original Parasite Eve way back around the time it was released and loved it, but never finished the sequel or even started the PSP one; since they're all up on the PSN and Vita compatible, I decided to go back to the start and play through the whole series recently. Thoughts on each one:
Tbh, I went into this expecting the game to have not aged very well and prepared myself for disappointment. Was I ever wrong. It's held up incredibly well and is every bit as fantastic now as it was in 1998. Even the visuals, which are clearly very dated, still look amazing - Squaresoft's New York City is a beautiful and creepy place. Wonderful atmosphere.
And the music, oh boy, the music. Yoko Shimomura has an extraordinarily impressive body of work but I think if I had to choose, I'd say that the Parasite Eve soundtrack is the best she's ever put together. Some standout tracks (but really, it's all great): Primal Eyes, Plosive Attack, Out of Phase, Arise Within You, Matrix, Somnia Memorias
While the story isn't necessarily anything ~amazing~, the premise is pretty interesting and it's something pretty unique for a video game (possible because it was written as a sequel of sorts to a Japanese novel). The pacing is also quite good - it's fairly short as far as JRPGs go and I like how it's broken up into separate days/phases. Can't forget to mention the characters, as well: Aya Brea was a great addition to the SQEX pantheon. She's not super fleshed out, but what we learn of her character over the course of the game's six days is that she's pretty damn gutsy and smart on her feet. I like her a lot and the fact that the game has a female protagonist was actually the main reason I tried it out when I was a kid. I also liked how the villain was handled, how she's sympathetic in a way and we find out more and more about her past as we play through the game. Well, Melissa wasn't really the villain, but every time I went up against Eve, I'd feel sad about the poor opera singer inside.
I could go on and on about all the things I like in Parasite Eve, but for the sake I've brevity I'll just wrap up with this: a fantastic game in nearly every way.
One question for GAF: is the Chrysler Building worth the slog? I made it to the 30th floor back during my first playthrough, but abandoned it because my equipment sucked (made some dumb choices w/my upgrades and ended up w/mediocre guns and armor). Didn't attempt it this time around, but was thinking of giving it a go soon.
So, I started this game over a decade ago and got about half way through before screwing up my save file in a way that made it impossible to progress. Coming back to it, I was a little wary. I've never been a big fan of Resident Evil-type games thanks to the controls, and Parasite Eve II is basically a RE clone w/fewer and dumber puzzles and light RPG elements. In terms of gameplay it's...really not the sequel anyone was looking for to Parasite Eve and I was pretty disappointed with it from what I'd played years ago. I think knowing this helped the second time around, because I found that I actually enjoyed Parasite Eve II a fair amount by the end of it. They pretty much threw out almost everything that made the original so great and replaced it with something new and different, but if you can get beyond the fact that as a sequel, it's pretty much crap, there's a decent game underneath.
I really enjoyed the Dryfield part of the game - I think it captured the ominous, creepy feeling that pervaded the original game the best. Take a mundane, normal American setting, then twist it into something mutated and sinister. Dryfield also resonated w/me a bit because I grew up in a rural goldrush town not too far from the Nevada border, so I'm not unfamiliar with those sort of "blink and you'll miss it" dots on the map out West and it made this part of the game more nail-biting for me
I wish the plot wasn't so lackluster. It felt like it was conceived as an afterthought and is very weak compared to the first game's narrative and poorly presented. I think if you somehow miss checking the computer log in one of the Shelter's rooms, you never even really find out wtf happened in there. That said, the things Aya thinks to herself when you inspect objects could be pretty amusing at time.
Anyway, not a good sequel but not a bad game either.
Oh, this game. Where to begin.
I was super hyped when it was first announced, and when they switched development to the PSP halfway through, it became one of the main reasons I picked up that system. Alas, after all of the lecherous hype around the disintegrating costume feature, the fact that they'd devolved Aya into a "vulnerable" amnesiac and the gross and unnecessary shower scene, I'd basically lost all interest in the game by the time it came out. Still, I wanted to finish the series so I tried to put all that aside and just keep my expectations really low for this one. And, well, I'll just come right out and admit it: I have some serious reservations about this game, but overall I loved the 3rd Birthday.
Super fun 3rd person shooter, looks great, sounds fantastic, hearkens back to the first game w/its creepy, mutated NYC setting. There's a lot here that was really well done. But the story? Good gods, the story? Hot, hot garbage. Just, wtf. W.T.F. Wtfffffffff. My first thought when I beat the final boss was "Great, now they'll finally explain what the hell has been going on the whole game." My second thought was, "Wtf is that game that I have to wait til the ending cutscene to understand the plot." The way the narrative is laid out is just terrible. A bunch of cryptic cutscenes that don't make any sense all game, sprinkled with datalog entries that actually do the heavy lifting in explaining the setting, capped off with an ending that finally attempts to de-mystify the ridiculously obtuse narrative w/a BS, poorly explained twist. Just, come on. I don't hate Toriyama, but this game really helped me understand why so many people hate the way the story was presented in FFXIII.
And man, Aya...:-( A great character w/a lot of potential and oops! Turns out she's not really in this game! I guess on some level, it's maybe better that the constantly whimpering, docile young woman that I ran around NYC w/was actually Eve sans her memories, instead of the game just dragging Aya's characterization through the mud. And when Aya did show up for a few minutes in the end, she was her old self. And, um, maybe there's something badass about the fact that her psychic death births a new species that destroys the world? (lol no) But, uh, yeah. No. This was...not a good direction for the series narrative to take, not at all. I mean, they clearly were trying to take the series back to its roots somewhat with this installment - returning to NYC, remixing and reusing the original's soundtrack in some great ways - so why on earth did they decide that when it came to the plot, the heavy lifting would come from the narratively desolate and uninspiring sequel?
Also, this is probably the dumbest thing to focus on in this game's dumb story, but Aya and Kyle got engaged in 2008. Why did they wait two years to get married if their wedding was only going to consist of them + Eve in a empty church. It took two years to plan that? And how did Kyle survive his gunshot wounds but Aya, who has regeneration powers, die from hers? (or was dying? in the original timeline?) Or maybe she wasn't really going to but Eve just panicked, I don't even know. And if there are forces out that that are trying to track you and your fiance down and kill you, why are you - you know what, no. Nevermind. Just no.
So, idk. I feel pretty conflicted about the 3rd Birthday. I had a ton of fun playing it, but everything about the game's narrative and the way they treat Aya's character is just horrifically awful and inexcusable. And yet, as soon as the credits started rolling, I wanted to play through it again.
Overall
tl;dr: a worthwhile series that has gone in bizarre directions at every turn, but is consistently fun to play. I wish the original game had a proper sequel that iterated on the solid gameplay and advanced the narrative in a meaningfully interesting way. I think PE II and the 3rd Birthday may have been better off as new IPs and SQEX shouldn't have tried to piggyback the PE name/story onto otherwise competent games (and maybe they would have been better received by fans of the original if none of us had been expecting them to carry on the PE legacy) but what's done is done. Part of me wants to see the series continue but honestly, if they made a 4th game, who knows what it would even look or play like. I think I would be happy if they announced another one, but if the 3rd Birthday killed the series, perhaps that's for the best as well.
