Customer Reviews

Parasite Eve

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I love this game! I know I'm only 11 and my comments aren't importent but please play this game! It's great and fasinating! I LOVE the movie parts and the great storyline. I don't know why people complain about subtitles. If it was longer it might tie up there with Final Fanasy 7! (sigh) It's a very additive game.

...and I still have the game in good condition. When i first bought my playstion, this was the frist game i played, hence the first RPG i ever played. I got it cause my friend said its good, and i saw the commerical (the one with the helicopter and the slime and Aya) and figured it would be good. Thank god i was right. Let's get into the battle system:

Now THIS is the meat of the game, for the most part.For me, in some games, I think that the battle system is the potatoes in an RPG. If its good, then you won't be bored. No, I will not compare this game to Final Fantasy or its sequel. This is Parasite Eve review, not my turn to play fan-boy. Your midocondria (i think) gives you powers. Like heal HP, Haste, Detox, and attacks. Your PE will we restored slowly in battle. While its restoring you can dodge your enemys attacks, and counter attack when your AT bar fills up. AT is active time, where a lil bar fills up depending your level and when its full you attack. And you can't attack just anywhere, mind you. You have a grid that is your range. Enemy out of range (grid) you will miss. Easy, but will keep you on your toes, and will be hard because you have usally more than one enemy to deal with.

Now THIS is the meat of the game, for the most part. The Story is Amazing. Just too short, but got me glued to my TV set. I will not say anything bou the story cause you already know by other reviews.

The sound is good, not great. Primal Eyes (the theme song) is geat with its fast paced piano solo.

Your ganna be hooked on this game, and will want to know what the title, Pasasite Eve, really means. You will know soon enough.

Like i said this game is great and its my first Playstion game. Now i own most of the final fantasy i own both chrono games, and i have a vast libary of Rpgs, and all because of this lil game. And it wasn't Final fantasy VII that got me hooked.

It was Parasite Eve.

Parasite Eve's best feature is probably the story. It's hard to put down. You really want to play as long as possible just to see how the story will reveal itself. I like this one better than Parasite Eve II. The second game has better graphics, but you lose the ability to customize/modfiy your equipment. Setting up your own unique equipment is a huge factor in enjoying the game. Too bad the game is a little bit short. But you can got through it a second time. It's actually better the second time around, even though the monsters get tougher. You can allocate more bonus points and effects to your weapon to compensate somewhat. I highly recommend this game. Especially to someone new to this type of game. Moving Aya around in this first game is a very simple task, unlike in PEII. The story is so involving that you would become a big fan of RPGs.

Many people may play this game and think, "What a boring game" or "It's too slow" or "Graphics were horrible". I don't think so. I enjoyed it, because you really have to get into the plot. Aya was cool, and the monsters were hot. The FMVs were realistic and exciting. Why people don't like it, I just don't know. I would have given this game 5 stars, except for the little known reason that you have to read what the character was saying. I think the reason why many people don't like it is because they expected it to be something like what they were used to. Please, guys, try this game! As I said before, I really enjoyed playing it! Oh, and ALSO probably some people may not like to think about things like the puzzles in the game.For one thing, you can't expect just to play a game and not even have to think about what you are playing, including the interesting facts about the mitochondria. And, well, guys, that is just a part of the game that can't be cut out. Here's some advice, Try the game! If you don't like it, it's ok, because everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But just check out this great game. You won't regret it!

I'm thirty-one years old and I usually play nothing but RPGs, such as the Zelda series, the FF series, Chrono, Breath of Fire, etc. Started playing this one because my teen-age brother forgot to put the CD back in the case and left it in the playstation console by mistake. Have to say I got hooked immediately.

Story plays out like a movie, and the dialogue sounds like something real people in the 20th century will actually say. Though other folks may find the game too short, it was actually one of the things I liked about it, since I have to work and don't have hours to spend in front of the playstation. Some people may also compare it with survival horror games such as Silent Hill or Resident Evil, but I think this game isn't as creepy (just for info, my measure of a game's creepiness is totally subjective and depends on whether or not I can play it at night when I'm all by myself :).

The pacing of the story is just right, just enough to hook you in so that you'll want to know what happens next. Beating the game once also enables you to play in ex-mode, where you can enter another area and find out a little bit more about Aya. In addition, the game allows you to carry over stats or features from previous weapons and armors so that, if you're obsessive about perfection, like most RPGers I know, you end up spending a lot of time customizing in order to get the best possible weapon & armor.

Battle system is nice too, kind of like dothack (where you can run around the enemy and essentially pause the game while you bring up the menu and choose what you want to do next) but without the camera whiplashing around like crazy. Good music as well. Overall, a good buy.

Parasite Eve is one of the creepiest games to ever come out on a console. No, it's not "horrifying" like Resident Evil where zombies eat your flesh. It's more of a psychological horror game, or the Alfred Hitchcock title of the gaming world. Just forget about the pseudo-scientifical chatter that ensues during the game. The point is, it is the best script and storyline to happen to the gaming world. Who would have thought up the idea for mitochondria taking over New York City? It's awesome for a game to come up with an orginal script like this. Also, the game operates like a movie, with many plot twists and a well-written story. The CG's are awesome, and the environments are cool, even if the graphics are a little off. There is no better setting than a nearly-empty New York City! And finally, Eve is one of the coolest video game characters ever created by Squaresoft, the makers of Final Fantasy. Overall, any RPG lover or a horror game fan will enjoy Parasite Eve, at least while the excitement lasts!My Rating-9.6!

Pros:

It's been soooo long since I have played this game. The last time I played this game was about 5 years ago when I was 16 years old and borrowed it from a friend. I am now 21 years old and going to college (majoring in criminal justice, imagine that). I was bored and was thinking of buying a game and after looking through the games online I came across parasite eve! I really liked it when I was younger and decided to play it once again. I just recently finished beating it, and now that I'm older and being more mature I realized after playing it how realistic this game really is.

My life partner, who is an expert in biology, watched me as I played and then explained to me all the scientific definitions of mitochondria and how Richard Dawkins discovered the selfish gene. Reading on what he discovered is quite amazing and very educational, btw.

This is no ordinary game mind you, it's the kind of game that makes you think a lot deeper when it comes to human life and why we are here, and if we `humans' have a purpose for something much greater. This game teaches on things of that level and definitely doesn't make you lose brain cells.

Sorry if I seem sexist but the game defiantly has one big difference that I have notice that makes it very unique from other games. The main character is a girl! And not just any girl, but a girl that can kick butt is very courageous, able to take care of herself, and not rely on others to do the work for her. Throughout the game I sometimes forget she's a girl because she doesn't portray as your typical woman, I have even looked up to her as a role model when I was younger.

Cons:

The only down side for this game is that it is, unfortunately, too short and because it has great story line it's so sad that it ends so quickly. It's about a 15 hour or less game.

Over all:

My honest advice to the people that are thinking of buying this game....GET IT! It is definitely worth every penny, in my opinion (if you like horror, solving puzzles, and mystery that is). Also, I am thinking of saving up for Parasite Eve II and let everyone know how that turns out as well, knowing that game is more expensive than the first one. Hope that you found this review helpful to you and let me know what you think. Thanks!