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Epicurus.com - Parasite Eve
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List Price: N/A
Our Price: $113.99
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Square Enix
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Video Game
EAN: 0662248998015
ESRB Age Rating: Mature
Label: Square Enix
Manufacturer: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Square Enix
Studio: Square Enix
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Editorial Reviews:
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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
Cons: - Too short, and it's confusing
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Aya Kicks Butt!
Comment: Parasite Eve is a game that blends both the survival-horror and RPG genres together, keeping the best of both worlds. Ultimately, this makes this a unique game the likes of which I've never seen successfully repeated (yes, the sequel is quite bad). That being said, I really enjoyed this game, and I'm sure you will too!
Graphics (score 7/10): The graphics look a bit dated by today's standards, and weren't even the absolute best for their time. However, they look good enough, and are not too displeasing to the eye. The CG cutscenes still look excellent, in my opinion, and do a good job of showcasing the freaky creatures that the game features.
Music (score 8/10): I really love the music for this game; I even went and got the soundtrack because I enjoyed it so much. My only complaint is that the opera scene in the game uses a synthesized vocal track which sounds absolutely hideous compared to the regular opera singer's voice on the soundtrack. Why they didn't just use the un-synthesized song is beyond me. Also of note is the excellent exploration-related sound effects. I don't think I've ever heard squeakier, creepier door sounds in my life. Yes, these sounds are a bit unnaturally loud, but they are well-suited to this type of game, and add to the creepiness factor. Unfortunately, in battle sounds like gunshots are oddly muted--eve the rocket launcher is quiet. One more thing--even though the music itself is great, there are times when it is strangely absent. At times I can tell that the silence is used for dramatic effect, at other times it just seems random. For instance, the Weapons Department of the police station (where I store my excess crap) almost always has no music, but the rest of the station does. This makes no sense at all. Oh well. Rest assured that the negative points to the music really don't detract much from the overall fine experience.
Characters (score 8/10): Aya is the main character, and the only character which you will get to control. That being said, I really liked her and think she is more than capable of carrying the game alone. Being a survival-horror sort of game, only having one character helps add to the feeling of loneliness and fear since you are on your own. One thing I really like about Aya is that she is not treated like a stereotypical girly-girl nor as a blatant sex-object. This unfortunately seems to happen a lot in games where the main character is female. She is very much a believable no-nonsense cop. After seeing too many games where the female characters fight while wearing mini-skirts and heels (who fights monsters in a mini-skirt?!), I've really started to appreciate the fact that the designers opted for realism in Parasite Eve and put Aya in jeans, sneakers, and a jacket. It's really unusual to see such a believable female lead character, and I'm very pleased. As for the other, supporting characters (and even Aya herself), they do not get a lot of background information or dialogue, and do not really get a lot of character development. The other characters are really more archetypal characters, such as the workaholic cop who doesn't spend enough time with his family, or the nerdy, socially inept scientist. Even though their personalities aren't deeply developed, you can still understand and relate to them as characters because you're familiar with the archetypes. This lack of deeper characters normally wouldn't work in a traditional RPG, but the game pulls it off well because it is more story-driven.
Story (score 9/10): The story takes place in a fairly short amount of time (6 days), but it's very engaging. True, the premise of sentient mitochondria is a bit far-fetched, but if you suspend your disbelief, the story is incredibly enjoyable. Square did a good job of crafting a creepy tale full of hideous monsters that'll keep you on the edge of your seat. The main storyline is great, but one thing I must point out (without spoiling anything) is that the bonus ending (for going through the Chrysler Building in the EX Game) is a real bust. I felt so cheated after seeing that ending--it is way not worth the effort to get. However if you stick to the main game, you're likely to have a great time.
Battle System (score 10/10): The game designers did a great job of blending action elements and turn-based gameplay to give us an enjoyable hybrid. You can move Aya freely around during battle to dodge enemy attacks while waiting for your time bar to fill. Once it's full, you hit the X button to bring up an attack menu and a grid. The grid shows you the range of you're weapon. Simple, yes? Also, you can opt to open up your menu when you get your turn and use an item instead of attacking. The game features many guns and armor which can be customized by using a "tool" to add features from one weapon/armor onto another. You also get bonus points when you level up which can be used to increase your inventory size, the speed of your time bar, or weapon/armor stats. Overall, I found the customization feature to be very enjoyable.
Gameplay (score 7/10): This is a bit of a catch-all category for me. One thing that I found annoying was Aya's running speed; it's like her feet are sticky or something because she runs really slowly. Another thing that was a bit annoying is that the game has random battles, but they aren't exactly random. There are "hot spots" on the floor that can trigger random battles if you happen to step in that area. Unfortunately, these are somewhat few and far between, and the more they are triggered, the lower your chances of getting that spot to trigger again. While this is good because you have fewer random battles than a normal RPG, it would've been easier to level-raise if the game featured just regular old random battles that trigger every few steps or so. Other than that, the gameplay is mostly positive. I really enjoy how you can return to previous locations to level-raise or get items (can't leave the final area at the end of the game, unfortunately). I also like the fact that they kept the survival-horror feel of having limited inventory space but also gave you a convenient place you can store extra items (in the Weapons Department of the Police Station). Overall, I think the game designers did a very good job of combining the best elements of survival-horror and RPG gameplay.
Overall (score 8/10): NOTE this score is not an average; it's my subjective overall score. If you're a fan of RPG's and always wanted to play a survival-horror game but really hate the gameplay element of the latter, then Parasite Eve is for you! It's really quite sad that Parasite Eve is the only game I've found that successfully pulls off this blending of genres; I really wish there were some more (Parasite Eve 2, unfortunately, was quite awful). I strongly urge you to add this game to your collection; you won't be disappointed!
Customer Rating:
Summary: plain old fun
Comment: A fun game with only a few down points
1. it's short, only 10 hours to beat and 2 disc's.
2. Aya runs very slow and looks funny while running.
but besides that a very enjoyable RPG with a differnt attitude. The story of mitochondria eve told by sqauresoft in this game is a fasinating one.
People say it is Final Fantasy meet Resident Evil, I say its True Science meets Stephen King.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Pasrasite Eve is an awesome game"
Comment: This a pretty good rpg for the ps1 which has a very in depth story line and has a nice fighting system. Overall I give this game five stars
Customer Rating:
Summary: It was good in 1998, it's still good 10 years later.
Comment: I loved this game back when it came out. Very unique RPG and Aya Brea is the hottest RPG character ever. The setting was awesome (New York coool!) and the story was good too. It's science-fiction but it's not too intelectual (sp?) I bought this game because I lost it a long time ago and yes, this game still rocks. Way better than the 2nd one which is a Resident Evil rip-off.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A FANTASTIC HORROR-RPG! 9.5 OUT OF 10
Comment: Have you ever wondered what would happen if Resident Evil and Final Fantasy had a baby? If so, the answer is Parasite Eve. The story is about an NYPD cop named Aya Brea, whose life gets turned upside down during a visit to a theater. She goes to see an opera with her boyfriend, and all seems to be going well, the singer; Melissa; has a beautiful voice and everything is running perfectly until people start to self-combust (catch fire by themselves). Only Aya miraculously survives and Eve has mysteriously disappeared, so you must go find her, and as a dutiful police officer, arrest her. Then wierd things start happening in the dressing room area. A rat suddenly appears, and then it begins squealing uncontrollably as it begins to mutate into a grotesque abomination (Remember the scene in The Thing when the dog changed into the alien? Yeah, it was that disgusting.) Then it turns out Melissa is a horrible monster called Eve, who can spawn creatures called Neo-Mitochondria. As the game explains it, this particular parasite makes the mitochondria in the cells gain more energy than the cell itself causing the body to get really hot and make it catch on fire by itself or turn into a gel substance. There is a more detailed explanation in the game, but I gave you the shorter version. Then you begin to have strange visions from your past that you'd long forgotten for good reasons. This is only the beginning of the game, you face even more dangerous and freakier creatures later. This game is ultimately a quest to destroy Eve, save the world, wipe out the Neo-Mitochondria creatures, and discover the secrets of your past. This game has incredible CG-animated cutscenes that are very impressive, even to this day. The in-game graphics of the environments are incredible as well, but the character models look ugly in real-time. The gameplay is a mix of turn-based and real-time combat, what I mean is, on this game you wait your turn to attack but you can move around. Unfortunately, this can also hamper the experience in some ways because the enemies move around too, and sometimes the space you're enclosed in is too small for you to really avoid being hit. Luckily, this rarely dampers the experience because this game is absolutely incredible with its creepy Resident Evil-style creatures and atmosphere, phenomenal CG-animation, cool gameplay, storyline, cool bosses, and challenging gameplay. If you like RPGs and you like Resident Evil this game is a must-have because it's so awesome. I love this game, and there's no reason any RPG fan should hate it.
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