Parasite Eve (

1998

)

It's been a long time indeed since I've encountered a video game with a premise as original and as compelling as Parasite Eve. The game suggests that mitochondria, the organelle responsible for generating power for human cells, is actually a separate organism that was absorbed by humans in some long distant, primordial past. For most of human history, the mitochondria had a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. However, the mitochondria were evolving independently of the humans they lived in, and at a much faster rate. Recently they have developed a dispersed intelligence that is waiting for the right conditions to completely separate from human beings. Obviously, this last bit is patently absurd, but like all great science fiction, there is a seed of possibility that makes this premise so compelling. Mitochondria really do have their own separate genomes from the rest of the cell, a genome that resembles that of a bacteria rather than a human being. They are also capable of generating a lot of power, whether or not it's enough to cause a person to burst into flames is beyond my limited biological knowledge but it's far from the biggest whopper that a game has asked me to swallow. It's just grounded in reality enough to make me willing to accept the fantastic events that transpire in the game.

None of this is explained upfront, which is to the game's benefit. Instead, the game opens with a bizarre and arresting sequence that draws the player into the plot and the world. NYPD detective Aya Brea is going on a Christmas Eve date to the opera (this is less weird when you remember that Christmas for the Japanese is celebrated in roughly the same manner as Valentines Day, so rather than a time for families to spend together it is generally left to young lovers). Once the lead actress begins to sing, the whole audience bursts into flames. Aya is the only one in the whole auditorium who is immune, and being the two-fisted woman-of-action that she is, she rushes the stage and tries to arrest the actress. The actress starts to refer to herself as Eve (her real name is Melissa) and transforms into a strange humanoid monstrosity. So right at the start, we have a few compelling mysteries in the form of what is happening? Why is this actress killing everyone? Why does she refer to herself as Eve? And what makes Aya so special that she survives? In addition to providing a nice little hook, it also gives the boys at Square a chance to flaunt their, then, state-of-the-art FMV animations, which have honestly aged better than they have any right too. I'll admit that it was this opening that got me interested in Parasite Eve in the first place, and also this strong hook that kept me playing despite the game's many issues that cropped up over my playthrough. Trust me, this game has more than it's fair share of issues too.

The monsters here occupy an uncomfortable middle ground between goofy and grotesque. The first enemy mook that you face, a mutated rat, exemplifies this issue. In the introductory cut scene, you see the rat twist and transform into a grotesque abomination, it's furry skin peeling back to reveal sinuous flesh and long sharp teeth. It looks so horrifying that it still feels a bit threatening when it's revealed the monster attacks by tossing fireballs at you with its tail. Other creatures, lacking the dramatic introduction that this one, wind up looking considerably more absurd. The mutated monkeys at the central park zoo that attack by throwing a boomerang-like appendage stand out as especially laughable. Indeed, most of the enemies in the game are difficult to take as a serious threat based on their outlandish appearance and wacky attack patterns. Fortunately, the bosses are generally a bit more intimidating, particularly Eve when she shows up for any of her several boss battles throughout the game. Her final form, a bloated pregnant figure that resembles a Broodmother from Dragon Age: Origins [2009] if Dragon Age was an anime, was especially striking.

The game is at least half JRPG, so there's a lot of focus on kitting out Aya with the best weapons and armor possible. Since this is a realistic contemporary setting (aside from the main sci-fi premise that is) that gear takes the form of firearms and body armor. There are loads of options which creates a few problems. If you're like me and only have a passing knowledge of firearms then you'll quickly get lost in the sea of Ms and numbers and have trouble knowing if you're looking at a shotgun, a pistol, or a grenade launcher. The fact that not all the weapon's stats are not visible in the inventory screen (but are visible on the equip item screen) only compounds this issue. It's not like you can just ignore your old weapons once you get a new one either, as a big part of the game is passing buffs from one weapon to another using tools. It's not difficult mind you, just annoying and cumbersome. The fact that you have a limited inventory space and have to travel back and forth to the police station to unload old supplies into a separate inventory just makes it all the more frustrating. Seriously the last time a game made me do this was Earthbound [1994], and this game has way more inventory trash than Earthbound [1994] did. Then there's the fact that a good deal of the weapons are downright useless when you first get them. The machine guns, in particular, are worthless as they won't even allow you to target a specific enemy.

The game must have been visually stunning in 1998, and while the graphics certainly show their age like all early 3D games, they have aged more gracefully than most. Part of this is no doubt due to the gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds, which are difficult to interact with but possess a level of detail that is a damn sight more impressive than anything made with in-engine graphics at the time. Unlike the studio's previous outing, the legendary Final Fantasy 7 [1997], the character models in those pre-rendered backgrounds don't look like deformed little gremlins with hoof-like hands. Sure, they still aren't great to look at but at least they consistently resemble human beings. The polygonal map screen which shows a simplified version of Manhattan island is downright charming. The cut-scenes are, of course, gorgeous even if they look a bit grainy to eyes accustomed to HD movies and 4k monitors. I doubt that this would be much of a problem if I was playing on an old CRT TV though.

By the standard of Square RPGs of the time this game is absurdly short, clocking in at under ten hours in total even after you go for all the side dungeons and scour each map for secrets and items. I think that's just fine as not every game needs to be a fifty-hour odyssey and the game's short playtime ensures that it is not overly padded. Obviously, the developers were a bit unsure about releasing such a short game though, as they added in a new game plus mode that includes a massive procedurally generated dungeon complete with an alternate final boss at the end. Moreover, the place is loaded to the gills with powerful weapons and armor to augment your equipment. The only problem is starting a new game plus only lets you keep your equipment, not your levels, so if you just roll into the bonus dungeon you'll quickly find yourself being curb-stomped by high-level enemies. So if you want to play through the bonus dungeon you'll have to play through the whole game again just to grind up to the right levels. It certainly gives you more bang for your buck but I wish that levels carried over to new game plus so I didn't have to revisit so much stuff before getting to the new content.

It becomes apparent very early on that Square had no idea how to make a survival horror game and was still very much working from their turn-base RPG playbook. For one thing, ammo is so plentiful that after the first day, I no longer had any reason to fear running out. I finished the game with more than a thousand rounds of spare ammunition. Healing items piled up too, as I usually used my parasite healing spells instead of consumable items, since the heal spells were generally better and the MP used to cast them recharged with every battle. Consequently, there was never a moment in the game where I had to worry about avoiding enemies for fear of burning through valuable ammunition and healing that I would need later on. Discovering caches of equipment became more annoying than rewarding, as my limited inventory space was quickly cluttered with junk I would never use. Indeed, I was never even frightened of combat, as the combat in this game is so easy that I played through the entire game without dying once. There's only one moment in the game where it actually functions as a survival horror game and this comes at the very end after you have defeated the final boss and it's wounded form chases you. If the thing catches up to you then it's game over. Here I felt genuinely tense and frightened by the monster chasing me because getting tagged by it would mean I'd have to replay the entire four-part final boss fight again. None of this would be a problem in a straightforward RPG, where I'm pleasantly enjoying the grind and occasional spike in challenge provided by the boss battles, but between the grotesque monsters, limited inventory space, and creepy soundtrack it's painfully obvious that Parasite Eve wants to be a survival horror game. If I'm not afraid and not worried about my dwindling resources or my safety, then it is just an abject failure in this regard.

Though even if this were a traditional RPG, the combat would still have quite a few issues. For one thing, the combination of real-time and turn-based systems has never been done well. Here it is especially annoying as your regular attack will always leave you open to a cheap counter-attack from the enemy. For some reason casting spells or using an item stops time, so I don't see why attacking can't do the same. Enemies in later levels don't become more dangerous, they just become more annoying, zipping out of range and hitting you with status effects that drag out each combat into a tedious slog. The bats in the sewer segment on day 5 are especially awful because of their ability to hit you with a blindness status effect that means you won't be able to hit shit for a minute or two. Some of the bosses have extremely cheap attacks, that once again frustrate rather than challenge the player. Like the first form of the final boss who has an undodgeable attack that reduces you to 1 hp.

Yet despite all that I'd still give Parasite Eve a recommendation on the strength of its innovative sci-fi premise alone. It reminds me of how much we've lost in the push to make games both a mainstream form of entertainment and a respected artistic medium. How much has been sacrificed trying to appeal to disinterested cultural critics who think that “The only problem is that you have to play the game to do so. And playing a game is a chore. That’s the big problem with video games: To enjoy them, you have to play them. And playing them requires exerting the effort to operate them. Games are machines, and broken ones at that. The player’s job is to make them work again.” How much we miss out when we boil down complex games into ever more simple and streamlined iterations, lest we upset or confuse even a fraction of the potential market. Parasite Eve is too weird of a game, it's premise is too abstract and confusing to possibly slot into such a landscape. Sure, a game with Parasite Eve's story could be made today, but it would have to be a weird indie title. There's just no way that a major studio would ever take a chance on something like this, certainly not the preeminent game company riding high after the success of releasing the biggest hit of the generation.