One of the best things about Squaresoft is how inventive they used to be. The company best known for the Final Fantasy series explored a lot of different genres in the 32-bit era. They had shooters, racing RPGs, 3D fighters, and more. Survival horror took off in this generation and they apparently wanted some of the pie. This is where Parasite Eve comes in. Squaresoft developed it as a hybrid survival horror game with a focus on RPG mechanics. On paper it doesn’t sound like it would work. The game released to rave reviews. Despite loving both survival horror games as well as RPGs I never gave it a fair shot. Back in this time critics had a tendency to overrate anything with the Squaresoft name on it. I assumed this was the case here as well. Boy was I wrong. Let’s take a look at Parasite Eve.
This game is unique when compared to most other Squaresoft games for several reasons. We’ll start with the plot. Parasite Eve takes place in modern day (or at least it was, back in the late 90s) in New York City of all places. You play as an NYPD officer named Aya Brea. The plot kicks off as she’s attending the Opera with a date on Christmas Eve 1997. Everything seems perfectly normal at first, but then audience members begin to spontaneously combust during a solo. Everyone except Aya, and the opera singer named Melissa Pearce. In the chaos our protagonist confronts the otherworldly songstress who is ranting and raving about mitochondria. Melissa flees backstage, and eventually into the sewers with Aya giving chase. This is however just the start as Aya’s ensuing investigation leads her all around New York City as she does battle with an army of mutated beasts.
Squaresoft took some unusual liberties with the story here. For a company that typically crafted massive fantasy worlds with lots of magical elements the setting here is really grounded. The main character being not only a female, but also a police officer was something we had never seen from the company. Furthermore this was the first ‘M’ rated game the company ever produced. While Parasite Eve isn’t as gory or disturbing as Resident Evil it definitely earned the mature moniker. There’s plenty of blood and mutating creatures (shown through stylish full motion video sequences). You also have more violence than just about every other Squaresoft title out there. Parasite Eve has the look and feel of most survival horror games of this era despite being more mechanically similar to a role playing game. It’s only missing the jump scares.
Parasite Eve uses the same polygonal characters on pre-rendered backgrounds style that both Final Fantasy and Resident Evil did at the time. There are no tank controls in place here which honestly threw me off. You guide Aya through various locations around New York City. The beginning is more linear with the story forcing you to specific areas. Once you progress to a specific point you can select your destination from a world map via a simple menu. Each place has it’s fair share of non-playable characters to interact with, and dungeon-like sequences that have light puzzles and treasure. Some locations are populated by enemies, and this is where Parasite Eve gets interesting. You do not battle them in real-time like in most survival horror games. Instead these encounters occur at random, but on the same screen in which you were exploring like in Chrono Trigger.
Combat is turn based, but allows for real-time movement. Aya has the traditional Active Time Bar which when filled allows her to perform a command which is selected from a menu. This includes attacking with her currently equipped weapon, using Parasite Energy (it’s basically magic), using items, changing equipment, and escaping from battle. The game only freezes when you bring up theis menu and waits for you to make a selection. Outside of this you freely move Aya around the battlefield. Sometimes you’ll need to close the distance with shorter range weapons, and other times you’ll have to run around to dodge enemy attacks. All statistics are numerical based, and damaging enemies splashes numbers out of them like in a traditional RPG. At the time the battle system was really unique and offered something much different from typical role playing games.
The survival horror elements spill over into the gameplay as well. Most of Aya’s weapons are firearms, and have limited ammunition. There will be times when you’re running low on bullets and have to plan accordingly. You’ll find new more powerful guns as you progress, but these have varying ranges and clip sizes. Generally they do use the same ammunition however. For melee weapons Aya starts out with a club (or baton as it’s typically called in real life) and this can be used infinitely. Unfortunately it’s much weaker, and you have to be extremely close to the foe for the attack to land. You’ll find stronger clubs later in the game but for the most part they’re only there as a last resort. It’s kind of like the knife in Resident Evil, but not quite as useless.
Unfortunately Parasite Eve is a bit limited as far as options go. Your party only ever consists of one character, and thats Aya. She does gather several pieces of equipment but in reality you can only equip two pieces at a time. This is limited to a weapon and armor. As I’ve already mentioned weapons generally are limited to firearms, but there are a few different types. You have standard handguns as well as rifles, machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers. Oddly enough bullets are a general term here, and work in every firearm except the grenade and rocket launchers which have their own ammunition. Each type of weapon has it’s own strengths and weaknesses, and you can even modify them with parts you find in the environments. I did like that these are functionally different, and often found myself switching between them depending on the situation.
Aya also gains experience points and levels which in turn make her stronger the more you battle. Unfortunately there’s no customization in regards to that. As far as stat gains go they’re pretty much static, and she learns spells at specific levels. I don’t say this about a lot of other games but Parasite Eve could have benefitted from a skill tree of some sort. That would make it more replayable because with the limited number of options at your disposal there’s little reason to return. Instead of allowing you to get creative in terms of growth Parasite Eve instead focuses more on your ability to dodge attacks. You will get better as you go, and the game does a wonderful job of easing the player into it. This mechanic is especially important against boss characters who often unleash powerful attacks thus requiring you to stay on your toes.
If there’s one complaint I have about Parasite Eve it would definitely be that it didn’t lean enough into the survival horror aspect. I wanted it to be something that would keep me up at night, but this just isn’t the one. Jump scares may be cheap, but I felt like Parasite Eve would have benefitted from a few well placed ones. While the story is horror based, and some of the full motion video sequences are unnerving it just isn’t scary or startling in the least. Some of the environments have decent atmosphere. Most of this is squandered however because the battle system takes you right out of it with the upbeat music and focus on action. Squaresoft made a great RPG with Parasite Eve, but it’s not good in terms of survival horror mechanics.
In its time Parasite Eve was a really beautiful game. The graphics have been mostly preserved thanks to the use of pre-rendered backgrounds. These are full of detail, and they draw you into the world with ease. It’s easy to forget you’re just looking at static images. The character models look really good by PS1 standards with realistic proportions, and detailed textures. These 3D elements blend in better than in with the backgrounds better than most games of this type thanks to the more realistic approach taken. Enemy models are a little disappointing. They often are too small or lack as much detail as the main cast. My big complaint is with the animations, particularly with Aya. She runs really slowly and the way she moves doesn’t match this speed. The soundtrack is moody and desolate, but I found it kind of boring to be honest.
