At its core, Parasite Eve is experimental, and mostly, proves itself to be one of the most unique entries in Square’s gigantic gaming catalog. Like its famously recognizable siblings in the Final Fantasy franchise, Parasite Eve is another game which defined Square’s tenure as both developers and as a company in making ambitiously cinematic experiences for the PS1 generation. Interestingly, this is a detail that’s advertised more bluntly with the game compared to any of the FF games released at the time, being dubbed by Square as a “cinematic RPG”. But it makes sense because Parasite Eve is clearly a game with a closer focus on fellow underrated Square protagonist, Aya Brea, trying to investigate a mysterious threat which has deeper ties to her own history. The presentation is very cut and dry, there’s almost a grungy Hollywood twist to it, with the story it’s telling and how they built the gameplay around it for players to invest themselves in the horror going on.
The hybridization between the traditional JRPG mechanics Square is renowned for and the survivor horror gameplay that was trendy at the time lends itself towards an interesting experience that’s baked very well. It manages to almost never overstay its own welcome by having a refreshingly limited playtime, solid pacing, and engaging combat which cribs from many turn-based JRPG mechanics together with survival horror design tropes to create what I could only describe is a less refined prototype of FFVII Remake’s combat. If there is one gripe I have with this idea is that the item management and loot system isn’t executed as well as you’d hope. In trying to adhere to survival horror gameplay, there’s naturally supposed to be a scarcity of the resources you can gain throughout the game. You fight enemies primarily with guns, given the more realistic backdrop setting we’re in, and so you have to be careful with the ammo you find to make every shot count. It really pushes you to think just a bit more strategically on the way you customize your equipment and what you’re hoarding (there’s an inventory limit) in order to get the upper-hand in a life-or-death situation. But here’s where trying to also adhere to JRPG mechanics leaves this gameplay concept muddled. You should feel you’re ultimately still a bit helpless and unsure of your absolute protection, encouraging you to get better and smarter while horrific enemies can just randomly appear to fight you. However, in what I assume is a compromise between two different gameplay styles, the game makes every random encounter usually give you way more ammo than you thought you’d ever need. This doesn’t happen right away but as you continue playing, and as you continue to fight more enemies and find hidden loot, you piled enough ammo that you can probably never worry about lucking out hard in the last few days. Also, the game has a tendency to force useless items into your already limited inventory that doesn’t benefit you and becomes annoying because you can’t always get rid of them right away.
Yoko Shimomura’s soundtrack is a stark difference from her career defining work in Kingdom Hearts, and I mean in a wonderful way. It doesn’t quite maintain this in the latter half but her musical stylings were necessary in creating one of the most engrossingly atmospheric settings to be found in the PS1. There’s a stroke of genius in adopting the iconic fixed isometric backgrounds from the PS1 Final Fantasy titles, taking advantage of how visually eerie they already are, and working it through the dark urbanized city setting to really make you feel claustrophobic and unaware of what might happen. It’s worth mentioning that the cinematics in this “cinematic RPG” are still outstanding, even going beyond the purely technical level. There’s a lot of well-done body horror sequences which ironically the dated look of it only adds to make it feel unsettling, and Square still took advantage of making them feel like a big theatrical blockbuster for the PS1. While it feels very grounded in its approach, it does shed away that perfectly chilling atmosphere when the stakes continue to be raised and the plot becomes a bit dumb. It doesn’t ruin the experience, I still enjoy the silly b-movie horror stuff that happens, but the last stretch weakens it enough to prevent me from completely loving it. The level design becomes obtuse to navigate through (the entire Museum section is a very poor example for this), and the last few bosses can be very frustrating if you haven’t built enough endurance or patience to die multiple times while figuring out how to beat them. Even then, it almost becomes a lengthy battle of attrition in running around and spamming Haste/Barrier/Heal if the PE meter fills quickly enough. I have a great suspicion the post-game dungeon to get the second true ending isn’t really worth it for similar reasons so I might save it for another time.
Putting aside my gripes, Parasite Eve is still an all-around banger. I only wish Squeenix would go back to this game and try to bring it back from the ground up, it’s very easy to do the full FFVII Remake treatment here, honestly. There’s a lot of really solid groundwork built here to make it a mainstay franchise today even if it means sidestepping the awkward situation with the sequels which I guess killed this series by making it into just a worse Resident Evil clone.
The hybridization between the traditional JRPG mechanics Square is renowned for and the survivor horror gameplay that was trendy at the time lends itself towards an interesting experience that’s baked very well. It manages to almost never overstay its own welcome by having a refreshingly limited playtime, solid pacing, and engaging combat which cribs from many turn-based JRPG mechanics together with survival horror design tropes to create what I could only describe is a less refined prototype of FFVII Remake’s combat. If there is one gripe I have with this idea is that the item management and loot system isn’t executed as well as you’d hope. In trying to adhere to survival horror gameplay, there’s naturally supposed to be a scarcity of the resources you can gain throughout the game. You fight enemies primarily with guns, given the more realistic backdrop setting we’re in, and so you have to be careful with the ammo you find to make every shot count. It really pushes you to think just a bit more strategically on the way you customize your equipment and what you’re hoarding (there’s an inventory limit) in order to get the upper-hand in a life-or-death situation. But here’s where trying to also adhere to JRPG mechanics leaves this gameplay concept muddled. You should feel you’re ultimately still a bit helpless and unsure of your absolute protection, encouraging you to get better and smarter while horrific enemies can just randomly appear to fight you. However, in what I assume is a compromise between two different gameplay styles, the game makes every random encounter usually give you way more ammo than you thought you’d ever need. This doesn’t happen right away but as you continue playing, and as you continue to fight more enemies and find hidden loot, you piled enough ammo that you can probably never worry about lucking out hard in the last few days. Also, the game has a tendency to force useless items into your already limited inventory that doesn’t benefit you and becomes annoying because you can’t always get rid of them right away.
Yoko Shimomura’s soundtrack is a stark difference from her career defining work in Kingdom Hearts, and I mean in a wonderful way. It doesn’t quite maintain this in the latter half but her musical stylings were necessary in creating one of the most engrossingly atmospheric settings to be found in the PS1. There’s a stroke of genius in adopting the iconic fixed isometric backgrounds from the PS1 Final Fantasy titles, taking advantage of how visually eerie they already are, and working it through the dark urbanized city setting to really make you feel claustrophobic and unaware of what might happen. It’s worth mentioning that the cinematics in this “cinematic RPG” are still outstanding, even going beyond the purely technical level. There’s a lot of well-done body horror sequences which ironically the dated look of it only adds to make it feel unsettling, and Square still took advantage of making them feel like a big theatrical blockbuster for the PS1. While it feels very grounded in its approach, it does shed away that perfectly chilling atmosphere when the stakes continue to be raised and the plot becomes a bit dumb. It doesn’t ruin the experience, I still enjoy the silly b-movie horror stuff that happens, but the last stretch weakens it enough to prevent me from completely loving it. The level design becomes obtuse to navigate through (the entire Museum section is a very poor example for this), and the last few bosses can be very frustrating if you haven’t built enough endurance or patience to die multiple times while figuring out how to beat them. Even then, it almost becomes a lengthy battle of attrition in running around and spamming Haste/Barrier/Heal if the PE meter fills quickly enough. I have a great suspicion the post-game dungeon to get the second true ending isn’t really worth it for similar reasons so I might save it for another time.
Putting aside my gripes, Parasite Eve is still an all-around banger. I only wish Squeenix would go back to this game and try to bring it back from the ground up, it’s very easy to do the full FFVII Remake treatment here, honestly. There’s a lot of really solid groundwork built here to make it a mainstay franchise today even if it means sidestepping the awkward situation with the sequels which I guess killed this series by making it into just a worse Resident Evil clone.