|
 quare's Final Fantasy 7 was a hallmark. If one is thinking of the overall production and execution, then this would be a statement of the bleeding obvious. However, if one can stop for a few moments and think of Final Fantasy 7 conceptually, it would be realized that it presented a glimpse into the many directions that a role playing game can take. It was an amalgam of numerous yet equally important production values, all fighting for some form of attention. It included a coherent and compelling storyline, character depth and development, multiple ways that the story could unfold, variety of gameplay, and so on. It is a credit to Square that Final Fantasy 7 produced such a wonderful trade-off between these different traits. Now, think of the possibilities of having an RPG that focuses entirely on one of those particular aspects. In other words, forget the compromise, and optimize one or two specific areas. Since Final Fantasy 7, Square has released other RPG titles like SaGa Frontier and Xenogears, which focus more on some of the traditional elements of such games; and Tobal 2, which featured a somewhat detached experimentation with action-based role playing in its RPG mode. However, Parasite Eve is the first from Square - and the first of its kind - to focus purely on the element of a compelling and coherent plot structure. Dubbed "The Cinematic RPG", Parasite Eve gives gameplayers a chance to experience an RPG with a focused, concise story without the hassles of side-issues or pedantic character management options to distract you from the situation at hand. In other words, its construction is like that of a movie, or at least as close as it can be. For those reasons, and the fact that no RPG has ever attempted this, Parasite Eve has been one of the only RPGs since Final Fantasy 7 to genuinely deserve any kind of hype, or at least anticipation.
The premise of Parasite Eve is deliciously original by video game and RPG standards. Everything takes place because of a microscopic organism called the mitochondria, which inhabit the cells of every living being. In fact, within the mythos of the Parasite Eve universe, the mitochondria found in human beings all have traces of DNA that were deduced to have originated from a single African woman. This woman was hence dubbed "Eve", for fairly obvious reasons. However, even though they have been passed down from generation to generation of human existence and have remained dormant in our bodies, the mitochondria are themselves living beings. It was only a matter of time before something happened. As fate would have it, that time came on Christmas Eve of 1997. Melissa Pearce and Aya Brea, two seemingly unrelated souls on this Earth, brought about this turn in the page of events as they entered the same building - one as a fledgling opera singer, and the other as an off-duty police officer on a date. As Melissa sang through her maiden opera performance, a knowing glance passed from one protagonist to another, and as though on cue, members of the cast and the audience suddenly begin to spontaneously combust. As the theater is engulfed in flames, Melissa proclaims that "Eve" has at last been awakened. From there, the destinies of Aya and Melissa become necessarily intertwined, and the outcome of their conflict could determine the fate of humanity. You, of course, take the role of Aya.
It should be obvious now that the plot behind Parasite Eve is the stuff of great modern science fiction. No more quests on faraway worlds, no more dragons and wizards, no more mechs or strange and alien technology... this is an RPG set in a society that we all understand at large: New York. In addition, this world that we relate so well to is intermingled with provocative scientific possibilities and themes of modern myths and legends. Real X-Files and Neon Genesis Evangelion stuff. Then there's also the psychological drama that unfolds as a sub-plot, which plays on the theories of some of the great sociological thinkers of today. Whether rightly or wrongly, this complex storyline is the driving force behind Parasite Eve.
|
Parasite Eve has been one of the only RPGs since Final Fantasy 7 to genuinely deserve any kind of hype, or at least anticipation.
|
|
"So how is this all executed?" you may ask. Firstly, the game opens, and is subsequently littered with, FMV sequences that forward the plot. These sequences are simply awesome to watch. In terms of both special effects and general cinematic direction, Parasite Eve provides the best material that Square has ever produced to date. Similar to Resident Evil 2, the important aspect of the sequences are in fact the direction and choreography. If you thought that the FMV sequences in Resident Evil 2 had great build-up scenes and camera angles and so on, then you will be in for a similar, but much grander treat with Parasite Eve.
Now, to clarify any misconceptions, Parasite Eve is most certainly not a case of more FMV than gameplay. The game has oodles of gameplay, and gameplay ultimately remains the focus in unveiling the plot. The FMV clips are more like rewards for your efforts in the game.
Gameplay is a relatively simple affair. All you do is navigate around in the 3D environment, looking for items, and generally fighting off the baddies. On the exploration side of things, the control interface is very much like Final Fantasy 7. The simple walk gets bugger all speed, and the run function speeds things up very well. You can investigate things like doors and closets to reveal items like health bars, power-up items, and other such RPG-related paraphernalia to help build up your general abilities such as HP, PE (Parasite Energy, which is really just MP to the seasoned RPG fan), speed, power, defence, and so on. In many respects, the exploration gameplay elements are very similar to the Resident Evil games in that there is a great deal of exploration; the camera angles try to mimic the great suspense films; and the storage boxes where you keep excess items is a direct imitation of Resident Evil.
The interface for the battle sequences, on the other hand, is quite innovative. The game remains in the exploration perspective, and all your controls remain exactly the same, save for the fact that Aya has no choice but to run all the time. The beauty of this interface is that all of the PE and Weapon options can be quickly and easily manipulated without having to go through the bother of special new menus and sub-menus. The other equally noteworthy feature of the battle sequences is that they are fought in real time. You actually have two separate bars measuring your PE and your attacking readiness, and all you have to do, while dodging enemy attacks, is make sure the enemies are within your "field," and then you can attack with whatever weapon you selected. This attacking method also allows you to select multiple targets. So say, for instance, if your gun is capable of firing 3 rounds per attack, you can elect to fire all three at a particular enemy, or to split the rounds between another enemy or two. This feature makes for amazing variation, and is far more exciting and dynamic than Final Fantasy 7's turn-based battles. But that's just the weapons - your PE attacks take the form of many trademark Square spells, such as heal, shell, and a large array of attacking spells. Some of them look mightily pleasing to the eye.
Moving on to aesthetics now, the visual aural effects may disappoint some Square fans. In spite of the awesomely detailed and Dolby Surround-encoded FMV sequences, expect to see a noticeable depreciation in quality when you get to the gameplay. The characters, firstly, look a tad rough. One might forgive the jagged edges and characters with little hint of anti-aliasing with the super-deformed designs of Final Fantasy 7, but in a game where the characters are supposed to look a little more life-like, Parasite Eve comes off as second best to Resident Evil 2. To its credit, Aya is not as frustrating to control as the characters of RE2 in terms of the rotation functions. Similar to Final Fantasy 7, Aya moves in the direction that you push on the keypad. However, what this means is that instead of smooth animations, you get some rare jerky movements where Aya will magically face the other direction instantaneously. The other character animations, such as hand gestures and so on, retain much of the Square flare and humor, (Aya knocking her date to the ground in the opening is a cack) so it might be wise not to take it too seriously.
The backgrounds are all pre-rendered works of 2D art. By Square's standards they are very, very good. Final Fantasy 7's backgrounds tended to look obscure and abstract in some areas, and by comparison, Parasite Eve's backgrounds are very well detailed. The freshly combusted human remains scattered about the opera house in the opening were pretty creepy. In comparison to Resident Evil 2, Parasite Eve sometimes looks a little on the sparse side, but when you consider the huge variety of different locations within the game, it's not really that bad in retrospect.
Sound-wise, Parasite is a mixed bag of good and bad. The sound effects are spot on, with gun shots, empty bullet casings hitting the ground, different echoes to match a room's acoustics or a floor's surface... but the ambient effects are almost entirely lacking. To add to that, there are some very odd moments of complete and absolute silence because (a) There are no ambient effects like wind; and (b) There is no music in that particular section. This can sometimes happen for extended periods of time. Some might say that it adds to the dramatic tension - others would see it as a fault in the presentation.
The unfortunate aspect about Parasite Eve is that there is no speech during the gameplay, English, Japanese, or otherwise. Everyone was hoping for something similar to Resident Evil 2, but it didn't happen. Instead, the bulk of the speech appears in text similar to Final Fantasy 7, and requires a medium level understanding of Kanji. In that sense, people who want to know the story and don't understand a word of Japanese are best advised to wait for the English version.
|
In terms of both special effects and general cinematic direction, Parasite Eve provides the best material that Square has ever produced to date.
|
|
Ordinarily, this is where the review should come to an end. It will, but forgive me for entering into a first person narrative, I must quickly say that I could write spiels about how innovative and how much potential I think this game has. I was a huge fan of the Dragon's Lair and Space Ace games, and it's always been one of my hopes that the concepts in those kinds of games could be elaborated on instead of being dismissed as non-interactive garbage. Parasite Eve, in my mind, is not just a cinematic RPG, but an interactive movie with RPG elements. Combined with a focused and damned good story line, and FMV sequences that do an ample job in stunning its audiences, Square is on a real winner with Parasite Eve. The graphical and sound faults might put some people off, but in my mind, they can be easily overlooked. Square have definitely hit on virgin territory with Parasite Eve, and they've done quite an excellent job of their first attempt. They are definitely in a league of their own.
-- Kevin Cheung
|
