Christmas, viruses, pandemics and mitochondria. No, I'm not talking about Covid-19 or the English variant! In 1998 everything that today resonates familiar and everyday was at the basis of the plot of one of the most successful JRPG of the Playstation era: Eve parasite.
Parasite Eve is a work set in New York during the evening of Christmas' Eve of 1997 and that makes it perfect to play during these Christmas holidays.
“Come on, baby. Light my fire”
A Snowy New York, the large tree adorned with Rockefeller Center - the symbolic scenario of American Christmas - they create a perfect combination for this adventure, certainly sui generis inspired by the novel which bears the same name, written by Hideaki Sena.
One of the more projects ambitious by Squaresoft, which until then published "similar" products to each other, manages to mix gameplay similar to final Fantasy to horror and mysterious atmospheres typical of a resident evil, released a few years earlier.
The protagonist of the game (which will have two sequels) is Aya Brea, young New York policewoman of distant Japanese origins, he experiences the attack by by creature, capable of producing energy from the mitochondria of human beings, during a concert at Carnagie Hall, where she was invited for a date. These creatures, called "Eve", Have the power to manipulate the mitochondria in the cells to the point of triggering a real" short circuit ": human beings affected by this manipulation catch fire, literally.
An almost scenario apocalyptic and far from the Christmas panache makes Parasite Eve a unique jrpg of its kind and one of the few Squaresoft RPGs to be set in the contemporary era.
Mana and bullets
The gameplay is among the most innovative of the time, with an action bar that, once full, gave the possibility to attack enemies with a well-conceived aiming system. Aya's supplied pistol works against the abominable creatures thanks to the various types of bullets effective on different categories of enemies.
Thanks to its battle system, Parasite Eve was one of the famous examples of action rpg to introduce survival horror mechanics into it. Its sequel, Parasite Eve II, introduced a few years later substantial differences in terms of gameplay, becoming more and more similar to the most famous survival titles of the time, Resident Evil and Silent Hill, without forgetting its role-playing peculiarities.
It should be mentioned that, in the same years, it established itself on the market Koudelka, role-playing video game with gloomy and gothic atmospheres, set in a Welsh monastery, was one of the few titles to combine Japanese-style role-playing games with horror atmospheres, but it remained a well-rounded jrpg title, with a fairly strict turn-based system and not very innovative. Eve parasiteinstead, it is a one of a kind because it is a brand that has managed to combine, very well, two very different genres then in vogue.
The anxious and competitive feeling does not disappear in the course of the narration, upon arrival in enchanted villages or forests, but continues for the entire duration of the plot. L'atmosphere of imminent danger it involves the gamer and there are no magic markets or accessories ready to help him. New offensive and healing items can be found in lockers, safes, or simply dropped by defeated monsters.
Parasite Eve is perfect to rediscover during the holidays, considering the short duration of the title. Being a title released in the late nineties, expect graphics in line with other Squaresoft productions of the time, Parasite Eve presents 3D characters that move on pre-rendered backgrounds, very similar to those seen in Final Fantasy VIII and IX.
The rediscovery of the masterpieces of the past thanks to the internet gave Parasite Eve, and other titles of the era, a new rebirth. Parasite Eve enters right into the Olympus of best works created by Squaresoft by virtue of the fact that the developers chose, for the title, to move the bar towards a more film than usual.
Parasite Eve wastes no time and adopts a narrative that is in some ways Hollywood, with fast rhythms and twists. Unlike Final Fantasy, it's not a memorable JRPG due to its longevity - give it to eight to ten hours for its completion, far from the typical figures of an RPG. The adventures of Aya Brea follow a script setting, there is no downtime and everything happens quickly over the course of the four days of chaos in Manhattan.
The only thing that stopped the developers was the hardware limitations of Playstation, albeit full of CGI cutscenes and dialogues (unfortunately not dubbed). The critics, in fact, at the time noticed the great silence that dominated the work given by the lack of a dubbing that would have enriched the cinematographic component of the title.
However, not all evils come to harm: on the other hand, Parasite Eve features an excellent soundtrack curated by Yoko Shimomura, who later created the music for the much more famous Kingdom Hearts.
To complete the Parasite Eve dream team, other illustrious names such as Takashi Tokita, director of Final Fantasy IV, Chrono Trigger and Toshihiko Maezawa, battle designer at Super Mario RPG. Not really the latest arrivals.
The graphics and the game system that brings him, in some ways, closer to Resident Evil and theNew York setting faithful to reality, they were the driving force behind the success of the title outside the borders of the Rising Sun, becoming the best-selling Playstation video game in the two months of September-October 1998.
As usual in those years, Square decided not to publish the title in Europe, which nevertheless became successful thanks to copies imported from the United States. This allowed the software house in the 2000 to publish the sequel, also on European soil.
Better not to play with fire ...
Despite the critical praise and public success, thanks to the criticisms of the third installment of the series released on PSP, Square Enix (as happened for other historical IPs) seems to have forgotten its horror / rpg. Despite Square's forgetfulness, Parasite Eve has grown into a little one over the years cult video game.
Just think that the American band Bring Me To Horizon has released a song, homonymous, inspired by the video game. It is not an isolated case, in their discography there is the song Shadow Moses dedicated to Metal Gear Solid, also released in 1998.
The title is currently available for purchase on PS Store, in the version for PS3 or PS Vita.
The Aya Brea story needs a version at the very least restored and available on new generation console just like other masterpieces that populated the gray box at the end of the nineties. For the rest, you have no more excuses: Parasite Eve can be yours perfect game with which to spend these strange Christmas holidays brought to their knees by the pandemic from COVID-19.
