Friday, August 6, 2004

Mitochondria [Pictures Added]

I went to the mall today. Sitting there on the used games shelf was Xenogears.

I've wanted this game for a while. A lot of people have said a lot of good things about the game, so I've always wanted to play it.

Well, now I will get to play it.

This reminded me of Parasite Eve. So when I got home, I went and checked out some reviews of Parasite Eve. From what I've read, people are way too harsh on this game.



You probably haven't played Parasite Eve. Well, it was a game released by Square for the PS about three or so years ago. When I went to Target one day, they had copies of the game on sale for $15, so I bought it, and I've owned it ever since.

I keep coming back to this game. Basically, the game is an RPG, but it has action-oriented gameplay mixed in. It also has a lot of cinematics, which has led Square to dub it as "The Cinematic RPG."

The game has really good music. Yesterday, I was scouring the internet for a place where I could get the Parasite Eve OST for free. I couldn't find it, so I'll be buying it with money I suppose.

The game itself is one of my favorite games I've played. Many people have said it's "Final Fantasy VII meets Resident Evil" which I suppose is somewhat true. . .but to me, those two games never crossed my mind when I played it.



This game's just really different, and I like that. It's a horror game, sort of, but it's also an action game, sort of, and it's also an RPG, sort of. It's mix of a lot of great elements from a lot of genres into one completely original, creative, innovative package.

In the game you play Aya Brea, a cop in New York city. In the opening of the game, it's Christmas, 1997, and a cinematic scene opens, and we come to Aya standing outside Caranagie Hall, going on a date to the opera.





When she gets into the opera, another cinematic starts. It's this beautiful woman singing, in that opera way, but then, suddenly, things start on fire around her. The curtains go aflame--people start aflame--it all starts burning. But Aya is somehow immune to what is going on.

Eventually, you approach this opera singer, and then you get into a boss fight with Eve. Click here for a picture of Eve.

From there, the game spans 6 days, where Aya must save New York.

The game has a very good graphical look for it being just a PS title, the music is good, the battle system is different--you have PE points (magic) and you can use that, and you move around open-endedly during battles, and attack once your AT gauge is full--it has an interesting weapon system, where you can make your own weapons and add special abilities to them, the same with armor.

The game takes about 15 hours to beat, but then you can play an EX game, and also there's the Chrysler Building. This thing you can only enter after you've done an EX game, but it's about 100 floors of hell, on each 20 or whatever floor, there's a boss. And of course, there's the last boss, which after beating you get a new cinematic which I've never seen because I've never made it through the whole goddamned thing--it's so hardcore.



Plus, it's really hard in the Chrysler Building. You have to play through the game a few more times before you stand a chance. And the Chrysler Building is also really frustrating--the floors are randomly generated, and are full of dead ends. It's a veritable maze, and takes a lot of patience to get through every floor--but it's a nice added feature.

From the reviews I read, people seem to think the game is short. Well, then there's the Chrysler Building, plus there's the fact that this game is so great that I don't care about going through it all again--it's that goddamned fun to me. So basically, these reviewers were too harsh on this game.

This game has nice production values. A different, interesting splicing of many genres all put together. It has amazing music. It has horror elements. It has hard bosses. (Click here to see one) It's moderately difficult. The graphics are good for a pre-PS2 game. The characters sparkle with characterization, and you actually care for them. The weapons system--how you can use weapons and customize them--is very fun. It has the Chrysler Building, 100 floors of hell. It has the EX game. It has beautiful cinematics. It has an interesting story.

And yet reviewers don't seem to see what I'm seeing. Ah well.

If you can find it anywhere, get this game. E-bay whatever. It's worth it, trust me, if you give it the chance. And if you don't like it as much as me, at least you'll somewhat be fond of it.

I think this is a game that is heavily underrated, that needs to get into people's hearts like some other games do. . .well, at least that's what it's like for me. Perhaps I just have something for this game, but it's definitely stayed with me for a while.

There's also Parasite Eve II for the PS, as well. I'm planning on getting a copy of that if I can eventually, with the money I make from my job. I've wanted to play that for a while, and from what reviews I've read it improves on what people thought was wrong with the original PE.



Also, read a review of PE here.
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