Parasite Eve

About Parasite Eve

Like other role-playing video games made by Square for the PlayStation, Parasite Eve was made during a period that Peter Tieryas of Kotaku described as an "experimental period" where nearly every role-playing video game from the company had unique combat mechanics. Contemporary reviews from GameSpot and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine described the game as a hybrid of Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil. Parasite Eve's game's director, Takashi Tokita, described the game's style as a "cinematic RPG", with its look and feel strongly alluding to an interactive movie-like experience.

Movement in the "world map" (which is a map of Manhattan) is limited to specific destinations. Upon the player walking over a "hot spot", there's a chance of a random encounter. Enemies materialize and attack players on the same screen that they move Aya around on, with no battle mode or screen being used. In battle, the game uses a pausable real-time combat system with an Active Time Bar (ATB) that sets the amount of time that has to elapse until the player can take their next action. While waiting for her turn, the player character Aya can be moved around to dodge enemy attacks. Upon each turn, the player may choose between attacking with their equipped weapon by pressing the attack button, using Parasite Energy (PE) for defense, assistance, or attack, using items, changing a weapon or armor, or escaping the battle. If the player chooses to attack, the battle briefly pauses and a dome/sphere symbolizing the range of the weapon appears, allowing the player to target an enemy within range. PE recharges during battle but the more players use it, the slower it refills.

When not in battle, the player has the option of altering the weapon and armor attributes and effects with tools and super-tools, which are limited in number. The player selects the "tune-up" option, choosing the weapon that will be altered and the weapon from which the attributes or effect will be taken. Weapons have many different properties, including special effects like "acid", which causes enemies to continuously take damage. One of the principal role-playing elements of the game is that experience-based levels are present. Each time the player's level increases, their attributes go up and Bonus Points (BP) are given. These points can be distributed to the ATB, item capacity, or attributes of a weapon or armor.

Aya Brea, an NYPD rookie, attends an opera at Carnegie Hall with a date in New York City on December 24th, 1997. During the performance, a catastrophic incident occurs in which many audience members spontaneously combust, while others panic and flee the building. Aya, her date, and the lead actress on stage, Melissa Pearce, are among the survivors. Aya confronts Melissa onstage, and Melissa says that Aya's mitochondria need more time to develop. She flees backstage, with Aya giving chase. Backstage, Melissa then mutates into a beast and flees into the sewers, declaring that her name is now Eve.

The next day, on December 25th, Aya and her partner, Daniel Dollis, go to see a scientist at the Museum of Natural History named Dr. Hans Klamp. He teaches them about mitochondria, but they do not find his information useful since it does not explain the previous night's events. Later that day, they hear that Eve is in Central Park, and to make matters worse, an audience has gathered at the park's theater intending to see a performance that Melissa Pearce was to give. Aya enters Central Park alone as Daniel is unable to pass through the entrance without spontaneously combusting. She makes it to the theater, but is too late to stop Eve, who causes the theater audience's mitochondria to rebel against their hosts and turns the crowd into a slimy orange mass. Aya chases after Eve and is knocked unconscious after a fight with her aboard a horse-drawn carriage. Daniel discovers that his son, Ben, was at the park, but had left the audience at the Central Park theater when he began to feel ill and when his mother began to act strange. He also learns that Manhattan is being evacuated due to the threat that Eve poses.

While Manhattan is being evacuated, a Japanese scientist named Kunihiko Maeda manages to sneak into the city, witnessing a police officer combust into flames in the process. Aya awakens in an apartment in SoHo, with Daniel and Maeda at her side. Maeda reveals the origins of Eve: A scientist tried to culture the cells of his wife after she was involved in a car accident, and the mitochondria in her cells took over her body. Maeda believes that Eve may be trying to give birth to an "Ultimate Being". The next day, the three go to see Dr. Klamp again. After examining cell samples from that of Eve and Aya's, Maeda concludes that based on selfish gene theory, Aya and Eve's mitochondria are in an evolutionary race for survival. Dr. Klamp suddenly appears and asks a few questions of Aya in a hostile manner. The three leave and head for the St. Francis Hospital, where Maeda thinks Eve may try to get sperm for the Ultimate Being. When they arrive, they find that Eve is already there. Eve takes the sperm and escapes.