Parasite Eve II

When the first Parasite Eve was released in 1998, its combination of Hollywood production values and Japanese RPG conventions seemed ripe with promise. Final Fantasy VII pointed the way and Parasite Eve embraced the future with its slick graphics and fast paced horror story. A new type of entertainment seemed to be right around the corner. Two years later we get Parasite Eve II.

Visually, the game is ravishing. Character designs for Parasite Eve II are more realistic and less anime inspired this time around. Aya has the cool beauty of a runway model and the creatures she faces are unique and disturbing. They have a sick and tormented air about them that will compel you to dispatch them as quickly as possible.

The environments that Aya moves through are rendered with such attention to detail that they are a high-water mark for the genre, surpassing even Square’s work on the Final Fantasy series. Their depiction of a broken down Rest Stop in the American Southwest is so realistic you can almost smell the desert wind.

The sound design is also outstanding. The crunch of broken glass, humming machines, and the twittering of nameless horrors bring texture and detail to the world of Parasite Eve II. The music by Naoshi Mizuta is quietly ominous, blending with the ambient sounds of the environment.

Game play centers around moving from area to area and engaging in combat with various critters. Combat is interspersed with short character dialogues, gorgeous CG cinemas, relatively simple spatial, and switch-flipping puzzles, and several extremely obscure number and password guessing puzzles. Once an area has been cleared and its story events triggered, it will re-infest with monsters that you have the option of killing or avoiding.

So away we go, blasting away at everything in sight. Ammunition and upgrades for weapons are plentiful while large numbers of enemies attack from every direction. Square has dispensed with the first game’s turn-based combat and instead opts for run and gun action. The Square button selects the target and the Right Shoulder button lets them eat lead. Aya still has her magical “Parasite Energy” that can be upgraded with experience. The game can be paused during combat to select Parasite Energy attacks and use items. Sounds fun, so far.

Then the frustration starts. Action games must have spot-on control. There should never be any disconnect between you and the character on the screen. Unfortunately, Parasite Eve II seems to go out of its way to distance you from the action. The game’s use of large 3D characters set against detailed 2D backgrounds results in confusing perspective changes when moving from one scene to another. Combat often involves shooting at enemies that are off-screen. The game attempts to alleviate this problem by providing you with a small radar screen which shows the positions of enemies that are not visible. However, aiming at small, yellow dots is hardly satisfying. Even the simple act of shooting is a clumsy, stuttering experience. Most of the weapons in the game fire in bursts and then require reloading. This results in action that is interrupted by several short pauses, followed by an even lengthier pause during which you can do nothing. In the middle of a heated battle with a swarm of enemies who are constantly in motion you may find yourself screaming and cursing, jamming frantically on the controller buttons, praying that Aya will do something; shoot, run, dance a jig, anything. Relief usually comes in the form of a Game Over screen. At this point, it seems that the game’s “Mature” rating is for the tide of expletives pouring from the unhappy player’s mouth.

Sony Playstation
Squaresoft
2000

game review by J.B. Fleming, 2001