The plot grabs you right at the beginning, pushing you to go on and explore more. However, that soon ends and the game slows down. Instead of the plot leading up to the climax, it goes up and down. At one moment, you’ll be totally intrigued; at others, you’ll be frustrated and bored.
The number of characters in the game is rather small for an RPG, especially when compared to games such as FFVII. You control Aya, a young woman who was raised solely by her father because her mother died. She is a member of the NYPD and plays a large part in the game’s plot. Another character is Daniel, Aya’s partner. He aids you along your quest to figure out what exactly is causing all this chaos. Maeda is a Japanese scientist. He gives you relevant information to steam up the plot.
I didn’t really care for the fighting. I somewhat liked the aspect of being able to move around and dodge fireballs and other projectiles. However, the fighting space can be very limited allowing the enemies to corner and kill you. That was frustrating.
Instead of Magic Points, you get Parasite Energy (PE). You gain new techniques as your levels increase. While I did like how you PE increased in battle, I did not like the limited use of it. The enemies hit rather hard, and you have to use Heal 1 or 2 often. Many times, you will not be able to Heal yourself all the way due to the limited PE of Aya.
I loved the graphics! I think the twisted mutations throughout the game are reason enough to play this game (if you like that kind of thing). However, they are rather slow. Every time you enter a new screen, go through a door, or activate a CG, the game has to load. If you played FFVII, you will have experienced this before. However, the scenes in Parasite Eve are not nearly as large as those in FFVII, and the game has to load much more often. You also have to wait like 5 seconds before and after each battle. This can feel like an eternity when you want to go kick some parasite butt!
The game is relatively short. It covers the course of six Parasite Eve days, and the first three days can be covered in less than six hours. The replay value is relatively low also. The battles are tedious and get to be very frustrating. The plot, although intriguing, can also be quite predictable.
Personally, I kinda liked the game. It got many poor reviews, but I liked it. I thought the plot and its incorporation to science was great. I loved the mutation graphics. It was better than a gruesome movie.
