|
Why Parasite Eve should get on Updated Reboot
If you’re a gamer there are certain video games from your past that you look fondly on. You are scared to see them remade or updated but at the same time you wish you could still play some new version of something that you loved so much. That is how many feel about the Parasite Eve experience. This series has almost been forgotten. We applaud Square Enix and PlayStation for keeping digital copies available on PlayStation Network but honestly we want more. Here are some reasons why Parasite Eve would be a perfect game for some form of an updated reboot.
The Storytelling Element
Stories have become essential to the gaming world. Even casual games like mahjong are providing some storyline as you progress forward. But in Parasite Eve the plot, direction and the character development was elite at the time and still is elite today. It starts off with a woman named Aya Brea who on what appears to be on a first date at Carnegie Hall in New York City with some clown who does not even get a name, they just call him man. Quickly after the start of the first act the women on stage starts her solo when her eyes start glowing green and people in the theater just start bursting into flames. People are running out as the spontaneous human combusting starts to spread but Aya in unaffected. She is a rookie for the NYPD so her pursuit of what is going on all makes perfect sense to the story.
The original game is all text dialog you have to read and it is a lot, it’s a lot, meaning it’s a lot. It is filled with some many unexpected moments that if you miss a major plot point sentence or accidently hit the wrong button and skip a sentence you could get completely lost and have no idea what is happening. This can now all be fixed with voice talent. Voice acting was around when this game came out but it was not as mainstream and many games at the time were filled with terrible writing and performances. Voice Acting is the one thing we wish Parasite Eve had because of how good the writing is. It’s so good that fans have dubbed in dialog during many moments just for the fun of it and their efforts are very welcomed. Everything Feels Real
Parasite Eve does not take place in a fantasy world, you travel all over New York trying to stop the attacks and figure out who this woman is. The problem spreads and police respond until they are overwhelmed to the point where the city is no longer safe. The military gets involved as Aya is running from Central Park to the Museum of Natural History and many other famous New York landmarks as she investigates the situation. All while thinking about one question, why was she unharmed?
There is also a very cool element that happened when Parasite Eve was released and we would like the experience his again in the reboot. The game starts in 1997 on Christmas Eve and the game was released in 1998 (March for Japan, September for North America). So as you are playing it there is this felling that you are going through the game in real time especially if you got it as a Christmas Present that year. Playing or replaying this game over and over during the cold months of winter adds this fun factor that most games don’t seem to have. You feel like you are experiencing what is happening and not just playing a game. A reboot with this same type of element would be hard to recreate but it is one of the main reasons replay or playing it for the first time around Christmas adds a little something. The Gameplay Style
Parasite Eve is a third person action shooter survival horror RPG, with a turn based active battle system. There are very few games that have all of the variables together that work so well. You run into an area that will at times have a random battle will You have to wait for your battle game to build up before you can attack. We all understand and have played some game like this. But in Parasite Eve you can run around and avoid being hit even though it is a fixed camera on the battle area. Just because it is turn based it does not mean you always have to take some type of damage when you are attacked. You can also move to where you opponent is the weakest and attack whenever you want after your battle game fills out. Even today it does not feel dated, if feels unique and relevant. We would love to see and HD version of these gaming elements from a modern PlayStation system.
The gameplay also has a very smart and very addictive item and weapon customization system. This is an easy move to any modern update. Everything you use in the game is found. You don’t make anything or really buy anything. What you do is take the special abilities from armor or your weapons you already have and remove them to add to a different item. For example if you want armor that increases you HP and your attack, you take that from an older piece of armor and add it to the new one. But you can only move one attribute per item and when you do the item is gone for the remainder of the game. It makes you keep all of your weapons so you always have power up to choose from. Replay and After Game Elements
Parasite Eve also has one of the highest replay elements in gaming, something that seems to be lacking in most new games. The game on you first time through is about 12 hours. But after you beat the final boss the New Game+ mode gets activated and all of the time you put into upgrading your weapons and armor all get transfer over. So you start off with your most powerful item making moving through the game a lot easier the second or third time. Tons of modern games have a New Game+ mode but what good is that when you have no desire to experience the journey again.
Before DLC many games had some type of additional dungeons that would get unlocked after you get all the way through and Parasite Eve a great one. All 77 floors of the Chrysler Building open up and this would make sense to do again in a reboot, just not as DLC. We would hope that developers would not get money grubbing on us. But it is just another example of how ahead of its time the game was. Parasite Eve did some many things perfectly that would all still work today. And, the one issue of no voice acting and accidently missing important storyline elements is such an easy fix. The game is a mix of Final Fantasy and Resident Evil and even today there are very few survival horror RPGs out there. The original game had some of the best CGI graphics at the time and would only be better now. We as gamers would be open to any type of update. It could be a HD updated exact copy like what they did with Secret of Mana or it can be a complete reimaging like Resident Evil 2. We just really want to see Aya Brea again. |
Parasite Eve
|
|