Grimbeard - Parasite Eve (PS) - Review

what's up god gamer nation it's a parasite eve  it's a jrpg no i'm kidding it's a video about   the game parasite eve uh if you  would like to continue watching it   stay right where you are  and i will begin the video parasite eve is a japanese sci-fi horror action  rpg sperm bank sabotage simulator developed and   published by square or squaresoft in 1998 for the  sony playstation in the mid-90s to early 2000s   japan saw a renewed interest in horror stories  both in film and in print contributing to this new   wave was the 1995 novel parasite eve the original  story which this game acts as a pseudo-sequel too   like the video game adaptation ring would receive  this game acknowledges the events of the novel but   concerns new characters and circumstances if you  have read the book however it does seem to read   like a retread a here we go again scenario not  that i read it perhaps you'll have better luck   than i did in that regard yes i could have bought  some kind of e-book but then what am i going to   dog-ear and get my sticky filthy gamer  fingerprints all over i'm [ __ ] disgusting   before i discuss this game further it's important  that you ready some information in your brains   i'm probably gonna mention mitochondria a lot  i can tell already so you should know that   mitochondria the meme of the cell are little blue  jelly beans that are found inside all of our cells   and there are positively dozens of these little  bastards in every bit of your stupid body yes   inside you are a bunch of vibrating jelly beans  and they all produce energy called anderson trip   hop hate that allows us to do all sorts of things  like drive a car point at a dog also age and die   maybe you've died because you are pointing at  a dog while driving a car see back millions and   billions of years ago when humans were not put  soup there were these pinkish jelly beans that   didn't like oxygen and then later some purple  ones that did like oxygen showed up and were   like hey let's hang out or whatever and then it  became a symbiotic jelly bean called mitochondria   which is kind of its own thing still like they're  there but they weren't always there and they only   really get passed down from somebody's mother the  parasite eve novel was written by pharmacologist   turned author hideyaki senna someone whose work  consisted of testing drugs on mitochondria its   title a reference to the theory of a mitochondrial  eve an unbroken genetic line that traces back   to the most recent common maternal ancestor of  humanity believed to be a woman in africa hundreds   of thousands of years ago the dna of human  mitochondria has remained more or less unchanged   since this supposed eve this idea was popularized  in a study conducted in the 1980s and for some   might instill some sense of unity illuminate  the senselessness of our racial divisions or as   several unsettling men dressed as vin diesel once  said family obviously at least one person had the   insight to instead think what if mitochondria is  more like a sentient bacteria a single hive mind   parasite infecting the cells of every human on  the planet and they've just been waiting centuries   millennia even to make their move turn us all into  protoplasmic slime and reign supreme over whatever   cosmically horrific pulsating biomass of twisted  flesh and alien tendrils the earth will become   you know optimism the original parasite eve was  published by a company known for anime and manga   named karakawa they were approached by square  producer hironobu sakaguchi to acquire the rights   to adapt sena's novel into a game and from what  i was able to dig up a big contributing factor   to why katakawa was willing to hand off its now  golden ip to square with complete creative freedom   as well as filmmakers and comic writers was the  fact that around this time their ceo was caught   up in a drug scandal after ordering an aide to  make several trips to la to buy cocaine with   embezzled company coin so when sakaguchi expressed  interest they were sort of hurting financially so   they're like oh [ __ ] yeah you can give us money  you can take whatever you want you want guyver   i'll throw that [ __ ] in for free actually do you  have any blow development for the game was led by   creative director takashi tokita who had played a  significant role in the production of games like   chrono trigger and final fantasy 4 or 2 depending  on your spawn point strangely enough when chrono   trigger was in development at square it required  plans for what would become final fantasy vii   to be temporarily shelved abandoning a potential  timeline where we would have got a 2d final   fantasy vii for the super nintendo that followed  a new york city detective in the not so distant   future of 1999 who's hot on the trail of cloud  and the other main characters as they fight in   evil sorceress obviously the ff7 we got differs a  great deal after they decided to make the jump to   3d and new york city was changed to a different  dystopian metropolis but many details from this   original incarnation were carried over to  parasite eve's development this is likely   why the two games are often compared and many  have pointed out similarities references or just   the general feeling that they are on something  of the same wavelength in 1998 squaresoft had   entered into a joint venture with american  company and black-hearted villain of gaming ea   creating square electronic arts where ea would  publish square games in the us and square would   publish ea games in japan and in the case of  parasite eve games would be developed using both   studios many of the final fantasy vii staff were  made to work in tandem with a studio in california   which resulted in a game that was unique and  certainly cinematic for the time but it also   created a lot of difficulties in communication  on release parasite eve sold very well and was   reviewed pretty well amidst its praise however  were complaints about its relatively short length   compared to other rpgs at the time and the drastic  changes to the familiar gameplay loop of square's   output egm after hyping the game's release for  months and even including aya on the cover of one   issue ultimately had pretty mixed feelings on it  writing like most overblown summer movies parasite   eve has its faults several confusing plot twists  had me asking what the heck just happened scarce   background music makes for mostly silent gameplay  and as far as rpgs go parasite eve is fairly   simple cvg magazine wrote in the end parasite  eve falls somewhere between resident evil 2   and final fantasy vii but never touches the genius  behind either of those games aya is pretty though   guys for a second just for a sec while the novel  was a big hit in japan it was not translated or   made available elsewhere until around 2005 so in  the time between parasite eve's video game release   and translation it had independently become a  franchise and garnered this secondary following   around a video game sequel to a book with no  creative input from said book's author leaving   many fans mostly unaware or cut off from its true  origin there was even a film adaptation in 1997   that did make it overseas but like in the  u.s people only really knew about parasite   eve as a video game about a new york city cop  shooting mutant rats so i can only imagine this   led to a lot of head scratching for gamers  saying wait a minute there ain't a single   [ __ ] rat in this mess the game was such a hit  in the u.s that rumors began floating around that   madonna like the madonna had won a bidding war for  the american film rights and planned to play one   of the lead characters there was enough traction  behind this rumor that square had to come out   and deny that this had happened causing games  journalists to rationally respond with a unanimous   yeah got it safe to say the iron is far from hot  for that big hollywood blockbuster adaptation   as the franchise has been left mostly abandoned  for a decade following two sequels that were   met with a lukewarm reception it still has  its ardent followers and defenders however   those still willing to leap to attention  when square enix renews the ip rights once   again but the more cynical of us pay no mind  to such ghost stories tall tales of good games parasite eve takes place in new york city over  the course of six days beginning on christmas   eve 1997 which may well have been chosen as a  cheeky allusion to the title but it's also one   of many decisions that intentionally or not  grant this game a decent amount of character   speaking of characters that sucked  that sucked dude that [ __ ] suck we   are immediately introduced to our protagonist  aya brea a cop but hey don't leave just yet   she's got redeeming qualities she's got a  stoic bad ass attitude and she's a bit of   a wise guy every now and then in the game's  opening she's being escorted to the opera   by her pushy date that can't seem to take  the hint from her cold demeanor that she's   probably just trying to be nice in the middle  of the show's big solo the lead seems to stare   right into aya's soul for a moment before several  attendees begin to spontaneously burst into flames   causing a panic as people either trample over  each other headed for the exit or ignite their   surroundings seeing this cutscene for the first  time was a very memorable gaming experience for   me though i could say the same about most of its  cutscenes which are still pretty impressive in   scale there's one similarly gory scene later  on that's like a formative life experience for   me one of like four in gaming that [ __ ] me  up good changed my life through scarification uh when harry gets a call from cheryl on the  spooky phone the first zombie turning around   in resident evil and finally when some [ __ ]  in grade school claimed that if you made lara   croft jump in her pool at a specific angle she  would come out of the pool naked and i jumped   over and over and over and over and that that  very moment is when i lost my trust and faith   in humanity and frankly lost respect in myself  but thanks to the miracle of technology i can   look up giza on google maps anytime i want but  that's a little secret just for me just for daddy   yeah i i replaced a different bit with this one  and i don't think it's any better this was the   most cinematic and intense thing i had witnessed  in a video game up until that point and honestly   it's still pretty [ __ ] up watching a crowd  of innocence burns set to uncanny synthesized   opera vocals being sung by a woman seemingly  indifferent to the carnage playing out still   carries a lot of weight for a game with arguably  no blood square's first m rated game does a good   job finding creative ways to deserve its rating  aya seems to be the only person in the theater not   affected or deterred by the ensuing disaster  and confronts the actress she speaks vaguely   about their power being in her cells and suddenly  aya begins to feel hot quickly developing her own   set of powers confused by this she tries to shoot  the woman but that doesn't seem to accomplish much   she instead leads aya on further introducing  herself as eve and imparting a fleeting memory   of a little girl on a hospital bed before giggling  and floating off while trying to catch up with   her aya begins to see further visions of this tiny  blonde girl perhaps even recognizing her backstage   you are confronted by the first of many creatures  that eve sticks on you twisting common city animal   life like rats roaches and pigeons into hideous  cronenbergian monsters that attack ayo the rest   of the opera's cast has been reduced to charred  husks one of which is able to live long enough   to tell aya that the woman that called herself eve  was known to them as melissa in melissa's dressing   room you find her diary in it she documents her  excitement for the christmas eve performance but   laments the fact that the role is double cast she  ominously mentions taking all the medication she   could to get there and that she may have overdone  it feeling increasingly sick even collapsing at   one point as her symptoms got worse she seems  to combat them by taking more and more of this   mysterious medication caring only about getting  the role and not about her declining health her   wish is granted however when the other actress is  found burned in her apartment aya catches up to   melissa at a piano apparently trying to maintain  some sense of identity reassuring herself that   she is melissa but she soon transforms in  much the same way as the creatures and again   asserts herself as eve before attacking once again  she announces the end of nucleic domination and   declares today the day that mitochondria is free  she continues to be cryptic with aya implying   there is a special reason she's the only one  immune to her destructive powers and that while   she doesn't yet understand her mitochondria  will then she kind of [ __ ] off and leaves   you to fight a thunder crocodile i guess she can  just create pokemon now back out on the street   aya stumbles out to a news crew attempting to  score an interview with the sole survivor but   another cop named daniel shows up and defuses  the situation the only way he's been trained to   by punching the reporter in the back of the head  so hard he's launched airborne his shoes in the   [ __ ] stratosphere the two attempt to make small  talk as they drive back to the police station but   aya's thoughts are consumed by eve's words and the  hospital vision she keeps remembering glimpses of   i do like that for the moment the introduction  of these characters and their personalities are   subtly expressed jrpgs can have the tendency to  include awkward expository dialogue where people   say hey i'm divorced and struggling to balance my  work life with finding time to look after my son   who i was granted custody of you remember and it's  like well yeah we're supposed to be friends and   partners i think i would know that so it's weird  that you're saying it like i'm a complete stranger   like i don't know you at all like i don't listen  like i'm afraid to be emotionally vulnerable with   another oh wait that's that's spot on in any case  we pick up on the fact that this is the [ __ ]   that daniel's dealing with without them having to  bizarrely state it plainly to aya at the station   the other cops attempt to understand aeo's account  of what happened but aren't willing to buy that   there was some kind of supernatural explanation  for it melissa didn't have much in the way of   friends or family so there is nobody to question  further and her apartment burned down last night   as well daniel of course sticks up for her and  posits that if she's going to face a supernatural   threat she's going to need a better gun which  may as well be some kind of meta reference to   the gameplay if you're gonna make it to the second  disc you're gonna need to consistently upgrade and   replace your weapon even the chiefs like i read  your report wild [ __ ] i can't even begin to   comprehend what you're going up against but i'm  positive it can be resolved with a gun take this   gun coupon it's not like the game is a stranger  to sort of commenting on the game within the game   the brief snippet of the opera in the opening  depicts a pseudo-shakespearean story about a   woman condemned and demonized by a kingdom for  having magical powers daniel's son ben shows up   to bring him tickets to a concert in central park  that he completely forgot about because he's been   so consumed by work and ben storms off upset the  chief makes aya appear at the press conference   for the opera incident but tells her not to speak  unless he prompts her which she immediately does   not do and awkwardly attempts to intimate what  she experienced to a baffled group of reporters   afterwards she gets chewed out for stirring  up panic you remember way back when i was like   hey the writing is actually pretty subtle it's  not always like that it is sometimes which is   impressive considering when the game was released  but there are scenes like this where right after   aya has made a scene trying to explain that  mitochondria are going to finally be freed the   chief gets a call from a japanese scientist who  asks about mito something you mean mitochondria   and some random cop is like i just read that some  researcher at the museum wrote a new theory on   them why do you know that i don't buy that you'd  know that what we need was a shot of this guy at   his desk prior to this looking up from a pile  of paperwork beneath a poster that says science   rocks you know something subtle oh he knows that  cause you like science god aya and daniel head   over to the interview dr klamp the mitochondria  researcher as soon as he turns around aya rattles   loose another hazy memory of the hospital room and  what looks like clamp looming over the little girl   he takes the news of the opera incident rather  well and immediately goes into the particulars   of his research claiming that mitochondria are  independently thinking organisms that graciously   allow humanity to carry on as though we're in  charge beyond fueling our bodies they are capable   of great destructive acts expelling electricity  and heat he theorizes that if all the mitochondria   in a body decided to activate simultaneously they  likely could exert enough heat to initiate a full   body melt practically cackling like a mega brained  lunatic in the presence of idiot babies he claims   that since mitochondria are able to produce faster  than our other cells that they've also been able   to evolve much faster than us he then explains to  our blank-faced leads the concept of mitochondrial   eve after aya brings up the fact that the suspect  referred to herself as eve dr clamp seems unnerved   and asks to be left alone while daniel screams  at him to tell them what he knows he just   types away like hey you better explain what the  hell's going on i can't hear you is someone there   it sounds like a stupid bug is nearby but i don't  see anything aya and daniel are called back to the   station where chief baker explains their next  lead melissa was scheduled to perform tonight   at a show in central park and given how important  the performance was in her diary he assumes that   she'll show up daniel is then sent into a panic  when he realizes that ben and his ex-wife lorraine   are meant to attend that show and he runs off  to go find them unable to get a word in aya is   sent to chase after him and watches back you'd  think they'd send more in the way of backup like   for a police force with a budget larger than  some standing militaries you'd think they'd get   just like one more guy at least a guy to like  stand outside and be like hey don't go in there careful now it's really interesting seeing a real  world setting and hollywood tropes but rendered   with the hyper real and often whimsical lens of  a final fantasy swords replaced by police issued   pistols and dungeons replaced by once mundane  locations like a hospital or a water treatment   plant and while the path to the antagonist  is beset by fantastical creatures they are   rationalized with a hard sci-fi explanation  one that while ludicrous has some footing in   existing research you could literally google  several talking points and studies that come   up in this game it's it's a wild at one point they  name drop richard dawkins and i was just like holy   [ __ ] that's a real transphobe if you would  not like to hear any more spoilers concerning   this game's story and would like to play it on  your own feel free to skip to this time i'm sure   it's available on some modern consoles digital  storefront it's funny while i was making this   there was a square enix sale on steam that would  probably be over by the time i finished this but   it's odd that they have a three game franchise  that doesn't seem to be a priority to preserve   you can buy final fantasy legend for the game  boy and play it in 4k but you can't buy a simple   port of parasite eve don't ask me how but guys  i'm positive it's very easy to get this running   on pc something like an hour into this game you  begin to notice how relentless the pacing of it is   when i think about playing some of the older final  fantasy entries or just square's previous output i   remember a not insignificant time being devoted  to wandering around in overworld and getting in   random encounters but parasite eve pretty much  always maintains this brisk sprint that is until   you miss some kind of quest item because despite  mashing x over an obvious point of interest aya   just refuses to investigate further so you  just shrug and say huh guess it was nothing   when ayah and daniel arrive at central park daniel  runs off in search of his son but immediately   catches fire upon crossing some kind of invisible  barrier aya convinces him to stay behind while   she looks for him which is another interesting  way this game differs from its contemporaries   in some other game daniel and other characters  you meet along the way would join your party and   you'd embark on this adventure together but all  throughout the game aya is made to go alone as   she's the only character that can even get close  to eve this frequently imparts a loneliness and   severity to the plot that i appreciate you kinda  like these people and it's worrying that they're   made out of paper mache and you're not she arrives  at the stage just in time to see all its attendees   melted into mitochondrial goo then coalesce into  some kind of single slimy organism i have to get   backstage and stop her buddy i think that ship  may have sailed pretty sure ben and lorraine just   turned into [ __ ] ramen i love aya but she's  really got to work on her situational awareness after fighting through a horde of eve's monsters  aya confronts her again though she appears to   have been waiting for her she compliments her  jeans and invites her to go on a carriage ride   i like this scene because it's in a weird way eve  offering an olive branch in her ancient primordial   collective brain she's impressed by aya and wants  her to join the side of mitochondria and is quite   frankly frustrated that she sided with humanity  instead the mitochondria in the two of them   draws them together but aeo's humanity is fighting  this potential union she's just filling eve with   bullet holes while she's like just think about it  okay don't say no yet when the carriage spins out   aya is knocked unconscious giving her another  cryptic glimpse at the hospital room this time   seeing clamp watching over two little girls ben is  revealed to be alive and he runs to daniel trying   in his childish way to describe what happened  providing one of a few just silent tragic   moments in the game as the two realize they can  no longer mend their family back to what it was   later the chief announces that the army has  ordered manhattan to be evacuated ben is left   in the care of the police station while daniel  goes to look for aya in barely any time at all   the city has become a post-apocalyptic ghost town  a christmas frozen in time in lower manhattan   maida the japanese scientist who called the chief  earlier talking about mido something argues with   a police barricade to let him in it being the u.s  one cop mocks his grasp of english before suddenly   and gloriously bursting into flames maida takes  the opportunity to slip past the barrier while   they're distracted ayo wakes up in a run down  apartment with him and daniel this scene is   probably the most crossover you'll see with the  book i don't think maida is a specific character   from the book but he is motivated by the events  of it and gives a brief synopsis of what happened   in japan the wife of a scientist was in a car  accident the scientist tried to keep her alive   using her liver cells these cultured cells  multiplied and eventually her mitochondria   assumed control of her body taking on the name eve  they leap over some of the more unpleasant details   of the book by saying eve acquired the scientist  sperm to birth the ultimate being he also adds an   addendum that the scientist's wife was an organ  donor so when she died her liver wound up in a   young girl and that girl was the vessel through  which this being was born this is probably the   only part of the story that i don't think works  and i don't think should be here like it could   have easily been an adaptation of the book that  takes artistic liberties with the material but   instead they wanted to acknowledge the events  of the book as canon which makes it weirder that   they're just doing the same thing again anyway  it's like if in the matrix reloaded they just   made it about a different hacker guy that realizes  he lives in a simulation and is brought back to a   horrifying reality where humans are kept in  tubes and used as batteries by squid robots   but at the same time some character that wasn't in  the first matrix movie was like hey this sounds an   awful lot like what happened to that other hacker  guy then everyone shrugs and acts out the rest of   the matrix 1 script instead of the objective  masterpiece that was the script they went with   ayah becomes terrified that whatever power lies  within her will get daniel and mida killed so   she tries to white fang them but the next morning  they show up and continue to help her mido wants   to run some tests on aya's blood so they head  to clamp's lab at the museum assuming he'd be   evacuated anyway using some eve goop that was  stuck to aeo's clothes that at some point might   have collected without her knowledge which i'm not  going to fixate on in a dump of scientific jargon   that i may have blacked out during he explains  that eve's mitochondria have taken control of the   nucleus of her cells meaning through some kind of  mutation she's reversed the symbiotic relationship   between her cell's nucleus and mitochondria aya  asks to have her cells tested as well in order   to understand why she has survived this long  her mitochondria seemed to behave differently   powering and protecting the nucleus from eve's  more hostile and invasive organelles mida can   only theorize why aya is the only one with  this power and it's not present in everyone   clamp interrupts them and begins to berate them  for breaking into his lab but daniel notices that   his son and ex-wife's name appear on some kind  of list clamp was compiling he becomes aggressive   with him demanding an answer but clamp refuses  to say anything further and kicks them out on   the drive out of there maida mentions that  the list appeared to be an hla typing list   the kind used to match patients with organ or bone  marrow transplants the three of them returned to   the police station only to find it in complete  disarray eve has been there and has wiped out many   of the cops so like four of the eight there's also  no sign of ben but who gives a [ __ ] about that   because wayne and torres are in trouble i thought  it was really sweet that they gave the two dudes   that handled the weapons lockup just enough scenes  to have a tiny emotional story arc that comes out   of nowhere too because they serve a gameplay  function so you don't really think too deeply   about them you pick up on the fact that wayne's  probably a rookie and doesn't have a sense for   the severity of carrying a weapon and torres is  much more serious and by the book about it doesn't   particularly appreciate his co-workers willingness  to pull their weapon so he was probably going to   get fired anyway but in this moment where torres  lies mortally wounded we learned that he hasn't   fired a gun since his daughter was shot and he  couldn't even bring himself to do it to save his   own life like why did they give so much depth to  this guy that was in two scenes i barely got to   know you and now you're oh no time for that the  game is introducing a new mechanic ben has been   following around a police dog named shiva and just  narrowly avoiding a growing mob of eve's monsters   until shiva also begins to transform as ayer races  to catch up to him the chief attempts to step in   and protect him but he doesn't carry around an  ammo crate in mallet space like aya she's able   to defeat the dog creature and ben is reunited  with daniel even though it's easy to poke fun   at the primitiveness of it it is really rare and  considerate for a game like this to devote time   to smaller emotional moments that don't entirely  move plot forward or dole out exposition but just   a simple believable little bit like ben asking  aya to stop the person that hurt shiva i mean   it's using a dog to do this which is cheap of  them devious insidious even but some modern   games don't even offer that midas spends some  time in the police station's lab and determines   that like the events of the parasite eve  book eve's body is likely deteriorating   as the parasite-like mitochondria feed off her  so he presumes just as she did in japan she   will need to acquire sperm thankfully this time  around she does so by hunting down a sperm bank   she's coming for the comment for the comment  for the comment for the coming for the coming   for the count shows up to the nearby hospital  and is taunted by eve while also hallucinating   the girl she's seen in her memories revealing her  name to be maya i do like how much they show this   clearly affecting aya emotionally she doesn't seem  to recognize it as a hallucination even showing   concern that she must be cold dressed that way  and becoming sad that she keeps getting left alone   it's like these visions have tapped into some  deeper hurt from her mysterious past it's a   shame these solemn quiet moments are then followed  by aya yelling at a completely bewildered doctor   oh my god how do i turn it on which is  an amazing line paired with the fact that   this doctor has no [ __ ] clue what's going on  but it's just like well all right here's a key   card there's a valve in the storage area why  though there's no time damage so aya attempts   to prevent eve from creating another ultimate  being by cutting off this sperm bank's supply   of liquid nitrogen which i am almost positive  is the only video game in video game history   that allows you to take part in that activity  where you quite literally destroy a whole   lab's worth of to save the world unfortunately  aya may have once again arrived too late   judging by the dozens of empty vials littered  everywhere i guess eve's plan was more of a   spray and pray type situation you know what i'm  going to delete that nothing stopping me from   deleting that in this area aya finds patient  records for her mother she was admitted to the   hospital along with her sister maya after a car  accident her mother was pronounced dead on arrival   and another file indicates that on the same day  as the accident a girl named melissa the body that   even habits was admitted for an emergency  operation and that's not all what's this oh my my inventory is full i  can gotta get rid of something hang on what's this oh it's just a key okay well anyway  while aya heads to the roof to confront eve once   more the military are sending out fighter jets to  just blow her up and call it a day but she pretty   easily dispatches them by igniting the jets pilots  eve seems to finally relent that aya cannot be   persuaded to join her and flies off to complete  her master plan one of the other cops at the   station is able to dig up that a doctor was fired  from the same hospital for giving out patient   information and also that melissa was seen  visiting dr klamp on more than one occasion   so they decide to all split up and search  the city for any sign of either eve or clamp   curiously avoiding the museum where his lab is  but maybe that would have been too easy aya and   maida pick up the trail of the goopy slime monster  made from daniel's ex-wife and follow it into the   sewers of chinatown speaking of maida a few times  now when aya has been just about to leap into   some kind of danger without backup he's given her  some kind of good luck charm a different one each   time and while i don't particularly like him as a  character i thought this was a sweet detail that   has an amusing payoff eventually but for a while  he's just sort of the bumbling horny nosebleeder   if this were adapted into an anime he'd likely  fall over into ayea's chest and his face would   turn into a ghost and then she'd punch him and  he'd fly into the moon we come face to goop   with the mass of slime that once was an audience  of concert goers and aya watches as it goops its   way through the sewers and heads towards the  museum arriving at the museum we learned that   the goop is somehow animating the bones of  dinosaurs and you know what i'm not even   gonna stop to question that because we got dinos  oh wait a second that's actually super uh dumb   uh excuse me who we got [ __ ] fossils are just  bits and pieces of dead things i mean they're dead   they're just they're just dead things they're just  they're dead things this is one of the longer set   pieces and it's almost entirely in service to the  idea that it would be fun if there were dinosaurs   because it's a good while before the story picks  up again ayo runs into mida in clamp's lab he   came back to research a special weapon he's  been devising which he gives you in hopes of   finding time to explain how it works later he  also adds that he's been snooping around the   lab and found evidence that clamp had been  culturing the liver cells of eyes sister   maya making it likely that eve was in some sense  created from her sister's donated organs once   again clamp shows up only this time he's a little  more openly villainous cackling like a madman and   mocking our heroes for their filthy humanity and  wielding a scalpel this is before daniel shows up   and punches him they get him to spill his guts  about his plan he's been working to perfect   the birth of the supreme being that didn't go so  smoothly in japan in that scenario the father's   mitochondria created a rebellion in the cells that  ultimately defeated the eve mitochondria so this   time around he's developed artificial sperm with  no male mitochondria making eve pregnant within   melissa's body with a being that will be purely  unfiltered eve clamp then seems to call upon eve   to smite his enemies but only he is set aflame  and he just kind of dies cackling to himself   as if to say worth it deeper in the museum  aya finds an already pregnant as [ __ ] eve   when pressed on what her ultimate goal is she  ponders why any human gives birth before summoning   her goop homunculus to ferry her off to safety  outside maida continues their talk from earlier   they learned that the medication melissa had  been taking was an immunosuppressant when she   was younger she experienced kidney failure and  was given maya's kidney by dr clamp a kidney that   had already had the potential for eve within it as  the doctor's present acknowledged it being a very   spicy liver upon touching it one was quoted as  saying the immunosuppressants she was prescribed   accelerated the takeover by the eve mitochondria  but it does look like maya was the catalyst for   all of this this portion of the plot i'll admit is  kind of convoluted and may or may not have fallen   victim to some kind of wonky translation but this  is the events as i understand them it doesn't help   that everyone has very similar sounding names  and some even share names like maya and a abrea   and maida and melissa and eve and eva and also  some characters share names with characters from   the book despite being different characters  altogether so it's really easy to just kind   of realize you didn't read a sentence or two and  suddenly everything is different and you're scared   not deterred by the utter failure of the fighter  jets they sent in the navy makes a move against   the goop homunculus which mighta ever the  exposition dumper explains is likely being used   as a protective bubble for eve to give birth  in this plays out predictably just as bad as   the jets the three watch the destruction from  the street for a while until a helicopter lands   nearby with orders to bring aya to an aircraft  carrier aware that aya is the only one that   cannot be ignited by eve the navy captain asks  her to fly a helicopter to where she is by the   statue of liberty and shoot her with a rocket  a process that would be automated so presumably   all she really has to do is sit in it and press  a big red button wait a minute you're telling me   that you can program this chopper to fly a twisty  turny path through manhattan weaving in and out   of buildings but you can't program it to blow up  one lady jesus i thought this is what you guys do   i bet you'd do it if it was a wedding the missile  blows up the goop homunculus but asc's eve emerge   from its remains unharmed and [ __ ] dives out of  the helicopter to finish the fight they fight for   a good while until eve is defeated she feebly  tries to escape but collapses and melts into   a puddle ayah asserts herself and her uniquely  evolved mitochondria as eve's natural enemy can i   share a gripe with you the cards on the table i  like this game but i was convinced that when they   showed this shot of the statue of liberty covered  in goop that it was going to come to life and we   would fight it a presumption that i think is only  partially my fault because look when we're in the   museum the goop was bringing to life dinosaur  skeletons and even i understand that skeletons   of dinosaurs in a museum aren't real bones like  dinosaur bones aren't real right because they're   a test from satan no because they're replicas like  there wouldn't be any biomatter in them that would   let the mitochondria bring it to life so i  just thought oh it can sorta wrap itself around   anything and then that becomes a monster but  i think maybe they just possibly didn't know   that and were like yeah the goop brings these  real bones to life but then i thought well none   of this is actually possible so why am i deciding  the rules back aboard the carrier everyone's doing   their end of the game speeches and congratulating  when suddenly out of the goopy remains of eve   emerges some kind of fetal nightmare creature that  immediately begins blowing people up instead of   igniting them daniel and maida hurried to escape  on a helicopter but as stays behind to finish the   fight again maida tries one last time to give  aes something to help her out but daniel drags   him away assuming it to be more voodoo stuff aya  and this [ __ ] up baby square up and fight for a   while and a few times this supposed ultimate being  evolves into a different stage of life until it   reaches i guess you could say adulthood kind of  just looks like mewtwo back in the helicopter   daniel and maya watch a fight iteration after  iteration of this creature until mida laments that   he wishes he could have given aya these bullets  with her cells in them these special eve killing   bullets supreme being stopper bullets that he was  about to handle in one of the most baffling yet   badass scenes in the game daniel grabs them and  with no parachute or plan b just hurls himself out   of the helicopter where he of course immediately  catches flame as he's plummeting closer and closer   to the carrier he throws the bullets at aya  before landing safely in the ocean you're kind   of so distracted by the act of bravery that  you don't really examine like would aya know   the significance of this magazine it just it looks  like regular ammo but she immediately knows oh   special ammo thanks dude this does debilitate the  supreme being but even in its lowest form it's   still relentlessly pursuing her she leads it all  the way to the ship's engine room where she does   something to overload the engine i don't know she  puts a banana in it or something and it explodes along with the being some time later the three  protagonists reunite on the shore and ayah ponders   why exactly she has the power she does maida  posits that it's because part of maya is inside   her in a very convenient twist that nobody thought  to mention until now ayo was born with a defect in   her right eye so when she was seven her cornea was  replaced with mayas this explains her visions of   maya in the hospital room they were an imprint  of sorts of her sister's final memory the last   thing she saw before her death i liked that the  whole time this was just some other supernatural   phenomena occurring completely independently  from the whole mitochondria business for whatever   reason the eve mitochondria is present enough  in aya to grant her its powers but not enough   to completely revolt against the nucleus her  cells are still working together symbiotically   maida makes the grim observation that it's almost  like earth itself is sending us a message making   humanity out to be the parasite and earth its  host a year later on the following christmas eve   aya daniel maida and ben attend the opera the  same show even in an attempt to make up for   the nightmare that was the previous year the game  ends with a relatively vague visual aya stands up   and appears to be using some of her power and  everyone in attendance at the opera develops   glowing purple eyes i'm unsure if this ending  is meant to be read as menacing or uplifting my   initial impression was the latter though as aya's  less malignant and more symbiotic mitochondria   is represented as purple and this microscopic  shot is showing that strain of organelle evolving   further reaching some kind of apex that would  prevent another eve incident from occurring   maybe aya is imparting this to others as a  protective measure instead of a destructive one as   seen in the game's opening melissa's replacement  is even wearing a purple outfit instead of the red   orange colors that represent eve further implying  that purple gang has risen up or maybe it's simply   highlighting midas words showing humanity as  parasites where any one of these [ __ ] could be   the next eve this is however not the only ending  but it does feel like a more solid place to leave   the franchise were it to end with this game vague  as it is it's a powerful bow to wrap around the   story of parasite eve but there is an alternate  ending that can be unlocked by starting a new game   plus in the first playthrough during the hospital  level you can look out a window and see the   chrysler building with some kind of glowing energy  around it this seems largely irrelevant as you   aren't able to visit the chrysler building that  is until you're given access to the map in your   second run and look as a small idiot any post-game  content was a blessing certainly after a game like   this which as jam-packed as its story may be  is ultimately pretty short if you could skip   cut scenes and dialogue there's probably like four  or five hours of game here and i'm sure there are   some that see the extended dungeon maze that leads  to the second ending as a worthwhile endeavor   especially the more sado-masochistic of you the  gluttons for punishment the self-flagellators   the sick [ __ ] have added if you want to navigate  77 floors of maces with frequent random encounters   boss fights and no save points by all means see i  too was like you bride-eyed had heart and ambition   was good at lying about having both for the first  10 i thought ish this is kind of dull but it'll   make for a good segment in the video at 20 i  thought yeah maybe it won't at 30 i thought i   could literally just look it up at 40 i thought  i think i'm gonna look it up at 50 i got a call   it sounded like my father  only he didn't sound right   nothing he said made any sense borderlands is  funny what you're not making there was a noise   outside i didn't like it closed the curtains  closed the blinds the phone rang it was chad i climbed it that must be why we're not shipping  windows 98 absolutely absolutely when you reach the top of the chrysler building  you discover what appears to be the body of a.s   sister maya only she claims to be the original  eve she tucked her true form away up here in case   melissa's pregnancy didn't pan out as she planned  perhaps as a courtesy or perhaps out of cruelty   eve allows maya's consciousness to take control  for a moment and for just that moment aya is   reunited with her sister before that's ripped from  her once again so because this scene technically   takes place before you ever fight melissa and the  ultimate being defeating this supposed true eve   should prevent any of that business from happening  so once she's dead eyes latent eve mitochondria   begin to rebel but as i understand it the parts  of aeo's biology that are mayas successfully   repressed this attempted rebellion and not only  is aya able to survive but her eve powers are   seemingly gone allowing her to put not only this  nightmare behind her but the unresolved grief for   her sister's death another perfectly fine ending  though it is in direct contradiction to the other   games so true ending or not it is no longer canon  while the first arguably still could be plus you   can enjoy that ending as a nice treat to top off  a brisk and enjoyable little game whereas to get   this ending you have to get to a place where  the game loses meaning lost in the hypnotic   near meditative network of corridors and birds  and corridors and birds and corridors and birds there is some feeling that parasite eve retains  that i can only describe as cozy not only because   of its nostalgic place in my memory or its ps1  charm but it being set amidst a snowy christmas in   an abandoned new york focusing on three disparate  characters driving around through empty streets   and pondering how you stop an enemy that could  turn a whole city into jelly by wiggling your   fingers it's in the little quiet moments moments  of levity even between the characters that don't   always have some greater significance beyond  flavor its complete lack of voice acting also   lends to this which was something that many  criticized on release but i think it perhaps   unintentionally makes the experience all the  more atmospheric it does strike me as a genuine   attempt to elevate or heighten the idea of an rpg  dubbing itself a cinematic rpg which i assume is   in reference to its focus on storytelling and  action with relatively simplistic rpg elements   it's more concerned with what would be cool or  exciting what would make for a more striking   visual rather than how consistent a game loop  will this create or will putting an insta-death   chase sequence after a boss fight with four forms  frustrate players i'd say there are some horrific   scenes in this game and plenty things that are  conceptually grotesque but it very rarely behaves   like a horror game and most of the time plays  like an adventure rpg with a sci-fi horror theme   something they must have realized and then  tried to course correct with the game's sequel   every once in a while though it will toss  you a horror bone like when you tell this   clown guy to [ __ ] off and then you just hear  something kill him in the other room which is   the same gag silent hill winds up using though  they do choose a more unsettling sound effect also could just be my imagination my moldy  and scolder brain but the logo is remarkably   similar to the x-files sorta it could be maybe  it's not nevermind it's most likely thanks to   this game having a book as source material that  it feels so well thought out and still manages   to chug along at such a brisk pace even when it  stops to unload science jargon on you there's a   dum-dum character in the room so we can get the  dum-dum explanation as well when i was younger i   likely found these moments boring and stilted  and while they still kind of are i can better   appreciate the science behind them clever  and deeply absurd all at once fun i think   is the word for it like the idea that manhattan  could be evacuated in a matter of hours   fun to think about optimistic even but does  not reflect reality i think we all know   what would really happen is almost nobody  would leave assuming it to be some kind of   globalist conspiracy then eve would show up  and a bunch of drunken wise guys would whip   bottles at her head before she melted  them you mess with one of us you mess with i think aya is a likable and interesting  protagonist given just enough pathos on top   of badass [ __ ] to do to make her memorable plus  she's got at least two iconic fits throughout ayo   works so much as a character that i think when  square was considering rebooting parasite eve   motomo toriyama was like what if we just reboot  ayu i mean that's why we're all here right maybe   we can advance her character further by having  her learn how to button her genes but then they   keep getting [ __ ] shredded as if to suggest  that there is no easy fix to life's adversity   eve is also a really entertaining villain ancient  omnipotent seeming a timeless ageless being that   existed beside humanity all along hiding seething  waiting for their moment to turn the tables acting   out some rage field survival instinct putting  up with the indignant formalities of the human   body and its functions until they can reach their  true potential yet at the same time she has this   youthful arrogance that comes with new  power knowing she has the upper hand and   likely won't be challenged so the presence of  aya creates an interesting wrench in her plan   the one insect she can't seem to snap her fingers  and make disappear she doesn't really know how to   deal with her does she befriend her do they join  forces does she get rid of her can she get rid   of her there's like an almost mutual admiration  that might come from the bizarre way the two are   linked together but they represent two sides of  a biological fight that cannot work together it's   also sort of a novel take on their own format  that the enemies you fight are essentially   pests that you'd find in a city anyway but  twisted by eve's power to be disgusting body   horror monsters although i don't know maybe he's  still like a little pet he's a little scratchy   the parasite eve name may not have the  prestige that final fantasy maintained   or that resident evil regained or that silent  hill could easily still have in a just world   but revisiting this game it once carried  itself as though it did have that prestige   i think it holds up its ip is viable as [ __ ]  it still feels big convoluted weird gross still   unique taking a very adult cerebral story and  twisting it into a bite-sized disaster movie   and cop drama mashed together in its brief  length it finds time to be a little spooky   a little sad and a little silly and a little dumb  and that's why it's fitting for my channel i think while this game does a lot of experimenting the  foundation of parasite eve can be found in many   other games outside of neutral story areas aya  gets into battles some scripted some random after   which she receives experience and thus levels up  which results in your stats increasing new eve   powers being unlocked and bonus points that can be  spent expanding your inventory or improving your   weapons or your at bar sometimes you get a lot of  xp too much xp enough to let your mind wander for   a while and remember things like that time in high  school when i went up to a guy i thought i knew   and i was like hey man how's it been i interrupted  a conversation to initiate this exchange but then   i very quickly realized it wasn't the person i  knew but maybe out of pity he kept up the charade   like we did know each other and we had this  awkward back and forth uh where we we couldn't   specifically refer to how we knew each other  or any kind of examples of our interactions uh   because we were complete strangers and then i uh  i said all right catch you later and i walked away   and he said see you later and then as i walked  away i heard them all laugh unlike your standard   turn-based rpg once in a battle aya can run around  freely dodging enemy attacks until her at bar is   full this is where combat will freeze for a moment  in order for you to initiate an attack or use an   ability or item you get a single action and then  you gotta wait for the bar to refill again enemies   often have some kind of projectile attack or some  move that flings them across the screen so it's   important to keep moving in between attacks i  like that entering a fight isn't as jarring as   some other games the screen doesn't smear or blur  and spin around aya just sort of sees a monster   appear and then runs up to it like hey what's  up boys and then you can't leave this visible   area until you win or escape in place of magic  aya uses parasite energy which mostly amounts to   healing and buffs like haste which allows  you to zip around and avoid some of the more   dickish attacks from bosses an ability i wish  you could activate outside of combat as well uh   because you move kind of slow but you know what  i ain't in no rush to get where i'm going later   down the line you do get some pe attacks which  are sort of a point of contention in the forum   posts and discussions i've immersed myself  in the argument being that these abilities   simply make the game too easy which i suppose  isn't wrong and i don't have the most nuanced   take on the importance of difficulty but if it's  a function in the game i don't think you've lost   credit or missed out on some vitally important  experience by doing a thing the game encourages   you to do it's a weird little form of gatekeeping  you see a lot of these days suggesting that in a   game that allows for multiple play styles  if you don't play it the way i played it   then your experience is lesser you've stolen  gamer valor you haven't been where i've been   and you know what maybe i haven't been where  you've been but i've been in the shower have you   you [ __ ] did it you can wield a variety of  different gun types pistols rifles shotguns and so   forth and in a system nobody would question given  the game setting you frequently just stumble on   better guns hidden in boxes and under rocks air's  luck at finding high-powered weaponry and drawers   and [ __ ] is nuts so you're gonna do a lot of  picking up a gun looking at your old one and   tossing the old one out but wait don't do that yet  you idiot i'm sorry you're not an idiot you just   don't know um before you throw out the old weapon  you can use items called appropriately enough tools to transfer over the additional stats you've  added to a gun onto the base stats of the new one   you picked up or depending on how many slots it  has you could also use a tool to transfer over   some kind of weapon modifier like making your  bullets incendiary or giving you the opening   attack at the start of a fight moving anything  over to a new weapon destroys the old one though   so you gotta be somewhat strategic about it much  later on or maybe not at all you may come across   a super tool which doesn't destroy the weapon  but get used to the cycle of gun cannibalization   this same process is used on your armor which  doesn't have as many noticeable differences   aside from numbers being bigger but also has  slots which can be fitted with neat effects   ammo works kind of strange you probably won't ever  need for it as it drops pretty frequently you'll   also find that in boxes or characters will just  dump bullets into your hands but you also can't   buy it if you do manage to empty your supplies so  you could be left in this awkward place where you   have to club enemies with a night stick that  has item stealing capabilities i don't know   modern problems i guess there isn't any kind  of shop or currency mechanic like you'd think   there would be which does in a way play into the  game's survival horror sensibilities there is more   cause for tension when you have to be careful  with how you divvy up death but if you're even   somewhat competently playing the game it's pretty  unlikely that you'll reach that point now i just   did in this video so you could so you could  see it happening but otherwise i wouldn't have   [ __ ] you aside from the new game plus there is  very little side content to busy yourself with and   pretty much only one optional location to visit  which is a shame but perhaps just the result of   how tight and compact this game is as cool as its  overworld map is the game usually tells you where   to go and you select it more as a formality  to feel like you have some control over where   the story goes and you don't the most power you  have is changing the main character's name which   honestly they shouldn't have even allowed that  at several points in this playthrough i was like   this this might have had more emotional  weight if i hadn't given myself a stupid   [ __ ] name well it's not like a abrea is  any better come on i'm i'm not a fan of how   laborious and exhausting the chrysler building  dungeon is and how it sort of puts the game's   formula under a microscope dissects it removing  its mystery once you've seen its glistening   innards but it does shine a light on some of the  mechanics that you could pretty easily ignore   like trading cards which can be traded for new  weapon slots or junk which can be combined to make   new weapons neither are at all needed but it would  have been cool to see them have more importance in   the base game i do like the idea of there being a  ritual to returning to a hub with all the spoils   i've squirreled away while meticulously trying  to maximize space in my inventory weighing the   importance of every little thing i picked up no  matter how many spaces i unlocked i was always   stuffed to the gills it doesn't help that some  quest items even after being used for their sole   purpose sometimes just stay in your inventory  and you can't just immediately discard them   i think the developers knew that this was  annoying and intentionally tried to trip   you up in a potentially game-breaking way at  multiple points maida gives aya a lucky charm   which is in the story one of many indications that  he has a crush on her but they are functionally   useless items that as far as i know don't do  anything other than occupy space in your rapidly   filling inventory so at several points i would  look at them and be like god i wish i could just   throw this [ __ ] out but i'll be nice he was just  being thoughtful until i eventually said look i   don't think these do anything i'm gonna throw  them in a gutter while he's not looking which   is fine you can do that without consequence  but he does give you one item that is hugely   important to completing the game and i think  they may have done this entirely so you'd assume   anything mighta gives you is garbage and get rid  of it and it was mostly luck that i never thought   to get rid of this one if this was their intention  i think it's of clever if the charms were really   just some unimplemented forgotten mechanic then  this is a weird glaring flaw but the fact that   nobody can decide which it is uh isn't the best  result this game is an interesting attempt to both   simplify and reinvigorate jrpg gameplay  in such a way that it maintains a concise   film-like pacing and doesn't have two lines of  combatants standing in a line and trading blows   it also doesn't leave you wandering grinding or  tinkering with labyrinthine menu systems not that   those are things i have any kind of particular  problem with but it was interesting seeing them   break free from a comfortable mold and test out  other ideas i could complain that it's too short   and thus some of these ideas don't have  time to shine but playing the new game plus   showed me that maybe the time we got was just the  right amount there was still a glimmer of mystery   a desire for more it ended before i got sick of  it which is something modern games especially   should take into consideration more often  end your game before i realize it's not good when this game came out parasite eve was visually  stunning you're likely to find even in the most   critical reviews of the era at least a footnote  that the game and specifically its cutscenes   were certainly impressive modern retrospectives  will now include the caveat that well if you can   get past how poorly the graphics have aged you may  still enjoy the game and in my video i'm gonna say   how [ __ ] dare you she's still gorgeous hasn't  aged a day like many games at the time parasite   eve features 3d models placed atop pre-rendered  backgrounds that still charm the pants off of   me and then right back on to me because i  need my pants please jesus i need a break i've seen understandable criticism leveled at the  lack of exotic or original locations certainly in   comparison to a final fantasy or a resident evil  parasite eve takes place in real life locations   that aren't often exaggerated or altered in any  way aside from being in disarray or abandoned or   having some goop on them but i'm so in love with  the craft behind it with the trickery and illusion   of it all even the most mundane locations will  have me scouring the screen looking at all the   little things they tried to cram into frame  with its limited resolution it does shine   when there is substantial clutter about the police  station bullpen the shitty apartment in soho with   strobing crt light just blasting the couch he got  a knocked over bottle with some content spilling   out an open suitcase indicating someone tried to  pack or unpack and then bailed on the process it   looks like a real place that i have lived in  and continued to live in the only visual thing   i found a little odd was that daniel and maida  all look like they are rudimentary depictions of   real people some have even pointed out that maida  looks suspiciously like the author of the parasite   eve book and they have simple blocky forms and  exaggerated movements but my brain can figure out   that they are regular humans but aya clearly has  an anime-styled face and i certainly can't deny   that she has sort of an iconic design to her but  especially in close-ups she looks so alien next   to the other characters you know everyone talks [  __ ] about old battle angel over at the precinct   i do love the design of both aya and eve and  while i'm sure tetsuya nomura drew both of them   with a sweater across his lap i always found it  interesting just how feminine the game is not only   because its protagonist and antagonist are women  but because it concerns an ancient being that has   subsisted through thousands of years of female  ancestry so like the science of the lore also   concerns women and the potentially world ending  event involves kind of weaponizing motherhood very   out of character for early squares output which  was primarily a real dude fest final fantasy vii   dude xenogears dude einhander spaceship chocobo  racing chokobo again big fan of the overworld map   could have been a boring two-dimensional thing  with little arrows on it or some [ __ ] but no   it's a fully 3d diorama with little animated  details in it like boats and choppers flying   around and then when you pick a destination it  zooms into it so good it's a shame you don't have   more places to go i think the cutscenes are still  pretty impressive sure people have uncanny smooth   nightmare faces but they all depict something  rather complex you know an epic aerial attack   with jets whipping around the city a bizarre  transformation where limbs split into alien   appendages skulls pop out of flesh like toothpaste  it's a lot it's grand in scale for a game that   could now be played on a calculator i remember  watching the opening montage of clips and just   showing people as though it were a film you gotta  see like dude check out this collection of out of   context clips of gore scored by a dreamy piano and  a break beat speaking of the music the game has   an absolutely wonderful buried energetic and odd  soundtrack composed by yoko shimamura who before   this worked on street fighter 2 super mario  rpg and then following this game would make   more of a name for herself by scoring all of the  kingdom hearts games so a powerful body of work in   interviews she's described this soundtrack as  inorganic and experimental certainly more out   there than other square games there are these two  vibes that are clashing in an interesting way the   more consistent one is the theatrical vibe playing  into the operatic stage play theme the story plays   with so we get lots of piano and lots lots of  synthesized opera vocals which were weird when   i first played this and even weirder now and in a  good way there is something creepy about how human   they manage to be but whenever you get several  notes played in succession it becomes really   unnatural like the tentacle-headed lady in the  fifth element when the soundtrack was released on   cd they actually recorded versions of the operatic  themes with a live vocalist and it's very moving i   mean on top of it being a great performance it's  just wild hearing it sort of come alive in a way the other vibe was in shimamura's  words the result of her visit to the us   to work with the american square office  wherein she was taken to several dance clubs   so a number of tracks mainly once  used during fights are techno and   trance infused and many times there will  be a fun mashup of these two elements both aya and the mitochondria are given their  own theme that shows up in different variations   throughout the game eyes is of course very  solemn and stoic and the mitochondrias is a bit   tribal and chaotic kind of sounds  like the music that would play if   a bunch of bugs were crawling  around you it's very skittery music i've always thought it was a hugely powerful  touch to end the game on a music box rendition of   sleeper's wake by bach especially given  how ominous the final visuals are it's a   piece of music i've always liked and you could  ascribe a lot of meaning to it in the context   of this game of course after that plays a like  legitimate spanish language pop song featuring   shaney rigsby that i do think is good but further  illuminates the unique dichotomy in the soundtrack this also propelled shimamura's  career and spawned a remix album   where her and the number of djs turned  the soundtrack into a proper club mix i wouldn't be surprised if it got play  in some clubs somewhere in japan maybe   you know then while you're dancing you can be  like oh yeah i remember this one this is the one   that plays when you destroy all that the themes  and ideas of parasite eve would go on to inspire   others musically especially metal bands pretty  recently the british new metal band bring me the   horizon released some kind of uh lukewarm doomer  sentiment acknowledging covet as a legitimate   problem long after it had been and titled the  track parasite eve which they do attribute to   being you know fans of the game but there doesn't  seem to be any other connection to the game   beyond the title as someone very familiar with  making bad music with lyrics that could be found   in the margins of a 14 year old's history notebook  i think you can skip this one and i would play   a bit for you but after i had spent three hours  rendering this video and then another three hours   uploading it and waiting for it to process the  six seconds of it i used got a copyright claim   so i mean consider that you being spared this  video is now better for that so thank you youtube   so out of spite i will suggest to you two other  songs by other metal bands that both have a song   titled parasite eve and both seem to very clearly  be in reference to the game one by american death   metal band necrophagia which you may enjoy if  you like kind of early goofy death metal there's   even a theremin in this track and also one by  finnish blackened speed metal band bone hunter   which is a lot of fun very well produced and  very on point lyrics aside from that i'm sure   if you just put parasite eve into spotify  you'll find a dozen or so you know vaporwave   and sad boy rap projects with anime characters  on their album covers with tracks dedicated to   this game in some sense so if you're starved for  parasite eve content so are lots of people i guess it's parasitee if not parasite steve this is  basically a chicks game with toned down action   and horror themes designed to appeal to girls  fears most guys won't like it more basically   it's a failed experiment in game design they had  an interesting problem here with figuring out how   to blend two contradictory game models rpg versus  survival horror or leveling vs running away but   it doesn't work the only thing interesting to  me in concept not execution are the battle and   weapon upgrade systems the battle system mixes  real time evasion with rpg atv the problems are   enemies too fast mostly undodgeable area attacks  slow character and enemies cast a slow spell to   make you slower and there's no room to move in the  field the weapon system has its own problem with   annoying penalties and inconveniences there are  serious problems with pacing and story development   cut scenes versus playtime and level design the  writers think that technobabble is story when it's   just a plot device there are parts in the game  when you'll watch read 15 minutes of cutscene   go do something boring that takes five minutes  like pressing against a box tapping x trying to   get it to open and then watch read 20 minutes of  cutscenes the difficulty of the game is annoying   it's mostly designed to move you along like a  movie but then we'll drop in cheap insta-kill   attacks a lot of the rooms are empty except for  graphic decoration there is no dramatic action   plot element or puzzle to solve and exist only  to hold a key to the room next door monsters   infinitely respond at doorways and there's no way  to pass but to fight them again the monster design   ranges from silly and lame like random placement  of arms and legs down to embarrassing like the   final boss who has a giant pee pee for a tail and  a nut hanging off his office for most of the game   you'll hear the same two songs overworld arpeggio  and battle theme camera angles suck i could go on   criticizing but it's tedious the game is obsolete  and only of interest for game design students ah   yes the classic girls fear of electrified sewer  crocodiles and endless liminal space skyscrapers   i do find it weird that you describe this game  as being so needlessly difficult this girl game   you should easily be able to overcome you seem to  have a lot of difficulty doing things that could   easily be addressed with the game's own mechanics  like using the haste power to move more quickly in   dodge attacks i'd think you'd be able to work  these sorts of things out given your superior   spatial reasoning and more clear-headed emotional  state i can tell you have these qualities by the   use of the phrase pee-pee way too corny no replay  value too repetitive too easy okay so the graphics   were really neat other than that this game was  barely worthwhile i like corny storylines but this   one was way too corny and i found myself having  to seek out and beat the same idiotic baddies over   and over again to get enough points to go to the  next level which was tedious you also have to comb   the same scenes over and over again to make sure  you picked up all of the invisible weapon upgrades   but it wasn't challenging at all just redundant  redundant the background sounds were annoying and   the dialogue was silly i don't know why i bothered  to beat this game now that i have i don't have   any reason to beat it again i've seen all it has  to offer too many times oh wait you think it's   too easy but you're overrated clap clap clap  he does the friends clap afterwards overrated   to anyone who is trying to play this game today  i just want to say that i played this under   optimal conditions christmas break 1998 at the  height of my ps1 gaming power and this game was   extremely extraordinarily mediocre i know that  a lot of people are falling over themselves to   play this sequel but you have to ask yourself if  a sausage factory like square one has waited over   10 years to make a sequel to one of their most  at the time expensive franchises was it really   all that great the game had a few good perks to  it customizable weapons beautiful cg cutscenes   a pretty unique storyline for an rpg at the  time but if you play it without the rose-colored   glasses of nostalgia and collectibility you  will find an utterly mediocre gaming experience   i beat the game from start to finish and  at the end of it i can only say i spent   30 hours of my life on this i gave it 2 stars  mostly because it was a risk on square's part   to break away from the successful final fantasy  sci-fi settings which is commendable in itself   and i had approximately 2-3 hours of enjoyment out  of it but if you're seriously looking to spend 180   on this game it's not worth it both of these  reviews i seem to because of their dislike of   the game theorize that it was some kind of failure  that square swept under the rug when it was not it   was like the third highest selling game in japan  and it was so successful in the us at least that   they re-released it under the greatest hits  label this was a very successful game i also   don't get what point you're trying to make about  them waiting 10 years in between parasite eve two   and third birthday like yeah i think everyone who  likes the series thought it was dumb that they   didn't make a sequel for that long and then when  they did chose to once again change the gameplay   to suit whatever genre they felt would sell the  most but there are a lot of dumb things that   aaa publishers do this is the same square that  decided to shelve the deus ex franchise because   it didn't meet some impossible financial standard  in favor of marvel ip which turned out great for   them also don't spend 180 on an old rare game  that you're just trying out this this is the   real reason you are upset because you're not  smart with your money this is literally what   walmart is for i think there was a point where  it was also available on the ps3 marketplace but if it's not available any other way i don't  know might be they don't want you to pay for it   terrible graphics and poor lighting i remember  this game being much more fun when i played it   13 years ago on the playstation the beginning is  still sort of fun but the graphics are extremely   terrible compared to the extremely amazing  graphics of today so she more or less looks   like a white blob with a black smudge on it  although the lighting was so terrible that   she always appeared to be in the dark and  it was a wonder that i could see her at all   still a great buy for reminisce sake i can't  believe you became a nearly entirely different   person with different tastes and interests  over the span of 13 years that's wild   unfortunately you became a person with bad takes  squaresoft's first decent game this game is mind   numbing in its excellence the combat system is  the best i've ever used hands down the storyline   instead of being a confusing and cliche mess like  the rest of square's work is well thought out and   not based around a character allergic to clothing  i was very bothered when i saw they'd ruined the   series with the second but this one is straight  out the best rpg i've played what is the allergic   to clothing thing about like if this was written  in 2001 which square protagonist could have i   guess shown more skin than this person cared for  my only guess is he's talking about ashley riot's   assless outfit which the real crime this character  commits is holding on to his myspace handle i say   as someone holding on to their world of warcraft  handle but just because he elected to wear this   doesn't mean he's allergic to clothing if anything  it's more so indicative of someone who has   way more confidence than i will ever have tell  you what though if i could pull it off maybe   maybe in certain settings maybe one of those would  be a castle though i really like the sentiment   i was very bothered when i saw they'd ruined  the series i guess i feel that way about a lot   of games every time they ruin a series i get so  bothered stop it i say to them you're bothering me having last played this game played it was  released on the greatest hit so 99 then i   probably still couldn't afford it until it went  on sale after that so i'm going to say 22 years   ago i think it holds up for a particular sect  if you enjoyed other games in its periphery like   fragrant story and final fantasies 7 through 9 you  will probably get a similar hit of whatever those   gave you if however you've never enjoyed squares  rpgs even with everything parasite eve does to   differentiate itself from those games i wouldn't  say it's quite enough to win your admiration maybe   for some but that dna is still very much there  it's both visible and feelable you can feel it   beating beneath the new ideas it sprinkles on top  obviously it's not the most deep or introspective   narrative but it still does a lot considering its  limitations and brief playtime it still manages to   have several standout moments and visuals that  stayed with me up until now a theater full of   burning melting people aya check in her scumbag  date the carriage ride with a flaming horse   it's still apparent that it had a really great  cinematic eye there were moments that seemed dumb   in the 90s and seem more dumb now but i am dumb so  i like when game dumb i don't think this is a hard   game to play or get into but i do think it's easy  to ignore many of the mechanics that will probably   address the thing you're being annoyed by even  with little tutorial explanations every now and   then it might be a game that is hurt by you not  having a manual which i'm assuming many revisiting   it uh won't have i mean you can look up a scan  of it i'd imagine but i understand that would be   tacking work onto playing a game and i would never  suggest that games are hard i've always said that   games are hard one reason i do wish the game was  longer is that it's only towards the end that i   really felt like i understood all of the game i  saw the loop so to speak but by then it was over   and while i did momentarily enjoy using this  knowledge in the post content that really wound   up souring my entire experience so i don't suggest  that the base experience is enjoyable enough and   is full of all the charm of the ps1 at its height  at first i thought i'd mirror a lot of negative   reviews about the music becoming repetitive and  annoying because i certainly got to that place   but i was listening to it while riding this and i  can still vibe with it after i've put the game in   my rear view despite what literally every aspect  of my channel suggests i try not to look at things   through rose tinted glasses i try to put on my  garbage glasses which are often difficult to   take off as well so while i can acknowledge that  parasite eve was a formative experience for me   i certainly don't have the same strong feelings  about that experience as i probably did as a tween   games have accomplished a lot in the interim  changed a lot and my taste in games much like eve   have evolved and changed shape as well twisting  into a hideous monstrosity and everything just   seems to be burning around them well that's the  end of the video thank you for watching it if   you liked the video consider interacting with it  in some way by subscribing liking watching other   videos oh and the stuff in the description like uh  my patreon discord twitter yeah so that's there no   pressure yeah anyway uh an extra special thanks to  aylin gunkword how did i [ __ ] up the first name   alien uncle two password for kids a fingama bumble  like i'm gonna read them anyway you don't 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williamson  zachary schulstadt zane break and as always   ziklau for being a patron as always i'm hugely  grateful for all your support in keeping this   channel running and my internal organs running  they be doing stuff and that's thanks to you and   i hope uh you i don't know where that sentence  was going and i hope you're doing okay   hey sometimes it's okay to just uh do some  gaming and i'll see you as soon as i make   another video which i will begin work on  right after this one bye-bye thank you again and yet kiss

Channel: Grim Beard

Views: 217,794

Keywords: grimbeard parasite eve, survival horror, action rpg, jrpg, classic jrpg, final fantasy history, grimbeard final fantasy, parasite eve review, underrated rpgs, obscure rpgs, sci-fi horror rpg, best ps1 games, best ps1 rpgs, best ps1 jrpgs, resident evil, final fantasy 7

Id: HTLHoQ3DIt4

Length: 91min 14sec (5474 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Hyroero]

Grimbeard content is so extremely up my alley. Funny, informative and well edited. Covers a mix of classic and more obscure stuff.

Always a treat to get a new video.

[u/BzlOM]

Dayuuuuum, an hour long review. Would love to watch it if it was shorter since planning to play it quite soon.