Following my review of Omega Quintet on PS4, here goes another one. This time for an almost-forgotten PS1 classic, a game released in 99/2000. I recently replayed this on the Vita, after nabbing it from the PSN store.
One thing that I should get out of the way first is that I'm not gonna bother with the story much. It's confusing and without spoiling either the book (japanese novel) from which the series originated from (also read recently) or the first game, not much would get across. The gist of it is that you can except b-movie pseudo-science horror stuff going, with characters saying dumb and funny things (some might not have been intentional), with the highlight being Aya's (the protagonist) snarky remarks about a lot of things. In fact one of the things this game made me miss in modern games is having my character run up against every wall or corner of the environment bashing the X button to inspect things.
Some of my favorite Aya moments include:
Enemy shows up with a bomb detonator on his hand. He asks "Do you know what this is?". Aya replies: "A warrant for your arrest?"
References to other Squaresoft games
And, upon finding a toilet without any paper, calling it the crime of the century.
Shower scene. Not because it's funny though.
On to the game itself..
The first Parasite Eve game was basically a Square RPG (UI and everything) turned into a survival horror type of game with RPG elements. The sequel went even further with that direction by adopting the well known cinematic camera angles of the old RE and SH games, including the tank control scheme, whereas the previous game was played in PS1-era Square style wide shots without tank controls. The combat was also overhauled. In PE1, you "took turns in real time", based on your action bar, while PE2's basic core is the same as the other survival horror games. You aim and you shoot. Nevertheless, the RPG stuff is still there.
You have P. Energy (parasite energy) which is basically Mana. It allows you to cast elemental spells, heal yourself or nullify status ailments. Every spell needs to be bought first, with exp that you gain by killing enemies.
You also have the armor and attachment system. Aside from retaining the usual inventory management found in these types of games, there's another catch; it doesn't matter which items you have on you, if they're not attached to your armor, you can't use them during combat. That goes for weapons too. If you have one weapon on you but it's not attached, you can't switch to it during combat even if you ran out of ammo on the ones you're using. Different armor has more or less numbers of attachments, aside from other benefits such as extra HP or MP, ailment resistance, motion detection (GPS), etc... So balancing these effects with the number of attachments is crucial.
It's good to add some strategy to the game..though it can also be annoying, specially because of boss fights. In regular encounters, you can still do what you often did in RE; run past enemies and rush to exit the room. You'll be slightly penalized by losing BP (Bounty points, currency used to buy equipment), but you can switch out your attachments in case you messed something up. Obviously, not so in boss battles, which can be long due to their high HP bar.. Still, I wouldn't remove this system... I like it, but I wish weapons weren't a part of it. At the very least the game should let you have two weapons, one main and one sub, that do not need to be attached in order to be used, instead of just the one.
Speaking of boss battles, they are a mixed bag. Some are cool and incorporate the environment into the fight, which can be used to your advantage. Others are boring bullet sponges, specially the annoying final boss which plain sucks.
There's a decent amount of location variety, from a city mall to a town in the Mojave desert, sewers, underground facilities and *spoiler*
Aside from that you can also expect a lot of puzzles.. some of which can be quite obscure. They're okay. Not much to say about them.
There are also different outcomes based on your actions. If you do certain things that shall remain unspoiled..part of the story changes. There are 3 endings which add some replay value, and you can tackle harder difficulties while carrying some of your stuff over.
In the end, it really is Resident Evil + Square RPG. Best way to summarize it.
If you like survival horror, play it. If you want to experience a piece of PS history, play it. If you like sexy blond ladies, play it, cause we need more blondies. Damn you Jill and Claire.
Next review: (probably) Killer is Dead
