Parasite Eve II

This game is a serious embarassment to the name of Squaresoft. This game is just awful, it doesn't even deserve to be made, and it horrible.

There are really three main aspects of any game, and that is game play and technical and story. But this game, not single aspect of this game is a complete winner, and its terrible.

Story is usually the first thing to bring up about this game, but this game's story is horrible, clich'd, and at times, directly copied. This game is literally, a carbon clone of Capcom's survival horror classic Resident Evil 2. There are scenes in Parasite Eve II that are direct copies of Resident Evil II, which i played twice and beat. Parasite Eve II centers around the original's protagonist, Aya Brea, a part of a "mitochondria specialty task force". She ends up investigating a series of deaths that look like they could be connected to her previous work. They rest of the story is simply a mish mash and the force Aya works for contains every stereotypical cop character you can find. The tough talkign black guy, the nerdy gun carrier, and the feminine receptionist who has something to do with the story, they're all there, in a mish mash that makes no sense. Knot a single good thing can be said about the ridiculously incoherent and unprocessed story, that holds no bearing to the original's story, which was based off of a Japanese Best Sellin novel. INstead, we have no nooks, no crannies, nothing. The little bit of story we do get in this game either don't make any type of sense, or are ripped off of Resident Evil 2.

The technical aspect of this game is discraceful. The fact that this game even has the Squaresoft logo. The music is abominable, the WORST squaresoft soundtrack I have ever herad, it's simply horrible. Boring, repetetive, uninspired, awful. The music will seriously make your ears bleed, and to say this disgusting score was the first video game soundtrack domestically released in the US is simply horrible. No wonder video game soundtracks haven't taken off in this country. The graphics in the game are even worse then the first one, with the movies being pixelated and plain, and the in game graphics are just moving squares. To make it worse, the first official cinema in the game, after you play (not including the intro) is taken directly from Resident evil 2, and fans will see the smoking gun of a copycat. The controls aren't bad, but they're a carbon clone again of Resident Evil 2. But again, Aya moves horribly. If you thought it was bad in the first game, Aya is slow and annoying, and at times, in battle, barely mobile. The game engine is a very good idea, and much much MUCh better than the first gun, and is actually more fun. But to make it worse are unfair bosses and enemies, and the appaling use of "magic".

Parasite Eve II is simply a Resident Evil II clone, but the worst part about it is the fact that with such great reference work, this game came out so bad. Resident Evil II is a classic survival horror game, but Parasite Eve II, sorry to say, is simply junk. For this game, worth only about 5 dollars, I give- Half a star out of *****

Many people call this game a Resident Evil clone when in fact the two are different enough to be categorized in different genres. Resident Evil is a survival horror game with emphasis placed on ammo conservation and avoiding enemies rather than shooting them. Parasite II is a much more fast paced action game (and is better than every Resident Evil except RE4 which could actually be called a ripoff of this game). The main character has super natural powers and a plethora of weapons to choose from. The game still has some RPG elements left over from the original (BTW I never played the original because I hate random battles). In order to enhance your magic abilities you must collect experience points, which are gained from defeating enemies. Along with the experience points the player will also gain bounty points, which can be used as currency at certain "shops" to buy weapons or items such as various body armor and healing medicine. Some of the weapons are customizable to a degree, for instance some can have extra magazines fitted to allow for greater ammo capacity. From the above information one can assume that killing every enemy possible is encouraged. Aya the main character is not trying to "survive" rather she is "exterminating" dangerous lifeforms. There is plenty of ammo to buy and find making running dry a rare incident, especially with infinite ammo boxes set up at key locations, and the player can always fall back on their magic or run away. As far as graphics go this game has the best I've seen on Playstation. It could be mistaken for an early Dreamcast or PS2 game. A few instances come to mind, in the first area the character's reflection is visible in the polished marble floor, and the water graphics are pretty good for their time especially for the Playstation. The backgrounds are great and highly detailed and the full motion cutscenes are works of art with great attention to detail. The characters have high polygon counts and look great. The monsters are very intriguing and not your everyday sort. Most of them look like something from John Capenter's the Thing. The enemies at the end are more normal looking but are actually more intimidating. As for the sound the game is alright. It could use a few more background tunes and there is no voice acting in the cutscenes, which could be a godsend since most voice acting in video games is terrible. The controls can be annoying at times but after about a half-hour I found them easy to get used to. I give the game an 8.5 out of 10. I recommend this game to fans of action games that feature exploration and puzzles and especially to those who liked Resident Evil 4. This game also features actual licensed Coca-Cola items, such as a key chain and soda to replenish health.

Anyone who has played the original Parasite Eve will remember the style of the game. It brought together so many different elements, Parasite Eve II is a completly different game. With improved graphics, new game-play, and a new threat, it brings a whole new world to the game. Most would expect maybe some of the same creatures and weapons but this brings in a whole new slew of things to face. But, how could this happen "Eve" is dead...or is it something else. You'll have to find out as the fight continues.

Parasite Eve 2 is a stunning game. Although it seems as though it has not met up to the standards of many people who played the first, it has developed many improvements from the first game. Its graphics are more realistic than the first, and the gameplay and music is more intense and its puzzles are more brain racking and require more thinking. The game also has a wide range of features from the first game, mainly Parasite Energies and weapons. The difficulty also seems more harsher than ever, and its plot more suspenseful, which tend to keep the player glued to the screen.

My only complain is that I wished the game had been slightly longer because the ending was quite abrupt and the conversations are quite slow and take up a lot of time.

Other than that, the game seems flawless. The 3-D graphics are stunning and potray realism and the gameplay as well as the puzzles and not forgetting the plot could not have been better. This is a game definitely worth buying.

*****5 stars!!!

The original Parasite Eve had a lot going for it--an RPG set in modern day New York, a gameplay that resembled a blend between Final Fantasy and Resident Evil, a more mature storyline, music that surpasses just about all games before and since, and a level of cinematic gameplay never seen before with some of the nicest graphics of its time.

Parasite Eve II throws all that away and becomes a bad Resident Evil clone minus the gore and interesting monsters. Instead of uniquely blending two styles of gameplay, Squaresoft decided to blatantly rip off Capcom's RE franchise. It plays exactly like Resident Evil minus the eerie atmosphere and minus the zombies.

Visually the game is ugly, stale, and boring. Great detail was put into Aya's polygon count and high-res textures (which looks like it could be a PS2 character); however, this comes at a price--every other polygonal creature in the game looks very bad. Very low polygons, laughable textures. And the pre-rendered backgrounds? They all start to look the same about 2 hours into the game.

Parasite Eve II was built around the rather annoying trend in games of not allowing the player to get everything the first run through--so instead of making a game lots and lots of fun to play, Squaresoft makes you *have* to play it again to see everything. Or in other words, Squaresoft has so little confidence in their game-making ability (as of lately, a rightly placed lack of confidence) that they resort to cheap tricks to extend the life of the game and replay value. Die hard fans will buy into it, casual gamers and those who look for entertainment value in their "games" will just say "Screw it" after the disappointing ending. Ironic that Square's attempt to increase replay value will wind up decreasing the game's appeal, and cut its shelf life in half before people stop buying it.

I still am waiting to see if Squaresoft *can still* do something right, so far it's not looking good.