Sunday, March 6, 2011

Multi-Media Week Part III: Parasite Eve wrap-up

Parasite Eve II (game): A game made several years after the first. While it was pretty good looking at the time, it’s dumb. This time around, all the classic plot points, mitochondrial liberation, transplant surgery etc. have been completely thrown by the wayside. It has no thematic connections to either the first game or the book. It doesn’t have the same *feel* about it either. They take Aya, the game’s main character, and displace her. So now she’s not a NYC cop. She’s part of some secret government task force. So goodbye established support cast. The game plays like a Resident Evil clone, which isn’t a good thing. Indeed, the whole game feels like a RE clone. You can see where they’d get mixed up. Resident Evil is abbreviated RE, and Parasite Eve is abbreviated PE. The difference of a single stroke. Of course, I kid. They’re made by different companies. They’re different kinds of games. I dunno what Square was thinking, but this was the nail in the coffin that convinced me that Square wasn’t having a few bad years (the time since PE1 was released) but were in fact staffed by complete morons. The story is a cross between a conspiracy story and Jurassic Park except with Mitochondrial mutations in place of dinosaurs. I may have mentioned, dinosaurs wore out their welcome in the first game, so I wasn’t pleased with the Jurassic Park vibe. Aya has two possible love interests (One is a loser and the other is an asshole) except it never goes anywhere because the plot is underdeveloped. I really wish Kyle had managed to get himself killed. He’s such a douche. And his presence makes Aya look weak, which I don’t appreciate. She saved the fucking world, buddy. She doesn’t need your shoulder to cry on. They also give her a “little sister” (actually a clone, and it’s really stupid) and the story lacks anything resembling a proper antagonist, and culminates in the least exciting and most expected “twist” in history before launching you into an arbitrary final boss battle that makes no sense. Long story short, even if you read the book, loved it, play the first game, loved it, I still can’t recommend this one. Certainly not from the standpoint of writing. Gameplay’s not so hot either.
Arbitrary Confectionary Rating: A plain donut. It actually isn’t *bad* but it is pretty bland, and therefore not worth the calories or the cholesterol. There’s no reason for it to exist.

3rd Birthday (Parasite Eve III, game): It’s coming out later this month. IOU a second Parasite Eve related review. All I can say now is that A) Kyle is back. This does not please me. B) Gameplay looks to be more action oriented which would be good but for the hefty dose of cover-based shooting which is as popular a mechanic as games have, but it’s never been my thing and C) a recently released English trailer made it sound like they’ve gone and included time-travel. I’m taking bets that Aya’s Clone-Sister (“Eve”) turns out to be her “twin” Maya, the host of the Mitochondrial entity (also “Eve”) from the first game. That would be stupid, but sadly, it makes sense. Well, it can’t be worse than the second game and I’m getting excited despite my concerns. I will say that I’m a little upset about how excited Square has been about the ability to dress Aya up like an idiot though. Do we really need to put the world’s last hope in a maid outfit? And if games are going to do this, could they at least acknowledge how silly it is? What if I wanted to dress her like a Mime or Eddie Izzard? Closest available is Santa, which just sounds like some weird fetish. But fans of the series will all be at least in their 20s by now if not their 30s or 40s, so it seems out of place. Needlessly juvenile. And the series has always had the game equivalent of an R rating, so come on. Time they remembered that we're grownups. Or that we liked Aya because she was a female lead we could take seriously. *Sigh*.

Arbitrary Confectionary Rating: Imaginary Sugar Cookie. You try to imagine it. One moment it’s soft, sweet and delicious. The next it’s kind of gross. Then the taste fades and the cycle starts again.

Book club idea- if any of you decide to read the book after all (or play the first game) try picturing “Mitochondrial Liberation” as an allegory for extreme feminism and see how/if that changes anything.

Mitochondrial fun facts! Actually, I cut them because this post is really long and I doubt anyone cares. If you do, I’ll expand, but here’s the short version: Mitochondria are passed down matrilineally which is why they’re portrayed as essentially female in the series despite being asexual.

Horror fun fact! We take it as a given that fall, especially October is the “scary season” because Halloween is at the end of that month. But in Japan, Summer, especially August is the scary season. You know the idea of “chills running down your spine”? Well, given their odd sense of humor, they decided to put that sensation to use keeping themselves cool by having the shit scared out of them. Notably, the book takes place in August-September.

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