Game #1100: Parasite Eve II

  I would've thought the eve of a parasite would be a one time thing.

 Well, while I played Parasite Eve for the first time a couple of years ago, I had actually played Parasite Eve II in my youth. And I didn't like it very much, just another Survival Horror game into the pile of survival horror games I hated. But current me actually likes Survival Horror, and current me loved PE 1, so with a fresh new mindset I set out to battle the Mitochondria again. Plus, it made for a decent game #1100.

 Parasite Eve was a RPG that leaned heavily on Survival Horror elements, well, the sequel is the other way around. Combat is no longer turn-based, but it's much simpler than in, say, Resident Evil. You tap the square button and Aya will automatically lock onto an enemy, and then you just press R1, and as long as there isn't something between you two, and your weapon has the range, your bullets will hit. Aya has access to super powers, just like she did in the previous game, and after every fight you are rewarded with experience points you can then use to enhance this powers. Aya has a very limited 20 item slot inventory, but can only bring up to 10 items to a fight, provided her armor has enough pouches. Even if you have healing items or ammo to spare, if they are not inside your pouches while in a fight, you can't access them.

 There are no random encounters, however, your map will regularly update to show you areas highlighted in red, which means enemies have spawned there. It's not random, but rather, after certain story scenes enemies will spawn in areas you may have cleared before. It's a bit of a chore, but you should try to clear enemies every time you get new spawns, because the game is fairly easy, and enemies reward you with XP, for your super powers, BP, to buy more and better equipment, as well as restore a few MP, which you use to cast your magic, for free. Oh, and keep in mind every environment has at least one resupply point with infinite ammo you can just return to, so ammo is not an issue. I think fighting every encounter adds some artificial length to the game, but I only got tired of it one time, but the next day I was refreshed and didn't feel the burn. That said, once again, it's completely optional, so you don't need to backtrack for certain encounters unless you really want to. 

 I didn't find the plot particularly interesting, but I did find Aya to be well written, I loved how snarky her item descriptions were! I found it interesting how the game world is interconnected after the first area. The introductory level is never visited again but if you explore well enough you can connect the third area, the Shelter, to the second area, the Dryfeld village. I did feel like the game's third area, the Shelter, was much less interesting that what came before it, so my interest in the game waned a bit. Some of the puzzles in the game were... a bit too obscure, even for Survival Horror standards, to the point you might want a guide in hand when tackling the game, just in case.

 Parasite Eve II usually gets a bad rep, but I didn't think it was that bad. Parasite Eve was 1, in my opinion, a much more interesting game, both in story and gameplay, but I don't think the sequel ruins the series, it's just that the plot isn't as interesting and the combat system isn't as fun. That said, I enjoyed gunning down baddies, mixing in some fiery powers here and there, and being constantly rewarded with BP and XP meant that combat always felt meaningful, beyond just getting to the end of the game.

 7.0