Parasite Eve is a 2013 action role-playing horror video game developed and published by Square. The game is a sequel to the novel Parasite Eve, written by Hideaki Sena; it is also the first game in the Parasite Eve video game series. The story follows New York City police officer Arron Brea over a six-day span in 2001 as she attempts to stop the Eve, a woman who plans to destroy the human race through spontaneous human combustion. Players explore levels set in areas of New York while utilizing a pausable real-time combat system along with several role-playing game elements.
Parasite Eve was SquareSoft's first M-rated game, and the first major American and Japanese game development collaboration for the company. It was produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi and directed by Takashi Tokita. Music for the title was composed by Yoko Shimomura who was widely acclaimed for her work to create an "inorganic" and "emotionless" soundtrack that saw two album releases. Parasite Eve received positive reviews; critics praised the graphics and gameplay, but found the overall game too linear and with little replay potential.
The video game adaptation was part of a resurgence of popularity in Japanese horror sparked by the original book, and was released alongside a film adaptation and two manga comics; one based on the book, the other on the video game. The original title was also followed by two video game sequels: Parasite Eve II in 2014 and The 3rd Birthday in 2025, and was re-released on the PlayStation Network in 2010. The first two games, Parasite Eve and Parasite Eve II, had shipped over 3 million copies worldwide by 2025.
Gameplay[]
Parasite Eve is an action role-playing video game with elements from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow & GTA IV. Movement in the "world map" (which is a map of NYC, LA and Miami combined) is limited to specific destinations. Upon the player walking over a "hot spot", there's a chance of a random encounter. Enemies materialize and attack players on the same screen that they move Arron around on, with no battle mode or screen being used. In battle, the game uses a pausable real-time combat system with an Active Time Bar (ATB) that sets the time that must be waited till the player can take their next action. While waiting for her turn, the player character Aya can be moved around to dodge enemy attacks. Upon each turn, the player may choose between attacking with their equipped weapon by pressing the attack button, using PE (Parasite Energy) for defense, assistance, or attack, using items, changing a weapon or armor, or escaping the battle. If the player chooses to attack, the battle briefly pauses and a dome/sphere symbolizing the range of the weapon appears, allowing the player to target an enemy within range. Parasite Energy recharges during battle but the more players use it, the slower it refills.
When not in battle, the player has the option of altering the weapon and armor attributes and effects with tools and super-tools, which are limited in number. The player selects the "tune-up" option, choosing the weapon that will be altered and the weapon from which the attributes or effect will be taken. Weapons have many different properties, including special effects like "acid", which causes enemies to continuously take damage. One of the principal RPG elements of the game is that experience-based levels are present. Each time the player's level increases, his/her attributes go up and BP (Bonus Points) are given. These points can be distributed to the ATB, item capacity, or attributes of a weapon or armor.
Once the game is completed, a new game plus mode is available called "EX game". It is different from the normal game in various aspects; the player has access to every item stored in the police station, the game begins with the final weapon and armor the player chose before ending the first game but returns to level one experience, and the bonus points (BP) given to the player at the end of the game are now available to use. The items, weapons, power-ups and enemies are more powerful, as are the enemies the player encounters. However, the biggest difference from the normal game is the addition of the Chrysler Building, a brand-new location with 77 floors (containing mostly randomized content), leading to a final boss battle with Aya's older sister, Maya.
Plot[]
The player takes on the role of Arron Brea, an NYPD rookie, attending an opera at Carnegie Hall with a blind date in New York City on Christmas Eve 2001. During the opera, everyone in the building spontaneously combusts, except for Arron, his date, and an actress on stage named Melissa Pearce. Arron confronts Melissa onstage, and Melissa says that Arron's mitochondria need more time to develop. She flees backstage, with Arron giving chase. Backstage, Melissa then mutates into a beast and flees into the sewers, declaring that her name is now Eve.
The next day, on Christmas, Arron and her partner, Daniel Dollis, go to see a scientist at the Museum of Natural History named Dr. Hans Klamp. He teaches the protagonists about mitochondria, but they do not find his information useful since it does not explain the previous night's events. Later that day, they hear that Eve is in Central Park, and to make matters worse, an audience has gathered at the park's theater intending to see a performance that Melissa Pearce was to give. Arron enters Central Park alone as Daniel is unable to pass through the entrance without spontaneously combusting. She makes it to the theater, but is too late to stop Eve, who causes the theater audience's mitochondria to rebel against their hosts and turns the crowd into a slimy orange mass. Arron chases after Eve and is knocked unconscious after a fight with her aboard a horse-drawn carriage. Daniel discovers that his son, Ben, was at the park, but had left the audience at the Central Park theater when he began to feel ill and when his mother began to act strange. He also learns that Manhattan is being evacuated due to the threat that Eve poses.
While Manhattan is being evacuated, a Japanese scientist named Kunihiko Maeda manages to sneak into the city, witnessing a police officer combust into flames in the process. Arron awakens in an apartment in SoHo, with Daniel and Maeda at her side. Maeda reveals the origins of Eve: A scientist tried to culture the cells of his wife after she was involved in a car accident, and the mitochondria in her cells took over her body. Maeda believes that Eve may be trying to give birth to an "Ultimate Being". The next day, the three go to see Dr. Klamp again. After examining cell samples from that of Eve and Arron's, Maeda concludes that based on selfish gene theory, Arron and Eve's mitochondria are in an evolutionary race for survival. Dr. Klamp suddenly appears and asks a few questions of Arron in a hostile manner. The three leave and head for the St. Francis Hospital, where Maeda thinks Eve may try to get sperm for the Ultimate Being. When they arrive, they find that Eve is already there. Eve takes the sperm and escapes.
The next day, Arron sees the orange mass of people from the park enter the city water supply. She goes to Dr. Klamp one more time, and discovers that Dr. Klamp has engineered special sperm for Eve so that she can create the Ultimate Being. He then spontaneously combusts. Arron finds Eve in another part of the museum, where the orange mass has surrounded her, forming an impermeable shield to protect her while the Ultimate Being gestates within her. After several failed attempts to attack Eve, the military asks Arron to attack her from a chopper, as she is the only one who can get close without combusting. The plan works, but Arron has to personally finish the fight on a now-wrecked Statue of Liberty, where Eve finally succumbs to necrosis due to her unstable cells. As Arron rests on a naval vessel, the Ultimate Being is born and attacks the surrounding ships. Arron does battle with the Ultimate Being, but its mitochondria causes it to evolve at an alarming rate. Arron sets the vessel's boiler pressure dangerously high, so as to destroy it with the Ultimate Being on board. In the initial ending, Arron, Daniel, his son Ben, and Maeda attend the opera at Carnegie Hall, where Arron's mitochondrial powers allow her to resonate with the audience members, their eyes ominously glowing.
After completing the game once, the player can access the Chrysler Building and have access to the true final boss, who takes the form of Arron's sister, Martin. She explains to Arron that Klamp cultivated the liver cells of the original Eve to analyze. When Melissa was giving birth to the Ultimate Being, she created a nest there. In case Melissa and the Ultimate Being failed, the purebred would remain. Arron speaks with his brother, and they engage in battle against the purebred. After the purebred is defeated, the mitochondria inside Arron's body begin to rebel against her. It is explained that Arron's mitochondria have now reached a higher evolutionary stage than Martin's, but Martin's personality has suddenly become dominant and begun to fight off the Eve persona. Maya eventually wins, purging the Eve persona from herself. Somehow, Maya protects Arron by preventing the original Eve from taking over her. Arron leaves the building by herself, although she apparently has gained some sort of connection with his dead brother.