zigfried's Parasite Eve review

I get what you mean about the pacing, but I don't think your description of the game is really accurate. The dialouge scenes happen about twice a chapter... once at the beginning, and once at the end. The rest is all exploration and battle. I won't argue with your score, since from your point of view it is definitely justified, and because (outside of the tedium) everything you've said COULD be accurate... but if you tilt your head a bit, it's possible to see this game in a whole other light.

Yeah, I don't really get this review. The game wasn't that poorly paced, and it's a RPG. There's the typical amount of RPG storyline but I wouldn't call it excessive. It relies on several cinematic scenes (the game is called THE CINEMATIC RPG! on the box) but I don't think it was story-driven at all, especially compared to a lot of RPGs on the console. And there's a lot of gameplay to be had.

Atmosphere and story were the things that would/could -- and to an extent did -- make Parasite Eve notable. By my mind, those are the most important parts of this specific game to look at... and ultimately, aside from some occasional stylishness, it fails. That being said, this review is kind of old (before dates were logged!) so if I wrote it today, I'd probably do a better job of getting that point across.

The gameplay itself was poorly paced. Mainly the character's walking speed and animations were too slow, which made the exploration aspect tedious tedious tedious. The Chrysler Building was a nightmare to complete, but... I felt it was my duty to finish (especially after discovering that the experience meter looped, which allowed me to rocket Aya to insanely high levels of power. Poor design by Square, although I don't think I mentioned that in the review)

//Zig

Ah, that DOES explain it a lot better. You are right, getting from one area to the next takes a long time.

I'm trying to remember exactly when I gave up on the Chrysler Building and never played this game again. I'm thinking it was one of the boss fights. Was one of them a two-part insect where you had to get it to split up and had to kill one of the two parts and if it joined back together, your progress was wasted and you had to start over? Because it seems like it was something like that which finally broke my will to try playing this game any more.

I don't remember that one, because my Aya was crazily overpowered by then and didn't fall prey to its devious tricks, but I have heard that there is such a boss.

//Zig

Thank you so much for writing this, just played this game and holy fuck its shit.

IT is indeed a gorgeous full of charm piece of shit, but shit regardless.

I am truly convinced no one really played this, it is truly unplayable in the most literal sense, moving around the world feels aimless and brainless at the same time.