History VideoGame / ParasiteEve

The game has two sequels, ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'' and ''VideoGame/{{The 3rd Birthday}}''. The series is also available on the UsefulNotes/PlaystationNetwork.

In 1998, [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] released a video game called ''Parasite Eve'', a [[StealthSequel pseudo-sequel]] to the 1995 SciFiHorror [[Literature/ParasiteEve novel of the same name]] by Hideaki Sena. It was unique among [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]] available at the time because of its blend of RPG, ActionAdventure and the then- new SurvivalHorror genre.

* CoolGuns: Though [[AKA47 never referred to with a manufacturer's name]], all the basic model numbers are accurate to real-life firearms (the textures considerably less so, at least until [=PE2=]), and a keen eye turned to [=PE1=]'s roster can spot everything from the trusty Colt [=M1911A1=] to the (normally disposable) [=AT4=] rocket launcher to the Desert Eagle. A large chunk of the better guns in the game are found in the Chrysler Building.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

The game has two sequels, ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'' and ''VideoGame/{{The 3rd Birthday}}''. The series is also available on the UsefulNotes/PlaystationNetwork. There is also a [[DrinkingGame/ParasiteEve1998 Drinking Game]] available for this game.

* StatusEffects: Has the general flair. Poison damages you over time, Paralysis slows you down or makes you completely immobile, Darkness reduces the range of your guns, Confusion remaps your directional controls to random directions, and Defense Down [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin does exactly that]] and is the only effect that cannot be cured. All effects vanish when the battle ends.

* ChekhovsGunman: The little girl Aya keeps seeing and the doctor who appears in her flashbacks are important characters in the game. [[spoiler:The first is Maya, Aya's long-dead twin sister who is the source of Aya and Melissa's respective mutations via transplants, being the original host of Mitochondria Eve. She's also the TrueFinalBoss [[BonusBoss only accessible to fight]] in NewGamePlus. The second one is Hans Klamp, the one who performed said transplants and is immediately revealed to be a major antagonist.]]

** In regards to the BonusBoss. [[spoiler: After beating Maya, the original Eve, Aya states that her body has returned to normal before she had ever met Eve, meaning her powers were now gone. WordOfGod says this ending is the true ending that leads into the sequel. However, the sequel states that Aya willingly sealed her powers after the Manhattan Blockade Incident so that she wouldn't freak people out. The contradiction could stem from one of two things: Either the developers weren't anticipating a sequel and probably forgot about the events of the second ending from the first game when it came to making the sequel or there was a hiccup in the script's translation.]]

* CreepyCockroach: A giant mutant cockroach is the fifth Boss in [[BrutalBonusLevel Chrysler Building]] during NewGamePlus, and the first of three bosses (including the TrueFinalBoss) in said area not to be rehash. It can [[WhipItGood whip you with its antennae]] and sometimes poison you. It can also lay an egg that can hatch very quickly and grow into a new cockroach (which can also lay an egg as well should the first roach die), requiring you to have a lot of firepower and speed to be able to kill the boss quickly and end the fight before you're caught in an endless loop.
* CrutchCharacter: The ultimate first-playthrough armor (B Suit 1, N Jacket or N Suit) will be Aya''s most tenured armor in NewGamePlus playthroughs as they have the most available slots (4, 5 and 6, respectively) until the player finally get their hands on the actual best armor in the game in the Chrysler Building BonusDungeon, the Cr Armor 2 (which has the max slots at 10, complete with an already attached HP Up).

* DegradedBoss: A pair of the SewerGator that was the Boss of Day 1 can be encountered in a specific spot in the second sewer stage in Day 5 as normal enemies.

** Aya's Liberate ability transforms her into a [[GreenSkinnedSpacebabe blue-skinned]] HumanoidAbomination, [[spoiler:which has the same appearance as the TrueFinalBoss]].

* InfinityMinusOneSword:

** The actual best guns in the game takes ''a lot'' of time to acquire (read:collecting 300 junks ''each'' for ''ten'' of them). The guns found on the higher levels of the [[BonusDungeon Chrysler Building]] on NewGamePlus have notably lower stats compared to the "junk" guns, but most of the Chrysler guns have the same amount of max slots as the "junk" guns, and definitely have significantly better stats than the weapons found in the later stages of the normal playthrough.

* CreepyCentipedes: The Boss in the second sewer stage on Day 5 and the third (Floor 30) in [[BrutalBonusDungeon Chrysler Building]] during NewGamePlus. This creature takes damage as a whole, but then splits into multiple independent fighting parts after taking enough damage. The head section can inflict poison status on Aya, while the tail section can inflict blindness.

** The N Suit found on the Museum in Day 5 has the same defense power as the B Jacket 1, the often recommended first-playthrough ultimate armor, but has significantly lower PE defense stat and comparatively lower critical evasion stat, not to mention no special effects attached to it. However, it has the highest max slots available of all the first-playthrough armors with 6 (compared to B Jacket 1's 4) and if a player collected enough tools and stat boosters, they could modify it as their tenured armor up until they get the actual best armor in the game in the BonusDungeon during NewGamePlus, the [[ArmorOfInvincibility Cr Armor 2]][[note]]Triple-digit defense power and PE defense stats, has the maximum 10 slots available, and HP Up already attached to it[[/note]].

** Lampshaded by Maeda's 'charms', which he hands over to Aya throughout the game. They each fill an item slot but serve no purpose. In the finale, Maeda tries to deliver the EleventhHourSuperpower to Aya, but Daniel holds him back initially, [[CryingWolf assuming it's just more voodoo junk]].

* GodzillaThreshold: When Eve and the giant mass of genetic material that is birthing the Ultimate Being infest the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. government authorizes the use of a nuclear warhead to destroy the monster.

* CoolGuns: Though [[AKA47 never referred to with a manufacturer's name]], all the basic model numbers are accurate to real-life firearms (the textures considerably less so, at least until [=PE2=]), and a keen eye turned to [=PE1=]'s roster can spot everything from the trusty Colt [=M1911A1=] to the (normally disposable) [=AT4=] rocket launcher to the [[RareGuns Desert Eagle.]] A large chunk of the better guns in the game are found in the Chrysler Building.

The story revolves around Aya Brea, a [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops New York City police officer]] whose mother and sister were killed in a car accident when she was a child. While Aya is attending an opera performed at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve in 1997, all hell breaks loose when both the actors and the audience burst into flames. The only survivors are Aya, her date (who runs away never to be seen again after the fire), and the lead actress, Melissa, who just so happens to be harboring a primordial horror inside her body known as Mitochondria Eve.

* GiantSpider: The final boss of Day 4. You'll engage it in a {{Rooftop|Confrontation}} Battle.

** Torres' Beretta [=M92F=]. It's acquired in Day 3 and is the only weapon that can reach the highest max slots available (which is 10), but it also has mid-tier stats. Modifying its stats with tools and boosters would take time, but doing so would also make it a great [[InfinityPlusOneSword ultimate gun]] (especially for players who don't have the time or/and patience to collect 300 junks).

* IllGirl: Melissa Pierce, the body Mitochondria Eve takes over.

In 1998, [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] released a video game called ''Parasite Eve'', a pseudo-sequel to the 1995 SciFiHorror [[Literature/ParasiteEve novel of the same name]] by Hideaki Sena. It was unique among [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]] available at the time because of its blend of RPG, ActionAdventure and the then- new SurvivalHorror genre.

The story revolves around Aya Brea, a New York City police officer whose mother and sister were killed in a car accident when she was a child. While Aya is attending an opera performed at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve in 1997, all hell breaks loose when both the actors and the audience burst into flames. The only survivors are Aya, her date (who runs away never to be seen again after the fire), and the lead actress, Melissa, who just so happens to be harboring a primordial horror inside her body known as Mitochondria Eve.

** The game also can't decide if Aya was the sole survivor of the opera on Christmas eve, or if her sort-of-boyfriend made it out too. The other cops were laughing that said boyfriend ScreamsLikeALittleGirl, so it's unlikely that they were lying about his survival. However, the press reporters maintain that Aya was the only one to make it out.

* EleventhHourSuperpower: The final boss fight [[spoiler: is largely a cutscene, as bullets laced with Aya's cells are brutal anathema to the FinalBoss.]]

* MagikarpPower: The N Suit found on the Museum in Day 5 has the same defense power as the B Jacket 1, the often recommended first-playthrough ultimate armor, but has significantly lower PE defense stat and comparatively lower critical evasion stat, not to mention no special effects attached to it. However, it has the highest max slots available of all the first-playthrough armors with 6 (compared to B Jacket 1's 4) and if a player collected enough tools and stat boosters, they could modify it as their tenured armor up until they get the actual best armor in the game in the BonusDungeon during NewGamePlus, the [[ArmorOfInvincibility Cr Armor 2]][[note]]Triple-digit defense power and PE defense stats, has max 10 slots, and HP Up already attached to it[[/note]].

* NukeEm: The government resorts to this to take out Eve and her baby. [[spoiler: It kind of works, but Aya has to finish her off twice and blow up the baby again.]] It is an oddly small nuke, only destroying [[spoiler: the Statue of Liberty.]]

* TwoGirlsToATeam: Aya and Cathy are the only female cops shown in the NYPD 17th Precinct.

* BigApplesauce: For a JRPG, this is a rather interesting setting.

* CanisMajor: The FinalBoss of Day 3 is a mutated K-9.

* DegradedBoss: A pair of the SewerGator that was the FinalBoss of Day 1 can be encountered in a specific spot in the second sewer stage in Day 5 as normal enemies.

* DoesNotLikeGuns: TOrres, because his daughter was accidentally shot in the past.

** The Giant Centipede will separate into four creatures if you damage its HP by half. It is the Boss of both the second sewer stage in Day 5 and the third level of the [[BonusDungeon Chrysler]] [[NewGamePlus Building]].

** The actual best guns in the game takes ''a lot'' of time to acquire (read:collecting 300 junks ''each'' for ''ten'' of them). The guns found on the higher levels of the [[BonusDungeon Chrysler Building]] on NewGamePlus have notably lower stats compared to them, but most of them have the same amount of max slots as them, and definitely have significantly better stats than the weapons found in the later stages of the normal playthrough.

* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: The entire NYPD besides Aya and Daniel, Maeda, and Daniel's son Ben are all introduced throughout Day 2.

* UltimateLifeForm: [[spoiler: The Ultimate Being, which is the final boss of the regular game]].

* NotSoDifferent: Eve repeatedly tries to convince Aya to side with her.

** A high powered submachinegun with a high Rate of Fire and Random Rate of Fire mods will allow Aya to do massive damage to a single target per turn. The Random Rate of Fire removes the damage penalty and with a 10x [=RoF=] mod, Aya shoots out 15 rounds per turn. Also because the submachinegun fires like how a machine gun would, Aya doesn't stand around long enough for this to be a problem. But getting such a setup requires going through most of the Chrysler Building and it'll make mincemeat of most bosses.

** Pistols. While it may be cool to have a submachinegun, rifle, or a ''grenade launcher'' as your primary weapon, the Pistol wins out because it has the quickest aim time (that is, when Aya lifts up her gun and fires). This is the only thing you cannot improve with guns. Pistols can become even more powerful when you mod them and/or beef up their stats once you got the items and points to do so, especially after several runs of NewGamePlus. Combine all that on top of their fast AT recharge and you got a weapon that can easily shred enemies with little effort.

** The Rate Of Fire mods in their entirety do more damage than a single shot (up to 130%), but they still have the downside that Aya stands there while shooting all of the shots. This makes larger Rate of Fire mods more and more useless, but the Rate of Fire 2x mod is seen as a decent compromise since the total damage is 120% and Aya doesn't stand around long enough to be a problem most of the time.
** The Random Rate of Fire mod, which increases the base Rate of Fire without the damage penalty, makes more sense if you're fighting a single enemy. And most boss fights are with a single enemy.

* PowerupLetdown:

** Random Rate of Fire increases the rate of fire by 1.5x without penalty, but as the name suggests, Aya can't choose her targets.

* BadPowers,GoodPeople: Aya is imbued with mitochondrial abilities similar to Eve's. But Aya is a heroic NYPD officer who uses her abilities to fight Eve and her monsters.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Guns with high rate of fire effect. While you can attack enemies multiple times in a single turn, the damage output is less compared to a gun that only fires one shot at a time. On top of this, guns with high rate of fire roots Aya to the ground until she finishes attacking, which can leave her open to enemy attacks. Likewise, rocket launchers look and sound awesome and they can cause splash damage to multiple targets, but they have their own ammo supply (which is extremely limited), have to be reloaded after every shot, and has the slowest AT charge compared to other weapons.

** Burst fire. You effectively do the same amount of damage spread across multiple bullets.
** Random fire as well, since Aya is stuck being unable to pick her target.

* TheBattleDidntCount: Several times. The last fight with Eve is the only one where you actually ''defeat'' her. In all the others she simply decides the battle is over.