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WARNING: The following review contains potentially disturbing images in spoilers.  If you are in any way squeamish when it comes to blood or graphic violence of any sort, please skip the spoilers in the "Graphics" part of the review.

Yeah yeah, I know... "Michi, didn't you say last time that you were getting ready to review the Maximo games? Where are those at?!" I hear you, but hear me out: I was listening to some songs from the Parasite Eve soundtrack today, and it made me remember that I absolutely have to review this game.  Why is that? Because as you may have noticed on the image above, this game was developed and published by Squaresoft.  You may know that name from the currently known SquareEnix, before the two companies merged.

Nowadays, Square Enix is known for being attached to some pretty unique titles.  Life is Strange, the Tomb Raider reboot series, The Quiet Man, Left Alive, and other such titles.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s before the merger though, they were mainly known for being attached to Final Fantasy and its sequels and some occasional other RPG titles, with the most unusual at the time being Super Mario RPG (mainly because it was such a random choice to turn into an RPG).

So when Parasite Eve was released back in 1998 in between Final Fantasy VIII and IX, people were interested, and players like myself when I got my hands on it in later years thought it was going to be an original RPG in the same veins of Vagrant Story or the like...something different, but still a pleasant mostly kid-friendly kind of experience that Squaresoft was known for.

Man...was I 1000% wrong.  Don't get me wrong, Parasite Eve is an absolutely phenomenal game, but it's also absolutely batshit insanity, and it's far from the family/kid-friendly stuff that Square Enix was known for.  There were graphic moments, gruesome deaths, people/animals gruesomely transforming into hideous monsters...and on top of all of that, it takes place in the real-world setting of New York City.  It was completely unheard from them to do such a pivot in a different direction, but by god was it a wonderful one.

Story
So for the first time, I'm not going to give a story descriptor, and am instead just going to get right into it.  Assuming you're someone that avoided the pre-title intro (since they were still known for spoiling what were then the only FMV scenes in the game), you honestly have no idea what you're in for.  The game opens on a typical busy New York night, as the "camera" pans in on a Christmas ornament celebrating the upcoming new year.  Then, you're introduced to this opening:

Right away, this opening absolutely sets the tone of the game, and it only spirals from there in the best way possible.  The story itself takes place over the course of 6 days, which you'll know when you end a chapter and start the next day.  Each day has a name, in order of: Resonance, Fusion, Selection, Conception, Evolution, and Liberation.  You'll see these in words pop up in the pre-title intro if you chose not to skip it as well.  It's also worth noting that the game puts a big emphasis on the Mitochondria.  The basic plot is around the idea of a mutant mitochondria strain being able to control its host, and all of the batshit insane things it can do/awaken to both them as well as other living beings.  That's putting it very mildly without going too deep into it, but it's a hell of unique story in a way.

Gameplay
The game itself is kind of a hybrid RPG and 3rd person shooter.  You have an Active Time Bar that you can only perform actions once it's filled.  Those actions include: using items, shooting your enemy if you have a gun equipped (and have enough bullets), or hitting them with a melee item (not recommended) if you have that equipped, or using a modern-"scientific" version of magic known as Parasite Energy (the game does at least explain how this is possible).  Your field itself to run around in varies depending on where you're at.  If you're in a small room, obviously it's incredibly limited, but you'll have a few outside areas and more open places as well.

If you've played any Final Fantasy from the PS1 days (7, 8, 9 specifically, not the ports of the older), or really any RPG of a similar vein (Legend of Dragoon specifically comes to mind), you'll have an idea of the overall field mechanic: you'll walk/run through areas with pre-rendered scenery and whatnot, and you'll randomly go into a battle with some monster.  Unlike traditional RPGs at the time that took you to a new screen, however, Parasite Eve did what some traditional RPGs didn't start doing until later years and kept it all on the same screen.  As I said, your field to run around when fighting was the field you were currently on.  You'd know an encounter was coming because there'd be a heartbeat sound and a quick second freeze and screen flash, the enemy would appear on the field and you would run to be on the opposite side, and the battle itself would start there.

World map type is mainly picking the available areas via selecting and clicking it, rather than free movement.

Outside of that, it's a typical get to the end of an area, pick up items in chests, fight enemies, fight bosses, build up your weapons, type of game in traditional RPG fashion.  That doesn't make it any less fun though, because even running through and experiencing the crazy horror fashion of this game in typical RPG form is a blast.

There's also a post-game run of the Chrystler Building (which you can get a foreshadowing of in one area when you can see it out the window of a building), and I recommend it purely for both the challenge and especially for the added story that you get from it.

Graphics
Okay, yeah, this game is dated.  It's a game from 1998 when CG cutscenes were still somewhat wonky looking when it came to quality/people, and when games were that weird blocky 3D style.  But here's 2 things:

1) When this game came out and this style was still a little new to people, it was absolutely terrifying to see some scenes.

2) Even today, some of those scenes are incredibly chilling/disturbing, such as the two below which I'll spoiler since they're mildly graphic even today:

Sheeva Transformation

Rat Transformation

The second especially is a jarring surprise, since it takes place shortly after above opening cutscene.  You eventually make your way backstage, hear a squeak, and are introduced to that lovely welcome to the game's creepy insanity.

Overall though, it's very typical Squaresoft graphics style from back in that day, but damn if they didn't do some stuff with it.

Music
Squaresoft at the time, and even now is normally known for having a pretty decent soundtrack to accompany those games.  They were also really known for having music magician Nobuo Uematsu as their go-to guy for their Final Fantasy games.  However, during that time Square also had another go-to person who would end up being most known for their work on the Kingdom Hearts series soundtracks: Yoko Shimomura, who ended up being their choice for this game as well.

Much like her work with Super Mario RPG, Yoko delivered a wonderful and fitting soundtrack for this game.  One of the only reasons I'd recommend trudging through the pre-title intro to the game despite it having spoilers is because the song for it, Primal Eyes, is such a great intro song before the title hits.

Likewise, as you may have noticed in the first video at the top of the review, there was an operatic touch as well that would get a battle version, as well as both the above and battle versions getting CM (or actual live vocal) versions.  It's still a phenomenal boss music for me to this day simply because I just love the idea of a simple operatic approach on occasion.

Primal Eyes (Opening song)

Se Il Mio Amore Sta Vincino (opera song, CM version

Influence of Deep (Eve boss music CM version)

Also, like many RPGs, it had a pretty awesome ending song.

Somnia Memorias (Ending theme)

Those and Primal Eyes are probably the most memorable of the bunch, but the rest of the soundtrack was still pretty solid.

Sounds/Voice
Sounds are fine, no gripes here, nothing that horribly stood out or was especially lovely.

Voices weren't a huge thing in this.  Aside from an occasional character grunt, scream, or the like, this was still during the time when PS1 RPG games kept much more to just text (with the occasional exceptions, which this wasn't).  Personally, I'm okay with that since PS1 was also the era of mucho terrible voice acting with very rare exceptions (so rare I can't think of a game), so it's nice that Square didn't put players through that.

Replayability
Like Chrono Cross (another great Square title from that era), beating the game unlocks New Game + which transfers your stats/items and unlocks new stuff.  As I stated earlier, there's a post-game area where you trudge through 77 floors of the Chrystler building, fighting enemies as well as bosses for every 10 floors along the way.  It sounds like a lot, but as I also said...it's completely worth it.  You get to fight arguably the game's most difficult boss, and also get some more snippets to the story, specifically centered around things you've learned in the game about the main character.

Overall
Overall, highly recommend at least once just so you can experience it.  While it's dated graphically because it's a PS1 game from 1998, it's still a beautiful title, and probably Square's first foray into the survival-horror genre that Resident Evil was just getting comfortable with.  But I can thankfully say that Parasite Eve is both very different than Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and very entertaining.

And that's all I have to say.  If you're not squeamish, play this game, it's a load of fun.

Also, I guess this means I'll have to finish Parasite Eve II finally and review it.  Is that a good thing or bad thing? We'll find out someday soon!

Spoiler: I won't be reviewing 3rd Birthday since that game is an absolute dumpster fire that I'll just say I don't recommend on several "yikes" levels.