If you try to fight from a distance you’re less likely to get hit with an enemy attack, but you also increase your chances of missing the target and doing far less damage, prolonging the fight. It creates a risk vs reward aspect to combat that’ll have you second guessing your choices often. ![]() Positioning on the battlefield is key in this game, the farther away from an enemy you are the less damage you do, and the closer you are the more damage you do. ![]() Parasite Eve builds tension in through a different means: by using a more evolved combat system than what’s typically seen in traditional survival horror games. The game encourages battle for gain, which is a big juxtaposition to how Resident Evil handled enemy encounters. ![]() Parasite Eve however really isn’t like that, as both ammunition and healing items can be acquired as a random drop at the end of a fight. In either case you’re using precious limited resources, and you need to weigh each dangerous encounter carefully lest you run yourself dry. The fear in those games comes from the fact that if you get into a scuffle with several zombies, you run the gambit of either using either ammo to protect yourself or healing items to restore your health if you take damage. The original Resident Evil and many subsequent imitators like to build tension through resource management. Basically the minds behind Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and later titles like Kingdom Hearts came together to create their own take on Resident Evil. If you’re familiar with Japanese RPGs in the slightest, then most of these names should sound familiar. It was directed by Takashi Tokita, produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, character designs by Tetsuya Nomura, and composed by Yoko Shimomura. Part of what sets Parasite Eve apart from many other survival horror games of its time is the creative minds around it, and how they approach game design. I honestly didn’t think the two could be balanced well, and it wasn’t until I played Parasite Eve for myself that I learned how wrong I was on that. Basically, empowerment is a big part of RPGs, while disempowerment is a big part of survival horror. While survival horror is about reduction and limiting the player’s resources, making you feel vulnerable and afraid in every combat engagement. Theorycrafting, character builds, and spending copious amounts of time in battle making your characters more powerful is a big part of an RPG’s appeal. To me the genre expectations for RPGs and traditional survival horror games are in too stark contrast, at least in what I respectively enjoy about them both. The idea of a survival horror RPG is an interesting concept, but I was always apprehensive to actually giving Parasite Eve a playthrough. In 1998, several of the creative minds behind Final Fantasy did just that with the release Parasite Eve. Both franchises had very different aspirations in the sort of emotions they wanted to elicit from their audience, but it was only a matter of time before someone tried to combine the two nonetheless. ![]() Resident Evil was the bleak horror game that taught a mass audience that videogames could be scary, while Final Fantasy VII was the role-playing epic that enticed the masses with its storytelling. Both were part of Sony’s marketing push to offer a more “mature” console in contrast to Nintendo’s family friendly hardware. In the 90s Resident Evil and Final Fantasy were pivotal in the original PlayStation’s rise as an industry leader.
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