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Newest Episode (02/21/2022): Episode VI: Out of Phase  "You HAVE the ability to EVOLVE! Why take the side of a DOOMED species?!" - ***** What is Parasite Eve? Parasite Eve is a JRPG released in 1998 in North America for the Sony PlayStation by Squaresoft back in the halcyon days where Square put out 8-10 wildly different and also incredibly similar games a year giving no fucks before they had this disastrous idea to put out a CGI movie and hosed up so bad they merged with Enix and put out Drakengard as their first merger title. Parasite Eve, much like Xenogears, was an early pitch for Final Fantasy VII that got flung out into its own thing. Hell, it came out a month and a half after Xenogears. And a year after Final Fantasy VII and a year before Final Fantasy VIII. It was a wild time. This is technically a licensed sequel to a Japanese novel of the same name written by Hideaki Sena in 1995. This is why when we got to the third title of the series, The 3rd Birthday, in 2010 on the PSP, of which you can see my previous misadventures with here in better days. And it was named "The 3rd Birthday" because Square-Enix no longer had the Parasite Eve license name. You don't need to worry about that one. In fact, there is only pain there. We're going back to the origin of this series. It's significantly better and significantly less horny incarnation. Umm... mostly. Tetsuya Nomura was the character and creature designer for this game and he is loving HORNY ON MAIN with his concept art! But we'll get to that later. Sorry for the delay in starting up again. I had health issues. Then family issues. Then two blizzards in a row. I started this LP going to my house in sub-zero weather the end of January. The high tomorrow is 2C! Heat wave! What is a mitochondria? The powerhouse of the cell. Which region has the best pizza? New York City, baby! I will fight you in single combat on this! Get that Chicago soup lasagna pizza in a dress poo poo the gently caress outta here! The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Feb 22, 2022 |
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 Day 1 - Resonance Episode I: Primal Eyes Episode II: Influence of the Deep Episode III: Arise Within You Episode IV: Sotto Voce Episode V: The Shape of Water Day 2 - Fusion Episode VI: Out of Phase The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Feb 22, 2022 |
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Episode I: Primal Eyes.jpg) Welcome to 1998. Perhaps the most stacked loving year of video games ever. Parasite Eve was released on March 29th of 1998. Xenogears just came out from the same company a month and a half earlier in early February. They also put out Bushido Blade 2 the week after that. And the very worst port of Final Fantasy V for the PSX the week after that. In the year following Parasite Eve's release Square would go on to put out Brave Fencer Musashi, Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Chocobo Racing, Final Fantasy VIII, and most importantly of all... Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring. You can hear it right now. That menu select tone in Ehrgeiz. You are tainted. The sin will never leave your soul. By the end of March of 1998 also released was Marvel vs. Capcom, Resident Evil 2, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Wario Land 2, Descent: Freespace, Tekken 3 and the landmark title Gex: Enter the Gecko. Also Starcraft came out two days later to close out March. Also Blasto. Everyone's favorite title! That's just March of 1998! Just loving March! Do you know what the rest of the year had? Unreal 1, Radiant Silvergun, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Banjo-Kazooie, Street Fighter Alpha 3, F-Zero X, Star Ocean 2, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Metal Gear Solid, Spyro the Dragon, Suikoden 2, MediEvil, NFL Blitz (remember when there were multiple NFL series?), Turok 2, Grim Fandango, Fallout 2, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Thief: The Dark Project, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Mario Party and Nintendo's hatred of friendships, StarCraft: Brood War (really that expansion came out the same year?), Baldur's Gate, Myth 2: Soulblighter and closing out the year on a bang... Akuji the Heartless! loving legendary year of video games, no doubt. But today, we're going to focus on one particular game. One which Square dubbed "The Cinematic RPG" — Parasite Eve.  NEW Music: Waiting for Something to Awaken (This is the only time this plays. Good mood setter.) .jpg) .jpg) As a departure from almost every JRPG of the time, Parasite Eve takes place in the real world of Manhattan, New York City, NY. And no more iconic a sight than Lady Liberty herself and the Twin Towers. At least... in 1997 when the game is set. Something a few years later might have spoiled that vista. I forget what. Well, that and in order to get the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center in the same shot, you'd have to have a view of the back of the statue's head and its armpit. It is in no way oriented in a way where this shot could exist. But, again it's a Cinematic RPG so we'll take some liberties. .jpg) We have other highlights such as the Manhattan Bridge. .jpg) David Xanatos' Eyrie Building where the Gargoyles were resurrected. .jpg) The Rockefeller Center ice rink where the possessed body of Aya Brea was used by her cloned sister to fight a time lord Twisted mutation federal agent mastermind Hyde Bohr in a time-compressed realm whe—OH CHRIST, NO! We cannot go back to the future of the series. Things are still good! We're good! .jpg) Anyway, welcome to our setting of Christmas Eve 1997. We're going to be having a hell of a lead into the coming 1998. It still won't be as bad as the last few years of the timeline when this LP is being written. .jpg) .jpg) Welcome to 881 7th Ave of Midtown Manhattan — Carnegie Hall. This game was very neat to me as, well, a high schooler when this was released being a New Yorker and living in the city a number of formative years of my childhood. I've been to Manhattan a bunch and have visited literally every major location in this game. Since, other than some generic bits, it's mostly real-life locations. I went to a concert for a work-related event at Carnegie Hall for a security job some 12 years ago. I made a joke that this should be an easy gig as long as nobody spontaneously combusts. I got an odd look from the coworker. Philistine! Music: ENDS .jpg) A limo pulls up to Carnegie Hall and a nicely dressed woman who has clearly been watching Friends and is going for a blonder Jennifer Aniston is helped out of the car by Formal Wear Ken Doll™. The woman looks around and looks dejected. .jpg) .jpg) Here is our protagonist — Aya Brea. Unfortunately, she is a cop. She's one of the least lovely cops in a video game but... still a cop. We'll just have to grit our teeth. Also, happy The 50th Birthday this year, Aya. .jpg) We are allowed to rename Aya Brea. We are not going to do that. Brea is pronounced Bray-uh. I always thought it was something like "Bree" back when I played it. But none of the JRPGs that were text only had the correct pronunciation when they started getting vocalized in modern-day. Teefa? Youfee? Teedus? That was Tiffa, Yahfee, Teydus. poo poo is whack. .jpg) .jpg)  Ehhh....png) I even had my dad get the best seats for us tonight! So lighten up! We're gonna have a great time! You'll see! Didn't you enjoy that limousine ride my dad got me? And this snazzy suit my dad bought me! My dad really made me go all out tonight! Ehhh... Sure. I wanted to go to the rock opera... as in the Rocky Horror Picture Show they were doing in Soho but... this is... fine... I guess... too... You'll love this too! It's even better! <rubs eyes> Sure... C'mon, we'd better go inside..jpg) In Square JRPG tradition we now get to play the game for all of 20 seconds to walk a corridor between cutscenes. There is a thing to be noted. Aya Brea in Parasite Eve has the single slowest walk cycle of any character in a game I have ever played. And her run is about the speed of an average walk in most video games. You may believe initially that this is due to her being in a fashionable formal dress and wearing a heavy coat. NO! It is absolutely not! Aya Brea's stride speeds are meander and mosey. Aya Brea is a person that takes two minutes to get off her couch, walk to the refrigerator to grab a drink, and walk back to the couch. The couch is ten meters away from the fridge. .jpg) Already…?! Why did you pick me up so late?! I was being fashionably late! <finger guns> <deep sigh> Mhm. <motions to door> Please… Ladies first. M'lady! <deep sigh> NEW Music: Overture (This is the only time it plays.) .jpg) .jpg) Sadly, we are not going to get legitimate theater for this New Year's Eve date. Doctor Zaius' Overture nor You Finally Made a Monkey Out of Me will be on display tonight. .jpg) The Prince dramatically bows before the King. .jpg) .png) You know well what will happen if you do! Those who succumb to her beauty ALL die in horrible ways!.png) <rises to his feet> You don't understand!Slinks up to Eva and poses behind her back. .jpg) SHE is the one that has suffered after the deaths. <dramatically motions with staff and points> SHE is EVIL! Guard! Grab HER! And… BURN her at the stake!.jpg) The guard steps forward but the Prince is having none of this. .jpg) If you are sentencing her to death…The prince kneels. .jpg) Then I ask you to take my life along with hers….jpg)  <helps the Prince to his feet> Edward... <begins singing>NEW Music: Se il mio Amore Sta Vincino (Also the only time it plays.) .jpg) .jpg) Lips worked differently in 1997. Breast physics have not improved. .jpg) .jpg) You ever just see someone out in a crowd of people that catches your eye and you're just like drat, girl... You are so fine... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) What if I just abandoned my humanity. It's a gambit, for sure. But you've got to respect the game. .jpg) Anyhow, the Price and King of the Se il mio Amore Sta Vincino opera just spontaneously combust. You came into this thinking it was going to be a bootleg Romeo and Juliet Drama of an opera but it takes a loving hard left turn in the third act. .jpg) It even has audience participation with the Prince doing a Stage Dive. Unfortunately, the show printings failed to acknowledge this in the brochure and there was a miscommunication with the front row crowd. .jpg) .jpg) It was also unfortunate the guard was meant to exit stage left after he was pushed away by the prince and completely flubbed his cues leading to technical difficulties. .jpg) Aya Brea having a much better time at the opera than she was anticipating. .jpg) In other news, early reviews are coming from the opening night at the Carnegie Hall production of Se il mio Amore Sta Vincino. .jpg) "A blazing success!" .jpg) "People are fleeing to the ticket booths in droves!" .jpg) "Lead Actress Melissa Pearce is setting the opera scene on fire." .jpg) .jpg) "People are falling out of their seats to see this performance!" .jpg) "Startling production!" .jpg) "A show to die for!" .jpg) "The audience was on the edge of their seats." .jpg) "It's burning up all records! Come see come see Se il mio Amore Sta Vincino, now playing at Carnegie Hall starting December 24th, 1997." Music: ENDS .jpg) Jesus!! I… don't wanna…! Oh my god…!! I… I… Go! Get outta here!! NOW!! B-b-but... My dad got us dinner at... DATE! OVER! lovely Date Night at the Opera has ended. But Parasite Eve has begun. Stay tuned.    Aya Brea Concept Art - Despite the leggy dress, in-game Aya Brea is very not sexualized at all. Early warning: Nobody told Tetsuya Nomura that and he is horny on main loving creepily in a lot of Aya's concept art.   Video: Parasite Eve Opening (Some spoilers but worth watching.)  Video: Episode 1 Highlight Reel (You should definitely watch this.) The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Feb 2, 2022 |
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Feb 1, 2022 01:48
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Episode II: Influence of the Deep NEW Music: Gloom and Doom (Very gloomy and doomy.) .jpg) We now rejoin Officer Brea who came to a Christmas Eve opera packing heat and ready to start blasting at a moment's notice. Thankfully, the heat of the spontaneous combusting audience members and stage staff has also died down in the interval since the last FMV. Just simmering human barbeque is left in its wake. And as for the dull flame of Aya's date? He got shoulder checked by her so hard he was literally ejected from the plot and is never seen again. I had some bad dates in my youth. But I can soundly say I was never body blowed into the Shadow Realm. .jpg) Our objective is to make it to the stage to see what the hell the deal is with the pyromancer opera lead. If you'd like a frame of reference for how unbearably slow Aya runs. In this second screenshot, the row of seats in the bottom left is the same as the ones immediately to Aya's upper left in the previous shot. And it literally takes 12 seconds for her to run that far. It would possibly take upwards of 40 seconds if she walked. The meandering rear end gait of this cop. I swear... .jpg) Anyhow, making our way to the stage the lead actress is now floating in mid-air. Her fellow actors have all apparently burnt away into ash. Both Christmas and Life Day are ruined forever. .jpg) <points at Aya> Hmph… You're the only one who seems to be fine… What? You should be awakening soon… Wha… What are you talking about?! The reviews of my opera are burning up the charts. You too shall submit your body to the sound of my sonic perfection! ...What? Listen… Your cells are trying to communicate… The tools are not yet there. They are in their infancy. But one day you fools will communicate the glories of this performance! The message boards and IRC of old will give into the six degrees! The friendsters, those linked in, those in my spaces, the book of face and the bird tweet! All will know the haunting aural glory of this day! ...... ...What...?.jpg) Music: Influence of the Deep (You should listen to this. It's some good boss music that only plays in the first section of the game. Also, if this soundtrack has a mild Kingdom Hearts sort of vibe to it, that's because it's the same composer.) .jpg) And we're thrown straight into combat and Aya Brea is ready to start blastin'. Combat in this is someone unique compared to the standard JRPG fare of the day. But not particularly complicated. Aya Brea is the only controllable character we'll ever get. There is no party in this. It's entirely just the singular character of Aya. .jpg) During combat we have full control over Aya's lackadaisical stroll across the battlefield and can maneuver her to avoid attacks from enemies. In this case, the villainous opera singer has learned how to just shoot a Kamehameha wave from the palm of her hand. Which is easily avoided by just keeping on the move. There is no dodge or combat roll ability. Aya just needs to saunter out of the path of danger. There is a range element where if Aya took a blast to the face she'd potentially take slightly more damage than if she was tagged at range. But it's still an unseen mathematical dice roll so don't worry about that too much. By the way, there are tutorials for this game... accessible only by the main menu and they're not particularly detailed. In-game? Nah. You're just in it. .jpg) In the top left corner, there is Aya's HP which... you know what Health Points are. This game doesn't have a very high HP ceiling. I believe it maxes out at 999 HP. During the course of a normal playthrough, it'll maybe hit the mid to upper 700 range. Above that is a slowly filling AT or Active Time bar. When that fills to maximum Aya can perform an action. When this occurs, time freezes and can perform an action such as attacking or using items in the menu. When attacking with Aya's gun a spherical grid erupts from Officer Brea. This is the range we have for our attacks. An enemy must be within the wireframe area depicted in order to be attacked. When attacking we are given the number of bullets Aya can plug into an enemy. There is ammo in this game. It will never really be a factor as a limitation. But it is of note that if Aya has to reload her gun from her bullets being depleted that is the end of her turn. And time unfreezes when you are reloading. So that's something to keep in mind tactically. As a final note, range is also a factor in that it's more likely to get a critical strike closer in. That said, many enemies have a melee attack that hits harder than any ranged ones. Also, all enemies work on Super Mario Bros. Goomba rules, and just bumping into them will make Aya suffer a small amount of damage. Do not bump into those enormous CGI tits! They will cause damage on contact! They are unnatural elements in this duel! .jpg) But this is baby's first encounter and the psychokinetic actress interrupts the fight as soon as Aya dumps on her the first time. She takes it like a champ! .jpg) <puts a hand on her chest and breathes heavily> What's happening…? My body…! It's…! It's getting hot!! It already was, my dear. We're going to take this to the next level! Wha...? That... That's a weird thing to say! Hahahaha!!.jpg) Just a straight-up Final Fantasy-esque magic spell casting aura encircles Aya. Our heroine is confused by this development as up until twenty seconds ago she was a cop that could cast gun. But now... .jpg) What… is this? What did you DO TO ME?!.jpg) You'll notice Aya's status bar now has a PE Meter. For "Parasite Energy." It is... it's just Mana/Magic Points/Spell Juice. PE regenerates automatically during battle but at much slower rate than the AT meter. Being an RPG, there are of course items that can refill our juice quicker. But we'll get to that later. .jpg) .jpg) But basically, Aya can now just cast Parasite Energy abilities. It's just magic with a fancy name. Her default spell is Heal 1 which will restore 30 HP at the cost of 60 PE. Supposedly. I'm just looking up numbers. PE is not given any useful numerical factor as to Aya's PE stats. It's just displayed as a bar and the game shows you how much of the bar will be depleted by the casting of the PE spell. I think she has 80 PE by default. There are no builds or anything in this game stat-wise. Everything is equipment-dependent and that's an entire update worthy hole to tumble into later. Aya Brea herself just levels up accordingly and gains HP and PE and new abilities on a linear path. It's not very complicated. But they again, Parasite Eve is the one-night stand of RPGs if you're determined. It's two discs mostly due to FMVs. The actual game is a 12-15 hour affair. Which I'll take after the 80 hours of Shadow Hearts 2. .jpg) Back to the fight... Aya just runs back and forth and dumps an entire magazine of handgun ammo into the flying magic actress. Music: ENDS .jpg) <aims her gun> …WHAT?! Communicating what? What do you want?! The more you use that power, the more you will become like… me… The powerhouse of the cell... I am within! I am what makes you... hot... Power…? What power?! Who ARE you…?! Are you coming onto me?! What are you even going on about?! Eve… Eve…? I'm surprised you don't know me, Aya… You should know me well… What…? It said Melissa on the brochure my crummy date gave me! Hahaha!.jpg) Loud heartbeat to the flashback dimension. .jpg) Why am I seeing... whatever the heck this is... from the ceiling? Am I seeing the view of Spider-Man?!.jpg) <holds head> "Aya you need to get out more." "What do you mean you spent last Christmas day drinking wine and watching reruns of Suddenly Susan and 7th Heaven?" This right here is why I don't go out on the holidays. This season sucks! Christ! Hahahaha! Cringe. What?! And with that, the floating actress quickly exits Stage Right. .jpg) At this point, our only action is to pursue the sorceress actress off the stage into the back of the production. Again, I cannot help but emphasize how loving slow Aya Brea runs. See where she is now? The loading screen to the next room transition is the curtain on the left. It takes her five seconds to reach it from this position. She's not much better in Parasite Eve 2 either, frankly. But she's at least at standard Survival Horror protagonist levels. She had to start soul-possessing time traveling being meat puppeted by her clone's soul before she got any pep in her step. Aya enters backstage and finds a giant hole blasted in the floor. .jpg) Police sirens and cars screeching to a halt are heard via the impressive acoustic of the concert hall. Sounds like my backup's arrived. <sigh> It's been ten minutes since the entire audience burst into flames in midtown Manhattan? The NYPD's response time really is that dire, huh? Gawd, the report I'm going to have to write after this....jpg) We are given the option to jump into that gaping hole that has to be at least a fifteen-foot drop while wearing stiletto high heels. A move which I would calculate as being ill-advised. You never go full James Sunderland with holes. It's a bad way to live your life. But, before we do that there is a crate and as an officer of the NYPD in the middle of a criminal incident, Aya sees it well within her rights to start looting. We gain Medicine 1. The most generic of healing items. Your bog-standard potion of the game. Items can be used freely outside of battle. You need a full AT gauge to use them within fights. Parasite Energy abilities of the restorative nature like Heal 1 can also be used outside of battle. However, Aya will start the next fight with the PE gauge depleted accordingly. It only replenishes during battles. But early on it regenerates fast enough it's fine to just top off Aya's health between fights to save some resources. .jpg) Speaking of resources... Inventory management is a factor in this game. Aya does have a limited inventory. It will expand as the game progresses and is tied to her current armor equipment. Aya came to this opera with a gun, a spare magazine, A baton. A spear energy drink and she's wearing a bulletproof vest beneath that dress. I have questions about your lifestyle up to this point, Officer Brea. .jpg) Weapon wise we are required to keep Club 1 in our inventory for the duration of the game. There is no point in the game we will ever be using the Club. It's the weakest weapon in the game and has almost no range. It's just a failsafe in case the player somehow 100% runs out of ammo and the game cannot be soft locked in that instance. It is the QA compliance weapon. Beyond that, all weapons have an Attack stat that does what it says on the box. An effective Range stat that will expand the wireframe cone of fire when Aya attacks. And a number of bullets the gun's magazine can hold. We can switch weapons and armor on the fly during the battle but it will cost an AT bar action the same as attacking or using PE abilities. There is a lot more to the weapon system of this game. Particularly, there is a clownshoes rear end crafting mechanic in which you can Frankenstein's monster together guns that should not be. But that's a whole other can of worms. .jpg) As mentioned, Aya also has a flak jacket underneath that dress. Somehow. Don't think about it so hard. There are various sets of armor in the game that dictate Aya Brea's defense, overall .jpg) Anyway, we could jump into that hole the magic actress Eve made. But, we can also do the sensible thing and go outside to see if our fellow cops arrived on the scene where literally several hundred people jump burned to death. .jpg) We just need to step over a few slabs of human bacon out the way we initially came. Aya actually has a bunch of dummied-out lines for investigating these corpses along the way that all boil down to "Man, that's hosed up! drat!" She just silently and slowly marches uncaring past the bodies of her fellow New Yorkers like your average NYPD officer instead. Aya exits Carnegie Hall with a gun in hand and a couple of officers take aim at her but hold their fire when they realize she is an attractive white woman. .jpg)  What?! Hold on! I'm going to take out my badge… Don't shoot.Aya Brea, seemingly having no joke crammed her NYPD badge down her cleavage like Meryl from Metal Gear Solid with several keycards and magazines of .50 caliber ammo, produces her badge and the officers relax while the medic wipes sweat from his brow. We're now free to talk to these fine folks. .jpg) .png) Who knows, huh?! Heh heh! Ya think we'll be on TV?! Hope this becomes a TV movie or somethin'…! Yeah... I just saw a few hundred people burn to death. There are two charred corpses ten feet away from us... Not appropriate, guy... Would they do a Law and Order episode of this, ya think?! ...... Lemme patch you up.The paramedic will give Aya a free heal. That's nice, I suppose. Unnecessary. But nice.  Don't ask me. That's something I wanna know. Everyone's gotten burned… a lot of them… probably won't make it… Has anyone made it? We're still looking into the casualties. One guy somehow got trapped in the Shadow Realm. Some kind of critical shoulder check. We're working on getting him out. <rubs neck> Yeah... that's unfortunate. Best of luck, officer....jpg) Yeah... we're both with NYPD and have the same service weapon. Weird....jpg) This portly cop just came packing ready to ventilate some motherfuckers and will just hand over ten magazines to Aya if talked to repeatedly or sixty bullets in all. This guy was ready to do The Raid: Redemption on Carnegie Hall.  Anyway... that is all the back-up we receive from our fellow NYPD officers. An armful of ammo and a good luck as the 120 lbs wet Aya Brea marches back into the supernatural crime zone in high heels and a cocktail dress as the rest of the cops stand outside and talk about the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or whatever the gently caress you did back in 1997. There are cut lines mentioning that there is actually some sort of AOE immolation if you enter the building that only Aya is seemingly immune to. But they're cut. So the cops just seem like they suck. And that's fine. They're cops. They suck. .jpg) Tune in next time as the only competent officer on the NYPD travels to the depths of Carnegie Hall to unravel the mystery of Psycho Mantis' Theater School Sister as Parasite Eve continues!  The Actress - You ever see a lady with cleavage so out of control she rejected humanity and started shooting ki beams? You're not trying hard enough if not.
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Feb 2, 2022 03:29
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Episode III: Arise Within You.jpg) We return to Officer Aya Brea on undoubtedly one of the world's worst blind dates on record. She is forgoing back-up to pursue the psychokinetic opera singer who fled backstage. By the way, fun fact: There are three auditoriums in Carnegie Hall. The Stern Auditorium is the largest of the three and is the one we were present in which seemed to be fully packed for this Christmas Eve opera performance. The seating capacity of Stern Auditorium is 2804 seats. With only one survivor and one man sent to the Shadow Realm as the only survivors. Since it's Christmas Eve, we'll just assume that was the only of the three spaces in use. Let's also assume an orchestra, all the actors for the opera, stagehands and janitorial staff and all got immolated. There is a pretty subdued NYPD response considering it's basically the death toll of 9/11 at the end of the day. Anyway, the only cop on the scene is going to jump down a fifteen-foot hall melted through the floor by a psychic opera singer kinetic blast. What's the worst that could go wrong? .jpg) We have a report from our staff on the scene that an NYPD Officer, Aya Brea, is currently being rushed to the Mount Sinai West hospital after sustaining a broken leg and a severe concussion sustained during the disaster at Carnegie Hall late December 24th. She is not available for comment at this time. We'll be covering this developing story as more information is available. .jpg) Seriously how did Aya jump down that hole onto a hard-rear end wooden floor in those heels and not shatter both of her ankles and eat poo poo on impact? .jpg) Beyond that questionable physics display, there is another small concerning matter at hand in the form of a small child seemingly dressed in a hospital patient gown creepily staring down Aya as she lands. One that looks an awful lot like a child Aya and the girl in that brief flashback at the conclusion of the psychic actress fight. .jpg)  Hehehe!.jpg) The little girl runs off and vanishes into thin air chuckling to herself. Aya just tilts her head and is kind of "Huh..." before moving on. I suppose when you see a few thousand people spontaneously combust and nearly got blasted by an energy beam by a flying opera singer... a ghost child is low on the unusual spectrum. .jpg) Aya can continue her investigation down the corridor. We have four doors on each side and one at the far end. The first three on this screen? All locked.  Advancing to the next screen mid-way down the hallway, Officer Brea is interrupted by a tiny squeak from behind her prompting her to immediately pull out her gun prepared to start blasting. .jpg) Ugh. A rat. The custodial staff is really letting this place go lately. Granted, the entire shift is now likely deep-fried. So, I suppose they're off the hook. The morning staff after the holiday weekend is going to have their work cut out for them. Let me tell you! .jpg) This rat seems to have gotten itself into something it ought not to have. Some degenerate stagehand smuggled in some Chicago-style pizza or something and left it out to the cruelty to mammals everywhere. Who is to say? The rat stands up on its hind legs, clutches its stomach, and transfers from squeaks to unnatural roars. .jpg) .jpg) And if we crank the zoom and enhance of a police procedural show dial up to 11 to enhance to the molecular level we can see a cell rapidly mutating and sticking tendrils into nearby cells, darkening their hue in the process as it makes screeching... cell noises. Now, I am no expert on biology. But I have played every Resident Evil game and watched a remarkable amount of edgy '80s and '90s bio-mutant oriented anime to have a fairly educated guess into this mutation cellular poo poo being, as say in scientific terms: "A loving bad scene!" NEW Music: Theme of Mitochondria (It's the theme of the powerhouse of the cell.) .jpg) .jpg) Our furry little friend here rapidly grows his teeth out to frankly unreasonable lengths. It's going to be so difficult to nibble on trash scraps. And if it gets into French fries or any sort of bread-oriented food it is going to be picking poo poo out between those chompers all day. Poor little guy .jpg) .jpg) But don't worry. Life, uhh... finds a way. Like, having the rat just grow its entire jaw out of its mouth. .jpg) And now since that has thrown off its balance, maybe just have its lower eyelid drop out for stability in the head region. Evolution is a remarkable thing. .jpg) And while we're at it... let's grow out that torso and get rid of some that hair and flesh. Maybe get rid of a few toes. We don't need it on the feet region. They're not even using it. We can replace that with more claws, y'know. Anything excess we'll just convert to bio-goop. By the way, I hope you enjoy bio-goop. There is an extremely goopy adventure we're going to embark on! .jpg) And to top it all off... what if we just improved that tail? Just one tip on it? Rubbish! Why not three tips? That's just an improvement! The numbers don't lie! .jpg) And here we have Rat 2! The sequel to rat! You may not like it, but this is what peak rodent performance looks like. .jpg) Here's our first common enemy of the game: Rat. What? Did you expect it to be called like a Burmecian or something because it's a JRPG? Aya Brea is a 25-year-old cop not playing D&D. She'd be asked to comment on what this thing is and go "I dunno, a really hosed up rat!" So it's just a Rat. Very few enemies in this game have fancy names, honestly. We're going to be seeing a lot of bio-mutant versions of common animals. But at least, for the most part, they're all horrific The Thing-esque twisted bioforms and not like a Resident Evil 0 where it is "we took a thing but it's big now!" .jpg) The Rat has a grand total of 12 HP and if the first shot from Aya doesn't kill it the second one certainly will. Or she can just run-up to its face possibly get a critical shot and do it in one bullet. That newly formed tri-tipped tail is capable of launching a trio of fireballs we must dodge. It can also bite Aya if she's close to it when its unseen AT meter fills. Enemies do work on the same pattern as Aya with having to fill an AT meter and they can still move while Aya is attacking. .jpg) We just shoot the thing. The biggest challenge of this first fight is that it's at an awkward cinematic angle. Most of the time the game is better about this and is somewhat overhead for general fights, especially bosses. But, got to be cinematic for the first grotesque enemy. Music: ENDS .jpg) .jpg) We get a tiny amount of experience points and discover that the rat's stomachache was not due to a supernatural bio-mutation. But it had eaten an entire pistol magazine. That's America, baby! .jpg) The holidays, am I right? Music: Gloom and Doom .jpg) Further down the hallway, past our rat encounter, the backstage staff was much less fastidious about locking their private rooms. So Aya is now free to snoop around in pursuit of the sorceress flesh crafter or whatever the hell is going on. .jpg) In the first back room on the left Aya comes upon a dressing room with the twisted charred corpses of a couple of unfortunate souls. Or dead hollows from Dark Souls 1. It is difficult to say. We don't have enough information on this setting at the moment. .jpg) Aya finds no interest in aiding these victims of this paranormal massacre and instead immediately starts rifling through lockers for valuables. She is a cop at the end of the day. .jpg) There is actually, absolutely nothing to steal in this room. But one of the charred bodies takes issue when Officer Brea starts raiding their locker. Aya opens the last locker to fruitlessly look for valuables and then attends to the burn victim. .jpg)  M… Melissa… she's a… monster… Don't try to talk now. Melissa...? Melissa...? You mean the main actress! Her performance was mid but, she wasn't that bad... She probably got to Suzanne… too. You'll have to stop… her… She is... dragging down... the whole production... as a sub... We should have... waited to recast... Ugh... No…! Please! Wake up! Hang in there…! …... BARF!.jpg) Well, nothing more to be done there. Let's try the room across the hall instead. Aya enters the room and immediately pulls on the first person she sees. .jpg) <lowers gun> Don't scare me! I'm with the NYPD… <wipes forehead. You're the one that scared ME, lady! I was just getting ready. Sorry. Things are bad. But... Wait, how do we get to a prince sacrificing himself for his love to a clown being involved...? <sighs> You don't understand the flow of high theater. ...Clearly... …You know, only STAFF are allowed in here… <motions outside> There was an incident here. You'll have to evacuate. WHAT?! You're KIDDING, right?! Did you not hear the hundreds of people screaming on fire the last twenty minutes? Or rat turning into some Cronenberg mess throwing fireballs that I opened fire in the hall a few minutes ago?! Ugh! Rats! Really?! Again?! Hey, I'm not dying here tonight! SEE YA…! Arghhhhhhh!!!!.jpg) The clown barges out of the room. Aya makes zero effort to stop him and just stares into the middle distance as he dashes past him. Roughly five seconds later we hear a scream of agony outside in the hall. .jpg) A responsible cop would rush out to help. But a responsible cop is a fairy tale, so Aya just loots lockers and steals some more ammunition. It's not like anyone here is going to need or claim it. .jpg) When we do return outside the screen turns desaturated and we hear a loud heartbeat. This is indicating we have entered a random battle. Though they are not really random battles in Parasite Eve. There are very defined set trigger points on the map that if Aya runs over them will throw her into a battle. The enemy spawns are a little randomized but I think it's actually based on the direction we hit the trigger point from. We'll never just suddenly hit a battle in all those side rooms we were in previously. NEW Music: Arise Within You (We're going to be hearing this one a whole lot.) .jpg) Here we just fight TWO Rats this time. And it's much easier to negotiate attacks being in a top-down perspective this time around. It's just two of the same enemy we fought before. It's nothing to it. In general, there are usually no more than 2-3 different enemies per hostile area. And we'll be recycling a bunch with palette swaps. As was the style of all time to this very day. .jpg) .jpg) We gain our first Level Up from this encounter. Aya gets a small boost to all her stats and a little more inventory capacity. Also, Bonus Points is a mechanic we'll tackle later. Music: Gloom and Doom .jpg) In any event, that clown is loving roasted. I'm uncertain why that one dressing room was immune to Melissa's pyromancy AOE but I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. .jpg) .jpg) The door at the end of the hallway is locked but the one directly to the left of it will open. It's a little bit of a mess in here. Look at the dire stacking of those baskets. I'd expect more from the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Also, the fried corpse slumped over the desk. .jpg) If Aya investigates the desk, the corpse will fall over and spook the poo poo out of her. Or she can just investigate the corpse beforehand and she just shoves that stiff to the floor with zero comments. .jpg) .jpg) In either case, Aya is compelled to pat down the fried cadaver and loot a key off its roasted pockets to the other sealed doors in the theater. As you do in the line of duty. .jpg) Aya can also rummage through the dressing wardrobe of the theater production to unleash a parrot that seems to be having a poor time but hasn't burst into flames or transformed into a horror. She also steals a bottle of Tylenol. Again, it's an emergency situation, and looting private property is well within the rights of law enforcement. I'm sure that's some unspoken rule. .jpg) To top things off we find a telephone of which Aya Brea decides she should probably call her superiors in the force. And also saves the game to the memory card. Hey, can I connect to the chief? Gosh, is he even in on Christmas Eve? He is...? Good, I'll hold... ...... ...Hey, Chief. So, I was on a date at Carnegie Hall and umm... Yeah, the date didn't go well... Guy was a tool... But more importantly, the entire audience and all the actors burst into flames. I think the lead actress is behind it as she was unaffected. Also when I confronted her she started shooting lasers blast at me from the palm of her hands. Anyway, I'm investigating the lower levels pursuing the suspect. Be warned, the sanitation down here is heinous and rats are mutating into the size of large dogs and throwing fireballs. ...... ...Yes balls of fire. From their tails. ...... ...That flapping sound? I accidentally let a parrot out of its cage backstage. I'm not good with birds so I don't know what to do with that. I don't think it's a priority. ...... Yeah, so just letting you know to maybe send some more back-up. There are only two beat guys and a paramedic out front. One of them handed me an excessive amount of spare ammunition and just started staring off. You should maybe look into that... ...... Anyway, I'll get back to you later. Bye! Rat Concept Art - Evolution is a messy process.  Video: Episode 3 Highlight Reel (You should watch this unless you're fond of rats.) The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Feb 5, 2022 |
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Feb 5, 2022 00:34
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Episode IV: Sotto Voice Music: Gloom and Doom .jpg) Now that we've looted a key off a corpse and phoned home to say we'd be staying out late tonight, Aya is now free to snoop around additional areas in the Carnegie Hall basement. The newly acquired Theater Key opens all doorways in this corridor EXCEPT for the one on the far end. And that's a problem. Well, let's get to rummaging about some more starting with the opposite dressing room from where we started. .jpg) In the next room, we find... yet another parrot. I really need to question where this play's narrative goes from forbidden lovers and a scornful king to requiring a clown and multiple parrots. You can actually occasionally find wild parrots chilling out in the wild in Manhattan and other boroughs. But those are usually green monk parrots or other varieties that don't give a poo poo about winter cold. These seem to be scarlet macaws that live in Central and South America and would not be too thrilled with late-December New York weather. But then again, I suppose it's fairly toasty in the theater tonight. .jpg) Music: Arise Within You .jpg) .jpg) Though the parakeet is a very adaptable bird. Particularly, this one spreads its Christmas cheer to Aya in the form of doubling in size, growing a snazzy feather Mohawk and a prehensile tail-leg hybrid. Whatever is transforming these animals is really big on augmenting tail functionality. This mutant parrot is dubbed "Parrot." Again, I'm assuming Aya is coming up with these names, and given her role in law enforcement, probably wasn't big on literature or creative writing tasks. So "Parrot" it is even in its twisted new form. The Parrot has 10 HP and its only attack is to do a circular swoop in Aya's direction for minimal damage. It'll stop and swoop in mid-air as a tell. .jpg) Officer Brea can pretty much instantly put the Parrot on the endangered species list with a single bullet. Music: Gloom and Doom .jpg) By the way, talking to that parrot and having it transform is completely optional. As is tearing open another closet in and confiscating additional ammo. Unlike most RPGs, just finding stashed boxes of ammo and pills of medicine all over the place is entirely reasonable for any average American building. .jpg) .jpg) Continuing our quest for pills, bullets, and keys, Aya can unlock a messy storeroom that looks like it could be straight out of Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil. .jpg) .jpg) Here we come upon a Defense +1 which will permanently add one point of defense to the currently equipped armor of Aya. We'll refrain from using that just yet because it's a trap to do so. .jpg) Instead, Aya's detective intuition kicks in and she decides to perform some property damage in her relentless pursuit of .jpg) Well, we're sort of in the middle of a major incident with massive casualties. But... we should probably write up an incident report about this The Cask of Amontillado poo poo going on in the basement of Carnegie Hall. .jpg) But that's not a priority right now. Hang in there, skeleton. Instead, we're going to tamper with this crime scene by looting a chest and stealing an armor upgrade for Aya. I told you using that +1 Defense on the previous armor was a trap. There's no reason not to upgrade to the N Protector as it is across the board better stats. And we'll go ahead and slap on that +1 Defense. One thing about this game is you are not hoarding items for a rainy day. Other than bullets being deposited into a collective bullet chest (which does have a cap as well) no items stack. Each Medicine 1 we pick up takes up an inventory slot and that curative is going to become completely obsolete in short order. So if Aya takes a bump in battle it's best to just chug down some meds. Key Items such as... well, the Theater Key also take up an inventory slot and have the added fun of not being able to be discarded. So you're just down an inventory slot for the duration of an area until that can be addressed. But that's for later. It is... one of the shittier parts of the game. I already hit the inventory cap for the first time in this very room. .jpg) .jpg) After we kick open that wall to reveal literally a skeleton in the closet, Aya can return to the main prop room and investigate a closet only to be ambushed by a mutant Rat. A brief battle that will almost certainly result in our heroine taking some damage as there is literally no room to avoid it. .jpg) That's fine... we've got Medicine 1 to spare... And we need to make room because... .jpg) ...It probably actually is responsible to confiscate a real loaded SIG Sauer P220 in the middle of a theater prop room. Aya's police skills would be collecting some rust if we left this lying around. So let's do our due diligence and use it to start shooting unruly wildlife and hammy actresses. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Beyond our crispy clown acquaintance, there is another large storeroom home to little of interest other than rats and parrots forming a deadly alliance. The species wars have begun and humanity is already faltering. I only venture into this room to take note of... hey, how the hell do you get into the basement area of Carnegie Hall? Aya came down from a hole blasted into the floor. There was no staircase behind her. The only remaining rooms are another dressing room and the final locked room at the end of the hall is labeled as a Rehearsal Room. This place was already a fire code nightmare even before the pyromancy began. .jpg) .jpg) There is one more dressing room we've yet to poke around in. There are still no villainous magic actresses to be found in this one either. And disappointingly, another empty closet. But there is a far more important bounty to be found on the dressing room table... gossip. NEW Music: Sotto Voice .jpg) <looks around the room> Hmm... This could be juicy...November 3/Mon/ The Christmas show is set. This has been my dream! The main actress has a solo concert at the theater in Central Park. I took all that medication to get here. I HAVE to get the lead part! I'll even sell my soul to the devil if I have to. November 17 /Mon/ The cast was announced and Suzanne and I are double cast. I want to play the part alone, but everyone knows she's good… November 21 /Fri/ I think I'm overdoing it. My body is getting hotter than ever for some reason. I'd better take more medicine. December 6 /Sat/ I collapsed today. I lost consciousness after my body got hot. I don't care if I die. I just want to get through this show. December 10 /Wed/ I passed out again… They told me to go to the doctor and get some rest. If this continues, Suzanne will definitely take my part. I need to get better. I'd better take a lot of medication tonight. December 11 /Th/ Suzanne was burned in an apartment fire. Is it because I wanted the part so bad? God, forgive me… December 17 /Wed/ It looks like I'll be the lead. I'd better take more medication and work it. December 23 /Tu/ Opening night. Everything went smoothly. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We should have the biggest crowd of the season. And… I have the solo concert the next day at the park. But I'm not feeling well. I'd better shape up if I want to get through this. I'd better take more medication. For what…? Why is she taking so much…?! She must have a drug problem… This is why I always avoided those theater kids back in high school....jpg) Another key…?.jpg) Thankfully, Aya's unprompted invasion of privacy paid off as we come upon the key to the final locked door in this theater basement purgatory. At this rate we're going to need to apprehend the psychic actress just to blast a hole in the wall to get the hell out of here. Music: Main Theme (Piano Solo) (You should probably listen to the main theme.) .jpg) Our suspect in this supernatural killing spree has chilled out a bit with the energy blasts and levitating to brush up on her piano training. She does apparently have a Christmas Day solo concert at the park to prepare for, after all. She really wants to melt the hearts of that audience tomorrow after burning up the stage today. Aya casually trots toward the woman and draws her stolen firearm from the prop department. The woman briefly stops playing and looks up at Aya. .jpg) ...... I am... I... am... "Eve"...! Aaah…! I'm… I'm… getting HOT!! Yeah, we'll you're about to cool it Christmas Eve!! It is... just Eve... I get the irony... of the holiday... <begins playing again> Nucleic domination has finally come to an end once and for all. What?! That's the strangest way to tell off a cop I've ever heard....jpg) .jpg) There's nothing worse than ruining an otherwise flawless performance by transcending your humanity and evolving into a nightmare creature. Music: Influence of the Deep .jpg) The paleness, the skin issues, the dry hair and scalp that are a chore to maintain... It's awful. It's like a second puberty. .jpg) And don't get me started on the part where you levitate so much your body swaps out your legs for a chitinous shrimp tail-like appendage. .jpg) Anyway, .jpg) All things considered, Aya takes this transformation in far more stride than the rat encounter. To be fair, that rat was pretty gross and nobody is fond of seeing stray rodents in public settings in general. .jpg)  Hahahahaha!!.jpg) <raises her arms> ...The day for the mitochondria to be free has finally arrived!! ...What?! The liberation of cellular slavery has begun! The nucleic bonds will be shattered!! Yeah... None of those words have cleared up what the hell....jpg) Eve is done with words and now wants to fight. She's essentially just a far more mobile version of the very first fight against Melissa on the stage. Only she has two laser beams instead of just one. And she tends to sweep the arena this time around. It's best to stay at the center of the screen to get the most space to negotiate blasts. Beyond that, she's also capable of using her new fabulous manicure and hands larger than her torso in order to swipe Aya. It's almost universally a good idea to stay back from enemies since our primary attack is casting "Gun!" .jpg) None of her attacks are particularly damaging and she goes down in around six to seven bullets or so. .jpg) ...Until your mitochondria is completely FREE… Mitochondria? What're you SAYING?! I don't understand YOU! Can't you hear them? The mitochondria? Communicating with you? Their song haunting all of your thoughts! No! What the HELL is a mitochondria?! ...... Is that a new street drug...? ...Are you serious right now?! I... I can't right now with this...!!.jpg) NEW Music: Memories .jpg) Where is this? Is that…? Is that the little girl I saw…? No, it's… Seriously... How am I seeing this from this angle? Is this on security cam footage?A doctor walks up to the bedridden little girl. .jpg) .jpg) Music: ENDS .jpg) How do you even spell that? I don't even... wait... where'd she go?! Crap!.jpg) At least our adversary is consistent in politely leaving via blasting a hole into the floor when Aya Brea has a JRPG flashback freak-out episode. I like to imagine she continued to rant, saw Aya was spacing out, waved her giant hand in front of her a few times to see Aya's completely checked out, and Eve just shrugged and left. Tune in next time for a goddamn sewer level! What do you think is going to be located beneath the basement of a building in Manhattan?  Parrot Concept Art - Why have two legs and a tail when you can combine all three for efficiency?  Eve Concept Art - The classy alternative to Jenova from Final Fantasy VII.  Video: Eve's Transformation (You should watch this.)
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Feb 7, 2022 21:55
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Episode V: The Surface of Water.jpg) Since there is literally no way forward in this basement-level theater purgatory other than the newest hole Eve has blasted through the floor, our only option is to just jump. Do you know the goof about the hazard of Aya jumping down an entire level of a building in high heels earlier? Yeah, I take that back as an overreaction. That was within bounds of reason after this drop... NEW Music: The Surface of Water b.jpg) Holy poo poo! That is a fifty-foot drop just from the ceiling straight into raw sewage. At least fifty feet. Who is to say the height of the foundation of the building above to this grand hall of a sewer. Aya Brea has some knees of steel. Anyway, we should probably go after that mutant woman. She seems problematic. .jpg) Aya is immediately ambushed by a trio of rats. There is nothing noteworthy about this other than... .jpg) .jpg) Aya has reached Level 4 which unlocks the Scan Parasite Energy power. We'll show this off in just a moment. As we shortly come upon... .jpg) ...A new enemy type appears! It's a giant frog that has decided it only needs its back legs. You know, for the jumping thing. Frogs are like beer. They've got to have hops. Also if you'd like its official title, it is, in fact, "Frog." These have 34 HP so they're quite a bit hardier than the Rat or Parrot. .jpg) The Frog just sort of mindlessly hops around at random. Eventually, it'll turn its attention toward Aya and try to lick her with its tongue. It just darts straight out so if Aya is mobile when it turns to her, it is very easy to evade. It's a frog, mutated as it may be. It needed to check off those boxes for jumping and licking. It has fulfilled its duty. .jpg) As a final note, we did just get our new Scan ability. This is utterly useless. Aya will shove her chest into the air causing laser boxes to focus on one enemy. A status box will appear at the top of the screen displaying the enemy's HP and their elemental weakness. Frogs don't like the cold. Checks out. We are never going to use this again. Especially since the one type of enemy, you MIGHT blow a turn on to use Scan just to get a ballpark on their remaining health would probably be the bosses. Scan does not display boss HP. Just their elemental weakness. Good stuff! .jpg) .jpg) As an aside, we leveled up again from that fight. About one minute has elapsed since the conclusion of the three Rat fight and this Frog + Rats clash. I didn't skip over anything. Leveling up in this game is just wonky. .jpg) Advancing further there are two staircases we'll investigate in a moment. More importantly, someone carelessly left a chest in this sewer, perhaps one of those graffiti tagging hoodlums, and left behind... .jpg) A Colt M1911A1. If Big Boss were here he would be nutting himself right now at this bounty of the deep. The M1991A1 is top to bottom better than the P220 Aya stole from the prop room just... all of ten minutes ago. And since apparently the NYPD circa 1997 had weapons and equipment procure on-site standards of practice... there's no reason to immediately equip this bad boy. It's a classic. .jpg) .jpg) The top level of the sewer here is just a circular catwalk for seemingly aesthetic sake. It draws the eye well and heightens the ambiance of the sewer chandelier's light glistening off the raw sewage water. All that's up here is an ambush by a pair of rats. And you can barely make it out but if you'll draw your attention to Aya's status bar, this camera angle reveals a hidden treasure chest blow. There's also another one to right slightly off-screen in a similar placement. .jpg) Killing this Rat trio will yield a new item - Revive. This is an extremely rare item in that you get two here. There are two more about two-thirds of the way through the game. And otherwise, they're only in post-game stuff. Revive does what it says. Should Aya fall in battle and one of these are in her inventory she will automatically resurrect. Are we sure this isn't an Umbrella Inc. lab front...? But the thing is... that's sacrificing an inventory slot in an already incredibly tight inventory situation. So unless you're pretty sure you're in for a bad time... maybe not too handy. Anyway, let's return downstairs and wade through the middle of the sewer. Where we find... .jpg) <sniffle> You really shouldn't be down here, kid. I mean, *I* really shouldn't be down here...The child runs off. .jpg) I am *not* running and splashing all over any more than necessary already to chase you. <vanishes and opens a gate>.jpg) Let's forget the ghost girl for now. There's looting to be done. Or, at least, there would be if Aya wasn't full up on inventory. Again. Did nobody playtest this game and think this might go really old, really fast? Especially in a game where enemies have random item drops? No. Well, there is a small remedy available. It's not a very good one. If Aya's inventory is full then she does have the option of swapping out an item to the chest which she could, in theory, retrieve later. The problem is you don't get see what the item is until you do the swap. So you get to a situation like this in which I swapped a Medicine 1 to get a... Medicine 1. The box to the northwest corner? Also a Medicine 1. Also, many chests have randomized loot tables. For some reason... There's a bit of Koudelka crossover in mashing the systems of a 40 hour RPG into the trappings of a ten-hour survival horror game and not making sufficient compromises. .jpg) .jpg) What is useful is this chest with our first Offense +1. Which does the same thing as Defense + items just for weapons. And as before, we cannot horde these. Just slam it immediately into whatever is equipped for a small boost in offense. .jpg) Following the ghost child, we reach a gate and save point. This is a very brief sewer level. Which have no complaints with! Part of my soul is still haunting the labyrinth of the Kislev sewers... Hey, it's Officer Brea again checking in... umm... I am pursuing the suspect. She fled into the sewers. Oh, how did she manage to get down there? Well... you see... she... grew about twelve feet tall and got... look, I'll have to file a report later... I get back to you.Aya opens the gate enters. .jpg) What...? Stop right there! You have got to speak up! I said... STOP RIGHT THERE!! I still cannot hear-- Or for fu--WAIT A MINUTE!! I AM COMING OVER!!Aya sloshes through more sewage to get closer to Eve to try this again. You really do need to run all the way over there to gain Eve's attention. .jpg) Much better... The flowing water interferes with the acoustics of this hall. It is most unpleasant. …My body… My body's getting… hot AGAIN!!! Hahaha… Aya's ready to take me on just by herself. ...Wait, I never told you my name. I told you... our bodies are communicating with each other. I wonder, will you tell your allies how you read my former self's diary and killed a clown. Dreadful behavior... Gah... OK... reading the diary was weird of me. But the clown wasn't on me! He ran off on his own! The man you kicked open a door and pulled a gun on a man shouting an incident was occurring. You keep telling yourself that, Aya. <points at Aya> Well, even if you did have more people with you, they'd just BURN, right?! Everyone else… but YOU… YOU are… TELL ME, Eve…! Why…? Why me? Why am I the only one…? <puts hand to chest> You'll find out. Eventually… Even if you don't understand… don't worry, your mitochondria will …They've always known… I'm going to give you some time… some time to think and some time to evolve… One might even say... Level Up... <raises arms> And the day shall arrive when YOU will …AWAKEN….jpg) .jpg) Not if I shoot you first!! Yes... That worked so well the last fifteen times... Wait... where are you going? Stop!!.jpg) Tell me, Aya. Have you seen the hit 1991 cinematic blockbuster by James Cameron, Terminator 2: Judgment Day starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Robert Patrick? Wha?! What does THAT have to do with anything? Don't worry. Your body has already told me the answer... This will save us some time. My, you do have terrible luck with blind dates... Are you mind reading crappy dates I had when I was like 19?! The hell?! Maybe you shouldn't have read my diary. Anyway, I'll be going....jpg) Remember when I said this was a bio-goop heavy game? Yeah so... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Eve can just reconstitute herself into bio-goop and reform at will. That seems problematic going forward. .jpg) Eve is just going to float off down a few random sewer canals until she figures out how to get the hell out of here. Aya, unfortunately, cannot turn into bio goop. The best she'll ever get is Quantum Leaping into people's bodies and using them as disposable meat puppets. And that's not something we'll worry about in this adventure. .jpg) We have bigger problems on this side of the gate. Rats, Frogs, and Parrots are one thing... .jpg) .jpg) NEW Music: Plosive Attack (It's the boss battle theme. Go listen to it!) .jpg) It turns out the urban legends of New York City sewers being a host to alligators is true and one just happened to be parked right outside a crazy-rear end biological-curse incident. Eve's influence has transmogrified the alligator to become some sort of bipedal man-gator. And that would be a problem in and of itself. But... .jpg) What if it was an electric man-gator? .jpg) .jpg) Meet the Alligator. The game informs us this enemy has two targets and it does indeed. The body and the tail are separate entities to attack. Going after the body right now is completely a waste of time as it is invulnerable until the tail is sufficiently full of bullets. The Alligator Tail has 80 HP we need to whittle down. .jpg) .jpg) Speaking of tails, that is its primary form of attack with a very damaging tail whip up close and a secondary ranged tail whip that shoots a volley of five Street Fighter's Guile-esque Sonic Booms in a roughly sixty-degree arc in Aya's direction. The arc of the Sonic Booms depends on which side of the beast Aya is closest to and will start from that direction and sweep away in an arc away from that direction. Basically, we want to keep moving toward the side we're currently on just to avoid being dead center in front of the thing. .jpg) After the tail is done in, Alligator will roar and the camera will shift indicating Phase 2 where the body is now vulnerable. The body of the Alligator has 120 HP and a new move set. .jpg) Since its tail is out of commission it can now shoot fireballs out of its mouth. It will shoot a trio of blasts towards Aya's position at about twenty degrees of range. As long as she is not up in its grill, it's very easy to avoid by staying mobile. Also of note... yeah it doesn't actually have any electrical attacks despite the FMV. Aww... Square... one day you'll have the CGI team and the gameplay team trade notes to maintain consistency. It's 2022 and that day still hasn't arrived, but I hold to hope... .jpg) The Man-Gator has also gotten used to its newly upright orientation and can dash towards Aya to take a series of swipes or attempt to bite her. Aya needs to be going in the opposite direction immediately to avoid this as it only attacks where she's standing when it begins dashing. .jpg) In any event, Aya shoots the Alligator a bunch and it dies. What more do you want. Our only offensive ability is to cast Gun. .jpg) .jpg) Doing so will level Officer Brea up yet again and unlock the Slow Parasite Energy ability. We'll have to take a look at that another day as we're done with combat for a decent clip of time. But I hazard a guess you can figure out what it does... To be honest, Aya's abilities, barring the last one, are about as bog-standard JRPG as you can get for the most part. .jpg) Finally, Aya crafted the carcass of the Alligator into a Kevlar Vest. She's multi-talented. Rare for a cop! Music: ENDS .jpg) <looks around> When "I" will awaken…? Just tell me what you want, EVE!! What the HELL is a mitochondria?!Sometime later after Aya manages to climb a fifty-foot hole in a sewer ceiling and another fifteen-foot hole out of the basement. .jpg) If you're just tuning in folks, this breaking news is going to burn up your ears!The reporter notices the unharmed woman holding a gun and reeking of poo gas. .jpg) Miss! You are the sole survivor of this horrible ordeal, CORRECT?! <looks down> …I… ...Just walked out here. I dunno... Until now, this combustion theory has been acknowledged only by occult enthusiasts… Tell us miss, have there been signs of witchcraft, sorcery, or dark god interference this evening? Please… just… leave me alone… I need like... eight showers before I can talk to anyone...A man with a powerful Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon energy quietly walks onto the scene. .jpg)  <coughs into hand> I would like to represent the citizens of the city and interview you exclusively… .jpg) Oh, poo poo! Were we supposed to be rolling?! I said this was rehearsal. We don't go live until the top of the hour. Dammit, Jim! My name is Steve, jackass! This is why you're usually the daytime sub anchor. You're the only one here on Christmas Eve. <motions behind him> Scram, buddy! Daniel... I don't need you on another three weeks paid leave again right now. <shrugs> Sorry I'm late, Aya.A short while following a police assault on a reporter later... .jpg) Yes… Oh, but my date… Heard from a cop that your boyfriend ran outta there like a wuss! Haha! Guy had a broken shoulder and was screamin' he just got flung out of the Shadow Realm. Haha... Oh? So he... made it? Aww naw. Burst into flames about five seconds after that. ...... Er… sorry your date didn't go well, ahem… It's not like that! I had him escort me 'cuz he kept pestering me for a date. Yeah, but of all places… the OPERA?! There's a story! Ha! I didn't want to do a movie. I already had a bad date to see Titanic last week. Three hours in a theater with a guy that chewed popcorn with his mouth open and a crying baby two rows back. Ugh. Plus what else am I going to see go see? Tomorrow Never Dies? Alien: Resurrection? Flubber? I heard Scream 2 is alright. Not really my scene. Especially, after tonight. So why the opera, huh? Is that the "in" thing right now? Saw the ad in the paper. I dunno… just caught my eye… Don't tell me you were on to this case?! Haha… so you finally got some cop instinct in ya, huh?Aya stares out the window. .jpg) Daniel… shouldn't you be with your son? It's Christmas Eve… He knows his dad's a cop… My boy understands… I got him one of those PlayStation game gizmos. Comes packed with something called Crash Bandicoot 2 or something like that. What the hell is a bandicoot? Hell if I know. Some kinda mystical creature. I don't get those game system things but he'll be happy. ANYWAY… to change the subject… I heard things from people who were there… but this is ONE HELL of an incident, huh?! ...What the hell is a mitochondria...?.jpg) Eh? Aya? You casting some incantation over there? Speak up. Symbiosis…? When was I in the hospital…?Aya's head lulls to the side and she goes quiet. .jpg) Oh well… Don't blame ya… after what you've been through tonight… <glances over> ...... Oh, are you doing that thing where you sleep with your eyes wide open? That freaks me the *gently caress* out. drat...NEW Music: Memories of 'Aya and Eve' .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) And that concludes the first "Day" of Parasite Eve. The game is broken into six days. Though it fails to mention this convention until we reach Day 2. Watching the intro cinematic we can learn Day 1 was titled "Resonance" apparently. So strap in for a weird week as we next continue to Christmas Day on Day 2: Fusion.  Frog Concept Art - Not everyone got the greatest bio-curse evolutionary glow-up out of this deal. Still doing better than the Rat.  Alligator Concept Art - Doing better than the frogs...  Video: Episode 5 Highlight Reel (Big goopy lady and low poly city.)
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Feb 15, 2022 02:11
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Episode VI: Out of Phase.jpg) Merry Christmas! Welcome to Day 2 of Parasite Eve - Fusion. It's going to be a busy holiday week in Manhattan. So let's get started... .jpg)  Wish I could, but I'm the only one who knows what happened last night. Plus, I'm single and I don't have any family. The usual Christmas is a bottle of wine and a carton of ice cream and Santa didn't drop those off last night. I've been gathering some info on Melissa. She's got no relatives… And no close friends. And definitely no co-workers anymore... That's a little dark. She was sick often-always on some kind of medication. The people at the opera said they were amazed she could even stand on stage. Her apartment burned down right after the incident, so we have no info on her medication. Yeah, I read a journal of hers and she was really pounding some kind of drugs. ...You read her journal? Why...? I... mean, it was open. And then... and I was... pursuing a lead... *cough* (Nix, The Bald Detective): So what's this spontaneous combustion stuff all about? It wasn't exactly spontaneous. People were actually set on fire..jpg) That's the best way to describe it for now. ESP, huh? Well, I'm not buyin' it. Dude, she shot laser beams out of her palms at me. Are we talkin' like a Kamehameha or a Hadoken here? ...What? Tch. Like a concentrated beam or an actual ball of fire?! I said beam! I'm tryin' to get a hold of the situation here and power level. <shakes head> ...This f-n' guy... But if you're right, how are WE supposed to deal with something like that? I can't parry a ki wave. I know, right? I believe her. After all, Aya's the only witness so far. But if you're gonna take on a suspect like that, you'd better ask Baker for a better sidearm.Aya enters the Chief's office. .jpg)  Back when I started on the force the worst we had to deal with ghosts and outsourcing the busting of them. And a very similar situation a couple of years later... That was a strange stretch. We're going to go all out to solve this case. Make sure you're well equipped. Go down to the weapons department and give this permit to Torres. He'll help you out..jpg) This tracks. What's the cops' response to an unclear threat? Naturally, it is you need more guns. NEW Music: Out of Phase (Very chill.) .jpg) Welcome to the N.Y.P.D. Precinct #17 is pretty much the closest thing this game has to a neutral RPG town-type area with friendly NPCs chilling out. Nobody in this room has anything new to say, they just repeat their last lines of that previous conversation. .jpg) Aya can go to her desk to save her progress by... calling the same building she is in...? Don't think about it too hard. A nice little detail is if you squint, there is a police sketch of Melissa Pearce, the opera actress that transformed into Eve. Hey, chief. It's Aya... on my way to get that weapon upgrade. <pokes head out of office> Detective Brea, are you calling me from the next room? Umm...? Maybe... <shakes head and slams door>.jpg) We're now free to explore the Precinct. We've been in the chatty zone with NPCs up until now and haven't had time to mention Aya Brea's attire change.  She is now wearing the most normal rear end human JRPG protagonist outfit of all time. It's a plain white t-shirt, a leather jacket, and mom jeans. And this is what she'll be wearing for the remainder 95% of the game. She takes off the jacket for serious time at the end game. And that does not track for the rest of the series, I'll tell you what. ... ...I'll tell you what. .jpg) .png) You didn't hit your head last night, did you? It's right downstairs!Fun note: I think other than Aya, Melissa/Eve, and the ghost child... this the only female NPC in the game. This title has a very small cast. In fact, after this update, we will have met all but two significant characters in the entire plot. .jpg) .jpg) Let's not dally any further. I know we skipped some doors but let's just head straight to the weapons department. It is the door closest to the camera downstairs. Music: ENDS .jpg) Hey there, HR Department complaint. Hah! Sorry, darlin'. You can't file another complaint if I already got one pending. <finger guns> ...I don't think that's true... Cut the crap, Wayne. Where's Torres? That baldy? Who knows. So what'll it be… Shotgun? Rocket launcher? Flamethrower? Hypervelocity railgun? Sub-machingun that fires rockets? Gunblade?  WAYNE! <stands at attention> Y, yes, sir!An older cop enters the room and approaches the desk. .jpg) I think that's gun lobbyists influencing congress and a deeper systemic pro— Don't try to reflect my ire with political talk! Whatever, man... Get your rear end back to weapons storage! You're far from ready to be handling guns in here! OK, OK… Sheesh…Torres and Wayne switch places behind the counter. .jpg) For last night's case? Heard it was quite a mess. But as long as cops rely on guns, criminals will too. It's a vicious cycle. I hate to hand a weapon to a young cop like you… But I hear this isn't your ordinary crook. Guess I can't send you off empty-handed. Guy, I know you're all about the gun control thing. I get it. There is a time and place for that... I just fought some kind of monster sorceress and a rat the size of a dog that could shoot fireballs. Can I just get my gun, man? I've had a long 24 hours. Say, you can't carry any more equipment. Wayne! Take some of her things and put them in storage. Yeh, yeh… You have something to say, officer!? N, no, SIR!Wayne runs up to Aya. .jpg) .jpg) We can now dump all our excess equipment with Wayne here. We cannot remove equipped equipment, which is highlighted in blue, and we must keep one melee weapon Club with us at all times just as a failsafe for soft locking if SOMEHOW the play managed to spend all their bullets. Please note that Aya does NOT discard Key Items she finds in areas. So those two keys we found in Carnegie Hall are still just filling space in her pockets. C'mon, Parasite Eve. loving the very first Resident Evil figured this out. Wayne runs off with Aya's excess crap. .jpg) .jpg) Police detectives, are well known for being armed with full-on automatic rifles. Sure, why not? Please take notice that in Parasite Eve bullets are just bullets. Calibers do not exist. The same bullets that can be stuck into a handgun can be shoved into a rifle. They all come from the same pool. We could use that Mod Permit we received from Baker to add a "Slot" to weapons that can fit them with special effects. We'll get into all that later. It is... a lot... So we'll hang onto the permit for now. .jpg) You can rearrange equipment parameters and added effects to tweak your equipment. I can show ya some cool tune-up techniques! Ya got it? Trust me, you can never have too much firepower. ...Is this legal? 'Course! I'm a cop! I don't think that's how that works either, Wayne. Of course, can't use 'em without bullets, so you better make sure you always have your club. Just in case, ya know? Now, why don't ya leave the stuff you don't need with me?.jpg) .jpg) OK, so certain weapons/armor have certain special effects and we can trash the equipment to harvest their effects and slap them on other equipment. This will eventually lead to the sundering of the gameplay balance as you can perform some stupid broken poo poo with this system. But again, that is for another day. We are strictly in the exposition zone for now. .jpg) .jpg) We get our first Tool in the chest to Wayne and we can return to him to leave additional items in storage. We'll just keep that in mind for now. Music: Out of Phase .jpg) Let's take the time to check out the rest of the station before we advance forward. .jpg) We've got a dog kennel. This cop just likes to chill and ride out his shift checking out dogs. He's got a nice poster of them and everything. That's cool. One less cop on the street. .jpg) The end of the hallway is where they keep additional guns in the NYPD's vast arsenal. I do not think this ever opens. I'm not sure why that door even exists. .jpg) .jpg) Rolling back upstairs, right by where we started we can find a locker room. And Detective Brea does not limit her casual theft of medication to ongoing crime scenes but also co-workers' personal lockers. We find our first Medicine 2 since Medicine 1 is the old trash already. .jpg) She can also steal someone's CM Vest. Which is demonstrably worse in every way to the KV Vest 1 we got from the Alligator save more PE Energy. EXCEPT, it has the first special effect stat. That AUTO icon means Aya will automatically use the weakest healing Medicine in her inventory if her health gets low. That's incredibly useless and downright a detriment because it triggers at a fairly generous level of low health plus... we can heal with a regenerating pool of psychic magic sauce. .jpg) Though, maybe Aya isn't the only one just raiding this locker room. Speculate at your leisure what this cop is creepily coveting hunched over in a locker. .jpg) Of course. I wore one to the opera last night. That is... a little extreme, but I guess it worked out. I just grabbed another one out of a locker. Just in case... y'know? <looks back> Ehh...? Wait, did you take that out of MY locker?! <shrug> See ya..jpg) Anyway, with our Vietnam-era US service rifle in hand to fight crime, we now find a young boy wandering the northern end of the hallway. We'd best investigate him before one of these other beat cops start blasting because they feared for their lives at the menacing five-foot tall 10-year-old in the distance which they claim had a shadow over his hand that looked just like a gun. I'm not going to stop making GBS threads on cops. Get used to it. .jpg)  ...Ahh Ben!? <looks down the hallway> Daddy!Daniel walks over. .jpg) Ben, this is Aya. Sup? Now, what are you doing here? <pulls something out of his pocket> Here... <scratches the back of his head> Tickets? Oh... yeah. The concert... Sorry son, daddy's real busy today. I promise I'll make up for... Don't you want to check out that Crash Bandicoot stuff on the PlayStation? He looks pretty rad, eh? <throws the tickets on the ground> ...FINE!Ben Dollis runs off. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) That's not true! I was raised by my father too after my mother died. I'll always be grateful for him. He was... OK. He got me an NES one Christmas. It had Super Mario Bros. 3 packed in. That was pretty neat! Yeah, well, HIS mother's still alive… Oh…Daniel walks off. .jpg) ...Awkward....jpg) Up the stairs from where Daniel and Ben had their uncomfortable family moment leads to a lock-up. There is nothing of note there. We're just getting the lay of the land. We may need it in the future. .jpg) The door behind the same spot of family conflict is a conference room. I'm having terrible flashbacks to junior high classrooms with those lovely half-desk tables attached to them. Whoever invented those is a dick. .jpg) This was before you were assigned here. He kept saying every boy needs a father... So he fought for Ben's custody with Lorraine... his ex-wife. Well, he won, but... being a cop, I doubt if he has time to spend with him. ...... So, wait... He got custody of his son and left him alone for Christmas Day and is letting him run unattended around mid-town Manhattan? That sounds... not great... <shrug> I'm notta parent. Ain't my place to say. Wait. Doesn't Daniel live in like the Bronx...? I think so. ...I might need to have words with Detective Dollis later... Oh yeah, Captain Baker was looking for you.Aya returns to Baker's office. Music: ENDS .jpg) Oh, you're not going to call me this time, detective? Gimme a break. I had a lapse of judgment. I had a NIGHT, OK?! Fair enough. Get in here.Aya walks up to his desk. .jpg) Yes. We're having a press conference now, and I want you there too. Me? That's right. You'll be on national television as the sole survivor of that incident. I see. But you only answer when I ask you. The media is just looking for anything to grill us about. ...... ...OK, that was poor phrasing. This is why you let me do the talking. They may even turn you into a suspect. So you let me do the talking. Understood? Yes, sir… OK then. Let's go meet the press.A short while later. .jpg) That is what we currently speculate. How about accounts of officers and firemen at the scene bursting into flames? That was... That was due to a rare, highly flammable chemical which was used to start the fire. We are tentatively speculating there is a chemical weapon AOE situation spread across the building. Are you saying the terrorists are making area-of-effect attacks? Indeed. It's unprecedented deployed in this fashion and we have top men investigating. Another question. Then how did Detective Brea survive without so much as a minor burn? That is a result of her quick thinking and training as an officer... I'm asking HER the question! She... She said that my mitochondria were a mutation.NEW Music: Phrase of Mitochondria (Very... 20-second loop of urgency.) .jpg) Your... mitochondria? The powerhouse of the cell?!?! Who said this?Aya steps forward. Several photos are snapped from the crowd. .jpg) .png) But according to a report, Melissa Pearce was killed in the fire! Melissa did die. Her body had been taken over by this... Eve. What's this Eve!? Some kind of an alien!? I dunno. It was kinda like... a witch mutant kind of look... it's hard to describe. Are you saying supernatural terrorism has returned to Manhattan?! Should we be worried about another Gozer threat?! Is Vigo the Carpathian still in check?! <turns to crowd and holds up arms> People, please! She is very tired, and we are still investigating....jpg) Music: ENDS. Sometime later that day. .jpg) I'm telling the truth, sir.Baker turns back and slams his fist. .jpg) You'll only stir up the media and cause people to panic! Sir, she was only...The phone rings.  Well, put him through then. This is Captain Baker... What? Meet...? You'll have to speak up! Yes... What? ...... Yes... All right.Baker hangs up.  Something about nubile flesh...? I'm not sure. He was raving about some mito-something... Says he's coming over here. Might-O? Is it... Mitochondria? You mean, that thing in the cell that makes energy from oxygen? <scratches head> Might have heard about that in school... It's the powerhouse of the cell. Some reporter blurted that out too. Is that... a thing...? That was like the most basic biology class in school. I dunno. High school was like over half a decade ago. You think I remember social studies or anything? I was a band kid. Science class. But OK. Anyway... That's what Eve had said... That it's time for the mitochondria to be set free... Hey, I just read that some researcher at the museum wrote a new theory on them. Sir, I'm taking Aya to go talk to this researcher. I dunno about this mito-cum stuff. We can at least ask some questions It's the powerhouse of the cell. ...Uh-huh... Go. Better get there before the media. It may explain that phone call, too. What are you waiting for? Get on it! <nods> That researcher may be a good lead for us. Yes, sir. C'mon, Aya!Music: Out of Phase .jpg) Let's go learn some science! .jpg) .jpg) You know it, Eddie. You know it... Tune in next time for science as told by an extremely sinister scientist. As was the style of the time.  Daniel Dollis Portrait - Do you think Danny Glover knows there's an anime version of him in a video game from 1998?
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Feb 22, 2022 01:12
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