Parasite Eve series

Parasite Eve is the name of a Japanese novel by Hideaki Sena, first published in Kadokawa Horror Bunko, which has been adapted into a 1997 film and a 1998 video game for the Sony PlayStation by Squaresoft. A sequel to the game was released in 1999, also for the PlayStation.

The story of the novel and movie revolve around a geneticist whose research in mitochondria causes him to take extreme measures to revive his wife, and eventually leads to the creation of a new threat to all mankind. The scientific basis for the story is the endosymbiotic theory: mitochondria were originally free-living bacteria, which coevolved with host cells to become mutually interdependent. The fictional premise is that mitochondria are able to rebel and to develop unusual capabilities. In addition, scientists traced mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited matrilineally, to a single woman in Africa. They dubbed her, "Mitochondrial Eve." This report appeared in "Nature" in 1987.

In reality, roughly 99% of the original mitochondrial genome has been lost or transferred to the host cell nucleus, so their evolutionary potential is actually very limited. It is far more likely that full-fledged symbiotic bacteria would rebel (as occurs, less spectacularly, in pathogenic E. coli strains).

Book

The original book, Parasite Eve, was written by Hideaki Sena, and became the first winner of the Japan Horror Novel Award. It was later translated into English by Tyran Grillo and released in America during December of 2005. ^*

Film

Tagline: It's not a virus...it's evolution.

Summary: Toshiaki Nagashima is a biologist who is doing major research on mitochondria. When his beautiful young wife is left brain-dead following a car accident, he secretly extracts mitochondria from her liver cells and begins tampering with them in a desperate attempt to revive her. The mitochondria take on a life of their own and begin seizing control of the laboratory attendants, spawning a terrifying new species that eventually threatens to take over the world.

Rumors in early 1999 stated that Madonna had bought the rights to a US adaptation and rumor had it that she would star as Aya. Nothing ever came of this, however, and the chances of such an adaptation ever being made are now extremely slim. She has since lost the rights to a film adaption of Parasite Eve.

In 2001, ADV Films released the original Japanese movie on DVD in the United States. The movie does not contain an English dub track and its subtitles are hardsubs, unusual for an American release.

Video games

Parasite Eve

The game followed the overall style and presentation of titles such as Resident Evil, but offered gameplay elements found in RPG style titles. It offered a magic system and ground-breaking graphics.

Plot

After witness the spontaneous combustion of the assisting crow to the Carnegie Hall`s Christmas eve play and realizing that she was the only one who wasn’t affected she went to the scenario where a showdown with Melissa Pearce take place; At the end of the battle Melissa tell Aya that the Mitochondria in Aya`s body is trying to communicate but still need time. Aya feel something new in her body, a sudden heat along with a new power. After that she followed eve into the theater where she found Melissa’s diary discovering her ambition for the role part along with her addiction to certain medicament. She find Melissa playing piano and talking to herself claiming that she was no longer Melissa but Eve, then she transform into a flying half women half monster that Aya have to defeat before continuing the chase to the sewers where a final fight take place against a mutated crocodile.

After being lectured by Captain Baker, and attending to a press conference and meeting Aya partner’s son Ben, Aya and Daniel go to the National Museum of Natural History to meet Dr. Hans Klamp a great expert in mitochondria, who give them a lot of scientific information but nothing of real use to their investigation, after returning to the precinct they go in emergency to the Central park when a show is taking place, there Daniel is unable to enter because the mitochondria power is too powerful, because of that Aya go alone into the park, she fight her way to the amphitheater where Eve is, but she ran away after turning the entire crowd to a orange mass, then Aya chase her to a fight in a carriage that end with the horse losing control and Aya falling unconscious.

The next thing that happens is the whole city being evacuated because of the danger in it. Only polices are in town, but a Japanese man: Kunihiko Maeda, it appears to be a scientist, it make it trough the police barrier when one of the cops start to burn. Then Aya wake up in a small apartment in Soho along with Maeda, Daniel is also in the house, in a long explication of the events of the park, is says that Aya is also full of the parasite energy, also Maeda tell the story of the similar events that occurred in Japan years ago, along with that the objective of Eve is revealed, the creation of an ultimate being, then with comforting words both men leave Aya pondering if she is a monster.

The next morning after stocking, they go to the museum and learn about the mitochondria and they discover that the nucleus in Aya`s cells fight the EVE mitochondria, then Dr. Klamp enter and watch the sample of Aya`s blood, starts to ask her questions, when Daniel sees a list of names with, his son and hi ex-wife in it, he tries to force Klamp to speak but Aya stop him, then they leave, after that they head to the police station to find that have been attacked Aya and Daniel search for Ben that is seen chasing the police dog Sheeva, Aya finally catch up with Ben, Captain Baker is protecting him of Sheeva, when Aya arrives the dog transform into a Cerberus form.

After defeating the monster, Aya learn from Maeda that a Eve will need sperm to give birth to the ultimate being so they go to the hospital, Aya goes alone and she got trapped in the basement by Eve sabotaging an elevator and causing a black out, after restoring the electricity, Aya heads upstairs to the sperm bank where she finds that is too late, an go to the roof where after a big fight, Eve appear, and then Aya realizes that her sister Maya is the real original EVE, this is followed by a narrow escape for a pair of military planes that crash on the hospital.

The next day we find Aya in the Chinatown answering a call from Maeda, following the track of Eve, Aya goes into the sewers, reaching the water control plant, there the mass that the people in the park turn enter the city water system, Aya continues to advance reaching the subway, where she is able to get above ground.

Aya go to the museum a third time, this time is plagued with monster and dinosaurs, she fight her way to the Dr. Klamp office, there he told Aya and her companions the truth about how Eve needed special sperm without masculine cells to create the ultimate being so he make it for her, and after this is told he ask Eve to take him and after Daniel and Maeda jump of the window, The Dr. die for combustion, After this Aya continues her search finally founding a pregnant Eve in the fourth floor of the museum, after a talk of the evolution, the mass that have changed into a humanoid form takes Eve inside itself forming a barrier so she can give birth.

After several failed attempts to attack Eve, the military decides that a nuclear attack is the only way, so Aya being the only one that can get near without bursting into flames she is the one to bomb Eve away, this take place in front of the Statue of liberty, but even after the explosion Aya want to make sure so she parachute into the island for a final showdown with Eve. Eve dies wondering if Aya is the mitochondria natural enemy.

Everything seems to be over so Aya is resting in a NAVY ship, but then a explosion takes place, from the rest of the mass, a creature is born and start to ignite the other ships, Aya decides not to leave but fight against the Ultimate being.

After fighting the many forms of the Ultimate being, Daniel make a suicidal jump to deliver Aya special bullets that can make extra damage to the being, finally, Aya make the ship explode with the being inside putting an end to the crisis, when the three stand in the port Maeda explain that the cornea of Maya was transplanted to Aya when she was young and that’s why she has power, but probably her mitochondria evolve another way than Eve’s.

The game ends with Aya, Maeda, Daniel and Ben assisting again to the opera, and when the scene that begins everything last year arrives, Aya`s eyes turn red, she stands and everyone’s eyes begin to turn red too, but this ending isn’t considered canon since the EX game give the real ending.

EX-game

When the game is cleared once a new mode appears caled the "EX game". It is different to the normal game in various aspects: The player has access to every item stored in the police station, the game begins with the final weapons the player choose before ending the first game, the amount of BP given to the player at the end of the game are now available to use but the biggest difference to the normal game is the Chrysler building.

The Chrysler Building is a progressive endurance test, allowing the player the chance of saving only each ten floors and defeating a boss. However the items, weapons, power-ups as well as the enemies are of higher class. The best items, armors, and weapons are here along with the trading cards that allow you to make customizations to the weapons and get the tool and super tool kits. Lastly, the boss in the last floor of the building (77) is the true final boss of the game and has the form of Aya`s elder sister, Maya. It explains to Aya that Klamp cultivated the cells of the original EVE to analyze, so when Melissa was giving birth to the Ultimate Being, she created a nest there so in case Melissa and the Ultimate Being failed, the purebred would remain. After allowing Aya to speak with her sister they engage in battle. The key to defeating this boss is to inflict a great deal of damage to it very early in the fight by using Aya's RE ability Liberate, and customizing a strong weapon to deal considerable damage while PE energy regenerates. This is also where customizing a second set of protective armor comes in, as switching between it and whatever primary armor Aya wears jumpstarts the rate in which PE regenerates. Another necessary ability to have in this fight is the Command X2/X3 ability, as it allows for 2-3 consecutive attacks at once; thus the player can attack twice and use Liberate or recovery items if needed. After the purebred is defeated, the mitochondria inside Aya begins to rebel against her, explaining that now Aya`s mitochondria has reached a higher evolution stage than Maya’s, but Maya's personality suddenly becomes dominant and begins fighting off the EVE persona. Maya eventually wins, purging the EVE persona from her and as a result, Aya seems to lose all of her mitochondrial powers. Afterward Aya takes Maya out of the Chrysler Building and the two of them return home to start their live anew.

Gameplay

Parasite eve is like a survival horror with many RPG elements, the movement in the various scenarios is free, while the movement in the “World map” is limited to specific destinations, the battles appear while the player walk over a “Hot spot”, the enemies appear in whatever place the player is, without a pre-rendered battle ring. While in the battle the player has a ATB “Active Time Bar” that sets the time for every turn to take action, then the player has a choice of attacking, using PE (Parasite Energy, whose use deplete a auto-filling bar) for defense, assistance or offence, using items, changing weapon or armor or even escaping the battle. If the player choose to attack a dome that symbolizes the range of the weapon, if the enemy is outside of the range the shoot is likely to fail and even if the shot land the damage will be less than normal.

When the player decides to us PE, must choose from the menu the desired one, the same goes for weapon, armor or items; however if the player choose to escape, experience will be lost.

Outside of the battle the player has the option of altering the weapon and armor’s attributes and effects with the Tools and Super tools; this is done by selecting the “Tune-up” option, choosing the weapon that will be altered and the weapon from which the attributes or effect will be taken.

As one of the principal RPG elements of the game the experience-based levels are present, each time the player goes up a level his attributes goes up and BP (Bonus Points) are given, this points can be distributed to the ATB, item capacity or attributes of a weapon or armor.

Trivia

There was also a two-part manga released in Japan called Parasite Eve DIVA that never saw an American release. However, a handful of untranslated pages can be seen on a few unofficial Parasite Eve websites.

Yoko Shimomura composed the game's soundtrack. A separate Parasite Eve Remix album was also released, containing 10 tracks remixed and remastered from the original game by various DJs.

Parasite Eve II

In 1999, Square released Parasite Eve II. This game followed the traditional survival horror mold, and bore little resemblance to the original game. This installment was set several years after the events in the original game. Aya is now based out of Los Angeles, working for an FBI division named M.I.S.T. (Mitochondrion Investigation and Suppression Team) that suppresses and neutralizes Neo-Mitochondrion Creatures (NMCs) in the various regions of L.A. The story eventually leads to an underground bunker in the Nevada desert and the discovery of a vast conspiracy. This game was much less popular than the original - and many criticized the fact it was no longer a role-playing game but instead a survival horror game, which (while possessing many RPG elements) played very similar to the Resident Evil series (two notable changes being the removal of the experience point and turn-based battle systems). In addition, the game itself was much shorter, the gameplay was more challenging, and the soundtrack was no longer composed by Yoko Shimomura. On the other hand, replay value was enhanced with the inclusion of a unique scoring and difficulty rating system that offered potent new weapons and other items for each subsequent playthrough. Unfortunately, the game delivered lower-than-expected sales and mediocre critical reception, and as of 2006 there are no plans for a third entry in the series. However, avid fans felt that the game had an appropriate ending that tied up enough loose ends in the series. The game also contained references to previous Square games, most notably the inclusion of a Gunblade, which could be used by Aya--provided players earned it through competent play through the aforementioned replay system.

External links

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