February Retro Community Playthrough - Parasite Eve

[Disposed Hero]

I finished Parasite Eve over the weekend.  I didn't find the game to be very difficult in the first place, but the endgame was very, very easy.  

Spoiler (hover to show)

Using Liberate with the Two Commands weapon addon is ridiculously overpowered.

I'm probably gonna hold off on doing an EX mode playthrough, although I want to do it eventually.

Anyway, I'm really glad I finally got a chance to revisit this PS1 classic.  It still holds up really well today.

[singlebanana]

Awesome Disposed! Glad you finished it and I, like most others, agree that the endgame is not very difficult at all. I'm with you on the EX mode, I would like to do it sometime, but right now there is just too much ahead of me.

[Raidou]

Spoiler (hover to show)

beat the ultimate being. died in the boiler room.  

UPDATE:
Beat the game.  Hooray.  The final boss was great.  Died several times because I didn't know I could get Medicines from a sailor.

Technical problems aside, I really enjoyed this game.

[GrayGhost81]

Spoiler (hover to show)

beat the ultimate being. died in the boiler room. 

Don't be embarrassed. I did the final battle three separate times because of silly screw ups on my part.

[Raidou]

..for me it ended up being six (or thereabouts), but thanks for making me feel a little less sucky.

[singlebanana]

Glad you enjoyed it Raidou and yeah, we all had our moments in this game.

[JerryGreenwood]

I've been stuck for a few days. I can't figure out how to get off the rooftop after defeating the boss. If I can't get it by tonight I'll check some spoiler posts.

[singlebanana]

I've been stuck for a few days. I can't figure out how to get off the rooftop after defeating the boss. If I can't get it by tonight I'll check some spoiler posts.

Yes, it is in the spoiler posts. I would go ahead and check it, to avoid the aggrevation and get on with the game. Only a few days left on this one and I'll hope you'll finish.

[JerryGreenwood]

Yes, it is in the spoiler posts. I would go ahead and check it, to avoid the aggrevation and get on with the game. Only a few days left on this one and I'll hope you'll finish.

Just figured it out my first try after that post. I also just figured out how tools work. I know it's not rocket science, but I was reluctant to mess around.

I will say this - it was confusing. I think the whole weapon system was poorly displayed.

*I wrote a big paragraph about the display, but it disappeared. I'll just bullet it.

- I don't like the transparent display. It made it difficult to see and understand the Added Effect slots. Imagine if Final Fantasy 7 did that with materia. Instead of designated slots for materia, it was just a blank canvas. Not good, just add a little grid or something.
- When moving parameters, the numbers are displayed in yellow, gray, or red. I don't know why they did this. Red means bad. I assumed red would hurt my weapon.

These are MINOR flaws, but it's a little sloppy and could've easily been avoided. I shouldn't be confused by a menu, especially due to graphical design. I'm not sure if anyone else felt this way, but I'm sure it threw other people off at some point.
,

[singlebanana]

I agree, the menu system is pretty confusing and there isn't a really good tutorial for how to use it. Once I got use to it, I didn't mind it at all, but it takes a little tinking with. I basically saved my game at the start of Day 5 and had a separate file for that save that I never wrote over/erased in case I screwed up my weapon adjustments. I also did this later when I upgraded my armor. I agree that it's a little "sloppy" and could be improved upon, but I think that the idea behind the upgrading is fairly complex and allows for great freedom, which I really think is a strong feature of this game.

[Disposed Hero]

I like the weapon/armor upgrading system quite a bit as it does allow for a lot of flexibility.  I think it's great that you can keep adding stat upgrades to your current weapon and then add those stats to a new weapon if you get something better.  The extra effects allow for a lot of customization also that can have a pretty big impact on your play style.

However, I do have to agree that the interface is pretty confusing when you're not familiar with it, and there's not much of a tutorial to explain it to you.  It requires some experimentation to get a firm grasp on the whole thing.

[JerryGreenwood]

I hope I didn't come off as offensive to the game. It's very good and I'm happy to be playing it. That's why it's especially frustrating. If it were a bad game it would be expected. In a way, it's a compliment. I can't think of too much wrong in this game...a menu display bothers me the most.

[techwizard]

if you have the original manual that helps with the menus, but otherwise tinkering is all you need to do. it probably wouldn't have been so bad for you if you experimented earlier on.

@raidou I died a lot on the final boss too, I agree that once you knew the patterns it was fairly easy, but I wouldn't say it was a "very easy" end fight, unless you had all over-leveled.

[singlebanana]

I hope I didn't come off as offensive to the game. It's very good and I'm happy to be playing it. That's why it's especially frustrating. If it were a bad game it would be expected. In a way, it's a compliment. I can't think of too much wrong in this game...a menu display bothers me the most.

Not offensive at all. I think it's a valid concern with the game and others also probably feel that it's not very user-friendly as well. We all don't have to agree in our opinions for each game and the dialogue is what makes it intereseting, fun, and thought-provoking. I enjoy talking about the games in this way and ultimately, that is what we are doing these playthroughs for.

if you have the original manual that helps with the menus, but otherwise tinkering is all you need to do. it probably wouldn't have been so bad for you if you experimented earlier on.

@raidou I died a lot on the final boss too, I agree that once you knew the patterns it was fairly easy, but I wouldn't say it was a "very easy" end fight, unless you had all over-leveled.

My original copy of the game did not have a back insert or a manual, so I'll be the first to admit that had the manual been there, it would have been easier. I bought a nice copy of the game a few weeks ago to replace my original, since this is a game I really enjoyed and wanted a good copy of. Cheap copy if someone knows anyone who wants it.

I don't think that when people are saying that the ending is "very easy" that they are referring to the ease of a "normal" battle. If you check the spoilers, they are referring to a certain ability spam that does indeed make the battles very, very easy. If you don't use this ability, then yes, the fights are more challenging. I didn't use it myself because I didn't know what it did until after reading about it after I finished. Still, I didn't think the fights were overly difficult and this might be the result of overpowering my endgame weapon and armor (since all of my upgrades went to them).

[JerryGreenwood]

Beat the warehouse boss this AM. Now messing around in the sewers.

it probably wouldn't have been so bad for you if you experimented earlier on.

Yep. I got caught up in trying to save my tools for the end of the game. Plus I didn't have any trouble defeating enemies, until those "spider crickets" in the warehouse.

Not offensive at all. I think it's a valid concern with the game and others also probably feel that it's not very user-friendly as well. We all don't have to agree in our opinions for each game and the dialogue is what makes it intereseting, fun, and thought-provoking. I enjoy talking about the games in this way and ultimately, that is what we are doing these playthroughs for.

I agree. But I tend to bring up the negatives more than I talk about the positives of a game. It may come off as I don't like a particular game or I'm being too harsh, but that's usually not the case.