She gets quiet and pensive about it, but never weakened by it. She is haunted by the loss of her sister Maya, and is often seen ruminating about it (especially after seeing “ghosts” of Maya throughout the game). The writing of her backstory gives her a personal investment in the game’s storyline. Rather than succumbing to this characteristic via “insert-tragic-backstory-that-hardened-the-character-here,” Aya is tenacious and capable, but also sensitive. This lazy concept has diminished other characters into one-note poster boards that fail to engage the player (sorry Lightning, but I never loved ya). As an NYC cop, it would have been very easy to construct her as the tomboy - mean and masculine, with a healthy dose of “this is my fight, I don’t need anyone else!" syndrome. Aya is all you have, for better or worse.īeyond her gameplay mechanics, Aya is a very nuanced character.
Daniel won’t appear for some kitschy “power of friendship” tech attack ala Chrono Trigger (though that would be awesome! They’d be standing back-to-back in some Lethal Weapon-esque shoot out, where they inevitably high-five before he leaves the screen. While Aya runs around in free-range active-time-battle-style combat, rifling through ranged weapon and “magic” attacks (known as “Parasite Energy”), you can’t summon Maeda to throw you medicine. Hell, her trusty sidekicks Daniel (her partner on the police force) and Maeda (a scientist) don’t even give you “assists” in combat. Not only do you play as Aya in the game, but she is the only character you inhabit in the game, from start to finish. That's another story for another day.īeyond aesthetics, there are some deeper assets that make Aya ahead of her time. Unfortunately, Parasite Eve 2 and Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday got sober and thought “how could we have a female character and not sexualize her?” before then proceeding to get wasted on shower scenes and other unnecessary “oops, my clothes fell off” tropes.
PARASITE EVE PS1 PNG SKIN
the typical “fan-service” skin usually applied to such characters. Sure, she dons a sexy black number for the opera scenes, but even then, it’s classy evening attire vs. Let’s start with the most blatant chance they took with this character: she wears clothes. Squaresoft took another leap forward with Aya Brea - the 25-year-old cop who is the face of Parasite Eve.
From the maternal nature of Aerith ( Final Fantasy 7) or Rosa ( Final Fantasy 4), to feisty heroines like Marle and Ayla ( Chrono Trigger), these women were, in many respects, pioneering characters of the genre. Squaresoft, however, never shied away from strong female characters in their RPGs. In other words, female-fronted games were still a novelty in the 90s. However, when the original Tomb Raider was released in 1996, Lara Croft skyrocketed because she was “developed ” in other ways….pointy triangular ways… These days, we praise the rebooted Tomb Raider titles for humanizing and developing one of gaming’s reigning queens: Lara Croft. Let’s rewind the time machine here.before Ellie ( The Last Of Us), Aloy ( Horizon Zero Dawn), or even Bayonetta. This game boasted a female protagonist and a female antagonist. One of the facets that drew me to Parasite Eve was something obvious, yet completely daring. Is That TWO Characters With XX Chromosomes On The Cover? However, for the purpose of this article, let’s look at one specific topic. We can talk all day about Parasite Eve’s nostalgic value, its big fat kisses to 90s NYC and buddy cop movies, the hilariously dated cutscenes, and some facets that didn’t age so gracefully (helloooo ethnic stereotypes!). Even if it's been 20 years, there's still something great in re-watching the intro to an old favorite game.
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