• Tag Archives Square
  • Parasite Eve II (PlayStation)

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/706066439799488512/asobi-station-parasite-eve-ii-ps1-1999-square

    Parasite Eve II is an action RPG / survival horror game produce by Squaresoft for the PlayStation. It was released in 1999 and is of course the sequel to parasite Eve. While it still has some role playing elements, Parasite Eve II has less of those than the original and is more like traditional survival horror games like Resident Evil.

    The control system is typical of such games, at least early on, using tank controls which presents movement from a player perspective rather than a camera perspective. Speaking of which, the player doesn’t really have any control over the camera in this game. The player does have more freedom of movement in this game vs. its predecessor creating a little more of an open world feel, however you are normally only seeing one room at a time so action generally takes place in a confined area. Another difference from the original is that combat is in real-time. In the original there was a time bar that dictated order of actions.

    Parasite Eve II is set three years after the events of the first game. The main character and your avatar, Aya Brea, now works for the FBI as part of something called the Mitochondrial Investigation and Suppression Team. Anyway, the plot involves more Neo-Mitochondrial Creatures, cyborgs, corruption in the FBI and so-forth. Aya has special abilities governed by “parasite energy”. However, these abilities were locked and now she has to rediscover them in Parasite Eve II.

    Parasite Eve II was worked on by the same developers as the original so there is some continuity there. The story was directed and written by the same person that wrote and directed Resident Evil (Kenichi Iwano). This game generally got positive reviews and if you are a fan of survival horror then I would say it is definitely one you should try. You can always track down an original copy and it was also released as part of the Square Millennium Collection in 2000 and as part of the PSone Books line (Japan only) in 2002. Parasite Eve II was also released on the North American PlayStation Network in 2011. Emulation is always an option as well. Personally, I still like my games in physical form.


  • 3-D WorldRunner (NES)


    The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner (NES)

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/184613775421/obscurevideogames-guardiademieux-the-3-d



    The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner or 3-D WorldRunner for short was a fairly early game for the NES. It was developed by Square and published in North America by Acclaim in 1987. It was pretty advanced for its time. 3-D WorldRunner was essentially an early 3D 3rd person platform shooter.

    While 3-D WorldRunner was a 3D platform game of sorts, it wasn’t in a completely open world. It was a shooter on rails and is somewhat similar to games like Space Harrier. As you would expect, there are items to collect and enemies to avoid or destroy. Jumping plays a large role in the game but you can only move in a forward direction. One other unique aspect of this game was that it really was in 3D. It came with a pair of Red/Blue (Cyan) glasses and had a 3D mode that you could switch to with the appropriate colors to make it work.

    3-D WorldRunner generally got positive reviews. The 3D mode is a novelty more than anything but it was pretty neat for the time. While it borrows heavily from Space Harrier, it’s still a pretty fun game. Finding a copy complete in the box is fairly difficult mainly because of the glasses. You don’t necessarily need the original glasses to use the 3D mode as these kind of glasses have been used for various 3D things for a long time. However, I don’t know how well the effect works on modern monitors or via emulation. At any rate, if you are an NES fan, this is one worth having though perhaps not at the complete in box cost.