Parasite Eve – A Survival RPG with some Action Elements
Parasite Eve is a Japanese novel and also a PS1 (PSX) console game. The game is extremely interesting and one of the most educational video games that I’ve ever played. I did not know half of what I know about mitochondria before playing Parasite Eve. Also, after beating the game, many players will have a deeper appreciation and understanding of biology…I sure did.
The story is based on the idea of how there are two critters for every cell in our bodies. First, the animal cell has its own nucleus, organelles and DNA within the nucleus. But inside that animal cell is a mitochondria which has its own DNA as well.
In the game, you find out that the mitochondria are sentient. A being called EVE has been directing evolution for eons and now is her time to strike against humanity. She also wants to create some sort of super-being as well.
All this mega-monster rhetoric may make the gamer think the story is campy. And it definitely can be fun and campy like a B-movie at times. But that just makes the game even better.
You play as a character named Aya Brea who is a New York cop with a thing for guns. No really. She does, in the game you have the option to customize firearms with wrenches and take apart old guns just to add a few points of increased ammo capacity to something like an M16. It’s as if you are upgrading a sword over and over again in a fantasy game. Except in Parasite Eve you can find a new weapon and salvage the upgrades you made to your old one…and then put those bonuses toward a weapon with better base stats.
You can even add awesome modifiers like extra automatic health bonuses to your armor which PROCS if enemies take you below a certain health threshold. The poison modifier is a nice addition early game to the guns because enemies will still take damage when you run around if they’ve been hit once with poison.
Running around and avoiding enemy ranged attacks is important in Parasite Eve because you will get extra, “EXP Bonus Points” which are different from normal EXP. If you get more than 100 bonus points these things can be directly allocated to Aya’s reflex time or (AT) or you can directly beef up your weapon stats or even increase your inventory carrying capacity.
When you play the game, you will see some wicked animations. I wish I didn’t wait till my 30’s to play this game. The creature transforms are absolutely amazing by any animation standards…even today’s. And if you’re an artist you will probably be blown away by how creative the art and 3D modeling was carried out. It’s an absolutely visual masterpiece.
I’ve been wanting to write about this game for a long time.
Since mitochondria control the aging process in real life, there’s no real reason to not learn about these creatures which are in our bodies. Mitochondria use oxygen as their primary source of fuel for creating energy for their host animal cells. But this process creates free radicals which damage animal cell DNA and creates the aging process. When combined with environmental factors, stress and other DNA damaging effects…it makes sense how some people might age faster than others.
What if one could commune with his or her mitochondria?
In the game, Aya Brea’s mitochondria are symbiotic and they don’t want to serve EVE. As a result, Aya Brea is immune to the “spontaneous combustion attack” of EVE.
Could this have any bearing on real life?
Maybe our mitochondria are both our best friends and possible destroyers at the same time. If our bodies create a situation of negativity or an action that goes against other mitochondria-bearing organism…perhaps that is where the concept of “burning” with rage comes from. Perhaps our mitochondria combined with our minds and animal cells have a group consciousness which we think is a singular consciousness. But maybe since there’s so many cellular organisms in our bodies at the same time…we think there is only one mind. But what if we are as individual humans…a hive mind in of ourselves. This in combination with the larger group structures like human communities of cities and nation-states may create an amplification of this hive mind.
Our mitochondria create more energy per cubic inch than equivalent volume in gasoline. That’s potent stuff. That is also more than enough energy to send signals wirelessly, power a GPS, and store information. So when one feels, “Low on energy” are we really? I think our cells are simply deciding that they have repair work to do and it is easier for our bodies to be laying down or resting for that work to be done.
-Tyler