Parasite Eve II: Survival Horror Meets Sci-Fi RPG on the PS1

In the golden age of PlayStation horror when fixed camera angles and clunky controls were just part of the charm, Parasite Eve II stood out as something… stranger. It wasn’t just horror. It wasn’t just an RPG. It wasn’t even a clean sequel, it was a pivot - an evolution in more ways than one.

Released in 1999 in Japan and 2000 elsewhere, Parasite Eve II followed up Square’s first attempt at fusing a horror-RPG hybrid. While the original blended cinematic storytelling with turn-based combat inspired by JRPGs, the sequel leaned heavily into real-time action and survival horror. Think Resident Evil, but with psychic powers, genetic horror, and a protagonist who could light enemies on fire with her mind.

The World After Manhattan

If you never played the first Parasite Eve, here’s the short version: mitochondria - energy-producing organelles in your cells are sentient, mutating, and really mad at humans. Aya Brea, a young New York cop with her own mysterious cellular gifts, ends up at the centre of a biological crisis that engulfs Manhattan.

When Parasite Eve II kicks off, we’re three years past that disaster. Aya has left the NYPD and joined a shadowy government division called MIST — the Mitochondrial Investigation and Suppression Team. They’re basically a cleanup crew for biological freakouts. Think X-Files meets Blackwatch. From the get-go, the game positions Aya not as a rookie stumbling into chaos, but as a seasoned veteran. The quiet horror here isn’t just in the mutated monsters, it’s in the way the world has accepted their existence. Biological anomalies have become normalized. There are protocols, databases, bureaucracies.

The first mission starts with a hostage crisis in a Los Angeles tower but very quickly, you’re thrown into something bigger, darker, and far more disturbing. Aya ends up chasing the mystery into the desert, to a ghost town called Dryfield and eventually, an underground research complex that’s less Umbrella Corp and more Area 51.

From RPG to Survival Horror

One of the biggest shifts from the first game to the second is the gameplay format. The original Parasite Eve was turn-based, structured around active-time bars and strategy. PE2 throws that out and goes full survival horror — real-time aiming, ammo conservation, fixed camera angles, and inventory puzzles.

Combat is no longer about queuing up actions from a menu. Instead, Aya moves, shoots, and casts abilities in real-time. You can lock onto enemies, switch targets, and even dodge — though the movement is still governed by the classic tank-style controls of the era. This means combat is more intense, more dangerous, and far more dependent on spatial awareness. Some players found this frustrating. Others found it liberating.

The game also introduces a dual resource system. You’ve got your standard ammo, with different gun types and bullet categories, and you’ve got your Parasite Energy — a sort of biological magic system that lets you cast elemental abilities. You unlock new powers by spending experience points, creating a light but satisfying sense of character customisation.

The pacing is slow, deliberate. Enemies don’t respawn randomly — they’re part of the level design. Once you clear an area, it stays safe. This turns every encounter into a tactical decision: do you burn your resources to secure a hallway? Or do you sneak past and risk having to backtrack later?

Parasite Energy: The Mutation Mechanic

Aya’s supernatural abilities manifest in her Parasite Energy and happen to be the one element that carries the RPG flavour. Throughout the game, you gain experience from combat, which you can use to unlock or upgrade powers in four elemental branches: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth.

Each branch has its own identity:

• Fire powers dish out damage — flame waves, explosive blasts.
• Water powers are healing-based.
• Wind is all about crowd control — confusion, status effects.
• Earth gives you buffs and defences.

What’s cool here is that you don’t just “level up” in a linear path. You choose what kind of Aya you want to play. Do you become a walking arsenal? A regenerative tank? A trickster who debuffs enemies before going in for the kill?

There’s real depth in how you approach builds, and multiple runs can feel very different depending on how you spec. Combined with the weapon customisation where guns can be upgraded with attachments and ammo types and the game has a solid undercurrent of player agency, even while following the rigid structure of old-school horror games.

Isolation and Environmental Storytelling

One of the game’s smartest moves is its shift in setting. The original took place in a snowy, haunting version of New York. The sequel moves west - first to LA, and then deep into the Nevada desert.

Most of the game unfolds in Dryfield, an abandoned town that feels part-Western, part-laboratory experiment. It’s all broken neon signs, rusted-out motels, and empty saloons. The stillness of the desert makes the biological threats feel even more alien where you’re the one intruding on something that shouldn’t be disturbed.

Later, when you descend into the underground complex, the tone shifts again. Sterile hallways. Empty labs. Locked cells. Thematically, it mirrors the first game’s hospital-and-research motifs, but with more emphasis on human culpability.And in the middle of it all is Aya, increasingly unsure whether she’s the solution or part of the problem.

Themes: Identity, Control, and Evolution

What makes Parasite Eve II more than a monster-hunting simulator is its psychological core. It isn’t just about what’s happening. It’s about what it means - especially for Aya. Throughout the game, she’s haunted by the knowledge that the creatures she’s fighting were made using her own DNA. The government has been cloning, experimenting, and weaponizing her biology without her consent. It’s biotech horror in the most personal way.

There’s a recurring question: where does Aya end and Eve begin? Eve, for those unfamiliar, was the mitochondrial entity that Aya fought in the first game. Now, she exists in echoes she’s not always present, but constantly referenced. Aya is battling her own potential to become what she once destroyed.

The theme of control runs deep. Control of bodies, of evolution, of reproduction. Many of the NMCs (Neo-Mitochondrial Creatures) are warped versions of animals, often pregnant or mutating in grotesque ways. They reflect a kind of biological rebellion where nature haspushed past its limits. Even Aya’s powers walk a line between human and other. She’s saving the world, but how much of her humanity is left in the process?

Presentation: Low-Poly Terror

Graphically, Parasite Eve II squeezed everything it could from the PlayStation hardware. It uses pre-rendered backgrounds, just like Resident Evil, but they’re highly detailed, atmospheric, and often eerie as hell. The fixed cameras work to the game’s advantage, turning narrow hallways into jump-scare machines and large rooms into claustrophobic traps.

Cutscenes, while dated by modern standards, were impressive at the time. They showcase creature transformations, environmental disasters, and moments of real emotional weight with dramatic flair. The soundtrack deserves special mention. Unlike the bombastic orchestral scores of other RPGs, PE2 opts for ambient noise, minimalist melodies, and industrial textures. It’s all cold synths, faint whispers, and low rumbling tones. It doesn’t try to scare you. Instead it creeps under your skin and waits.

Reception: A Cult Legacy

When it launched, Parasite Eve II got a mixed response. Critics praised its production value, combat improvements, and atmosphere. But others felt the shift away from RPG mechanics stripped the series of its unique identity. Fans were also divided. Some loved the Resident Evil-style gameplay. Others missed the novel-like pacing and scientific exposition of the original. Aya’s more hardened personality was another point of contention as she went from an introspective rookie to a one-woman army. Depending on your perspective, it was growth or loss. Still, over time, the game found its audience. It became a cult favourite, especially among players who appreciated the blend of action and RPG mechanics in a horror setting.

The Rest of the Series

The Parasite Eve franchise is small but strange. It began as a licensed adaptation of a Japanese sci-fi novel, morphed into an RPG-horror hybrid, and then spun off into different gameplay styles.

• Parasite Eve (1998): A bold experiment — cinematic, text-heavy, and structurally more of a “narrative RPG with horror” than a survival game. It introduced Aya and the twisted mitochondrial lore.
• Parasite Eve II (1999): The pivot. It swapped turn-based combat for real-time action and layered survival horror over the RPG shell.
• The 3rd Birthday (2010): A polarizing third entry released for PSP. It went full third-person shooter, reimagined much of the lore, and made drastic changes to Aya’s character. Fans still argue over whether it counts as canon or a reboot.

Despite its fragmented identity, the series has a strong, enduring fanbase. And Aya Brea remains one of the most quietly influential heroines in gaming. She’s a character who’s powerful, haunted, and unwilling to be defined by her biology.

Final Thoughts

Parasite Eve II is a weird game — not just in story, but in structure. It’s a sequel that dares to be different. It strips away what made the original unique and replaces it with something more grounded, more violent, and, in some ways, more accessible. But underneath the bullets and boss fights is a game still obsessed with evolution — of cells, of identity, of genre. It asks whether changing form is progress or corruption. Whether becoming more powerful means losing what makes you human.That’s what makes it stick. Not just the monsters or the guns or the creepy soundtrack. It’s the questions. It’s the mutation. And honestly? That’s the kind of horror that lasts.

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow us on TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky