The Parasite Eve Book

While I've not QUITE finished the book at time of writing I'm close enough to the end of it to say a few words.  I'm not gonna put much in terms of spoilers so if you've not read it and you're curious then you can read on safe in the knowledge I'm not going to ruin any huge plot points for you.

So if you're familiar with the series of games of the same name then let me start by telling you that the book and the games have very little to do with each other.  They both talk a hell of a lot about Mitochondria but that's about as far as the similarities go.  There is no Aya Brea, there are new huge beasts for you to gun down or anything like that.  The game was VERY loosely based on the book and the author, Hideaki Sena, as far as I know, had very little to do with it.

The book itself is actually a pretty good horror novel.  I'm finding the final few chapters of the story to be particularly and the descriptions of certain things that are happening to be rather grotesque.  If there's one thing the games and the book do share it's that weird brand of body horror that's brought about by your own mitochondria trying to fuck you up.

However I do have one problem with the book and that's the pacing.  There's the opening scene which is pretty messed up and then pages and pages of descriptions of medical procedure and romantic flashbacks which can be a bit of a chore to read.  Once you get through all that though and the book gets going again with the actual plot, good lord is it good.

If you don't have any interest in games then I could recommend this novel as a good horror story in its own right.  If you do have an interest in the games however, it's a fascinating look at how the series really got started.  I'm reading it in Japanese but I'm sure it's been translated for western markets so go hit up amazon and get yourself a copy. 

Parasite Eve: Bigger Than You Thought

Parasite Eve is one of those games that isn't so widely known I feel.  The first game was a sort of action RPG affair and the second game played a bit more like a survival horror title with RPG elements. They were both pretty good and while the 3rd game on PSP was a little bit shit its absolutely a series worth checking out.

However what some fans might not know is that Parasite Eve is a bigger series than they might think.  This is especially true if you lived in the UK because we never got a PS1 release of the first game which is really weird.  Allow me to fill you in on a bit of extra series background that you may have not known about.

The first game was released in 1998 in both Japan and America for the PS1 and that's where you think the series started but you would be quite wrong.  Allow me to introduce you to a dude called Hideaki Sena

This guy isn't a game developer of any kind but a pharmacologist.  In fact, right now Dr Sena currently gives lectures on microbiology in Sendai, Japan but the other thing he likes to do is write books and the most famous book he wrote was titled Parasite Eve.

I can't give you a plot synopsis because I've not read it but if you head to the wikipedia page for the book there is one there.  This book kicked off the series back in 1995 and after the books success Square teamed up with the books publisher and created the first game which is actually a direct sequel to the book.  From there we got all the entries that we already know about which are the two PS1 games and the 3rd Birthday for PSP.  However, there are two more pieces of Parasite Eve media that you possibly didn't know about

There's a collection of Parasite Eve manga books, the first of which (pictured above) is based on the novel while the ones that followed were based on the games.  These were published in 1998 and as far as I know, have never seen an English release.  At this point I'm sure you might want to go online to see if there's a fan translation but at time of writing I've not been able to find one.  Even the google image search shows a total of 0 images with replaced English text so if you want to read it, it'll have to be in Japanese.

The other thing is a movie, of course based on the book, which I have also not seen but it has a 5.9/10 on IMDB so it can't be THAT bad.  It's actually not that hard to get hold of so give it a watch if you get the chance.

The last time we saw some Parasite Eve content was in 2010 with the painfully average 3rd Birthday and since then it's been a little bit forgotten.  It would be nice to see some new content for the series but maybe better to let it rest while the majority of the stuff produced for it is still good.

Ao Oni Movie Hype

A long time ago I did a play through of a game called Ao Oni, if you want to watch it then here it is

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Wc5_JYKZyOx-38Vl3COajVBaEsofrsy

If you can't work out what Ao Oni is from those videos, it's an Japanese indie horror/adventure game made in RPG maker.  It has garnered quite a lot of popularity on the internet and as a result there has been lots of media released around this one little freeware game.

Last time I was in a book store I remember seeing that there had been an Ao Oni novelisation.

I've yet to read it or even buy it so I'm not sure if it's a book version of the game or a follow up or what but it looks interesting enough. 

So the next big piece of Ao Oni media to hit the scene is the movie, the poster is pictured above but I'll throw in the trailer just for good measure.

Usually, movie versions of games suck total balls but I really don't see how you can fuck up an Ao Oni movie.  All you have to have is a bunch of people running around a house looking for clues while the movie builds up tension for Oni attacks.  I'm actually pretty excited.

The only problem is I have to do a Japanese exam AND it's my wives birthday so it's going to be a while before I actually find some time to go to a cinema and see it but I'm absolutely NOT going to miss this one.

 

Yume Nikki: I'm Not In Your Dream

I don't think anyone I know personally has heard of this game, let alone played it so let me tell you  about a brilliant little Japanese indie gem called Yume Nikki.

Yumi Nikki (meaning Dream Diary) is a surreal horror adventure game where you have to wander round some girls dreams and find items.  Finding items grants powers but what you really have to do is drop these items (known as effects) into a big room to reach the ending.  This game is so strange, so surreal that any attempt I make to describe it won't put across just how cooked out the whole thing is.  It's a free download so just google it and give it a play, you will not regret it.

Anyway, yesterday I was linked to this website.

http://yumenikki.net/

Yesterday it was a countdown timer, and the cynical side of me wanted to just forget about the whole thing because after The World Ends With You countdown I now think that every countdown timer will just lead to disappointment.

Luckily, I was wrong and while we didn't get a new game or a Steam version or anything like that, I met the announcement with a smile.  For those that can't read the Japanese in the above picture, it's basically saying that there is some kind of book adaptation of the Yume Nikki game coming out.

If you look at the website, the box in the middle is talking about a web manga, which I'm pretty sure is separate from the whole book thing since to my knowledge there is a clear distinction between "Novel" and "Manga".  Finally, the bottom box mentions some kind of soundtrack called "A waltz for Yume Nikki"

Given how the games were I'm super interested to see how these adaptations turn out.  Hopefully they'll get released before I have to return to the UK so I can have something to translate on the plane.