Let’s clear one thing up: Square Enix’s The 3rd Birthday is for all intents and purposes Parasite Eve 3. Apparently Square considers this a “spinoff” game from the franchise, but it stars the main character from the other Parasite Eve games!
I’m getting ahead of myself. Most people have probably forgotten (or haven’t played) the Parasite Eve franchise. In very broad terms it’s Resident Evil meets Final Fantasy. Survival horror meets RPG if you will. In New York.
It may not incorporate wholly original elements, but the entire package is strangely alluring to me. Something about the modern sounding electro-piano soundtrack with the contemporary urban city landscape just clicks with me.
Or maybe it’s just the cute blonde girl with short hair and a stylish outfit.
Either way, the almost-forgotten Sony PSP is in dire need for some good new titles. Hopefully The 3rd Birthday delivers. The above trailer from Gamescom certainly looks like it’s headed in the right direction.
I’m going to be honest with you. I’m a gadget freak. My friends know this. My colleagues know this. I know this. For example, I am one of the assholes who has bought all three Nintendo DS SKU’s on consecutive launch dates. That’s right, despite owning perfectly functional DS phat and lites, I’ve also managed to also buy a DSi.
Knowing my weakness for cool new revisions of handhelds, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that Sony has accomplished something extraordinary with their recently released PSP Go. They have, in fact, created a product that I have no desire to purchase.
If you’re a fan of Final Fantasy 7 and own a PSP you owe it to yourself to play Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 ASAP. Just stop reading and head over to your favorite retailer and pick up a copy – you won’t be disappointed. If you’ve never played a Final Fantasy game before, or are on the fence about starting with this one, then read on.
Crisis Core is the prequel to what is considered one of the greatest role-playing games of all time, Final Fantasy 7. However, unlike other titles in the series, Crisis Core does not have a turn based combat system. Rather, you control one character (Zack Fair) in an almost real-time action title. Combat almost reminded me of my time with God of War: Chains of Olympus as there is a button to roll/dodge and one to defend. Quite often I would play encounters like I did with GoW, dodging and blocking judiciously. Make no mistake, though, the game contains elements that are undeniably Final Fantasy.
Essentially the games are the same with the main exception being that the PS3 version has english voice narration for the tutorials. The game is very simple to play and very cool. You use one analog stick to rotate the “level” around to guide your human who has to run to other figures placed around different Escher-like constructs. The trick is to use the perspective to reach places that wouldn’t normally be possible. For example, if there’s a hole that’s impeding your progress, you can rotate the level such that a column covers up the hole. Your dude will walk straight through as if the hole weren’t there. As the old cliche goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.” The demo has a few other neat things you can do with the perspective that I hope the full version expands upon.A US version hasn’t been announce yet, but let’s pray SCEA does us a solid and brings it over here.Check out a video trailer after the break
Download the PSP demo [pspfanboy.com]
