Its twisted, mystic plot, cinematic visuals, and excellent surround sound make The 3rd Birthday worth being played twice
The non-linear story covers the period between December 24, 2010, when Aya Brea, the blond half Japanese woman known from Parasite Eve, is being found by Dr. Bohr outside St. Thomas Cathedral in Manhattan in a bloodstained wedding gown suffering amnesia, and December 24, 2013, when she awakes in a cell from one of her nightmarish dreams part of her lost memories, and over flashbacks unrolls until February 16, 2014, aftermath of the final confrontation with the Grand Babel and its putative mastermind.
It is yet on another Christmas Eve, in 2012, when the first Babels –huge hive-like organic structures twisting up toward the sky like giant Christmas trees– make their first appearance throughout the USA, together with the first large-scale Twisted outbreak during a concert at Club Sacrifice in New York City leading to state of emergency and humanity to declare them war.
Quite purposely amnesiac for the flashbacks into the past are to permit altering the reality that already has happened and with this, its future outcome: "you don't need to have a past in order to have a future," while in CTI custody Aya is chosen for her ability dubbed "Overdive" making her capable of –also retrospectively– diving into another person's consciousness. The main goal is to destroy the core, the Big Orb, actually a "Queen", of the Grand Babel serving as sort of a nest for the Twisted, which coming from the future are time-warped to the past to devour humans in the present. But in reality the Twisted and derived creatures are fake life forms that feed on space and time and its distortions, resulting from the interaction of Aya and her younger sister Eve, her very clone adopted ten years ago, in both body and soul: Who shot whom at the wedding between Kyle Madigan and Aya –or Eve?–, resembling also a Gabrielle...
In fact, nobody can be trusted here –with the notable exception of the Japanese scientific Kunihiko Maeda, known from the Manhattan Blockade Incident of 1997– since all the role-playing "y" persons in Aya's life and the Counter Twisted Investigation Team formed in 2011 – CTI Agent Gabrielle Monsigny, Kyle, Eve, CTI Agent Thelonious Cray, CTI OIU Chief Hyde Bohr– seem to eventually turn into Twisted themselves, part of the "evolutionary process", from where they never can go back to being human. But still in her twenties though we know her from back in 1997, is she really herself, isn't she yet one of them, employing with the "parasitic" overdive a mechanism similar to that of the Twisted? – With the Grand Babel, formed by absorbing lesser Babels all over the world, being finally destroyed and Bohr defeated from within his own psyche –or isn't he yet part of hers?–, sucked into the "Doors of Zero" wormhole in a floating world devoid of time, the story ends in the past, at Time Zero, where all began: the big empty St. Thomas, but without blood stains on the dress, yet Kyle who elicits eternity in love doesn't exchange his vow with this young woman he calls "Eve" on this Christmas Eve 2010 1 p.m. which is also her birthday…
Though not called Parasite Eve 3 it is yet another "Eve" to be dealt with in The 3rd Birthday than in the two precedent PS games: while actually a clone, thus a "daughter" of Aya herself, it is Eve Hyde Bohr refers to as the "Mother" who suddenly awakes during the wedding ceremony three years ago, a case of "genetic rebellion" similar to that of the former Neo-Mitochondrial Creatures and what she gets shot for by Aya after everybody's been taken out by the entering SWAT police forces. But then again it is Eve to shoot at Aya and to destroy her soul in order to them become one, fatality causing the birth of two new species: the Twisted, from the fragments of Aya's soul scattered to all corners of time and space, and the Higher Ones, from the deterioration of Eve's de-souled body, carrying her memories and thus the ability to overdive. – But isn't this nubile body with Aya's DNA displaying the "strange behavior of disappearing whenever data surfaces concerning her past" yet the "Ultimate Being" Melissa Pearce has been gestating, vainly hoping for "a world where she doesn't exist"…?
Albeit visibly –and audibly: the cries and groans even when out of ammo are one of the few negative points in this outstanding game– more vulnerable than the former games' Aya Brea, she profits from the overdive allowing her to fight as the individual forces consecutively and simultaneously participating in combat: being many and scattered rather than lone and static thus offering a strategic advantage, which together with other abilities like Crossfire (temporary coordinated shootout while in psychic link with other nearby combatants) and Overdive Kill (diving into a Twisted making it implode from inside) make most of the continuous battles exciting and fun thanks to the intuitive controls permitting a fluid gameplay without loosing suspense.
What too contributes to variation in the numerous (boss) fights on Aya's way to the truth about Time Zero are the foes themselves, the Twisted, taking the form of a number of other more developed creatures some of which may remotely recall those of survival horror games like Dead Space: the incomplete Slackers, the "quantum" Wads alternating between wave form and balloon, the wasp-like airborne Stinkers and spider-like Snatchers, the Beans, Rollers, and Rovers, the small Runt and large Spawn worms, the persistent, psychokinetic Mudflaps and the pernicious, almost ubiquitous Reapers, the gigantic tentacled Helix, the wavering Queen, and finally the Twisted-turned humans, the "High Ones", themselves whose intelligent self-awareness makes different from the "run-of-the-mill" ones: Emily Jefferson, Gabrielle, Kyle, Hyde Bohr... Both the changing setting and foes' characteristics make every Twisted encounter a new, challenging experience; namely Aya's face-off with Kyle Madigan –didn't he promise to protect her?– and his facet "Evil Eye", wormholes to parallel universes, in the North Shallow Tower he made his base and where the Grand Babel has been formed, countdown to the Coalition Force's nuclear strike after destroying the nodal orbs vital to the energy circulatory system in its interior –enough energy to "engulf the present"–, and her final confrontation with the supposed Twisted brain Hyde Bohr –in order to "go beyond Zero" and stop the past from repeating itself– with both swapping bodies with the other High Ones in an incandescent psychic Overdive space, are truly unique bossfights also through to the game's specific co-op combat mechanics.
What evidently facilitates fighting off the many Twisted creatures popping out of nowhere is the possibility to lock on the targets for all but the special weapons (Sniper rifle, Satellite cannon…) and except the bosses requiring all a specific approach. Also coming in useful here, just when on the brink of despair, are armored vehicles and even choppers the gunner of which can be pointed at the bigger beasts in the later chapters, when assaulting the North Shallows Tower and Grand Babel.
But whilst the controls are easy to manage and work generally well with limitations in swiftness being due to the PSP's properties rather –moving both the character and the camera by means of the left thumb–, the sometimes far too obscure though thoroughly splendid visual settings make it every so often quite difficult to orientate, for instance when having to escape a Reaper's deadly grip, in unknown caves and corridors that soldier-swapping one hurries along and across.
Although the game's many tense moments in general are not due to one's struggling with the controls, gameplay may occasionally be impacted through the automatic covering not always working predictably: so Aya may stay upright after some co-op shooting action or leave cover unexpectedly, which in case of Twisted like the Mudflaps might yet also be "as designed". But being overly exposed often signifies not succeeding to survive until the next reinforcing soldiers come in whom to dive into, however a life-sustaining mechanism in the psychological horror action that characterizes The 3rd Birthday. Alike cover yet also Aya's own "protective gear" does easily get destroyed making her look as if wearing underwear only, seemingly inappropriate in this hostile environment, while unlockable stuff like the "Maid's Uniform" are downright a trait of bad taste in this otherwise serious game.
A hindrance may also appear the fact of crossfire not always being available or ammunition frequently running out except that of the default handgun, including the curiosity that although the successive participants in a combat Aya can switch body with have a different weapon layout each, grenades once consumed are not provided by neither of them. But the weapon bank permitting purchasing and customizing up to four weapons –Assault rifle, Shotgun, Launcher…– to be carried along, featuring capacity, accuracy, impact, handling, thanks to the points and parts generously gained during the missions, compensate largely for this defect, in addition to the useful Over Energy settings to be experimented with. These consist of DNA fragments Aya obtains when overdiving into another person or a Twisted: normal DNA chips enhancing healing, cross healing, antibody; rare and evolved ones favoring energy defense, rapid link, impact wave; and also negative ones slowing down healing or defense. As two (formattable) DNA board are available, and a third one after a first playthrough, successful experimentation with up to 30 OE chips to be equipped –while sort of a game of chance in itself– can give quite satisfying results, for instance, coming back to full life one time after dying: "a life without gambling isn't a life worth living," as one CTI member assures.
As in other JRPG action games every time completing one of the six episodes the player gets a score evaluating the mission success taking into account the duration, difficulty level, number of deaths and completed tasks, which in addition to the unlockable Cheat codes (e.g., High Regen or Free Crossfire) contribute to the interest in replaying the game, as more as the campaign –without repeating bossfights– in spite of its many cutscenes might be considered rather short.
But its good playability and impacting mystical story in addition to the impressive visuals and atmospheric music (Yoko Shimomura, Mitsuto Suzuki) as well as sound design (Masami Abe) make The 3rd Birthday worth being played at least twice…