Not the triumphal return I hoped for my beloved Aya.
The original Parasite Eve got a sequel in 2000, after that the heroine of the saga, Aya Brea, fall into absolute silence.
The announcement of the pretty girl return with a brand new title for PSP excited old players longing to see again one of the better characters of the 32 bit age hoping in a new life for a so good but forgotten franchise.
Unfortunately The 3rd Birthday disappoints from the beginning hardcore players changing totally the game genre, not a cinematic RPG, but an out-and-out third person shooter with only bland RPG elements.
Moreover The 3rd Birthday share practically anything with the old two Parasite Eve connoting itself like a sort of spin off instead a real part of the franchise. Feeling pointed out even by the plot, seeing familiar characters in completely new guise including a totally new characterization for the main heroine, far light years from the woman we loved in the prequels.
The 3rd Birthday begin with New York overran by a monstrous invasion of nightmare creatures renamed as "Twisted", with an infestation soon menacing all the world.
Aya Brea is member (or better some kind of prisoner) of an agency called CTI and last hope to stop the infestation thanks to a astonishing power. In all the game there's no mention to mitochondria, but Aya get the possibility to send her very conscience in other bodies people taking control of them. Together with a time machine devised by the CTI they'll try to set the quarrel with the monstrous twisted sending Aya's soul directly in the past.
Now let me say that this "Overdive" system is one of the better design ideas of the last period of time. In real time Aya can jump from host to host like Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap taking control of each human around her. This makes possible escape from a body badly damaged (even if the host got a fatal blow) or jump in a soldier with a better view of the enemies or carrying a better weapon.
Combat is obviously in real time with the possibility to aim enemies directly, cover behind obstacles in order to avoid opponent's attacks, launching grenades and fighting using several types of bullet weapons including guns, sniper rifles, bazookas and more.
Aya got another couple of aces in her sleeves during fights. First she can order a full fledge attack if during a fight there are other soldiers around her. Second when an enemy (boss included) is badly hit will show a weak state allowing Aya to overdive inside him causing tons of damage. Last, after filling the appropriate energy bar, she can use the "Liberation" command blessing her with few but precious seconds of powerful and damage dealing fury.
So far I described an amazing game…
it should be so, if only we'd have a control system able to be after the design choice.
Unfortunately controls of The 3rd Birthday are rigid and uneasy like few. Though an effecting button mapping the control through analogic stick is practically terrible, hard and overall unable to assure the precision needed especially in most convulse situation or using a sniper rifle.
Most weapons allow to auto-aim the nearest enemy but the clumsiness of the control together with the reduced view angle during aim will take you tons of damage coming from side and back. Moreover Aya is pretty weak to damages taking the player to jump often between host bodies.
Generally good part of the game consists in battles against the twisted. Those last are surely interesting either in design that in behaviors, but pretty limited in numbers while far in the game you'll find again the same monsters only powered in attack and defense. Same for the bosses: great and bad creating some epic fighting, but some of them gone faced even two times… in a row!
The game is not ungenerous with spectacular moments but upstream the rigidness of the controls and the frustration that can give during the omnipresent battles make void almost all the fun provided by the game. Moreover in The 3rd Birthday there's not much besides combat.
Plot is interesting, but hard to follow especially for the first half of the game cause the several time jumps of Aya and only in the final stage will come to a satisfying explanation.
RPG's elements are pretty simple allowing Aya to unlock new weapons to develop later purchasing extra customization parts with battle points obtained killing enemies. Though several weapons stats and a good number of customizable parts, once fully developed, each weapons are pretty similar between them making their choice more a personal question than motivated by their features.
Another system of upgrade allow to place on a 3x3 grid DNA fragments taken from enemies enabling some extra features or skill. However the real usefulness of the extra features is pretty limited, with only a couple really essential.
But the worst point is the new characterization of game's protagonist.
Modern Aya has practically anything in common with the strong-willed heroine we was used. We could easily say that simply is not Aya Brea.
In the beginning her character was, how say, hyper-sexualized.
Aya always was beautiful, but the new characterization is really too much. Beginning from her silhouette, slender with tapered legs, squeezed in a leather petticoat. The polygonal model transmit an impressive amount of sensuality just making her walking around. More fanservice is provided by her dress tearing during combat, showing generous portions of Aya's skin.
Poor even the psychological characterization: Aya does not speak much and say practically anything worthy of listen. Often during the game and cutscenes she limit herself to moan and gasp uselessy (however, dialogues are generally weak for most of the game's characters).
Overall the feeling is to play a game with a Playboy model with the charisma of a inflatable doll instead of a powerful heroine.
The 3rd Birthday fortunately does not disappoints on the technical side.
The use of the hardware is impressive just like the new setting, locations and monsters design. the game go smooth without any slowdown neither with several models, bullets and monster attacks moving at the same time. Less incisive the sound with music and sound effect fair but without virtuosity. Pretty good even the voice acting despite the general poverty of most of the game dialogues.
Final Line
The biggest flaw of The 3rd Birthday is that there was no need to trouble the brand of Parasite Eve to create a game that hardly have any connection with the very brand.
The 3rd Birthday could be easily a new game interpreted by brand new characters without risking of ruin a brand still loved by several players.
The retouch to the main character is simply unforgivable destroying our hardcore heroine in favor of a sex icon cretin like a goat good only for teenagers.
To the flaws we must add the bad control system able to ruin almost good this experience have to offer.
However, The 3rd Birthday it is not a waste. Those who don't care about the destruction of the main characters or players don't fear some frustration will probably play it with a fair amount of satisfaction.
But for the triumphal back on the scenes of Aya I expected better… much better.
Final Score: 6.5