It’s much the same with MP, though Aya will gain a few extra points every time a Parasite Energy is strengthened. The player character, Aya, does not level up normally and the only way to gain more HP is through armour or the elusive Protein Capsule item. The problem with PEII is that it has a quite a steep learning curve, as it presents itself as a standard action RPG with survival horror elements without fully explaining how the mechanics all work. I was playing this game at the peak of my ‘grinding for hours is for wieners, gimme my sweet FMV cutscene already’ phase, meaning that I took the same approach to PEII as I did to FFVIII - waste your MP on fire offences (Pyrokinesis in PEII, Ifrit in FFVIII ) and just continue running away from every non-essential encounter to get through the story. The intro got me hooked right away and the catch-up during the opening credits roll seemed to fill me in on what the hell this game was meant to be about, so I was more than happy to jump right in. I was on spring break at this time, and had nothing else to do for the foreseeable future, so I was happy to part with my spending money for the fortnight. It was also one of the cheaper games on the rack, at a measly $25. I can’t remember exactly why I picked up Parasite Eve II, I had never heard or the series and what good would it do to skip the first game? I read the back, it sounded like a cool sci-fi RPG mix and the Squaresoft logo had me curious. The shelves were filled with plenty of games I neither recognised, nor owned the consoles they were for, and instead I headed to a small rack of PS1 games at the back of the store. I asked the clerk at the counter if they had Resident Evil 3, to which he shook his head and said I could leave my details in case someone ever brought one in. When I walked in initially, I had an instinct that I wanted to find any Resident Evil game on-disc, so I could finally use a controller. (Actually…I still check the CD section of every Vinnies I go into, since sometimes games get put there by accident - it was how I came across my copies of Bust a Groove and Final Fantasy VII a few years later) I felt like an idiot for not searching for this place sooner, since I wasn’t shopping online at this point in time – how else did I expect to find used games, Vinnies? Just right there, in a big shopping centre, not hidden away in a side-street like I thought such sacred places should be. It was here that I came across a used games store, Gametraders. It was a bit of a novelty for me, a treasure trove of Korean import accessory stores that I’d browse longingly, and filled with cafes that I was too self conscious to go to by myself. On weekends, I’d sometimes trek to Burwood to window shop instead of my local centre in North Ryde. The weather grew colder, and my room was so cold that I decided to just sleep on the floor in front of the lounge room heater each night until spring. There was something about the familiarity of Fisherman’s Horizon blaring through my TV’s tinny speakers and the constant cicadas outside that was very comforting about my most hated season.Īs my my first year out of school dragged on and I became obsessed with Resident Evil, I spent more time out of my room and in the study, playing emulated versions with a keyboard since I didn’t own a gamepad. I spent the summer of 06-07 dragging that one floor fan between the downstairs study and my bedroom, split between playing emulated SNES JRPGs and my seasonal tradition of FFVIII. When I finished high school and my grandma moved away, I was left to my own devices in a house far too large for a seventeen year old. I spent most holidays endlessly replaying Final Fantasy VIII, lazily wandering from one town to the next and interacting with every NPC I could. We didn’t have air conditioning, and the one floor fan in the house was permanently commandeered by my grandma - so I’d shut myself in my room and play PS1 games in the sweltering heat on my tiny, 14 inch CRT TV. When the cicadas really started up in the last few weeks, I began reminisce about how I’d spend my summer holidays in high school. It’s beginning to become a bit of a holiday tradition, since I finished it for the first time in the same stagnant heat during the January break earlier this year. So far, I’ve spent my time napping, flicking between streaming apps and replaying Parasite Eve II. I thought moving to the city would drown out the noise of cicadas, but instead it’s drowned out by the traffic and somehow taken all of my energy along with it. Blame it on having to pay five weeks of rent this month, the heat rising above my tolerable 22☌ or my genuine inability to make plans with my friends. I’ve only got a couple of days left, but I believe I’m slowly going stir crazy from being inside. I’m currently on the longest ‘vacation’ I’ve ever taken from work (eight glorious days).
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