Parasite Eve Vs Book Analysis

When it comes to game adaptions of books there are bound to be obvious differences caused by adapting from one medium to another. Are these differences significant enough to mean that a game can never be a faithful adaptation of a book? Faithful adaptations being an “attempt to recapture the original text as closely as possible” (Beach). Using the book Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena and the game of the same name by Square (now known as Square-Enix), it becomes easy to see that games can never be a faithful adaptation of their parent text. The game is canonically a sequel to the novel and explores many of the exact same themes; however, the two could not be any more fundamentally different. It would stand to reason that a direct sequel should …show more content…
Game mechanics are extremely important for a game and are something books naturally lack; however, to derive mechanics from a book’s narrative can be nearly impossible. Therefore the narrative of the text must be altered in order for it to accommodate game mechanics, thus fundamentally changing the adaptation. Parasite Eve shows this alteration by taking what was a very slow paced and detailed story in the book and changing it to a fast paced action one for the game. The book centered around a few main characters, chief being Doctor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toshiaki Nagashima. His methodical way of explaining medical details made the book seem more like a medical journal at times than a sci-fi horror. Instead of the game focusing on these details (which were sparse to almost non-existent) it chose to focus on the relationship between the main villain, Eve, and the protagonist, Aya. The relationship Aya has with Eve is one of constant conflict and gun battles that starts no less than five minutes in (allowing for a little time to explain the setting). The book was never intended as an action packed narrative however, it was more cerebral and deliberate about how it let the story flow. There was a lot of buildup and tension the entire book while Eve1, the main antagonist, waited and planned before showing herself. Eve1 doesn’t make herself known until page 216 out of 299 pages of …show more content…
It is an extremely difficult thing to do that not even movies can get right (Ender’s Game book and movie adaptation comes to mind). Both Parasite Eve book and game were well received for their respective contributions to literature and gaming. The game allowed a new and interesting way to explore the ideas of the novel while not sacrificing game play in order to do so. It is just an unfortunate truth that as an interactive medium games cannot be a perfect map of a text. In order to do that they would have to leave the narrative and plot intact, and take away the player’s ability to grow as the character. A better solution instead would be to take the ideas of the text and spread them into a new direction. Parasite Eve did very well in repurposing the text and so stands as an example to other book/game adaptions; even being described as “a masterstroke of fast-paced storytelling and tension”