The Third Birthday Review (PSP)

It's Twisted

The Third Birthday is the third installment of Square-Enix's Parasite Eve series and the return of the game's heroine, Aya Brea. This game is planed as a mobile game and later became a PSP game.

Author's Note: I reviewed this game during the year of its release and the site where I posted this review suddenly shuts down and I can't retrieve the post. It's a funny coincidence that after I decided to re-review this game for this blog page, I saw Aya Brea in a billboard after re-watching the Final Fantasy 7 Remake E3 2015 Trailer. Oh yeah this review contains mild and vague spoilers, in case that you still haven't played this game.

STORY

New York is suddenly invaded by mysterious creatures called "The Twisted". After this incident, CTI (Counter Twisted Investigation) was formed. Their task is to exterminate the Twisted. The series' main protagonist, Aya Brea, is one of the agents of CTI, she uses her powers to return her soul back in time to change the outcome of the past battles with the Twisted and change the present day. The story is separated by episodes. The plot is convoluted and full of twists, see what I did there? The new characters doesn't have enough backstory, making it hard to care for them. Aya seems different, she acts weak and submissive. She supposed to be strong, hot-headed and stubborn. Guess you have to find out why she's not feeling like herself in this game.

GAMEPLAY

TTB is a great and fun third person shooter with RPG elements. Shooting mechanic is arcadey. No need to manually aim at the enemy because of the game's lock-on mechanic. Aya can also automatically hide behind the destructible barriers when she gets close, there she can pop-out and shoot at the enemies while behind cover. By pressing Circle, Aya will just throw a grenade, you can't even aim, cook and throw it farther. Aya can also dodge up to three times.

As Aya get damaged, her clothes (Gear) are getting torn off. This is a cool mechanic and a fan-service at the same time. Because as Aya's getting stripped bit-by-bit, she receives more damage than usual. So better do lots of dodging to protect yourself. You can unlock better Gear with better durability and damage reduction.

The game have great controls, I'm using [Action Type 2] control scheme. Changing weapons is easy, press L + directional buttons to change weapons. Press R to lock-on to enemies then Square to shoot. Throw grenades by pressing Circle. Press X to dodge. Press Triangle to perform an Overdive.

Aya doesn't have her Mitochondrial powers in this game but she have a new Overdive ability. She can possess different soldiers/bodies using this ability. Overdiving provides strategy, because you want to save and keep the bodies of the humans alive. If you ran out of bodies to Overdive to and you die then it's Game Over. You are rated every mission, obtaining a better rating will reward you with more BP, which you can spend when upgrading weapons and repairing your Gear.

Aya can perfom an Overdive Kill at a Twisted and implode it from the inside, just shoot at the locked-on enemy until the Triangle icon pops up.

Liberation is Aya's "Limit Break" and it's different. Liberation lets you wield dual handguns and fire infinite poweful energy bullets for a short time. Liberation makes Aya much faster and agile, she can also teleport for short distances. You can fill up the Liberation gauge when shooting at enemies and performing Overdives, activate this ability by pressing Triangle+Circle.

There are lots of customization options in TTB. You can view/change/repair Aya's Gear and upgrade your weapons by spending BP. There are lots of weapons upgrades in this game. They mostly look the same, but they have different upgrade options.

As Aya uses the same weapon type, she get proficient with it. For example she gets better on using assault rifles if she use them enough in battle.

Over Energy Settings serves as a mini-puzzle game/upgrade mechanic. You can install DNA chips on a 9-slot 3x3 DNA board to gain what I call "trigger abilities" (randomly activates at certain conditions) provided by the DNA chips you install. DNA chips comes in different random patterns that looks like tetris pieces. You can level up or mutate DNA chips to a different one when you mix it with the same or different DNA chips. The mutation can be good or bad, but you can retry again get better results. DNA chips can be acquired randomly when you Overdive at a human or a Twisted.

GRAPHICS

TTB looks great for a PSP game, one of the best looking handheld games for this system. The environment have nice particle effects and lighting, every area and level isn't boring but mostly pixelated (hardware limitation). The cutscenes for this game are pre-rendered. In-game models are well rendered and animated, but most people you will encounter are soldiers. It's weird that when you talk to any CTI member, their mouths doesn't open.

MUSIC/AUDIO

The game's soundtrack is composed by Yoko Shinomura. She's known for her work in the first Parasite Eve game, Kingdom Hearts and the upcoming Final Fantasy XV. The music really fits the game's mood and atmosphere. Some music are new and some are great remixes from the first game. Voice acting sounded natural which is great. Aya's voice are spot on as I imagined it when I'm playing the first two Parasite Eve games. They made the right choice to pick Yvonne Strahovski to be Aya Brea's voice actress. But due to the game's plot, Aya sounded like a weakling... but in the ending that is how the real Aya supposed to speak and act.

REPLAY VALUE

The game encourages repeat playthroughs to unlock more stuff and that "very special" cutscene. As you finish a difficulty, a much harder difficulty is unlocked. Every difficulty provides new and stronger weapons and gear to unlock. I'm still at Insane difficulty and that's where I decided to move on and play other games. It's too punishing for me even today and there's still a Genocide difficulty. If you're a completionist that's hardcore enough and have the patience to take much punishing, this game is for you.

You can unlock Cheats Codes too if you accomplished a number of feats required. Each episode have different feats. You only get three Assist codes which is good for you. The rest of the cheats are Challenge codes that are meant to punish yourself more, making it the enemy's cheat code.

CLOSING REMARKS

The Third Birthday is a great and fun game to play. Its combat, shooting mechanic, RPG elements and the control schemes are great and easy to learn. The game looks beautiful, audio sounds great and there are lots of unlockables. Sure the story is all over the place, but still you can understand it and the reason why Aya feels like a different person and what caused this Twisted creatures to suddenly appear. By the way the story of this game can jump start the game's franchise. It's a reboot to let go of the Parasite Eve brand name.