Parasite Eve 2 as Allegory For Inequality

Let it NOT be said that these past few months of obsessive devotion to the playing of the Playstation games (as evidenced by recent blog postings) has been in vain. Or a waste of time. Or that, surely, I could find something more worthwhile to do with my time. I say, not so!

For, whilst I was embedded in manic hours of console madness, I discovered a remarkable revelation.

Indeed, it came to my attention, during the desperate throes of trying (unsuccessfully) to beat the Knight Golem in the Akropolis Tower in Nightmare Mode of Parasite Eve 2, that I was doomed from the start of the Nightmare Mode game. Doomed. And why was I so doomed? Because Nightmare Mode imposes a set of impossibly harsh preconditions upon the player, which are incredibly hard to overcome. In fact, you can't actually ever overcome them  - the enemies are always super strong and Aya (the player's character) is always super weak. As a result of the imposition of such, um, austerity measures (it's as though Aya were allowed but one gold coin to pay for necessities which cost, like, a gazillion gold coins), Aya is destined to die, die, DIE!

It is my contention, thus, that Parasite Eve 2 (and its multi-gameplay-mode system) provides a comprehensive parable/allegory - or parabellegory - for social, economic and cultural structures which allow inequality to flourish. [However, I do not intend to write a thesis about it. This blog post will (more than) suffice.]

Parasite Eve 2 has four unlockable modes of play (ie these modes can only be accessed after the player has completed Normal Mode). The four unlockable modes are: Replay/Bounty/Scavenger/Nightmare.

Replay Mode is like being born into a safe and wealthy family, living in a safe and well maintained neighbourhood, going to a safe and well funded school, having a safe and well paying job, and rarely being discriminated against or oppressed.

Here are the gameplay specifications for Replay Mode (mission level: easy):

The modes become progressively more difficult - mission levels: normal (Bounty), then hard (Scavenger):

Until the most evil, Nightmare (mission level: forget about it, aka very hard)(note: there is no exclamation mark at the end of the blurb - as there is for the other modes - not very encouraging):

Nightmare Mode is like being born into an unsafe and poor family, living in an unsafe and poorly maintained neighbourhood, going to an unsafe and poorly funded school, having an unsafe and poorly paying (and probably crappy) job, and frequently being discriminated against and oppressed.

I know which mode I would want to play/be born into.

For this blog post, I conducted primary research into the Parasite Eve 2 inequality parabellegory phenomenon. My methodology involved extensive interviewing with a regular Parasite Eve 2 player (aka me), with special attention to the intellectual, physical and emotional responses experienced whilst engaging with (aka playing) Parasite Eve 2. I have compared and contrasted these responses (via two insightful statements) with explicit regard to Replay and Nightmare Modes:

Statement 1: "I have just finished playing Replay Mode (again - I've played it 3 times now! it is awesome) and I had the best weapons and ammunition and health and all the asshole creatures got massively killed and I am great."

Statement 2: "I kept getting killed when I attempted to play Nightmare Mode and this sucks and I had crap weapons and ammunition and no health and I didn't have the energy to keep playing and I turned off the console and I went to bed and I am not great."