Beyond the Beyond

"Slightly underrated, but not much."

~INTRODUCTION~

You may like this game, but I didn’t. Everything seems to drag out far longer than it should. The battles seem to last forever, as does walking about towns. However, the battle system is somewhat unique. This is not necessarily a good thing.

I had to give this game some credit though, since it was the first RPG for the PSX. Under these circumstances, I decided a 7 would be a fair rating.

~REVIEW SECTIONS~

Gameplay-4.5/10:
Well, the battle system is original. I’ll give it that. But it’s up to you to decide whether this is good. Rather than HP (Hit Points), BtB has something called “VP“, Vitality Points, that is, and something called “LP“, which is short for “Life Points“. VP acts as HP. When you run out, you become unconscious, and on the next turn, a certain number of LP is used to restore your VP. When you run out of both LP and VP, a reviving item (or staying at an inn) is the only way to restore.

You may like it. I did not. By the time you were at level 99, you had roughly 80 (yes, eighty) VP. This balanced out, of course, because 80 VP in BtB is basically equivalent to 8000 HP in “typical“ Role-Playing Games. This bothered me, though.

Another notable (and extremely frustrating) thing was the dungeons. Extremely difficult. These go beyond challenging. They’re just...hard. Firstly, they are HUGE (major emphasis there), so you might find yourself wandering around for a long time. Also (this is what gets a lot of people) there are no save or recovery points in any of them. And, unless you spend hours leveling between dungeons (which you might have to do), the enemies are usually very difficult. This makes the level of frustration very high. You’ll constantly be restarting. I implore you to use a walkthrough or a player’s guide the first time through. This will make it manageable. You’ll probably be able to make it through a second time without a guide, but definitely don’t try it the first time. You will almost undoubtedly break something from the sheer frustration.

Graphics-8/10:
Eh...by today’s standards, they aren’t very good. But back then, in 1996, they were relatively good. This game is 3-D, so that helps. But it isn’t very good 3-D. A bit cartoonish. But I liked that. Still, if bad graphics bother you, then stay away from this game.

Sound-4/10:
I don’t think there is an option to turn sound off (besides pressing “mute“ on your TV), as I never saw one, but if there is, use it. Of course, it isn’t that bad (I was merely exaggerating) but it is pretty bland. Especially the battle theme. It wasn’t bad enough (to me) to turn it off or anything, but feel free to do so if it bothers you enough. Of course, I can’t play games without sound...

As for sound effects, well, there really weren’t any. Unless you count battle ones, which fit in nicely. They weren’t amazing or original, just nice.

Story-7.5/10:
This starts out as the basic medieval style game where you must save the world. Cliche? Not really. As you proceed, your objectives change greatly. I won’t tell you how, though, as that would be a spoiler.

There are hidden characters that you can obtain, which always adds enjoyment to a game, as well as many other secrets and side quests.

Also, despite the immense dungeons and the profusely difficult enemies and bosses, this game only takes about 25 hours to complete. So it is fairly short. This is bad if you like the game. But you can always find the hidden characters and take on the side quests to make it last longer.

Replay Value-3/10:
Meh. As with most RPGs, this number is fairly low. There really is nothing to do that can’t be done the first time through. Not much else to say here.

Buy or Rent?
You could rent it from Blockbuster. That way, you have 25 hours to allot to 5 days. This is, on average, 5 hours a day. Not too bad. Of course, the price tag is fairly low now, because this game is 6 years old, so you might be better off just buying it.

~CONCLUSION~

Pros: Good story, nice graphics, challenging gameplay.
Cons: Huge dungeons with no save points, very difficult enemies, bland sound, low replay value.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/02, Updated 08/17/02