Beyond the Beyond

"The first console RPG that I played nearly made me swear never to play RPGs again."

Storyline-8/10
I actually gave this storyline a high score because its actually good when I first played the game in 1996.

Graphics-7/10
I have to admit that I actually liked the graphics and didn't mind it in the year 1996. Wow I have to even admit that I bought Suikoden I and this game at the same time. I tried both and finally decided to start with Beyond the Beyond because it looked more brighter and colourful.

Soundeffects/Music-8/10
I actually thought that the music wasn't that bad. But of course I suikoden's music deserves a 10 .

Gameplay- 4/10
I really like this game when I first played it. Wow the first few missions still seemed okay. Do remember that this was my first console style RPG and also my first RPG on the PS. I didn't know what was considered good. I actually accepted this game's lousy gameplay value as okay.
I have to also admit that I actually love the puzzles in the begining of the game. Wow they really made this game interesting. But things soon start to get worse. Then it happened I keep dying in random encounters. Yes random encounters just keep killing my parties even after I use all sort of means to bring them to full health. I have been killed by random encounters in other RPGs long after Beyond the Beyond was released.But when those games do that its usually late in the game or due to my own fault in not healing my party members. Another problem is the random encounter rate of this game. Maybe something is wrong with my disc but its like a few steps to a battle that can end your quest any time. I grew frustrated after a few days and decided to give suikoden a try. The rest is history. I became a fan of the suikoden series and have played I,II and III. I even replayed suikoden I and II but as for this game. Well it remains till today somewhere in my house and no I didn't even bother to use my gameshark when I bought it to use with this game. I guess the bad feelings of being killed by random encounters just made me swear to never ever play this game again.

Conclusion-This game should really be used as a benchmark for what is considered a poorly designed RPG. Then again it should probably be called one of the hardest RPG of all time with random encounters that can kill you.I wonder how many people actually hated RPGS if they had played this game as their first RPG.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/03, Updated 06/12/03