03.21.08
BEYOND THE BEYOND
I haven't played this game in ages. If you've ever played this game before you'd know why. So for this article I'm just going to be typing away based on my memory of this game. (The following isn't a review but if you're lucky and never experienced this game before here's a great review.) It still holds a place in my childhood. While many claim that FFVII was the first RPG on the playstation, they're obviously fucking wrong because there were shitloads of games that came out pre-FFVII. Titles like Suikoden, Persona...and Beyond the Beyond. And on the topic of that, back then Japanese games normally always got a new American cover. When it came to RPGs they normally altered the heroes of the game to look masculine (whereas in game they normally looked like sixteen year old girls.) I wonder how Beyond the Beyond managed to dash that...
I recall Beyond the Beyond (which will now be shortened to "BTB" for this post) was the first RPG I played on the PS. I was entering a new era of games after playing tons of great SNES RPGs. I was excited to play BTB, to experience a new RPG. I was a japanophile at the time so I of course didn't notice how bland the character designs looked, I was just happy that this game was Japanese! I also noticed that a female did the character designs. This was at a time in America when finding girls that actually did play video games their boyfriend didn't force them to play was extremely rare. So I thought "YAY! GIRL CHARACTER DESIGNER!"
Looking at the character profiles is probably laughable. Especially considering how cliche all the characters are. Well I sadly can't laugh considering how Final Fantasy 7 "broke" the cliche of characters. Now every fucking RPG hero is a skinny angry asshole of some kind. I never knew how much I'd miss simple protagonists like Finn.
So on to the game. Beyond the Beyond actually wasn't AS bad as I make it out to be. There were actually some great points about this game. One that I wish were in other RPGs. Well okay I lied there were only two great points about this game other than the graphics. Uh - the music is done by Motoi Sakuraba and I like how after you reach level 20 for the first time the characters "mature" and alter their appearance. There's also some cool secret characters here and there. I liked how you can get Percy back in your party.
The one thing that really makes this game difficult and gives it it's reputation is the battle system. It was more controlled than the first Street Fighter, but it was similar in the sense that you had to press the button (was it x? can't remember) faster to get a stronger attack just as you had to smash the buttons to do stronger attacks in Street Fighter. I was getting my thumbs busted, but I wasn't having fun like when I played Street Fighter Alpha 2. I was a poor kid back then, I didn't have the money to buy a turbo controller. So in the end I never saw the ending to BTB. There was no way I could push the buttons fast enough to get a strong enough attack in to beat the last boss. The game is so shitty I can't even find the ending on youtube.
For the new generation another series of games came out by the same people. Golden Sun. When this game came out everyone kept telling me how awesome it was. Even guys who didn't even look like they played video games would walk up to me and ask if I've played Golden Sun yet. I was a teenage girl at the time. And during those teenage years guys often pressure girls into doing things they don't really want to do. Feeling like an outcast I finally bought Golden Sun 1 & 2.
The more I played it I noticed the similarities between this game and Beyond the Beyond. The weird ass Shaniqua headsnap the characters do during conversations, annoying "beeping" used in place for voices, the battle animation, the soundtrack, I later pieced together that this was by the same people who made BTB. Oh funny how I brought up FF7 up there. While the protagonist is still silent (only being given the option to say "yes" or "no" throughout the game peridodically) he's a fucking Cloud clone.
While the gameplay elements were better than BTB I'd say BTB was better. I don't know how Golden Sun got all that critical acclaim from everyone. It's not a bad RPG. It's just a bland RPG with every fucking cliche in the book. I can't even remember the characters or story. Worst of all was when the characters would get into deep conversations. The conversations are even more bland than Suikoden 4's. Far worse than me pressing through all that shit in Xenogears. The worst thing about it was when my battery on my GBA was about to run out. I recall one time that the convos would extend for so long that my GBA even died on me before I got to save. I was fucking pissed. I had to press through that convo ALL OVER again.
So what the hell was the point of this article? Well just me recollecting thoughts of a terrible game that later bit my ass in the future with it's mediocrity. Also, both of the games share similarities and it's odd how one is hailed as the greatest RPG for the GBA while the other one is completely shunned.