DETAILED REVIEW HERE

User Rating: 7 | Beyond the Beyond PS
By Borg1982 | Review Date:
GAMEPLAY: 8/10 Battles contain backup HP systems, double attacks, counter attacks, critical hits, blocks, summons and magic as the core of its gameplay. Instead of having one large number for HP as in all other RPGs, you get a smaller-than-usual number with a load of backup HP. When you lose your primary HP, that character is groggy and cannot do anything for around a half-turn. With this realistic idea of getting tired in battle in mind, to compensate, you must hit "X" on all attacks to achieve double attacks, counters, blocks and criticals. At least one of these are likely to be seen in each and every battle in the entire game.

STORY: 6.5/10 Some elements of sacrifice and some characterization make this plot fairly memorable, although I should add that there is nothing that goes quote "Beyond any beyond" whatsoever in here. But the title of the game aside, it wasn't bad.

MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS: Some of the tunes are catchy, but Motoi Sakuraba has much better work for other projects than this. The sound effects tend to get me hooked into the battle because I love the enemy dying sound effect and the "ching" when you get a critical hit.

GRAPHICS: The world map is in 3d and the characters in battle are pseudo-3d with good animation. Upsides: Fast loading and pretty short battles overall. The average number of enemies per battle seems to be only three. The walking speed is also average and not slow at all. Lastly, the caves are great to go through. You have to solve things in most of them.

Downsides: Hitting "X" repeatedly in each battle in the entire game in hopes to get critical attacks. Also, the encounter rate is high, although the battles are not very long. Further, the entire game only contains ten bosses -- including final bosses. I was not happy with the beginning 10 hours of my quest because I felt bored when I had not fought any boss at that point into the game. Also, the first half of the game tends to make you back track through caves that you already did and slows your quest. However, the last half makes up for it by adding a flying vehicle and warp spells to towns.

I believe Gamespot's score is unfair and obviously over an entire decade old.
There was nothing major wrong, besides a few drawbacks, that would make this game be a 5.5.

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