Role Playing Games (RPGs) had it rough during the early months of the PlayStation’s life. With the first RPG-like game being the dismal and very clumsy King’s Field, gamers would have to wait 7 months before the first true classic style RPG would hit. When Beyond the Beyond finally launched, it was met with a lukewarm response, if not subtle apathy.

As much as Camelot would hate to hear it, the only real claim to fame BTB has is that it became the turning point for the genre. While still holding onto the 16 Bit graphic style with sprite based characters and towns, it started to accept the 3D aspects by creating a polygon based world map and experimented with camera angles in-battle. The result is a sometimes confusing performance as the camera quickly jerks between the active performer and their target.

Everything else in Beyond the Beyond is just standard fare, including most of the storyline clichés you’d expect. This one’s only for those who really want to play every RPG there is to play.

• Beyond the Beyond features one of the most misunderstood mini-plots in the history of role playing games. There is a point in the game where you need to somehow cross a body of water. A local character wants to sell you a boat that costs more than the maximum amount of money your character can hold. While the object was of course to simply find another way around, the script was written in such a way that many gamers thought this to be a programming glitch and gave up on the game!



• There is a hidden opening cinema in the US version of the game. To access it, during the Camelot logo screen, hold Up and Triangle till the clip plays.