Let's Play Beyond the Beyond: Intro

[ladyabaxa]

Welcome to what might tentatively be called a Let's Play of the Playstation game Beyond the Beyond. Since this is just our introduction to the game I'll only be covering the basics to start with.

Now the game does have an introduction blurb in the manual that I have transcribed but I won't be adding it to this post. The blurb provides more background then the characters get in-game for a long time and I'd like to let the narrative build up on its own rather then have an info-dump at the start then have to pretend it didn't happen. The backstory isn't terribly spoilery but it reveals stuff about the world's cosmology and history that most of its denizens have since forgotten. Instead when I get to plot explanations (yes, we will need them) down the road I'll include that blurb since it will be relevant.

What is Beyond the Beyond?

Our choice of game is a by-the-book jrpg made by Camelot Software Planning. That's the same folks, more or less, who made the Shining Force series and the similarities will become apparent almost immediately. If you've played Shining Force 2 you'll have a very good idea of how sprites are animated for this game because the same techniques were reused. Is Beyond the Beyond a good game? Eh, it's playable, entertaining at times while being frustrating at others. I've never run into major game-breaking bugs, though, so after some of the games I've played that's a major plus for Beyond the Beyond. It's light on plot although as will become apparent the game has a rushed feeling to it so chunks of planned plot probably got canned. It was released in 1995 (1996 for those of us in the U.S.) as one of the first rpgs for the brand new Sony Playstation and this probably explains better then anything else why the game leaves so much to be desired. (On that front it shares much in common with Summoner which was a launch title rpg for the Playstation 2.)

The game got pretty horrid professional reviews when it was released and even people who like it usually add caveats when talking about it. Since I've already played most of the Camelot rpgs released prior to this title and seem to like inflicting pain on myself while gaming I figured this would be a good romp through WTF land. This will be a screenshot playthrough of the game and although I don't guarantee 100% I will try to cover as much as I can. Ok, let me rephrase that, I know I won't be getting 100% completion for this run because that would require a ridiculous amount of level grinding.

I said the game is a by-the-book jrpg and I mean it. The main cast are 13 and 14 year old kids with the stereotypical thin, male, cis, able-bodied, hetero lead that every other Camelot rpg leading up to this has had. The plot is a predictable "save the world" narrative. It does have a few twists compared to Camelot's prior work but many tropes and plot elements are straight-up copied over. As TV Tropes would put it, Beyond the Beyond is a jrpg Cliché Storm (word of warning: the TV Tropes page for this game has unmarked spoilers). I will point out, explain, and of course poke fun at these and all the bad design decisions in the game. I will also point out where Beyond the Beyond reuses things from previous work and how the game relates to the prior by-the-books rpg Shining in the Darkness and Camelot's later effort Shining the Holy Ark, because I can.

The game's soundtrack was composed by Motoi Sakuraba. If you've played any of the Tales series you should be familiar with Sakuraba's work. Beyond the Beyond's soundtrack isn't remarkable but it's not bad and worth a listen at least once even if you plan on never playing the game. I have uploaded a few select tracks to Tindeck to complement the playthrough. You can find them right here. A rip of the game's audio can be found here. Just be aware that some of the track titles are a bit spoilery. Then again anyone with an interest in game soundtracks probably already understands that fact.

Game Background

The game provides next to nothing outside the manual in the way of prologue or explanation before the player is thrown right into the narrative. As such I'm going to start off with a scan from the world map in the manual. The entire book's black and white and there's not much detail to this map but it will be a long time until we get any sort of in-game map. Sections of this will be used as we progress around the continents.

(Click for full size version.)

Our story begins, as most by-the-book jrpgs do, in a small village. The village this time is called Isla and it is part of Marion Kingdom. Kingdoms in game consist of a castle and a small town but the story assumes they're more heavily populated then they appear to be. When the game does this we'll just have to smile, nod, and remember the Law of Conservation of Detail. Anyway, Marion is part of the Greenheim continent. The island labeled Greenheim was part of the continent a long time ago but was split off many years before the game begins. It may be a little confusing but the entire eastern continent is actually Greenheim and that island isn't. It has its own name which we will learn much later.

Next door is the continent-that-has-not-been-named which is connected to the southwestern continent of Aridia and its mysterious valleys ringed by high mountains. Yes, very mysterious and certainly not the location of end game dungeons that will require convoluted plot tomfoolery for us to reach. Nope. Not at all. Note that there are towns and dungeons not marked on this map for no reason other then making the player explore.

How This Will Work

I'm planning on updating at least once a week usually on Sunday (or Monday). Depending on available time and the pace of the game I might post more frequently then that but once a week is what I'm shooting for. Yes, this is an RPG and once a week updates means this will take some time. We're settling in for what will probably be a long haul. I will add summaries at the end of some updates to keep everyone up to the speed on the major plot points. If you're allergic to dialogue, however, you may want to just skip this project. This is a narrative playthrough and the point is to tell a story - one that will require me to do lots of hole filling. Most of those holes will be filled in with people talking.

This playthrough uses mostly static screenshots. Whenever an animated GIF is included it is preceded by a text warning so if you don't want anything animated or have such GIFs blocked you'll know when and where they are.

If you don't like reading or dialogue YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. This is your last chance to turn back!

Dialogue will usually include an avatar like mine! Well, for me it would if I had any actual lines in this game. I don't so my lines will actually be in italics like this to denote that they've been added for the playthrough.

That's enough chatter for this introduction. We'll be diving right into PLOT next time. Discussions of game mechanics will pop up when relevant as Gameplay 101 bits.

Good. I'm already tired of explaining things to the readers. Now if you'll excuse me I have a fourth wall to go hide behind.
 

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To find the Table of Contents (which was once part of this post but had to get split off due to size) go here.