Beyond the...

 ...realm of good games. Boom! Roasted. [insert opening theme]

I ran from it. I hid from it. But it arrived all the same. Writing down my list of twenty five games I'll be playing to finish off my PS1 backlog, I saw that THIS game was on the list. I had never played it, but I've heard a fair bit about it. None of it was good! But I was told similar things about a few games on the SNES, but I kinda liked (Tecmo) Secret of the Stars, Cyber Knights, and Wozz. I also disliked a lot of beloved titles, so maybe I'm weird? I had hopes that I could endure a playthrough of THIS much maligned rpg. Sadly...

Beyond the Beyond sucks. 

Like, it is absolutely terrible. Most people talk about how awful the the random encounter rate, but that's burying the lead. Yes, it is a high rate, but it's the difficulty that exacerbates the problem. If we could mash X and move along in speedy fashion, I could get past it. But every battle needs to last three or more turns. And the mobs aren't magikarpian, either. They hit hard, especially with magic. And gaining only one VP (HP) per level up makes leveling feel not worth it. 

But, and here's the kicker, it also takes forever to level up. Grinding is a necessity, and grinding you will do. Most of the game feels like grinding. Fighting ever random battle isn't enough; you will need to go out of your way to battle. And early on, mobs don't even give enough gold to pay the inn to restore health and mana. It's all just a tedious slog.

But somehow, that isn't the worst thing about combat.  One of your party members can't act fifty percent of the time. Samson, you see, has been cursed. This means he either can't move like he's been fully paralyzed in Pokémon. Alternatively, he hurts himself when attacking. And since HP totals are so low, it's a gamble if he'll kill himself or the opponent, assuming he acts in the first place. I feel punished by playing, and that's why I can't continue. 

Is the story good? I'll never know. There seems to be some neat twists ahead, but the dragon quest style final boss revel appears to be really stupid, too. Secret characters, gimmick dungeons, and and a decent soundtrack would be in my future, but so would more backtracking (I didn't see a McGuffin on the floor), poorly contrasted environments, and awful battles. 

Some people lament the graphics in Beyond the Beyond, but I actually think they're pretty good. BTB was made by Camelot, the same group that would go on to develop Golden Sun and Shining Force, and the early DNA of those games is visible here. I also didn't really like either of those games... But it wasn't the graphics that pushed me away. 

Maybe Beyond the Beyond can be good, but I'm tired of being pinched in the face now. 13/50, or 45%, depending on what review style I want to use. 

In other news,!and in case you couldn't tell, I'm not playing every PSX game I can. I'll be going, mostly, in release order, but some of the later games might be out of place depending on when/if I bother to Wikipedia their release dates. I really want to see how the system evolved over time. Music quality, 3D graphics, gameplay, or just how the general genre and industry has changed. Is the PS1 when quality of life adjustments and "modern" gaming began? Unlike the SNES, I've already played most (but not all) of the classics, but I feel like there's a FFVII hidden somewhere in here. It's gotta off to a terrible start, and I suspect there's a few more upper deckers in here, but I have high hopes. Twenty nine games and six years to go!