Whatever you want to do...Droid Does
Role-playing games have always been the bastard sons of the videogame industry: they don't have "in your face" mascots with attitude; they lack a wide variety of playable fighters; and they typically don't take place in true 3-D worlds. Beyond the Beyond is an important title in that it's the first "old school" style RPG released for the Playstation (unlike newcomer hybrids, such as King's Field). As such, it could open the door for better "classic style" RPGs in the future.
Despite its earnest effort to bring true RPG action to the console market, Beyond the Beyond doesn't attempt to take the genre in many new directions. In fact, it plays like most RPGs: the world (circa way long ago) is in peril and the player must save it. Starting off as a young warrior, whom the player gets to name, the hero is immersed in hard-to-follow storylines (even after 20 hours of gameplay) that involve dozens of characters, their family members, and an assortment of "bad people." Essentially, it's your run-of-the-mill onscreen soap opera, complete with heartbreaking "... please don't gos" and maniacal "hahahahahahahas." In this regard, the game is somewhat disappointing - all of the drama unfolds within the context of standard gameplay, without the benefit of intermissions (a la Y's). In fact the game only undergoes dramatic cosmetic changes when the characters advance in class (after a certain number of levels) and don new wardrobes.
