Beyond the Beyond

Beyond the Beyond
Developer(s)	Camelot Software Planning[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)	Shugo Takahashi
Producer(s)	Shugo Takahashi
Programmer(s)	Kenji Numaya Masashi Muramori Makoto Yamamoto
Artist(s)	Ami Shibata
Writer(s)	Shugo Takahashi
Composer(s)	Motoi Sakuraba
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release	JP: November 3, 1995 NA: September 11, 1996[1]
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Beyond the Beyond^{[lower-alpha 2]} is a 1995 role-playing video game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. Though not the first role-playing game released for the PlayStation, Beyond the Beyond was the first RPG available in the west for the console using a traditional Japanese RPG gameplay style like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Phantasy Star.^[2] The characters were designed by manga artist Ami Shibata of Papuwa fame.^[3]

Gameplay in Beyond the Beyond is, for the most part, standard for a role-playing video game. However, the turn-based battle system does contain one feature that was not standard in role-playing games at the time.^[4] Dubbed the "Active Playing System", this feature allows the player to increase the chances of either landing an improved attack on an enemy or defending from an enemy attack by pressing the X button at the correct time during battle. It is similar to the timing-based attacks in the later role-playing game Final Fantasy VIII (1999).^[4]

Long ago in the world of Beyond the Beyond, a battle raged between the 'Beings of Light' and the 'Warlocks of the Underworld'. Before the planet was destroyed, the two sides signed a treaty leaving the surface world to the Beings of Light and underground to the Warlocks. After hundreds of years of peace, inexplicable happenings begin to occur. The player must control Finn, a young swordsman, to stop the evil power that has broken the treaty and invaded the surface world.^[5]

The soundtrack was composed by Motoi Sakuraba, who later worked on other Camelot Soft titles such as Shining Force III and the Golden Sun series. It is the first of two video games Camelot Software Planning developed for the PlayStation, the other being Everybody's Golf. Sony's internal development studio assisted on development.^[6]

For the North American release, Beyond the Beyond was translated into English by four production personnel at Sony Computer Entertainment America.^[7]

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score GameRankings 44%[8] Review scores Publication Score EGM 7.5/10[9] Famitsu 28/40[10] GameRevolution C[11] GameSpot 5.5/10[2] IGN 4/10[12] Next Generation [13]

Critical assessments of Beyond the Beyond were divided upon its release: While Shawn Smith and Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly found it to be an impressive RPG,^[9] Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer in the same publication and Glenn Rubenstein in GameSpot deemed it derivative and underwhelming, though still a solid and satisfying enough experience for fans of the genre,^[9][2] GamePro's Scary Larry considered it outright "lame and predictable",^[14] and Next Generation described it as "painfully derivative, plodding, and not even a terribly challenging adventure".^[13] However, there were points of agreement, with even the most positive reviews remarking that the game has a very generic RPG visual style^{[9][11][2][13]} and simply does not look like a next generation RPG,^{[9][11][2][12][13][14]} though some also remarked that the 3D battle graphics are impressive.^[9][11][13]

Most reviews said that the story is highly derivative and suffers from overlong, dull dialogues,^{[9][11][2][12]} though Next Generation, which otherwise gave one of the more negative reviews, said the story was pleasingly long and interesting.^[13] While Shawn Smith and Dan Hsu praised the music,^[9] Glenn Rubenstein, Scary Larry, and IGN all called it tepid and generic, and criticized that it is in MIDI format instead of the high quality Red Book audio that was by this time standard for CD games.^[2][14][12] Another common criticism was that the battles are excessively frequent.^[12][13][14]

The game maintains a 44% average rating on GameRankings, from 8 reviews. Review scores for the game included a 6 out of 10 from Electric Playground.^[8] In a retrospective review, Andrew Long of RPGamer argued that the extensive time it takes to complete the game is due mostly to long and complex dungeons, frequent random encounters, and the steep difficulty of bosses.^[15]

• Official website
• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

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