A Labyrinth? No, This is Beyond That

Remember
Tri-Ace’s Beyond the Labyrinth for
3DS? It
was announced back in April with some of the prettiest bullshots you’ll ever
see (a Tri-Ace trademark). The actual game looks nowhere near as good as
the initial obviously-upscaled screens, but it’s still pretty. More information
has been shared about the game, which has a curious approach to the dungeon
crawling genre. That’s both good and bad.

 

The best
experience a dungeon crawler can offer to the player is a harrowing dungeon
full of challenging enemies (human or not. Usually not), a maze-like labyrinth
laden with traps and other perils, and plenty of treasure — provided you can
find it for the last one, and if you can survive to make it there. These games
are usually portrayed in a first-person perspective, and this game will be no
different. The Etrian Odyssey titles
have been the most popular games in the genre for the last few years, but there
have also been a few other examples like Shin
Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. These games worked pretty well on DS
because the map and game could always be displayed on both screens, and
thankfully that format that can still be done on 3DS. Similar to the EO games,
it has an auto-mapping system and a landmark marker to mark traps and locations
you’d like to go back to. Unlike the EO games, though, the developers are
promising this game won’t be mercilessly difficult.

 

The
developers haven’t shown the main character, because that will be you. The
difference Beyond the Labyrinth introduces is that, well, you’ll have a very
talkative girl with you as a guide. She got lost while exploring the labyrinth,
which is said to house a sealed magic. (Please note: this is a video game, meaning
that’s code for it definitely having
sealed magic.) Sometimes she’ll lead you around, but you’ll have to do the same
for her when she doesn’t know where to go. Why is she here? Because it’s from
modern-day Japan.

 

But
hopefully the conclusion about having a girl there solely for the sake of
appealing to Japan’s creepy otaku fanbase is wrong. Hopefully the team has her
there to assist in crafting a unique experience that innovates within the
dungeon crawler genre. This is coming from the team that developed the Valkyrie Profile games and Resonance
of Fate, after all. The game’s battles appear turn based, but Tri-Ace isn’t elaborating on its intricacies.
This could be a case of them saving the best for last, because battles are
where their best talents lie. Enemies will be visible on the map, and you’ll be
allowed to have up to four characters in your party. You’ll be fighting along
with the girl, but either they have more characters to reveal, or you can create
your own.

 

Like many older
Tri-Ace games, Motoi Sakuraba will be handling the music. Considering the tone
of the soundtrack samples heard in the trailers, and what used to be on the
website, it’s similar to his compositions from the Valkyrie Profile and Baten Kaitos games. Some are worried
about the soundtrack because sometimes Sakuraba tends to phone it in, but he
only does that for the Tales games
from Namco Bandai.

 

Beyond the
Labyrinth received a release date for Japan this week: January 19th. There are
trailers and 3D
screen shots that can be viewed on a 3DS (click the link to the left above
the screen shots to download them) available on the official website. Hopefully
Konami decides to localize this, because I’d hate to tease anyone with a game
that won’t leave Japan; that’s happening much more often these days.