I’m probably the only weird person who has a PSP backlog in 2019, but there are still a few games I wanted to try before I say goodbye to my dear oldie for real.

Beyond the Future, fix the time arrows, is one of them.

The setting looked interesting because it reminded me of some kind of JRPG, so I decided to ignore the terrible graphic resolution (and I really mean it, sometimes it’s even blurry. I can’t blame the PSP, since I’ve played a lot of old games with a better quality) and trust old Rejet’s writing.

Instead of talking about individual routes, since they were too short, I’ll just explain the key points of this game, so you can decide if it’s still worth playing in 2019.

1- The common route is really long.

If you play otome games mostly for romance and cute scenes, this game is absolutely not what you’re looking for: it took me about 10 hours, or even more, before something remotely romantic with a guy started to happen.

You can’t expect this game to be sexy, it’s more like a story of friendship which develops into love after a long time. I appreciated this decision, because it felt more natural than other games which “force” love scenes when the characters barely know each other; but still, the individual route should have been way longer, because after the first playthrough I could basically skip 80% of the game. Only a few scenes and the ending change, which is really awful since I had to watch my poor PSP skipping for hours just to enter a route.

2- The characters

These boys are amazing, I loved them all.

Their personalities are different, but they become a close group of friends while fighting for the same believes. They were strangers at first, but they grew to consider each other as some kind of family to protect. Also, their interactions are often comedy gold.

Nate was my favorite, but each one has a special charm!

3- The plot may seem generic, but it’s well developed.

Let’s face it, the theme “let’s save the world from an evil god!! let’s show them the power of friendship and love!!” is clichè and overused, you could find thousands of games with the same pattern. Still, this setting is kinda unusual for otome games and it felt refreshing and nice.

4- The villains are interesting as the main characters

Most of the times, different villains tend to look all the same through the game, so all I think is: “I hope they’ll get rid of him soon, I’m tired of his annoying face”, but it wasn’t the case here.

In fact, he looked so cool I’d actually play his route if possible!

He wasn’t just “bad without a reason”, the psychology behind his actions was interesting.

5- The heroine is useful

It’s actually kinda sad if I feel the need to write about this, but… yes, the heroine fights and she’s not there just to be protected. Well, she’s not that strong and she often relies to her friends, but still she isn’t afraid to stand on her own.

Would I recommend this game?

Overall I enjoyed it, but I can’t recommend it in 2019: it looks blurry and “old style” for various aspects, since otome games have changed a lot in these past years.

It’s sad, but when many years pass after the release, some remain masterpieces, while others feel outdated.

I still liked it, but probably because I’m a veteran, since I started playing years ago and I was used to systems like this; but people who got into this genre recently, probably will think Beyond the future is boring. The choice is yours!