Beyond the Labyrinth

Beyond the Labyrinth is an Action RPG game developed by Tri-Ace for the  Nintendo 3DS. It was released exclusively in Japan on January 19, 2012, and was translated to English by Nagato. The game begins with the player beginning to play an online dungeon-crawling RPG titled “Beyond The Labyrinth”. While playing with Pokira, Nerikeshi, and LiLy, the player’s group begins to hear a voice calling out for help. Suddenly, the 8-bit game world vanishes behind static, and as a different world appears before them in its place, the players encounter a young girl, the one calling for help before, startling each other.

Getting over the shock, the girl explains that she fell into the Labyrinth after leaning too far over the edge; luckily, despite the height she dropped from, she landed on top of a healing point (which acts as a save station in-game), which saved her life. Both the girl and players learn that magic is sealed inside the Labyrinth, and many dangerous creatures who use this power reside here.

The gameplay in Beyond the Labyrinth takes place in a 3D world, with the player controlling their “character”—a group of 4 players, with the main character in control—from a first-person perspective. Exploration takes place in several maze-like areas, which are filled with monsters and items. After the introductory segment, the player is joined by a young girl, whom the player accompanies throughout the game. Although unable to use magic in battle at first, the girl is able to perform actions that the player cannot, such as moving lifts and opening special doors.

The game’s battle system combines elements from real-time and turn-based games, as well as incorporating rock-paper-scissors, where three categories of magic attacks—fire, ice, and wind—work against each other in a cycle. In the game, ice (paper) beats fire (rock) beats wind (scissors) beats ice. The group encounters monsters that fall into one of the three categories: fire-based (colored red), ice-based (colored blue), and wind-based (colored green).

The amount of damage the player can inflict depends on the magic types of both the player characters and the enemies. Attacks that are ineffective against a certain type deal half the desired damage; attacks that match the type deal regular damage; and attacks that are effective against the type both deal extra damage and send this damage “in the air”. This damage is based on the character it is taken from and can be used by either friend or foe to both heal themselves and boost their attack power.