Beyond You! is a 2019 free Psychological Horror Visual Novel demo made by HexVexed and released on itch.io
for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. Like Doki Doki Literature Club!, it starts out like a typical Dating Sim before doing a Genre Shift, but it does enough to differentiate itself with the story and characters.
You play as a student entering your last year of highschool alongside your childhood friend, Haruka. Things seem to be going well between You and Haruka. However, everything begins to change once three transfer students from Minami (a school that recently burned down) show up: Aiko, Kana, and Yumi. You and Haruka are then forced to be in a group with the three new girls for a science class. Now, you must choose one of the girls to be your primary lab partner while also solving the mystery of who (or what) caused the fire at Minami.
Unfortunately, the game is on an indefinite hiatus and the last update was in October 2021.
The game provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Bi: Everyone, really.
- Art Evolution: The artstyle from the early demos looks very different from the later demos. Of course, this was going to happen eventually because the early demo character portraits were just altered free-to-use ones, as shown here◊. Once the developer hired an artist, they no longer used stock character sprites.
- Character Customization: The game offers a unique example of this. You are given the option to choose your pronouns at the start of the game. Later on you can choose your height, weight, and eye color, but these options come up at random points in the story and are not available at the start like pronouns.
- Custom Uniform: The characters all have customized uniforms and accesories to fit their personalities. Haruka has pins and a sports wristband, Aiko wears pink thigh-high socks and heels with bows making her look like a magical girl, Kana has spiked bands and fishnet stockings, and Yumi wears the boys uniform.
- Exotic Eye Designs: The four girls all have different card suit symbols in their eyes. Haruka has diamonds, Aiko has hearts, Yumi has spades, and Kana has clubs. When asked about the reason behind it,
the creator said there was no reason for the eye designs other than they thought it was cute. - Late for School: The game begins with the MC and Haruka running late for school. Funnily enough, it doesn't use the Toast of Tardiness trope despite being a Parody of dating sims and Anime.
- New Transfer Student: This is how Aiko, Yumi, and Kana are introduced.
- Sadist Teacher: The science teacher, Mr. Saito. He harshly chastises Haruka and the player (but mainly Haruka) in front of eveyone for being late to class and compares it to creating weapons.
