Beauty or The Beast allows the player to adventure through a variation of the classic "Beauty and the Beast" tale through the eyes of either the Beauty or the Beast. From the perspective of Belle (the Beauty), her father has been imprisoned in the Beast's castle and she must find her way through the castle in order to rescue him. The Beast is investigating interlopers in his domain.

The gameplay has the player navigating the character through a point and click adventure. Navigate against pre-rendered backgrounds and pick up items to use later. Consult the automatically drawn map for directions. Many of the rooms in the game also contain some type of minigame necessary to advance the overall game. Minigames include reassembling suits of knight armor from a mess of pieces; quickly lighting a sequence of torches; guiding a group of frogs off a fountain via circling lily pads; and protecting a moth from a gang of hungry spiders.

There are two owl brothers -- Horace and Boris Finefeather -- who offer advice and assistance throughout Belle's and the Beast's quest respectively.