The year is 1998: Ocarina of Time has just come out for the Nintendo 64 and the gaming world is fast approaching a new era of dominance -- the time of Playstation over Nintendo and CD over cartridge. During this time, great change the Japanese developer, Sting, created a rougelike called Baroque for the SEGA Saturn. Owing to the failure of the Saturn, the game was ported across to the PlayStation a year later, something the West forfeited.
Fast forward ten years and Sting finally made a port to the PS2 and to the Wii. Atlus USA decided that it was time to include this title in their already vast collection of obscure and difficult Japanese games, and fortunately for those of us in the UK, Rising Star Games decided to publish it.
In the future, a cataclysm known as the Blaze has destroyed the world, leaving behind a fragmented, damaged humanity which only exists by clinging onto delusions known as baroques. Long after this disaster occurs the player-named protagonist awakens without any memories of the past, the future and has no ability to speak. The only things that the player is able to do are feel the immense guilt that’s been left with him -- he is also able to think and move, fortunately.
And even if you don’t find out straight away, Baroque reveals tiny slithers of information to the inquisitive player the more that players try to speak with the deformed humans around them. Eventually the player learns what the fate is of those who are unable to handle their baroques: they become meta-beings and go to live in the Neuro Tower and basically become monsters.
The protagonist’s sin is so large that it is directly related to the blaze, and to atone for this sin the player must travel to the Neuro Tower and venture to the bottom floor. The player will only find out that they have to go to the Tower and venture to the bottom floor when they try and go out into a dessert looking area and are stopped by a vision of the Archangel who hands over the Angelic Rifle, which is able to kill anything, even God, in one hit.
However, clearing the Tower isn’t what’s required of the player: they need to know when to die. Death isn’t the end in Baroque; it’s just the beginning. Throughout the entire game the player must decide when it’s the right time to die, although the punishment for death is a harsh one. As with most roguelikes, all of the items and skills that the player has developed will be reset.
Fortunately, the deeper into the Tower the player goes, the more Warp Points appear. These places are where certain items can be thrown out of the Tower and they will appear with a Collector close to where the protagonist can always be found at the start of each new life. There’s also a large element of religion, false gods, gods and various other confusing and emotional storylines inside of the main “atone for your sin” storyline, as well. This is the main reason why players will continue with this game.
The first play through will be painful for many gamers, and even for the aged dungeon crawler fan Baroque is unbelievably awkward. As so little information is revealed to the player, the first few hours are confusing, painful and will lead a lot of players to reconsider continuing with the title. This is a shame as although it’s slow, this game is a piece of storytelling genius.
The health system is equally as complicated, rather than having the standard HP and MP bars, there’s the standard HP bar and then there’s the VT. VT is the player’s vitality and this continually goes down, even when the player is not moving. However, as long as the player has some form of VT the HP will continue to replenish itself upon being attacked. Unfortunately, as soon as the VT runs out the player’s HP will start to decrease along with any attacks they receive. There are items that will help keep the VT up, but it’s a complicated balancing act as some items improve VT and damage HP and vice versa.
This can all be forgiven by the vast amount of weapons, power ups, and healing items that can be collected. There are dozens of different weapons and ways of using items to kill the enemies around the floor; alternatively, the player can summon the enemies into one room and then run and try and find the portal to the next floor.
In terms of the game's graphics, they really aren’t anything special. The models on all of the characters are great and the characters themselves are well designed but they’re by no standard close to what we would expect today. The same is said for the general presentation of the Tower itself. It’s a randomly generated dungeon, similar to Shiren the Wanderer; however, there are only about four different types of dungeon so when the player is delving deep into the dungeon it can feel a little samey. The controls aren’t too bad -- they’re a little basic but on the option of the Classic Controller or the Wii Remote are great. There’s a very small amount of Wii Waggle, and with either option the controls are primitive.
Unfortunately, the camera angles are absolutely atrocious in Baroque. They’re so bad that they can actually be a distraction from killing enemies in the game, which is a huge shame as there are so many of them to kill. For those of you who like obscure games, think The Legend of the Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon on the N64 and then think ten times worse and you’re in the territory of Baroque’s camera angles. Fortunately the enemies themselves don’t require any thought to kill, it’s literally a hack and slash type game with a great storyline.
The voice acting and music in Baroque is top notch. Although there’s limited animation in the characters themselves, the voice acting is superb and doesn’t sound false or painful in any way. The music is eerie and horrible and will stick with the player for some time as well.
To see more screenshots from Baroque, click here.
Baroque is a marmite game: you’ll either love it or hate it. It’s a piece of interactive fiction genius and although the gameplay can be a little poor at times, the entire package is great and is well worth picking up if you enjoy a hard, dungeon crawler challenge.
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