I’ve never heard of this game up until now. I was watching a video on obscure titles 의해 Atlus that weren’t SMT 또는 Persona and one game that caught my attention was this strange little game called Baroque. Released originally for the Sega Saturn in 일본 only, it got a remake for the PS2 and Wii, and when Atlus got word of it, they decided to 게시하기 the game, since the game was developed 의해 Sting, and got it released in North America. And honestly, looking at this game, with a post-apocalyptic setting and all this talk of gods and 천사 and stuff… Yeah, I can see why Atlus wanted to get in on the action. I’ve been told 의해 many that this is also one of the hardest JRPGs of all time. Baby, you’re talking to the guy who beat Lucifer on the first try in SMT Nocturne. I think I can handle it. And yes, I am going to brag about that. I have very little, give me this. So with that said, let us get on with Baroque. Also, I will be playing the Wii version because of the better visuals and plus the first person perspective of the PS2 version just did not excite me.
So the game has 당신 play as a nameless boy who wakes up in a world gone to hell. There is very little given to 당신 from there. Honestly, I don’t know what to make of the story of this game because it’s so vague but all the pieces are sprinkled for 당신 through NPC interactions. As 당신 approach a tower, 당신 are greeted 의해 an Archangel that tells 당신 to descend the giant tower, then he gives 당신 a gun and tells 당신 to go kill the god in the tower and leaves. Honestly, I’m not only getting SMT vibes from this game, but also Dark Souls. And that’s a good thing, because I 사랑 Dark Souls. The way the game will only give 당신 a slight 설명 of the story before throwing 당신 into the game and letting 당신 find the story for yourself is quite bold for a game at the time. Most RPGs were doing they’re best to tell 당신 the world, the story, the characters, what size shoe your best friend’s dad had on, doing what they could to keep your attention. But Baroque just throws 당신 right in and tells 당신 to find it out for yourself 의해 going into the Neuron Tower. But let’s talk about the Neuron Tower for a second.
This tower is massive. There are a lot of floors 당신 will be exploring and as 당신 do, the enemies will get stranger and stranger. I thought the weird 물고기 creatures were as odd as it would get, but no, as 당신 go deeper in, the monsters get 더 많이 disturbing and deformed in a way that is actually interesting. Some of my favorites are the jumping creatures that steal your items, a giant mound of flesh that lunges at you, and these little round creatures with 상단, 맨 위로 hats that look like something out of Nightmare Before Christmas. The bizarre visuals of these creatures can really catch 당신 off guard sometimes and can even turn the game into some sort of horror game. 당신 also can only get items from either searching every corner of every floor 또는 killing monsters. This game really wants 당신 to kill as many monsters as possible, as 당신 have both an HP and an AP meter. AP will refill your HP as long as 당신 have it, but it will always decrease. 당신 can increase your AP 의해 killing monsters 또는 eating AP restoring items. But like I said, it is always decreasing. Run out of AP and 당신 start losing HP. Run out of HP and 당신 die. And this is where the game gets hard for many RPG players. When 당신 die in Baroque, 당신 lose everything, and I mean everything. All your items, all your weapons and gear, your current level, and your progress in the dungeon. All you’ve got is story progress and that’s it. 당신 can save your items 의해 throwing them into a storage area, but 당신 can only throw one at a time and they are rare to come by, and 당신 can only save seven items, so 당신 really need to make sure what 당신 get is good. Does this create a challenge? Yes. Is it hard… No. Honestly, I find the game too easy. At least in the way the game intends. Fighting enemies, getting the proper gear, and staying alive is made easy thanks to the fact that enemies are abundant and 당신 can always get good to decent stuff early on in the dungeon. As long as 당신 are hoarding stuff like a mad man, 당신 can always expect to stay alive in this game. No, there are other ways this game becomes a pain in the ass, which we will get to now.
Yeah, as much as I 사랑 the vague story, the art direction, and the banging soundtrack 의해 Masaharu Iwata and even some of the dungeon crawling, this game has a massive flaw with tedium. It’s such a problem that it kinda prevents me from wanting to play the game for a long time. One problem is this game's desire for one button combat. It’s not terrible, given the game, but if 당신 play this game for long periods of time (Like me), it will burn 당신 out after a while. Another thing is while I do 사랑 the vague story telling, what I don’t find fond is the vague gameplay mechanics on how 당신 progress said story. In the Neuron Tower, there are a lot of NPCs to come across, a girl near a fountain, a nurse, some little angels, and many more. This requires going into the dungeon at times to collect one item 또는 talk to one NPC and then possibly die, 또는 do a vague task like giving an NPC a gem 또는 some shit so they can bury themselves 또는 give an NPC a gun who will flat out refuse to take the item and forcing 당신 to die again. It’s really annoying how little the game tells 당신 and expects 당신 to just go through with the tower. And 당신 have to do these vague tasks 또는 당신 will reach the bottom of the tower but be sent back to the start. And going back and forth from the very start of the dungeon starts to get tedious, especially with the similar level design. This isn’t hard at all, this is just obnoxious. But 당신 wanna know what my 가장 좋아하는 part of the tedium is? There is no way back to a 이전 floor. The game has frequent saving, so that’s fine, but if 당신 save over that and need to go back, tough shit. 당신 gotta go up a few 더 많이 floors, stash an item 당신 were carrying so 당신 don’t lose it, die, get the item in the overworld, and run all the way back to where 당신 were in the dungeon, which can take an 시간 to get back to. This game is just a constant stream of tedious gameplay and I don’t find myself enjoying the game as a result. All the fun parts of the game that there is is ruined thanks to this stream of backtracking.
Thankfully, unlike say Yanya Caballista 또는 Drakengard, my prayers have been answered with Baroque. Whenever I talk about those other games, I always say that they should exist as something other than a video game. Baroque got the message across that the game is not exactly fun to play, so it was turned into a 망가 의해 Shinshuu Ueda. Now I have not read the 망가 and the art style for it certainly doesn’t have a unique style to it, but I have heard that it is very much vague like the game and sticks to the 출처 material, so that’s pretty neat. Also, while doing research, I was shocked to see just how 인기 Baroque was in Japan, with a prequel visual novel game that was on 플레이스테이션 1 and recently released for iOS and Android, a shoot em up spin off and a fucking typing game. Seriously, this game has a typing spin-off game. Yeah, let’s kill god with the power of our keyboard. Mavis Beacon was the true rival to god!
So that is Baroque, an interesting game, which gets a 10 outta 10 at everything… except the gameplay. Yeah, if I ever intend to experience the world of Baroque again, it will probably be from the 망가 또는 maybe with a friend to endure this with me, because that gameplay does not do it for me. With that said, I’m giving this game the award of Endurance Test. With all the great stuff in this game, I really had to grit my teeth just to experience it, and that should never be something in a game. I 사랑 everything about Baroque except the gameplay and I really wish it was better. I do want to see if they would try their hand at 더 많이 to this series in the west, but considering the poor sales in North America, I don’t see that happening. Maybe this is what we’re left with here.
So the game has 당신 play as a nameless boy who wakes up in a world gone to hell. There is very little given to 당신 from there. Honestly, I don’t know what to make of the story of this game because it’s so vague but all the pieces are sprinkled for 당신 through NPC interactions. As 당신 approach a tower, 당신 are greeted 의해 an Archangel that tells 당신 to descend the giant tower, then he gives 당신 a gun and tells 당신 to go kill the god in the tower and leaves. Honestly, I’m not only getting SMT vibes from this game, but also Dark Souls. And that’s a good thing, because I 사랑 Dark Souls. The way the game will only give 당신 a slight 설명 of the story before throwing 당신 into the game and letting 당신 find the story for yourself is quite bold for a game at the time. Most RPGs were doing they’re best to tell 당신 the world, the story, the characters, what size shoe your best friend’s dad had on, doing what they could to keep your attention. But Baroque just throws 당신 right in and tells 당신 to find it out for yourself 의해 going into the Neuron Tower. But let’s talk about the Neuron Tower for a second.
This tower is massive. There are a lot of floors 당신 will be exploring and as 당신 do, the enemies will get stranger and stranger. I thought the weird 물고기 creatures were as odd as it would get, but no, as 당신 go deeper in, the monsters get 더 많이 disturbing and deformed in a way that is actually interesting. Some of my favorites are the jumping creatures that steal your items, a giant mound of flesh that lunges at you, and these little round creatures with 상단, 맨 위로 hats that look like something out of Nightmare Before Christmas. The bizarre visuals of these creatures can really catch 당신 off guard sometimes and can even turn the game into some sort of horror game. 당신 also can only get items from either searching every corner of every floor 또는 killing monsters. This game really wants 당신 to kill as many monsters as possible, as 당신 have both an HP and an AP meter. AP will refill your HP as long as 당신 have it, but it will always decrease. 당신 can increase your AP 의해 killing monsters 또는 eating AP restoring items. But like I said, it is always decreasing. Run out of AP and 당신 start losing HP. Run out of HP and 당신 die. And this is where the game gets hard for many RPG players. When 당신 die in Baroque, 당신 lose everything, and I mean everything. All your items, all your weapons and gear, your current level, and your progress in the dungeon. All you’ve got is story progress and that’s it. 당신 can save your items 의해 throwing them into a storage area, but 당신 can only throw one at a time and they are rare to come by, and 당신 can only save seven items, so 당신 really need to make sure what 당신 get is good. Does this create a challenge? Yes. Is it hard… No. Honestly, I find the game too easy. At least in the way the game intends. Fighting enemies, getting the proper gear, and staying alive is made easy thanks to the fact that enemies are abundant and 당신 can always get good to decent stuff early on in the dungeon. As long as 당신 are hoarding stuff like a mad man, 당신 can always expect to stay alive in this game. No, there are other ways this game becomes a pain in the ass, which we will get to now.
Yeah, as much as I 사랑 the vague story, the art direction, and the banging soundtrack 의해 Masaharu Iwata and even some of the dungeon crawling, this game has a massive flaw with tedium. It’s such a problem that it kinda prevents me from wanting to play the game for a long time. One problem is this game's desire for one button combat. It’s not terrible, given the game, but if 당신 play this game for long periods of time (Like me), it will burn 당신 out after a while. Another thing is while I do 사랑 the vague story telling, what I don’t find fond is the vague gameplay mechanics on how 당신 progress said story. In the Neuron Tower, there are a lot of NPCs to come across, a girl near a fountain, a nurse, some little angels, and many more. This requires going into the dungeon at times to collect one item 또는 talk to one NPC and then possibly die, 또는 do a vague task like giving an NPC a gem 또는 some shit so they can bury themselves 또는 give an NPC a gun who will flat out refuse to take the item and forcing 당신 to die again. It’s really annoying how little the game tells 당신 and expects 당신 to just go through with the tower. And 당신 have to do these vague tasks 또는 당신 will reach the bottom of the tower but be sent back to the start. And going back and forth from the very start of the dungeon starts to get tedious, especially with the similar level design. This isn’t hard at all, this is just obnoxious. But 당신 wanna know what my 가장 좋아하는 part of the tedium is? There is no way back to a 이전 floor. The game has frequent saving, so that’s fine, but if 당신 save over that and need to go back, tough shit. 당신 gotta go up a few 더 많이 floors, stash an item 당신 were carrying so 당신 don’t lose it, die, get the item in the overworld, and run all the way back to where 당신 were in the dungeon, which can take an 시간 to get back to. This game is just a constant stream of tedious gameplay and I don’t find myself enjoying the game as a result. All the fun parts of the game that there is is ruined thanks to this stream of backtracking.
Thankfully, unlike say Yanya Caballista 또는 Drakengard, my prayers have been answered with Baroque. Whenever I talk about those other games, I always say that they should exist as something other than a video game. Baroque got the message across that the game is not exactly fun to play, so it was turned into a 망가 의해 Shinshuu Ueda. Now I have not read the 망가 and the art style for it certainly doesn’t have a unique style to it, but I have heard that it is very much vague like the game and sticks to the 출처 material, so that’s pretty neat. Also, while doing research, I was shocked to see just how 인기 Baroque was in Japan, with a prequel visual novel game that was on 플레이스테이션 1 and recently released for iOS and Android, a shoot em up spin off and a fucking typing game. Seriously, this game has a typing spin-off game. Yeah, let’s kill god with the power of our keyboard. Mavis Beacon was the true rival to god!
So that is Baroque, an interesting game, which gets a 10 outta 10 at everything… except the gameplay. Yeah, if I ever intend to experience the world of Baroque again, it will probably be from the 망가 또는 maybe with a friend to endure this with me, because that gameplay does not do it for me. With that said, I’m giving this game the award of Endurance Test. With all the great stuff in this game, I really had to grit my teeth just to experience it, and that should never be something in a game. I 사랑 everything about Baroque except the gameplay and I really wish it was better. I do want to see if they would try their hand at 더 많이 to this series in the west, but considering the poor sales in North America, I don’t see that happening. Maybe this is what we’re left with here.
Artist's illustration of the Jersey Devil, based on eyewitness reports.
