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Baroque (video game)
Encyclopedia
Baroque is a console role-playing game developed by Sting Entertainment and published by Atlus
in the United States, originally developed for the Sega Saturn
and later ported to the PlayStation. It was later remade by Sting, where it was to be a planned exclusive for Japan. However, Baroque was scheduled for release in the United States on March 18, 2008 for the PlayStation 2
and Wii
. Atlus USA eventually released both versions of the game on April 8, 2008.
c player character
through the Neuro Tower to the bottom floor. Randomly generated, the majority of the layouts of the Neuro Tower's floors change each time the player ventures inside. Portals found on each floor of the tower will transport the player to the next floor. Death in Baroque does not result in a game over
screen, but advances the plot, unlocking cutscenes, news areas, and comments by the non-player character
s. The Neuro Tower expands after certain conditions are met.
The player character begins the game outside of the Neuro Tower with no items or experience point
s. Before entering the Neuro Tower, the player is presented with an Angelic Rifle, a special weapon that can destroy any monster with a single shot. However, the rifle has an ammunition capacity of five shots. The player can find items, swords, and equipment scattered around the tower at random and by defeating enemies—which also grants the player experience points, allowing the player character to gain levels and become more powerful. However, should the protagonist die before reaching the end of the dungeon, the player will be returned to the starting point outside the tower, and will lose all items, including those equipped, and all gained experience points. By throwing an item into a consciousness orb, the player can retrieve it from one of the non-player characters on the next play-through. Up to five items can be saved in this manner at the start, but the number can increase if certain conditions are met.
The game uses two gauges to measure the protagonist's health
: hit points and vitality. The vitality gauge constantly drains during gameplay. If it empties, the hit point gauge will begin to drain. Both gauges can be refilled by eating various forms of flesh and hearts to restore hit points and vitality respectively. If flesh or a heart is consumed while the relevant stat is filled to maximum, the protagonist's maximum hit points/vitality will increase by a fixed amount.
the Meta-Beings, once-human creatures that have lost themselves to the delusions inside them, and reaching the bottom floor of a tower to gain redemption for his forgotten sin. Through his interactions with the other characters and unlocked cutscenes, the player learns about the back-story
and characters.
Outside the tower, the protagonist encounters several characters: Collector, a young boy who stores items as a hobby; Coffin Man, who maintains an underground training dungeon; Baroquemonger, who possess the ability to read an Idea Sephirah; the Horned Girl, who can voice the thoughts of anyone near her, and lost her identity to shield herself; the Bagged One, who speaks the words of others instead of her own; Longneck, who took part in research; and the Sentry Angel, who guards the research facility. Within the tower, he finds other characters: Alice; Eliza, who seeks to create Consciousness Orbs by using the protagonist's Idea Sephirah and help heal the Absolute God; Doctor Angelicus; Fist & Scythe; Neophyte; the Littles, who exist as the embodiment of pain; and the Archangel, who lies impaled on a Consciousness Orb at the tower's bottom floor, and implores the protagonist to purify the Absolute God.
Littles, the embodiment of pain, are creatures that can only live inside of "ampules" and were cultivated by Doctor Angelicus and Longneck. Their purpose was to be used as bullets for the Angelic Rifle, so that the Archangel can purify the Absolute God and take its Idea Sephirath to restart the world. The Koriel, a group of high-ranking members within the Malkuth Order, tried to stop the Archangel; they decided to make direct contact with the God through fusion to hear its will. A member of the Koriel, the protagonist had a conjoined twin brother, with whom he shared a heart. Only one of them could function at a time, and both were dying. The Koriel sacrificed the older brother, and picked the protagonist for the fusion. When the Archangel learned about the Koriel's plan, he interrupted the fusion and caused the Blaze. The Absolute God created Alice and Eliza to fill the gap left by him. While the God gained a voice, the protagonist became mute, but gained the ability to purify others. The consciousness of protagonist's deceased older brother got absorbed by the Consciousness Orbs and fused with him during the Dabar.
In the end, the protagonist fuses with the Absolute God along with Alice, Eliza and the Littles. The world is still distorted and purification of the world is impossible, but they decide to form a consensus reality
by merging with the Baroques of the Meta-Beings.
by Sting Entertainment on May 21, 1998; a Japanese release for the PlayStation
followed on October 28, 1999, with a limited edition of the game appearing simultaneously. Masaharu Iwata
composed the audio for Baroque while Toshiaki Sakoda developed the sound effects. For the remake
of Baroque, the developers changed the viewpoint of the player from a first-person perspective
to third-person one. Additionally, Shigeki Hayashi composed the music for the remake. In Japan, Sting published the remake for a PlayStation 2
release on June 28, 2007, and a Wii
version on March 13, 2008; in North America and Europe, the Wii and PlayStation 2 releases were simultaneously published on April 8, 2008, and August 29, 2008, respectively.
manga titled , written by Shinshuu Ueda. The chapters were serialized in Monthly GFantasy and were published in three volumes by Square Enix
from March 2001 to March 2002.
Daemon Hatfield of IGN
felt that while Baroque had a "unique" concept, it lacked direction. Hatfield criticized the game concept as "convoluted" and rated the game "5.4". GameSpot
's Lark Anderson described it as "[a] fiendishly difficult, randomly generated dungeon crawler that at times can be an incredible work of interactive fiction, and at other times, a muddled mess." Anderson praised the variety of items and weapons, and the "strong and compelling" story, but thought the unconventional, deliberately unclear method of storytelling and lack of an introduction made it difficult for the player to care about it.
Atlus
is a Japanese computer and video game developer, publisher, and distributor based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for developing the console role-playing game franchise Megami Tensei. The first Megami Tensei was a Nintendo Entertainment System video game published by Namco based on a trilogy of...
in the United States, originally developed for the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
and later ported to the PlayStation. It was later remade by Sting, where it was to be a planned exclusive for Japan. However, Baroque was scheduled for release in the United States on March 18, 2008 for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. Atlus USA eventually released both versions of the game on April 8, 2008.
Gameplay
The objective of Baroque is to guide the nameless, mute, and amnesiaAmnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
c player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
through the Neuro Tower to the bottom floor. Randomly generated, the majority of the layouts of the Neuro Tower's floors change each time the player ventures inside. Portals found on each floor of the tower will transport the player to the next floor. Death in Baroque does not result in a game over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
screen, but advances the plot, unlocking cutscenes, news areas, and comments by the non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s. The Neuro Tower expands after certain conditions are met.
The player character begins the game outside of the Neuro Tower with no items or experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s. Before entering the Neuro Tower, the player is presented with an Angelic Rifle, a special weapon that can destroy any monster with a single shot. However, the rifle has an ammunition capacity of five shots. The player can find items, swords, and equipment scattered around the tower at random and by defeating enemies—which also grants the player experience points, allowing the player character to gain levels and become more powerful. However, should the protagonist die before reaching the end of the dungeon, the player will be returned to the starting point outside the tower, and will lose all items, including those equipped, and all gained experience points. By throwing an item into a consciousness orb, the player can retrieve it from one of the non-player characters on the next play-through. Up to five items can be saved in this manner at the start, but the number can increase if certain conditions are met.
The game uses two gauges to measure the protagonist's health
Health (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
: hit points and vitality. The vitality gauge constantly drains during gameplay. If it empties, the hit point gauge will begin to drain. Both gauges can be refilled by eating various forms of flesh and hearts to restore hit points and vitality respectively. If flesh or a heart is consumed while the relevant stat is filled to maximum, the protagonist's maximum hit points/vitality will increase by a fixed amount.
Setting and characters
Set after a world-altering cataclysm called the Blaze that took place on May 14, 2032, Baroque focuses on a nameless, mute, and amnesiac protagonist. Early on, he finds himself tasked with purifyingRitual purification
Ritual purification is a feature of many religions. The aim of these rituals is to remove specifically defined uncleanliness prior to a particular type of activity, and especially prior to the worship of a deity...
the Meta-Beings, once-human creatures that have lost themselves to the delusions inside them, and reaching the bottom floor of a tower to gain redemption for his forgotten sin. Through his interactions with the other characters and unlocked cutscenes, the player learns about the back-story
Back-story
A back-story, background story, or backstory is the literary device of a narrative chronologically earlier than, and related to, a narrative of primary interest. Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start...
and characters.
Outside the tower, the protagonist encounters several characters: Collector, a young boy who stores items as a hobby; Coffin Man, who maintains an underground training dungeon; Baroquemonger, who possess the ability to read an Idea Sephirah; the Horned Girl, who can voice the thoughts of anyone near her, and lost her identity to shield herself; the Bagged One, who speaks the words of others instead of her own; Longneck, who took part in research; and the Sentry Angel, who guards the research facility. Within the tower, he finds other characters: Alice; Eliza, who seeks to create Consciousness Orbs by using the protagonist's Idea Sephirah and help heal the Absolute God; Doctor Angelicus; Fist & Scythe; Neophyte; the Littles, who exist as the embodiment of pain; and the Archangel, who lies impaled on a Consciousness Orb at the tower's bottom floor, and implores the protagonist to purify the Absolute God.
Story
Prior to the start of the game, the Order of Malkuth discovered that the Absolute God had returned to earth. They also found Consciousness Orbs, gigantic sensory orbs used by the Absolute God to filter reality, scattered around the world. The Malkuth Order wanted to learn more about the Absolute God, so they experimented with the orbs. Subtle distortions in reality started appearing and slowly people began to change. The Archangel's sister was the first person to become a Meta-Being. The Malkuth Order, led by the Archangel, created artificial Consciousness Orbs to help stop the distortions, but the false orbs only added to the distortion of the God. The Archangel removed "pain" from the Absolute God, and poured corrupted data into the Consciousness Orbs to keep the Absolute God from fixing the distortion growing inside of itself. He then harvested the Absolute God's pain as the Littles.Littles, the embodiment of pain, are creatures that can only live inside of "ampules" and were cultivated by Doctor Angelicus and Longneck. Their purpose was to be used as bullets for the Angelic Rifle, so that the Archangel can purify the Absolute God and take its Idea Sephirath to restart the world. The Koriel, a group of high-ranking members within the Malkuth Order, tried to stop the Archangel; they decided to make direct contact with the God through fusion to hear its will. A member of the Koriel, the protagonist had a conjoined twin brother, with whom he shared a heart. Only one of them could function at a time, and both were dying. The Koriel sacrificed the older brother, and picked the protagonist for the fusion. When the Archangel learned about the Koriel's plan, he interrupted the fusion and caused the Blaze. The Absolute God created Alice and Eliza to fill the gap left by him. While the God gained a voice, the protagonist became mute, but gained the ability to purify others. The consciousness of protagonist's deceased older brother got absorbed by the Consciousness Orbs and fused with him during the Dabar.
In the end, the protagonist fuses with the Absolute God along with Alice, Eliza and the Littles. The world is still distorted and purification of the world is impossible, but they decide to form a consensus reality
Consensus reality
Consensus reality is an approach to answering the philosophical question "What is real?" It gives a practical answer: reality is either what exists, or what we can agree seems to exist....
by merging with the Baroques of the Meta-Beings.
Development
Produced by Takeshi Santo, Baroque saw a Japan-only release for the Sega SaturnSega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
by Sting Entertainment on May 21, 1998; a Japanese release for the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
followed on October 28, 1999, with a limited edition of the game appearing simultaneously. Masaharu Iwata
Masaharu Iwata
is a Japanese video game composer. After graduating from high school, where his musical projects included composing on a synthesizer and playing in a cover band, he joined Bothtec as a composer. He composed the soundtrack to several games there, beginning with 1987's Bakusou Buggy Ipatsu Yarou, and...
composed the audio for Baroque while Toshiaki Sakoda developed the sound effects. For the remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of Baroque, the developers changed the viewpoint of the player from a first-person perspective
First person (video games)
In video games, first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle. Many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, ranging from adventure games to flight...
to third-person one. Additionally, Shigeki Hayashi composed the music for the remake. In Japan, Sting published the remake for a PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
release on June 28, 2007, and a Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
version on March 13, 2008; in North America and Europe, the Wii and PlayStation 2 releases were simultaneously published on April 8, 2008, and August 29, 2008, respectively.
English voice cast (Wii and PlayStation 2)
- Kyle HebertKyle HebertKyle Henry Hebert is an American voice actor and podcaster who works with anime films, television series, as well as video games...
as Archangel - Mary Elizabeth McGlynnMary Elizabeth McGlynnMary Elizabeth McGlynn is an American voice actress, ADR director, writer, and singer best known for her extensive English-language dubbing of various anime, and her singing in multiple games from the Silent Hill series, as well as the movie adaptation and Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME. She has...
as Eliza,Doctor Angelicus - Michelle RuffMichelle RuffMichelle Suzanne Ruff is an American voice actress known for her work in anime and video games.-Anime roles:* Angel Tales - Akane the fox* Ai Yori Aoshi - Aoi Sakuraba* Arc the Lad - Meril...
as Alice, Urim - Dave WittenbergDave WittenbergDavid Richard Paul "Dave" Wittenberg is a prolific South African-born American video game and anime voice actor with nearly one hundred titles to his credit. While Wittenberg was born in a hospital in South Africa, he was primarily raised in Boston...
as The Coffin Man - Karen StrassmanKaren StrassmanKaren Strassman is an American voice actress and actress who is most known for her television and film appearances as well as voice acting. She voices many characters in many video games, animated series and anime series, including Zhalia Moon in Huntik: Secrets & Seekers, Fantine in IGPX, Kallen...
as The Horned Girl - Wendee LeeWendee LeeWendee Lee is an American voice actress. While she has done voice work for many video games as well as several episodes in the Power Rangers franchise, she is particularly prolific in the dubbing of anime. As of April 2009, with 223 credits to her name, she has more credits in this medium than any...
as The Bagged One - Derek Stephen PrinceDerek Stephen PrinceDerek Stephen Prince is an American voice actor who is most memorable for his various roles in the Digimon series, as well as the voice of Elgar in the live-action Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers in Space.While a talented actor, with vocal skills capable of anything from High School girls to...
as The Protagonist, Longneck, Thummim
Manga
Baroque was adapted into a horror fantasy shōnenShonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
manga titled , written by Shinshuu Ueda. The chapters were serialized in Monthly GFantasy and were published in three volumes by Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
from March 2001 to March 2002.
Reception
Baroque received mixed reviews, with a combined score on GameRankings of 53% for the Wii version and 58% for the PS2 version. The most popular complaint focused on the game's extreme difficulty curve. RPGFan explained "...it is not for everyone. Only those who truly appreciate rogue-like RPGs will be able to get the most enjoyment out of it."Daemon Hatfield of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
felt that while Baroque had a "unique" concept, it lacked direction. Hatfield criticized the game concept as "convoluted" and rated the game "5.4". GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's Lark Anderson described it as "[a] fiendishly difficult, randomly generated dungeon crawler that at times can be an incredible work of interactive fiction, and at other times, a muddled mess." Anderson praised the variety of items and weapons, and the "strong and compelling" story, but thought the unconventional, deliberately unclear method of storytelling and lack of an introduction made it difficult for the player to care about it.