Baroque is a roguelike role-playing video game developed by Sting Entertainment. It was originally released for the Sega Saturn in 1998 by Entertainment Software Publishing, then ported to the PlayStation the following year. A remake for PlayStation 2 and Wii was released in Japan by Sting Entertainment in 2007, and later overseas in 2008 from Atlus USA (North America) and Rising Star Games (Europe). This version was later released on iOS in 2012, and an enhanced port of the original version on Nintendo Switch in 2020.
Baroque is set in a post-apocalyptic world where an experiment to understand the Absolute God caused devastating climate change, with surviving humans becoming physically twisted by manifestations of guilt. This experiment was led by a being called Archangel. The protagonist is guided by Archangel through the Neuro Tower to find the Absolute God and fix the world. All versions of the game feature dungeon-crawling through randomly-generated floors of the Neuro Tower, with deaths in the dungeon advancing the narrative. The original uses a first-person perspective, while the remake includes a third-person camera and adjustable difficulty levels.
The game was conceived by Kazunari Yonemitsu, who was involved in multiple aspects of its design and created the narrative. Originally in production for the PC-9800 series, Yonemitsu's wish for 3D graphics resulted in it shifting to the Saturn. Its dark tone, a reaction to Yonemitsu's previous work, was influenced by European cinema and film noir. The gameplay drew inspiration from Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon. The music was composed by Masaharu Iwata, who blended ambient noise and sound samples into the tracks. Baroque was supported with several supplementary products, including a visual novel based on a promotional novella. The remake featured new staff and several changes, including redone character designs from Kenjiro Suzuki and replacement music by in-house composer Shigeki Hayashi. The game saw generally mixed reviews from critics.
Gameplay
Baroque is a roguelike role-playing video game; taking on the role of the amnesiac player character, the player navigates the Neuro Tower, dungeon crawling through randomly-generated floors, with the aim of reaching the bottom floor. The original game and the remake share basic gameplay, but also have several differences. The original version takes place using a first-person perspective using tank controls, navigating 3D environments while interacting with 2D sprites of characters and enemies. The remake mainly plays from a third-person perspective using entirely 3D graphics, using full analogue movement with more action-based gameplay and combat, in addition to remade graphics and adjustments to the progression.
The game begins outside of the Neuro Tower with no items or experience points. Before entering the Neuro Tower, the player is presented with a gun called the Angelic Rifle with limited ammunition that kills enemies in one hit. During exploration, the player can find items, melee weapons, 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. Upon death, rather than resulting in a game over, the protagonist is transported back to the home town; these deaths progress the narrative and unlock new dialogue and areas. By throwing an item into a consciousness orb, the player can retrieve it from one of the non-player characters on the next playthrough. Up to five items can be saved in this manner at the start, but the number can increase if certain conditions are met. The Neuro Tower expands after 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 or vitality will increase by a fixed amount. Alongside exploring the Neuro Tower, players can interact with non-playable characters in the one town outside the tower, being able to complete quests. Portals found on each floor of the Neuro Tower will transport the player to the next floor. A recurring element is item management, as the player has a limited inventory and can use, discard or throw items. Many consumable items are unidentified prior to eating them. Items thrown at enemies can cause damage depending on what they are.
Plot
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 purifying 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.
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 compress reality, scattered around the world. The Malkuth Order wanted to learn more about the Absolute God, so they experimented with them. Subtle distortions in reality started appearing and people slowly 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 distortions. The Archangel removed "pain" from the Absolute God, and poured corrupted data into the Consciousness Orbs to keep the Absolute God from fixing the distortions. 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 make a new 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. Although the world is still distorted, they decide not to purify it; instead, they accept the distortion and thereby achieve freedom.
Development The concept for Baroque was created by Sting Entertainment founder Kazunari Yonemitsu, who acted as the game's director, story writer and co-designer. Yonemitsu had spent much of his career in the video game industry creating games with a lighter or comedic tone, and when he tried doing anything darker it was vetoed by others. After working on Treasure Hunter G, Yonemitsu began creating a game concept which would take a darker approach than his other work, with Baroque emerging from combining two other drafts themed after Russian narratives. The game design concepts were "multi-layered development", "shifting structure", "freedom", "space", and "strategy". While these concepts remained unchanged, Yonemitsu felt that nearly everything else about the project had. The system design of randomly generated dungeon floors came first, then Yonemitsu created a narrative to fit that. An early prototype was developed for the PC-9800 series, but the platform was unable to handle 3D graphics. With the arrival of the Sega Saturn, production was moved to that platform. Production began in 1996. During an early interview, Yonemitsu described the production process as "going back to basics" with game design and flow. For the design approach, Yonemitsu drew from Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon and found ways of innovating on the formula, including the game's tone and 3D graphics. The game was produced by Takeshi Santo, with programming being led by Shinichi Abe.
There were multiple key words for the narrative including "healing", "imprisonment", "girl", "brain" and "instruments of punishment". The main theme was how people could free themselves from aspects of life that leave them unaware of sin. Yonemitsu started out with the concept of a protagonist healing the world, but was influenced in his portrayal of that role following the Tokyo subway sarin attack by the cult Aleph. The narrative was designed to be contrary to the linear movie-like progression of narratives in other games. The darker art style drew from Danish and Eastern European cinema, together with film noir. As illustrative references for the narrative and tone, Yonemitsu used Blade Runner, Delicatessen and the "Cannon Fodder" narrative from the anthology film Memories. Another influence on the narrative was the movie Summer Vacation 1999. The Neuro Tower setting was decided upon after Yonemitsu noticed a common motif of towers relating to punishment in the works of Edogawa Ranpo and Seishi Yokomizo. Despite the grim tone, Yonemitsu wrote a hopeful element into the ending. Several terms and words within the world were written to be read several different ways, resulting in different and often clashing meanings. An example used in promotion was the game's title. While the original term "Baroque" referred to an artistic movement focusing on deep colors and extravagant design, the game took the potential source phrase barroco ("distorted pearl") and used it to refer to the emerging distortions in the game's world.