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Delayed from its original June release, Rising Star
Games’ European outing of
Baroque is due to arrive this Friday, August 22nd,
2008. A more hardcore offering than the publisher’s other
 Wii
release for August –
Super Swing Golf – Baroque could
well be the flip-side of Rising Star Games’ all-encompassing market
strategy, or it could simply be another title passed over by other
publishers. Passing itself-off as a Role-Playing Game – a
genre currently rather lacking on Wii – Baroque’s unique
twist is the way the title handles the death of a player.
Being a remake of a Saturn title that never saw the light-of-day
outside Japan, many may be intrigued even before hearing of the
much-touted reincarnation aspect. And this intrigue will mostly be
raised among those whom the game has been directly targeted at. Much
like Rising Star Game’s other recent Role-Playing Game release,
Growlanser: Heritage of War, Baroque is not the game to
convince Casual gamers of the merits of the genre. Instead,
Baroque plays strictly to the Hardcore market, and is all the
better for it. A lengthy Training Mission or even more than the
one-minute introduction would’ve broken the arc of Baroque
before the ball had even been set rolling.
Playing as “The Protagonist”, the player is immediately thrust into
an unknown world, with an unknown objective. Meeting a handful of
the Outer World’s peculiar characters will only further add to the
cryptic plotline, and even meeting the game’s cover star, Archangel,
for the first time makes little sense. Continuing ahead to the Neuro
Tower as instructed will initiate the first of many dungeon crawls,
through mostly randomly-generated Floors, in an attempt to reach the
bottom. Baroque follows basic Role-Playing Game traditions –
Levelling System, engrossing storyline and exploration – as well as
featuring plenty of original ideas. The Real-Time Combat is well
balanced, yet challenging, on first attempt. The B Button executes
basic attacks, holding will perform a charge attack with the ability
to knock-back opponents, and superfluous wiggling of the
 Wii Remote
will perform a Spin Attack that causes much more damage, yet leaves
the player vulnerable for a small amount of time. Beginning with
little equipment and only basic attacks, death will come quickly.
But in death comes the first of many revelations.
Every death the player succumbs to further unlocks details of the
story, allowing new Cut-Scenes and characters to be discovered upon
returning to the Neuro Tower. However, this is more than a
double-edged sword; death will not only add new depths to the
title’s plot, but remove any Experience or items the player has
gathered. As much a test of a player’s perseverance as that of skill
at this point, most will quickly establish an opinion of Baroque
before continuing. However, while many would have you believe that
being taken back to Level 1 and stripped of items is the only
gameplay effect, in-fact, every basic ability of your character is
increased by one at each reincarnation, and so while you may not be
able to sustain as many hits as you could prior to death, upon
revival using the exact same weapon may land slightly more damage.
During exploring the Neuro Tower, the player is heavily limited by
the Vitality Gauge. Constantly ticking down, the Vitality Gauge will
slowly restore health whilst positive, but upon dropping to zero
will begin draining your health. Of course, there are many items
freely available that slightly restore the Vitality Gauge, as well
as the Health Gauge, and when coupled with the limitations death
places upon items, the game positively encourages you to experiment
with and expend your items in a quick fashion, rather than typical
Role-Playing Game hording. The variety is extensive and each new
find becomes rewarding, whether or not it’s actually an item you’ve
seen before. Not only are equipped items visible on your on-screen
avatar, but also, status effects have a visible change. Deeper than
simply Confusion causing you control set-up to become muddled, Blind
will limit your visibility whilst Lust causes the player’s
perspective to alter considerably.
By pressing the 2 Button, the player can bring-up a translucent Map
of the current area, reminiscent of that from Phantasy Star
Online: Episodes I & II on the GameCube. It’s probable that most
players will activate this function immediately upon entering the
Neuro Tower each
 time, as it helps to highlight areas that may to
the naked-eye look inaccessible. Baroque is full of
interesting techniques borne of a love of videogames – walls which
can simply be walked through should the player have enough faith in
their map reading skills, surprise boxes that may well explode if
opened – and features an amazing wealth of exploration and looting
possibilities for those with the inclination to persevere, much like
the Xbox360’s underrated
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom.
Baroque’s graphics feature plenty of detail and wonderfully
chunky Character Models, but are let down by the most basic of
flaws. While free from glitches, the most basic textures imaginable
litter the walls and the Draw-Distance is often simply ridiculous.
The soundtrack however, is wonderful. Although entirely removed from
the Saturn original (as with the visual shift in perspective), the
Baroque features a telling dramatic score.
Baroque is quite unique. While some will find an
intelligently presented, balanced and exceptionally detailed
adventure within Baroque, the bar for entry is so incredibly
high that many may dismiss it before even beginning to even remotely
understand its depth. For Role-Playing Game fanatics who endeavour
to dig into the game, there is little else remotely like Baroque
on Wii, and therefore the title is almost a guaranteed cult success: the title
that Baroque undeniably craves. |
