Product Description

You awaken to find the world in ruin, your heart beset with unexplained guilt. A cataclysm has destroyed the cities and empires of men and disfigured the spirit of humanity. In this nightmare, it falls to you to descend a mysterious tower in search of absolution. Battle merciless foes in treacherous dungeons, scour for new items to aid you in your travels, and unlock the secrets of a devastated land. You will find death in the depths, yet learn that death is not the end of the story; in the twisted world of Baroque, it is only the beginning.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4788 in Video Games
• Brand: Atlus
• Model: BA-70004-2
• Released on: 2008-04-08
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Dimensions: .36 pounds

Features

• Hardcore dungeon crawling RPG action
• Many ever changing levels and perverse monsters
• each time your character dies more secrets are revealed
• deep customization options with vast amounts of weapons
• aquire powerful stat boosting parasites to multiply their potency

From the Manufacturer
You awaken to find the world in ruin, your heart beset with unexplained guilt. A cataclysm has destroyed the cities and empires of men and disfigured the spirit of humanity. In this nightmare, it falls to you to descend a mysterious tower in search of absolution. Battle merciless foes in treacherous dungeons, scour for new items to aid you in your travels, and unlock the secrets of a devastated land. You will find death in the depths, yet learn that death is not the end of the story; in the twisted world of Baroque, it is only the beginning.

Wii Extras:

• 16:9 Widescreen.
• Progressive Scan.
• Subtle motion control integration for power attacks.
• Intuitive controls using Wii Remote and Nunchuk.
• Classic Controller support for traditional play.
• The Wii version of Baroque will be one of the few games developed in Japan that will be released first in North America.

Customer Reviews

Why do I care?
If you expect a traditional RPG with Baroque, you may be disappointed. However, if you expected a Diablo style hack-n-slash romp through pseudo-randomly created dungeons, a cast of grotesque characters, and a 20 something undertaker who is compelled to shout "God dammit" every time he speaks, then you will be satisfied.

Me? I didn't know what to expect since my wife gave this game to me without consulting with me, and I had never heard of it. So I was in no position to not give this game a chance. Under my wife's careful scrutiny, I played this game during my free time for several weeks.

At first, I was pleasantly surprised. There was an interesting if not bloody opening cinematic that piqued my interest. The pleasantness soon dissolved, though, when I started playing the game.

I mentioned the cast of grotesque characters. These fit in nicely with the overall visual theme of the game which is something between surreal dream and post apocalyptic prison camp. The visuals are admittedly stunning and appropriate and very dark. This game does not beat Silent Hill in its human disfigurations, but it does come close.

The progression of the game is also something novel. That is, you start the game with essentially no clues as to the reasons behind the sorry state of affairs in which you find yourself and, seemingly, the rest of the world (your character is an amnesiac). The only direction you receive is that you must get to the bottom floor of the "tower", and it is primarily in the tower that you uncover the means by which you find out more about the back story and the pre-amnesiac nature of your character. It is also in this tower where you will die quite often. In fact, dying is one of the means by which you advance the story. So don't be frustrated when you die ALL THE TIME.

Reading what I have just written, this sounds like a game I should keep. However, there were a host of issues that I encountered that ultimately ended in me asking myself, "Why do I care?"

First of all, the camera is nuts. When you're not battling, it's serviceable. You can always snap the camera back behind your character. During battle, though, you're usually out of luck if the camera swings to an angle that puts your adversaries below the scope of the camera or behind a wall if you happen to be engaging a monster from around the corner.

Secondly, most of the dialogue sounds like it's being read straight from the script. Particularly that of the coffin maker. I hate that he says "God dammit" all the time, but more than that, I hate how forced it sounds -- like Spock saying, "I'm going to roll with my homies."

Thirdly, the system by which you can throw your various items seems to have been added as an afterthought. Nearly anytime you want to throw something, the action must be interrupted as you pause the game and select the item you would like to throw.

The last nail in the coffin for me was how boring the game was. This game plays so much like Diablo, and I played Diablo before for countless hours, and I am done with it, thank you very much. The only thing that breaks the monotony of the hack, hack, hacking on monsters is the rare encounter with someone or something that triggers the surfacing of an old memory or association.

Plus, I didn't care for how selfish most of the ancillary characters were. But that's just me.

Wii needs more titles like this!
I absolutely adored this game, but people with little patience might get frustrated. This game doesn't hold your hand at all, it tosses you into a crazy world and tells you 'okay figure it out!' I however enjoy the 'uncover the bizarre storyline' type of gameplay thats in Baroque, trying to figure out just what the heck is going on, its like you're in an insane asylum. Admittedly losing all your gear whenever you die or complete the tower can get tedious, but I even came to enjoy that after awhile, it takes planning and strategy to get your favorite items back into town to be ready for next time.

Its definitely a 'hardcore dungeon-crawler' like it advertises itself to be...I wish the Wii had more games with complex psychological storylines like this. If you like anime, thought-provoking rpgs, or just hacking and slashing, I'd definitely recommend Baroque.

Caution: Not for the unintelligent
This game is a lot of fun. It's a great action-RPG, but be warned it is frustrating at times. The point of the game is obviously to advance the story line and also to figure out what exactly the story line is. The frustrating part about the game is that every time you complete a tower and advance the story line you start over at level zero with no items. There are ways to save a limited number of items from your last trip through the tower and you figure that out as you play. Give the game some time and enjoy it. Don't get frustrated and quit after the first time your character gets reset.