Baroque (video game)

Baroque
North American PS2 cover art featuring the character Archangel
Developer(s)Sting Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Director(s)
  • Kazunari Yonemitsu
  • Noriaki Kaneko
  • Daizo Harada (Remake)
Producer(s)Takeshi Santo
Designer(s)
  • Kazunari Yonemitsu
  • Haruhiko Matsuzaki
Programmer(s)
  • Shinichi Abe
  • Satoshi Miyauchi
  • Ryuji Kudo
Artist(s)
  • Hyōju Mū
  • Eisaku Kitō
  • Kenjiro Suzuki (Remake)
Writer(s)
  • Kazunari Yonemitsu
  • Kengo Morita
Composer(s)
Platform(s)
Release
May 21, 1998
  • Sega Saturn
    • JP: May 21, 1998
    PlayStation
    • JP: October 28, 1999
    PlayStation 2
    • JP: June 28, 2007
    • NA: April 8, 2008
    • EU: August 15, 2008
    Wii
    • JP: March 13, 2008
    • NA: April 8, 2008
    • EU: August 15, 2008
    iOS
    • WW: December 28, 2012
    Nintendo Switch
    • JP: November 12, 2020
Genre(s)Role-playing, roguelike
Mode(s)Single-player

Baroque[a] 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, which 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.
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