Baroque
Developer: Sting Entertainment
Publisher: Atlus
Reviewed Platform: Wii
Release Date: April 8, 2008
Posted: August 9, 2008
Fighting enemies requires the player to do nothing more than button mash. Swinging the Wiimote results in an additional, slower, and relatively useless attack.A former Sega Saturn title some how earned enough recognition to be born again on the Wii. Baroque attempts to pass itself off as an enjoyable, quirky Japanese dungeon crawling title with an intrinsic roleplaying story. Unfortunately, the fact that this game just barely utilizes the Wiimote's accelerometer is not the only disappointment in store for prospective players.
If you can get past the worse-than Gamecube graphics, there will not be much gameplay to be found. The introductory movie is little more than a mash-up of disconnected anime-like scenes that do not tell the player anything. The game opens in a research lab where the player is supposedly being tested on in a test tube. Presumably, this is the "real world" and the playable area is merely a dream; or something along those lines. The main character is a thin, Asian-looking male who appears to be no older than a teenager, and he can not talk for some reason.
The world you are dropped into contains a variety of strangely designed beings that you can speak to by running up to them. However, they do not have much to say, and if you "forget" to talk to them you will not miss much. The variety of these characters and the dungeon's enemies does not exceed unconnected oddities. One being the player is forced to run into, Archangel, who gives the player cryptic "how to progress in this game" information and a rectangular gun. Do not ask questions, just take it and venture forward into the mysterious tower.
The tower is where all of the real action happens, if you want to call it that. It is made up of many randomly-generated floors, the exact number of which is based on the game progression. Each floor has enemies, items, and a portal that allows the player to save and move down stairs to the next floor. While it is unnecessary to kill all of the enemies on each floor, not doing so will quickly cause the player to be overwhelmed on later levels. Killing monsters rewards the player with experience, which will in turn grant levels, allowing for more monsters to be slain in lower floors. There are two health-like bars that the player needs to keep an eye on: Hit Points and Vitality Points. Hit Points are like they are in any other game, and taking damage from enemies will cause this number to go down; reaching 0 causes death. Vitality Points are nothing more than an annoyance as they drain during play, and if they reach 0 the player will begin to lose Hit Points for it.
Archangel acts as a sort of guide for the player; yet he is still rather cryptic in his speech.
The best part about spending all of that time leveling, clearing out the dungeon, and stocking up on decent items is that if you complete the dungeon or die, everything is reset back to 0. This includes levels, additional Hit and Vitality Points, items, weapons, everything. To complete a dungeon, by reaching the bottom floor or dying, is the only way to progress the game. Advancing the main character to tackle numerous difficult enemies results in loss and a requirement to start from scratch. Nice reward for being productive.
The items that are strewn about on each floor are placed entirely at random. Meaning one run-through may reward the player with a high-attack weapon on the first level, and another run could not offer the player any weapons at all. While you do carry a high-powered gun around, it comes with an extremely limited ammunition supply. This gun is the one weapon the player is supposed to carry around with him at all times, and is used to "save" a God character at the end of each dungeon. However, it is possible to enter the dungeon without this weapon, leaving the player lost and unable to leave without dying.
Many items the player picks up are unidentified, and there is a great lack of items that identify. The player's inventory will fill up very quickly, encouraging random and frivolous use of items, even if they are unidentified.
All of the game's characters have something to say to the player; how useful that information is however...There is one saving grace for the very best weapons, armor, and items: the consciousness orbs. They are as large as they are rare, but if you are lucky enough to find one you can throw any single item into it to preserver that item for another dungeon run. If the dungeon is completed by the player, any items (up to 5) left with the orbs can be redeemed from a collector being standing next to where the player spawns after completion.
When loading a save game, the player is presented with a Database option that contains recorded data for a particular save file. This includes all of the "dialogues," which are more like single lines of text, a list of characters, music, certain items, and dungeon statistics. Yes, each "run" has its experience gained, enemies killed, and depth reached recorded. That is what the number on the character screen in-game (-1, 1+, 2+, etc.) refers to. Supposedly players should be concerned how "well" the dungeon runs go. Baroques are mentioned here as well in another list format. These could be considered mini-achievements that require the player to perform random unknown tasks for no apparent reason.
This is the kind of video game that insults the genre that must bear it. Not much is required of dungeon crawlers in general, but Baroque managed to undermine all that makes these games simple and enjoyable. Punishment for progression, and entirely neglected character development and story leave this title utterly undesired.
TLDR: Avoid at all costs. If you want to play a real dungeon crawler, play Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3.
