It seems like I always deliver new Baroque media with bad news. The guys over at Nintendo Power did not care much for the upcoming Baroque for the Wii. According to Atlus’s newsletter they had the following to say about the game:

You may not have heard of it until now, but the Baroque series has been around for almost a decade in Japan. And while we usually envy Japanese gamers for getting games we don’t, in this case we would have been better off without it. You spend the majority of your time wandering through dungeons and fighting monsters in real time.

As in most dungeon-crawlers, Baroque’s combat is slowed down to the point that it almost feels turn-based, and it quickly grows boring. As you progress, you gain experience and collect items as you might expect, but when you die (a key gameplay element), you lose everything and have to start from square one.

On top of the boring gameplay, Baroque just throws you into the action from the get-go, with no explanation of what is going on or who you are. (The main character, conveniently, has amnesia.) When you die and are reincarnated, more of the story is explained, but it’s in little bits and pieces, and you’ll often find yourself wondering what to do and where to go next.

The rest of Baroque is underwhelming as well. The graphics are average, and the dungeons are drab and unimpressive. The localization— from lines that are completely nonsensical to the character who cheerfully adds “goddammit” to every sentence—is laughably bad, and doesn’t make the story any easier to comprehend. All in all, Baroque has few redeeming qualities, and your money is better spent elsewhere. —Tom H.
Final Score: 3/10

With all due respect, the guys at Nintendo Power don’t seem like the type that should be reviewing a game like Baroque. That would be like US Weekly reviewing Dante’s Inferno. Satan eats Italian ice too! The majority of games Nintendo is familiar with are all poppy, relatively simple, and beatable within a matter of hours, if there is even an underlying goal. As the review pointed out, Baroque is none of these things, and it certainly doesn’t aim to be. The difficulty with reviewing games is that you may get stuck reviewing a game that is not exactly your forte. As I have mentioned earlier, Baroque will not be a game for the masses, but for the slightly insane.

To celebrate, as promised, here are some brand new screens from the game:

If you feel like discussing the matter further, or watching others do so, feel free to check out Atlus’s forum.

Roy action, atlus, nintendo wii, preview, ps2, sting 0 comments