ORIGINALLY RELEASED SOME time ago for the SEGA Saturn, Baroque is an almost universally unknown game. Destined to be one of those forgotten, ignored gems of a bygone age (of gaming) until, for whatever reason, Rising Star decided a port to the Wii would be a good idea. This is not the first time that Baroque has been resurrected from beyond the pale either. A stint on the Playstation 2 bridges the span of the last decade and brings us to last year. I must confess, I’m not entirely sure why or how Baroque made it onto the Wii. Though I’ve been told it enjoyed no small success in Japan, the sales across the rest of the world have been less than inspiring. However, I’m glad that it did because it’s an extremely underrated game.

Unlike most traditional RPGs, the bulk of the game takes place in one, randomly generated, series of “dungeons” which make up something called the Neuro Tower. Whilst the plot is revealed in a rather unconventional and mostly non-linear fashion through a series of, seemingly, random encounters and actions that you, the unnamed hero, will make along the way. The specifics of what you have to do for the main plot are explained pretty much right from the off. But the rest of it requires no small amount mental leg work and a lot of trial and error.

The random, and at times utterly chaotic, nature of the game is likely to put off a lot of potential fans. At least initially. But give it a little time and everything starts to make a warped sort of sense. And the overall atmosphere of the game make it an absorbing and, to coin a word, baroque experience. In more ways than one. For those who don’t know, the word baroque has a number of meanings, and several of them are applicable in this case. Most notably in the meanings of irregularity and being so extremely extravagant as to be in bad taste. Both of which the game has in deliberate bucketloads.

The bizarre, twisted nature of the landscape and the various characters you will interact with are enough to give even our good friend Mister Burton a run for his money. Serving as a stark contrast to the “normal” characters you will also meet. And whilst the visuals themselves are rendered in standard definition, as is the norm with the Wii, this in no way diminishes their impact. It would be inappropriate to describe the game as beautiful, but the quality of the sprites would certainly earn it the badge of stunning. In a warped, gothic (or perhaps baroque) kind of way.

The game itself plays in a pretty straightforward fashion. Much like any other dungeon crawler you move from one level to the next, working your way down to the bottom of the Neuro Tower where you have two options which will affect how the game ends. Though, it never actually does end as such. Yes, you can finish off the story, and all of the sub plots, but as the levels are generated randomly each time you enter you can return time and time again. But be aware, each time you finish a dungeon (either by reaching the bottom or through death) you will be returned to town with your character reset to default.

Kind of.

It’s not quite that simple. As you will discover, there are certain methods to get around this to a certain extent. Although there is no way (at least, none that I have found) to retain your level and experience, it is possible to carry across other things such as items and brands (which can be used to enhance yourself or your equipment) via the use of the consciousness orbs. This does, however, require you to manually chuck them in and thus lose the use of them at that time. Also, you must do this each time you enter the tower as they do not carry across from one visit to the next once you have retrieved them.

All in all it’s quite an odd game, and is unlikely to ever garner any significant popularity. Which is a shame because it’s so radically different from just about everything. I personally found it to be a very refreshing change. Something that was both familiar and unique at the same time. There are enough aspects there to appeal to fans of games such as Baldurs Gate, as well as a large dose of style for those of us who are less interested in the particulars than the overall feel, but still a great deal of substance for the deep thinkers. There’s even the option of playing the game in first person to appeal to FPS fans, though that is admittedly a bit of a stretch as the main focus of the combat is on melee.

Graphics 8.5/10
Gameplay 8/10
Audio/music 9/10
Plot/Scripting 9/10
Overall 9/10