First of all it might be worth noting just who Sting is and what its reputation is like. Most of you may not have heard of the small Japanese outfit, but way back in 1996 it teamed up with Squaresoft to create the strategy RPG 'Treasure Hunter G' on the SNES, a game that has just hit the Virtual Console in Japan this month. Other than this, Ubisoft enlisted the team to port both Evolution games from the DreamCast onto the GameCube in the form of the critically mauled double-package 'Evolution Worlds'. More recently, though, Sting has picked up a strong cult following for its two highly-rated GBA strategy titles, Riviera: The Promised Land (which originated on the WonderSwan Colour and has now been ported to the PSP) and Yggdra Union (which is also coming to Sony's handheld). The great thing about the company's remakes as well is that a considerable amount of effort is poured into each one to make sure Sting's loyal fans get the best deal possible. Riviera on the PSP was a large leap from the original WonderSwan and subsequent GBA versions and in the same breath Baroque is significantly changed from its Saturn roots.

 

Speaking of which, the very first version of Baroque came out on the Sega Saturn way back in the middle of 1998, complete with a gorgeous soundtrack from Masaharu Iwata, the genius behind many a fantastic musical score (Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics, some of Final Fantasy XII tracks and Odin Sphere). It was a decent-sized hit, ranking in the Top 5 upon release, probably raking in around 40,000 sales in its short time on the chart. Following this, the game was ported to the PlayStation to offer it up to a wider audience that would greater appreciate its dark style and first-person RPG action goodness, and then eventually the decision was made to remake it for the PlayStation 2. Said PS2 version, though, has been deemed by some to not be as good as the initial product, partially because of the Iwata-san score being replaced, but also because the feel changed thanks to a Third Person viewpoint being put in place to help players with the battle mechanic taking away some of the game's atmosphere. However, this negative reaction only came from stalwart fans of the first Saturn and PSone editions. The kicker, though, was that whilst they were not particularly pleased, Famitsu also did not look upon the remake too favourably either, giving it a terribly average score of 27/40 (three 7s and one 6, which by Famitsu's is pretty poor). The result? The game entered the Media Create chart at the tail end of June 2007 at the lowly position of No.25 and considering the No.10 game that week only had 30,000 sales, it certainly was not a strong start, and one that was not built upon as it did not even chart in the entire Top 50 the following week. Therefore, it was assumed that, as with past versions, Baroque would not see the light of day outside Japan. Now Atlus is set to give it a chance, though, it has to be hoped it receives a much warmer welcome from both the Press and consumers alike upon its US début to show the effort was worth it.

But enough of the history lesson, what is Baroque all about? Well, the story takes place in the future, with the premise being based around events that take place on 14th May, 2032, when a cataclysmic 'Blaze' (basically the Apocalypse) devastates the world, distorting both it and the laws of nature in general and even going so far as to twist reality. After this happening, strange creatures called Meta-Beings are left to wander the barren planet as it continues to deteriorate at a disturbingly constant rate. Now the surviving population can merely cling to their distorted fantasies, or what the game calls 'Baroques' (stemming from the Portuguese word 'barroco', meaning 'distorted pearls'), and in doing so find their bodies are becoming as warped as their minds, leaving them as nothing more than as empty shells that cannot be communicated with (these are said Meta-Beings).

 

Thus players must take control of the game's protagonist and set off with the aim of 'healing the world' as atonement for his sin. However, this is sin is one he does not remember committing as he has no memory and is simply working from an instruction given to him by a enigmatic character with red pupils. His punishment is to enter the Neuro Tower, a place that was once the residence for the Order of Malkuth (a strange religious cult, run by False Angels wearing fake wings, that believes God requires saving, rather than humans), but is now infested with dangerous Meta-Beings. What proves to be extremely interesting, at least from a gaming perspective, is that the inside structure of the tower changes on a regular basis, meaning the game is a random dungeon crawling, action role-playing affair, in a similar vein as Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon or Shiren the Wanderer. And the mystique is helped along by Baroque's dark graphics and unique visual style, courtesy of Kenjiro Suzuki-san's character designs.

As you make your way through the various floors of the dungeon, using the very handy Angelic Rifle that can annihilate Meta-Beings, players will have to keep their wits about them, scouring for new items and ammunition to aid them on this perilous journey to find the key to the deep, dark secrets that have been locked away for far too long. And remember, that in the crazy world of Baroque, death is only the beginning of things to come in this sinister, twisted fantasy world...Each time your character actually dies, the game reveals more secrets about the desolate world! Then there are other unusual aspects, such as the mysterious Wandering Maidens, two inhabitants of the Neuro Tower that have not been distorted as much as other beings wandering around. What secrets do Alice and Eliza hold that keep them from transforming like the rest?

 

One problem with dungeon-crawlers is that the fighting style can sometimes be extremely awkward, as found in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. Thankfully, though, fighting has apparently been made easier in this remake, much more so than in the PSone and Saturn version, thanks to the first-person viewpoint changing to third-person, meaning when you need to use your purification abilities (as well as the vast assortment of weapons, armour, and even parasites that can be combined for statistical boosts – the level of customisation is promised to be extremely deep) to 'cleanse' the Meta-Beings, it now proves easier to dodge their incoming attacks and time your counter-attacks better than before as range gauging is much more intuitive. As for the graphics, on the PS2 remake they have been considerably cleaned up since the original on Sega's platform as well, and you would hope that the Wii edition looks even better...but we shall see about that as no Wii screenshots have been revealed so far (the ones in this preview and the game's media folder are from the PS2 build). On the soundtrack side, whilst Iwata-san's music is now a thing of the past, its replacement is very pleasing, coming from the man behind Riviera and Yggdra Union's soundtracks, Shigeki Hayashi. Everything sounds promising right now, despite Famitsu's review, but one thing you have to hope does not get changed for the Wii game is the developer forcing pointless Wii motions into the end product just for the sake of it. Some Wi-Fi elements would not go amiss, perhaps, maybe for item trading or online rankings of some sort, but waggling just for waggle's sake? Probably not the best idea.