Baroque is set in a post-apocalyptic world where an experiment led by a being called Archangel to understand the Absolute God caused devastating climate change, with surviving humans becoming physically twisted by manifestations of guilt. The protagonist is guided by Archangel through the Neuro Tower to find the Absolute God and fix the world. The game features first person dungeon-crawling through randomly-generated floors of the Neuro Tower, with deaths in the dungeon advancing the narrative.
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One of the coolest dungeon crawling rougelikes I've ever played. Truly just throws you into the dark and lets you flounder till you find your footing but in a good way. It feels great to learn how the systems work in a natural way without ever having to feel guided every step of the way. The aesthetics with regard to the sound and look of the game are obviously great. The story itself is very unique and while most of it went over my head again it still feels good to try to figure out what's going on yourself.
This game had a way more deserving score before a dumb YouTuber talked about it in a shallow video essay about how it was the most messed up rpg ever!!! and invited hordes to review bomb it (by giving it anything less than 5 stars)
A freaky roguelite dungeon crawler with a borderline incomprehensible plot and unexplained game mechanics that require wasting runs to understand. It's novel, at least.
The gameplay is serviceable despite not explaining anything about the systems, the atmosphere is outstanding, and the core loop can get fun if you don't exclusively get bad items or spawn between two enemies. It succeeds at being fun while also being scary, despite some enemies being horribly designed.
The main issue is the story and the lack of any explanations in the game itself.
Usually, I wouldn't mind it, and wouldn't count it as a negative, if it wasn't for the fact that it was a deliberate choice to sell it as separate material and separate novels instead of including the texts as an obtainable "lore" section/item in the game. The integrity of the storytelling is blown to shreds.
I love obscure storytelling that makes me think, I do not enjoy being deprived of already-written content because they wanted me to go read the author's blog about it, and also buy his books and drop by comiket.
If you are the type of person that gets obsessed and digs through archived posts from two decades ago to understand one comment that should've been in the game to begin with, you have plenty to look at here.
But I'm not.
And I'm not going to judge it based off external material written post-release either. And if I had to, the rating would be even lower.
Not that the story or world itself was good either, it's trying too hard and the execution is too flawed to be truly enjoyable. It's just very interesting to look at.
The cutscenes and their execution range from expertly crafted bizarre artpieces to a black screen with text on it for two minutes, most likely due to lack of budget.
Overall, it's fine.
If you don't care about any of the above and play games only for the vibe and gameplay, this is a fun time.
The gameplay is serviceable despite not explaining anything about the systems, the atmosphere is outstanding, and the core loop can get fun if you don't exclusively get bad items or spawn between two enemies. It succeeds at being fun while also being scary, despite some enemies being horribly designed.
The main issue is the story and the lack of any explanations in the game itself.
Usually, I wouldn't mind it, and wouldn't count it as a negative, if it wasn't for the fact that it was a deliberate choice to sell it as separate material and separate novels instead of including the texts as an obtainable "lore" section/item in the game. The integrity of the storytelling is blown to shreds.
I love obscure storytelling that makes me think, I do not enjoy being deprived of already-written content because they wanted me to go read the author's blog about it, and also buy his books and drop by comiket.
If you are the type of person that gets obsessed and digs through archived posts from two decades ago to understand one comment that should've been in the game to begin with, you have plenty to look at here.
But I'm not.
And I'm not going to judge it based off external material written post-release either. And if I had to, the rating would be even lower.
Not that the story or world itself was good either, it's trying too hard and the execution is too flawed to be truly enjoyable. It's just very interesting to look at.
The cutscenes and their execution range from expertly crafted bizarre artpieces to a black screen with text on it for two minutes, most likely due to lack of budget.
Overall, it's fine.
If you don't care about any of the above and play games only for the vibe and gameplay, this is a fun time.
Really cool, a wholly unique style, and shockingly modern in most of its design. If the movement didn't feel like it was designed for a saturn controller I'd kind of have a hard time believing this really came out when it did. I beat this almost certainly faster than intended, but had a really good time and plan to go back to see more.
Uma pérola perdida antiga... infelizmente hoje em dia não acho que envelheceu bem, além de ser um pouco inacessível, mas os visuais são macabros e a atmosfera dar um ar de tensão pra esse jogo, um dos rpgs mais diferentes que joguei
The post-industrial nightmare environs are astounding on their own, but they also elevate the tension and survival elements of its gameplay, which is basically 3D Mystery Dungeon. It's a run-based game where I was genuinely absorbed by the world and story.