Anyone played Baroque on the Saturn (or PS1)? I’ve been working my way through it recently and it’s pretty interesting. I see it was mentioned in the pinned horror games thread, and it was also recently announced that next month the original version will be re-released on the Switch; it’s nice to see Sting having releases again.
The core of it is a lot like a Shiren the Wanderer game - the dungeon layouts are basically the same, the item types are weird (you nibble bones) but similar to items in Shiren, and you can send items back to town like in several Shiren games. The main difference is that it’s first person, real time, and really creepy and weird. (The PS2 remake was third person, but apparently that caused complaints and the Wii port of the PS2 remake added first person again.)
I picked up a strategy guide for the PS1 version (the Saturn guides are really expensive now), and having the guide makes the game a lot more enjoyable for me, since it explains otherwise mysterious items and some basic gameplay points the manual was vague on. One thing that did surprise me is that the floor guide - certain NPCs always appear on the same floor - is different even though the PS1 version was released close to the Saturn one and looks the same.
Reading about the game more I keep finding neat stuff. The PS2 version had a tarot deck as a preorder bonus, and those are pretty cheap so I picked one up. The game also had a lot of models made in development by Eisaku Kitou, who worked on Wachenroder around the same time. They released a book with setting details with photos of the models and interviews with Kitou and other staff, and that actually got a reprint in 2012 or so. And then there’s all the weird spinoffs like the typing game.
I don’t really like hard or unecessarily obscure games but I’ve found Baroque pretty enjoyable after getting used to it, I’d be curious to hear about anyone else’s experience. I’ve seen people say good things about it but like a lot of Sting games it seems mostly overlooked.