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Baroque delayed until March
It seems that Baroque was always meant to be bullied by Nintendo's juggernaut, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Originally scheduled to release on February 26th (two weeks after Brawl's former February 10th date), Atlus has delayed the RPG until March 18th. As you may recall, Brawl is coming out on March 9th. Will that be a long enough gap for you to stray from your darling Nintendo fighter?The reason for the delay, according to Atlus, is that the company wants both the PS2 and Wii versions to come out at the same time. Assumedly, this means that the Wii version is holding the PS2 version up. Aside from "subtle" motion controls, the Wii version also supports 16:9 widescreen and progressive scan.At least Atlus has a good sense of humor about the delay. From the email, the publisher states, "After we told Nintendo, they decided to move the launch of one of their lesser releases, some game called Smash Brawl, into the same month. We hope they know what they're doing."[Via press release]
Atlus chats about Baroque's place in the Wii lineup
OMG Nintendo interviewed the Baroque localization team at Atlus USA about the challenges of making a super-hardcore dungeon RPG on the Wii. And don't worry -- this isn't being loaded with minigames or billed as Dungeon Training or anything. The team is fully aware of who the audience for Baroque is, and it's not the casual crowd. There are varying degrees of casual-to-hardcore, and "crazy dungeon RPG" is well beyond the hardcore side. Said Atlus's Aram Jabbari: "Baroque is a pure hardcore RPG experience and doesn't apologize for being so. With its dark subject matter and eerie characters, it definitely offers a change of pace from the Wii's usual light fare."As is pointed out in the interview, Atlus has been doing surprisingly well on the Wii with the Trauma Center games. Atlus's Clayton S. Chan sees the success as a result of good designers being paired with new possibilities: "Honestly, I think what the industry really needs is some (pun definitely intended) New Blood. An influx of good designers who are given more control would undoubtedly yield more unique titles that took better advantage of what the Wii offers." Of course, that doesn't apply to Baroque, which is a Wii port of a PS2 remake of a Saturn game.
New class for Warrior Epic unveiled
Warrior Epic, covered here and here, is something I'm looking forward to. The art style is positively quasi-Baroque, something that's a nice change from the Gothic overtones we're so used to in most MMOs. The character designs are varied and colorful, and don't shrink from detail. This is seen very clearly in the newly-released shots of the character class called the Zambrano. The class appears on the website to be restricted to women, though that might be premature to conclude. If it is, though, not since Paine from Final Fantasy X-2 have we seen a gunslinger with such intricate attire. The site has more information on this intriguing character class, with screenshots, so go check her out![Thanks, Brice!]
Creepy stuff abounds in Baroque
Purple fog has never been so effective. With its eerie atmosphere and simply-rendered (and formally-dressed) monsters, Baroque seems set to creep us the hell out as it batters us with tough-as-nails dungeon crawling. And thanks to the Wii version's added first-person camera angle (as seen previously on the Saturn, but in no other version) you can get all up ons and therefore even more creeped out.As happens occasionally, this latest Famitsu update contains a bunch of screens we've already seen, but includes a bunch of new ones as well. We invite you to browse the rogues' gallery of whatever all those things are that populate the dungeon, including Too Many Antlers Girl and Emo Mummy.
First screens of actual Wii version of Baroque
When Baroque was announced for localization, Atlus released a trailer ... of the PS2 version. It wasn't really a big deal that we didn't see the Wii version, since the game is definitely a PS2 port, and the simultaneous PS2/Wii release in the U.S. ruled out any major changes. But it's still nice to have some indication other than Atlus's word that a Wii version exists.These screens are definitely Wii. For one thing, they're widescreen (good news: another Wii game will actually support widescreen). In addition, the shoulder-button-based interface has been replaced by plus and minus buttons in the HUD. The game will have the option of a Wiimote/Nunchuk control scheme or a more PS2-like Classic Controller scheme. Providing further reassurance, the new Baroque Wii site is live, providing pretty much the same content as the PS2 site.In other news, look at that creepy bastard.
Atlus goes dungeon crawling for the Wii, PS2
When the chips are down and creativity's glass feels half empty, we know we can always look to the mavericks at Atlus to come up with something just a hair shy of normal for an experience that is, if anything, unique. With surgery sim Trauma Center: New Blood's release sewn up and a pair of Japanese-style strategy RPGs for the Xbox 360 on the way, Atlus is one of the last remaining 'garage bands' of video game publishing. Now the company has announced its next project, namely a dungeon crawl-style action RPG called Baroque, describing the game as "hardcore" and "a pure RPG experience" for both the mini-game addled Wii and aging PS2. With an art style that is all its own, Baroque is set for release on both consoles in February, and is a remake of Japanese dev Sting's Saturn/PlayStation original, no doubt throwing yet another log on the fire for those weary of the Wii's growing catalog of last-gen ports. For us, we're just more interested in finding out what a trek through a post-apocalyptic dungeon has to do with excessively intricate art. Color us intrigued.
Baroque announced for the Wii, RPG fans rejoice
A dungeon-crawling, action RPG for the Wii? Well, we certainly can't complain about having more of those around. Sating our thirst for the genre is Atlus, who announced that their formerly Japan-only title Baroque will be coming to North America on the Wii, as well as the PS2. The game, according to the press release, features "an innovative story progression system in which death is not the end, but rather, the means by which to move the story forward." Although the game will be a PS2 port, we'll be glad to get some more RPG action on our Wiis.Baroque is scheduled to release in February 2008.*Note: The video and screens are from the PS2 version of the game.[Via press release]%Gallery-11716%
