Oh god this game terrifies me

[Gwendolyn]

I bought this game believing it to be some sort of action-RPG - something I'm definitely not good at, but hey, I'd be willing to try and play it! Not to mention I've had friends who've said that it's really good.

Instead I find out it's a roguelike, something I'm already bad at, and a roguelike set in real time, and that meant in about ten minutes I'd somehow angled the camera at the ceiling and was furiously waving my Wiimote at the monsters I couldn't see but were still slowly depleting my health bar.

My main problem isn't with the battle system actually, but the setting and the atmosphere.

It completely terrifies me, and I freely admit that I am a big wuss - I have a hard enough time watching gameplay videos of the Silent Hill series, and you'll never find me playing one, ever.

Everyone - the Horned Girl, the Collector, the man with the strange striped giraffe neck - scares the beezejus out of me, not to mention that the starting area is unsettling and unnerving.

The thing is, I want to know why they're there, what's happening and going on, yet I can't progress through the game without being terrified and sucking greatly.

---I'm not sure where I'm going with this post, but I'm just letting Atlus know that they've released a game that makes it hard for me to sleep late at night if I start thinking about it, although that's really not too hard now that I think about it.

[Gen Eric Gui]

It's just a game. Get over it.

Start by learning to rotate the camera slowly. That's the absolute most important thing to do at the beginning, as you need to be able to see what you're doing.

Second, start looking at the Meta-beings as AI scripts, and learn how they attack and where they attack. Then learn to dance around them. The enemies aren't scary at all once you learn how to make it so they can't ever hurt you.

Pick up everything you possibly can, especially if it can be thrown. Throwing is the key to victory in a lot of areas, since it puts you in no danger and can often inflict a LOT of damage.

And yeah, most importantly, man up.

[punkrocker_271]

^I think its a girl not a dude so she cant man up :)

[Azriel Crusnik]

I still get that way but Gen Eric Gui is right. just think of it as facing your fears. if that does not help abandon all hope :D

[Gen Eric Gui]

^I think its a girl not a dude so she cant man up :)

thatsthejoke.jpg

[punkrocker_271]

O I missed the joke..... :lol:

[Gwendolyn]

It's just a game. Get over it.

Start by learning to rotate the camera slowly. That's the absolute most important thing to do at the beginning, as you need to be able to see what you're doing.

Second, start looking at the Meta-beings as AI scripts, and learn how they attack and where they attack. Then learn to dance around them. The enemies aren't scary at all once you learn how to make it so they can't ever hurt you.

Pick up everything you possibly can, especially if it can be thrown. Throwing is the key to victory in a lot of areas, since it puts you in no danger and can often inflict a LOT of damage.

And yeah, most importantly, man up. I'll try again later; my main problem is that I'm a rather skittish person and whenever I'm startled (which is all the time), I tend to jerk or jump. Playing it when it's not something like 1AM in the morning would probably help too.

[Onion of Mystery]

All this just means that the developers are being really successful in delivering that creepy atmosphere they were trying for.

[Hossaria]

All this just means that the developers are being really successful in delivering that creepy atmosphere they were trying for.
And that was pretty good, its like a "Neon Genesis Evangelion" of roguelike RPGs.

[thinkfreemind]

I hate that I have not yet gotten around to playing this game yet. I've cut way back on my game purchases over the past couple of months in an effort to not buy everything the moment it hits retail, like I was doing. Atlus games are still a day 1, but that's it at this point. It's working in that I feel like I am making very slow progress to conquer my massive backlog, but it takes time. This game is near the top of the list in terms of what's next, so hopefully by the end of the year..? sigh...

[Azriel Crusnik]

perhaps they should make a sequel to this with a SH2 atmosphere or something to that sort.

[dragonlife29]

Holy smokes; I am so glad I don't get scared like this. If I did, how could I ever enjoy the games I already love?

It's really unfortunate the game terrifies you to the point of not enjoying it (as much?).

In other news, I've yet to complete it...I should get around to doing that.

Also, is it me, or can no one else understand the play time counter? O_o I was curious to see how long I had been playing the game...but I didn't understand it. I'll need to look again because it's been months since I last saw it...but I know SOMETHING confused me.

[Sproink]

I got more scared because of the fact my vitallity was draining, even in the overworld.
And well, there isn't much to cure that other then going into the tower.

[ReyVGM]

I wonder if I'll like this game. I read the Hardcore Gaming 101 article on it and it sounds really confusing.

[Gen Eric Gui]

It's not that difficult to understand. The plot is very confusing in the beginning, but it's supposed to be. Think of it like the movie Memento, where it's running backwards. If you pay attention and put the facts together as you learn them, it all comes together into a neat whole.

Sproink: There's an HP/VT healing disk on the floor right by the tower entrance. You can heal pretty much however much you need to outside the tower.

[Dirjel]

Ugh. This thread makes me sad.

I LOVED the environments. I LOVED the characters. I LOVED the story.

I just couldn't stand to lose all my loot every time I cleared a floor >.>

I'm really... something. Once I've played a game, I can't stand to start a new game unless:
a) It's been a looooooooong time since last I played, or
b) The game features some sort of new-game-plus thing.

Baroque is like starting a brand new game every time you clear a floor. I know you can keep a handful of items, but in order to do that, you need to give them up for the whole dungeon. What's the point, then?

This game was really frustrating, but I really wanted to see what all it had to offer. Oh well. Maybe if I had a Gameshark or something I'd have gone through it all the way >.>

[Gen Eric Gui]

Half of the game is figuring out that you AREN'T restarting every time you "start over".

And there were two transfer orbs on the final floor of the dungeon, so your really important loot(Weapon and Armor, for example) could be kept for the whole dungeon.

[Valahuir]

Aye, the game is a tad creepy isn't it, but that what I like most about it. :D

However that being said I haven't played a great deal of it yet having only being reliced a week ago here. (and slight distraction by persona 3:FES but I'll not go into that)

But as for the bit that bugs me the most is in the short amount I played it, I equipt a sword that couldn't be unequipt, the arived at the bottom of the tower and couldn't use the gun to complete the 'mission'.
Man I felt stupid once I realised what I'd done wrong. :oops:

[Azriel Crusnik]

Aye, the game is a tad creepy isn't it, but that what I like most about it. :D

However that being said I haven't played a great deal of it yet having only being reliced a week ago here. (and slight distraction by persona 3:FES but I'll not go into that)

But as for the bit that bugs me the most is in the short amount I played it, I equipt a sword that couldn't be unequipt, the arived at the bottom of the tower and couldn't use the gun to complete the 'mission'.
Man I felt stupid once I realised what I'd done wrong. :oops:

you could of just run up to her until the screen changed.

[Gen Eric Gui]

Yeah, even though the Archangel says that the only way to fix her is to shoot her, there are other ways. The game would have been pretty piss-poor of you couldn't finish the dungeon just because you equipped something with a Glue brand.

[Valahuir]

While I'll try to avoid glue brands in future, I'll rember that, thank you. :D

[Gen Eric Gui]

Well, remember that some good comes from Glue Brands as well. Gliro the Devil can't steal anything that's been glued to you, and glued equipment can't fly away either. You can also remove the brands with Unbrands, which the Strength-type monsters drop.

[Kamiyama01]

Yeah I liked the environment too. I played the game for a couple weeks, but kind of gave up because I just couldn't survive at the lower levels, no matter how hard I tried to level up and scrounge good items. Well, I beat it twice, the first time was the short run-through before they increase the size of the dungeon, the second time I ran past all the monsters in the lower levels. Im trying to butcher my way through (I think its the "fair" way to beat it) but its really hard. I found a few tricks though that seemed to help me:

You should fight battles in first-person because I found it was soooo much easier to dodge enemy attacks in first-person. This lets you survive longer and go much deeper into the dungeon. Also if you have any useless items, (weak weapons/armor you dont need for example) you can throw them at monsters, sometimes killing them, without having to fight and take more damage. And always throw some kind of useful item (good weapon, armor, even food) into the orbs so you can use them on your next try. I also found it easier to find orbs in first-person: some of them float up near the ceiling and I didn't see them in third. Theres also one monster with spinning faces, I think its called a copper angel or something like that, if you throw 2 useless items at it, it will spit out something different. I found I get a lot of food back for some reason, so you can stock up on food if you find one of them.

Hope this helps! =D

[Gen Eric Gui]

Honestly, the real trick to fighting the monsters is to just learn their patterns of attack. Nearly every monster has some blind spot that you can get into and attack them with impunity, or at the very least do a stun attack on them.

And you're thinking of the Cursebringer Angel. And yes, abuse the hell out of him. Esepcially if you've got a stack of Sweat Bones; they're common as hell and you can get a lot of neat items out them quickly. It's also worth noting that he "fixes" items with negative penalties and cooks meat. So if you have a Rotten Heart or Rotten Meat, you can throw it at him and you'll get regular meat and hearts back. Of course, if you throw regular meat/hearts at him, you'll get them back burned.

[Xfraze]

Really useful info, I wasn't even aware that you could go into first person mode. Normally I can't play creepy games, but this one isn't very scary so I lucked out and am having a great experience.

[Flebsqueeb]

Baroque, isn't scary at all. Just force yourself to play Dead Space, or Condemned. That will fix you right up :P.

[Gen Eric Gui]

Dead Space isn't scary at all. I'd say it's actually less scary than Baroque.

[Flebsqueeb]

^ We must get scared of completely different things. Dead Space scared me because I felt like the MC Isaac wasn't very capable to handle the situation. Plus gore, and pop-out moments tend to give me the jitters. What's frightening about baroque, if you don't mind me asking? Maybe I haven't progressed far enough yet, to understand the big picture?

[Flebsqueeb]

By the way, My Beautiful Katamari was way scarier than Baroque. You never know what that ball is gonna pick up.

[Gen Eric Gui]

My point was that Baroque isn't very scary.

And Dead Space is still less scary.



I just don't think pop-out scares are frightening. I'm scared of the overbearing sense of dread and hopelessness that pervade games like Silent Hill and Theresia(and to a lesser extent, Baroque), OOGA BOOGA BOOGA scares like in RE or Dead Space may occasionally make me jump, but they don't make me lay awake at night like the #### that goes down in SH does.

[Flebsqueeb]

I can agree with you on that. I've had no nightmares from Dead Space, but the SH series has given me much to be scared about at night. Especially SH4 the room. That game kicked my ass, and I never finished it because it was a rental :(.

But anyways, about Baroque. So far I'm loving my own interpretations of what they story is all about so far. I'm most definitely way off lol, but it's always fun to imagine what's to come :P.

[Fuyukaze]

I hate that I have not yet gotten around to playing this game yet. I've cut way back on my game purchases over the past couple of months in an effort to not buy everything the moment it hits retail, like I was doing. Atlus games are still a day 1, but that's it at this point. It's working in that I feel like I am making very slow progress to conquer my massive backlog, but it takes time. This game is near the top of the list in terms of what's next, so hopefully by the end of the year..? sigh...

I know the feeling. Worse part is I got both versions of it.

[Hossaria]

Dead Space scared me because I felt like the MC Isaac wasn't very capable to handle the situation. Plus gore, and pop-out moments tend to give me the jitters.
That's just lame, a totally inexperient protagonist and extreme blood and gore aren't that scary.

[Flebsqueeb]

^ OK. So I'm squeamish.

[seththeblack]

Strangely, the atmosphere and characters never scared me.

[Medical Meccanica]

I've never really played any scary games (with the exception of Yume Nikki, only thing scary in there were the Toriningen), and I just bought Baroque... Exactly how scary is it?

[coeur-de-lion]

The only thing "scary" about "Baroque" is how badly it sucks. I played it for about 10 minutes and had to stop. It has to be one of the worst RPGs of 2008 if not of all time.

[Kakizaki]

^Then you haven't played enough rpgs...

[coeur-de-lion]

^Then you haven't played enough rpgs...

I've played more than you can imagine and as an action rpg Baroque is somewhere in the top 10 worst games I've ever played.

[Kakizaki]

^I can imagine a lot.

[Futomimi]

Uh oh.

[slayn]

I've played more games than actually exist thanks to my interdimensional Gamefly account, and I can assure you that Baroque, as flawed as it is, is nowhere near the top ten worst games of all time (space).

[Flebsqueeb]

The only thing "scary" about "Baroque" is how badly it sucks. I played it for about 10 minutes and had to stop. It has to be one of the worst RPGs of 2008 if not of all time.

Baroque is not for people with a 10 minute attention span. And judging by your impatience, you obviously didn't read up on the game, and find out that it takes place in a randomly generated tower, through (roughly) 90% of the game. Well at least you tried I guess?

[Gen Eric Gui]

lol @ people judging a Rougelike's quality in 10 minutes.

Baroque is a pretty good Roguelike, and the story is pretty epic and awesome too. But the entire thing hinges on the person, you know, playing and experiencing it. The beauty of the game comes through in the replays and in understanding what the story means and what each of the characters in the game means. You can't possibly have understood the game to any degree in only 10 minutes.

[Kakizaki]

^You know, I did not even catch his initial "10 minute" comment before. Wow.

[Exliam]

Dead Space scared me because I felt like the MC Isaac wasn't very capable to handle the situation. Plus gore, and pop-out moments tend to give me the jitters.
That's just lame, a totally inexperient protagonist and extreme blood and gore aren't that scary.

No, but walking through an narrow airless corridor where you can't hear and your health is ticking down will make you #### your pants. especially during the part where you have to fight an invincible monster and kill it....no, I'm not joking about this. that game is very, very scary.

[nbinney]

I'm going to quote Zero Punctuation here but "If a possum jumping in through the window scares you, it doesn't exactly make him the Stanley Kubrick of rodents."

[Kakizaki]

Nice necro post as a first post responding to a thread that hadn't been touched for nearly a year and a half. :/

[Evilkinggumby]

Nice necro post as a first post responding to a thread that hadn't been touched for nearly a year and a half. :/

Nice way to make a newby feel welcome.. lol Ya'll going to add to the conversation or just poke fun at the new guy?

Personally, to me fear is a very subjective thing. I actually prefer when they use techniques that build up a tense atmosphere and make you jumpy through layers of psychological tricks, rather then cheap 'jump scares' like cheesy no brainer horror stuff uses. But I also get startled at the jump scares at times, and I know some folk really enjoy that type of fright(in a game/movie).

and Exliam, you forgot to mention the buckets of body horror that that particular game has. The sheer inventive, sick way they twisted the people into creatures is commendable.. and likely helped them turn out Dante's Inferno(not scary but def interesting).

I've never played the OP mentioned game.. is it even sold now?

[Exliam]

Nice necro post as a first post responding to a thread that hadn't been touched for nearly a year and a half. :/

Nice way to make a newby feel welcome.. lol Ya'll going to add to the conversation or just poke fun at the new guy?

Personally, to me fear is a very subjective thing. I actually prefer when they use techniques that build up a tense atmosphere and make you jumpy through layers of psychological tricks, rather then cheap 'jump scares' like cheesy no brainer horror stuff uses. But I also get startled at the jump scares at times, and I know some folk really enjoy that type of fright(in a game/movie).

and Exliam, you forgot to mention the buckets of body horror that that particular game has. The sheer inventive, sick way they twisted the people into creatures is commendable.. and likely helped them turn out Dante's Inferno(not scary but def interesting).

I've never played the OP mentioned game.. is it even sold now?
Do you mean baroque? if so, then yes. I think that it is still available online at gamestop for $10.

[Exliam]

My point was that Baroque isn't very scary.

And Dead Space is still less scary.



I just don't think pop-out scares are frightening. I'm scared of the overbearing sense of dread and hopelessness that pervade games like Silent Hill and Theresia(and to a lesser extent, Baroque), OOGA BOOGA BOOGA scares like in RE or Dead Space may occasionally make me jump, but they don't make me lay awake at night like the #### that goes down in SH does.
have you ever been afflicted by the "Lust" status condition? it's pretty scary. you'll never look at a geisha the same way again after that.

[Kakizaki]

Nice way to make a newby feel welcome.. lol Ya'll going to add to the conversation or just poke fun at the new guy?

He was responding to a persons post that hasn't posted here in well over a year. I was hardly poking fun - just a notice that his response to that individual fell on deaf ears. However I would like to make fun of you for your use of "y'all".

This area has little to no traffic so it really isn't a big deal, but in areas with more traffic, necro posting is quite annoying.

[Evilkinggumby]

yeah i took a look, did some reading, and will likely grab this game to delve into it. Mostly because it seems to hold a LOT of parallels in concept to Persona 3...

I wouldn't be surprised if the team that did Baroque was on board for P3, or if the folks that worked on P3 got inspired by the tower running they did in Baroque and decided to adapt some of it's concepts.. Note notonly the base similarities i highlight in this simple photoshop between p3 and Baroque, but also if you look close in the background image the "tarot" card for the MC ... is the fool... lol

Spoiler alert ---> As well you'll see the similarity between the MC in p3 and Baroque are "twins" in a way. P3 he has Ryoji inside him, in Baroque the MC had his heart attached to a twin and only one of the 2 was allowed to live. <---

I just find this amusing, but considering the mysterious and difficult nature of Baroque.. i find it intriguing too. I will have to get a copy to see how many other similarities they kept...

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt213/evilkinggumby/P3-Baroque.jpg


And thank you Kakizaki. Good to know the mods feel free to make fun of us.

[Kakizaki]

^Baroque, a remake of a Saturn and PSX title, was developed by Sting. The PS2 and Wii versions of Baroque were released after P3.

Good to know the mods feel free to make fun of us.Yup, you bet. Where is the rolling eyes emoticon? I will use this instead. :very_sad:

[Evilkinggumby]

^Yeah which is interesting. In looking at the concept and art design for the remake, it has a lot of those similarities I cited above, yet they are not far from the original artwork for the Sega Saturn/PSX Version. The core story and "world" concept is still in tact, so I have to wonder if Sting pulled a lot of visual ideas from P3 due to p3's popularity and similarity to Baroque...

Either way I am glad to get the heads up on these games, whoever was inspired by what doesn't matter that much. From what I've read the original games were pretty freaky and the ps2 remake seems flawed but intriguing. I am not too sure I'd find these games "scary" but it really depends on how well they build atmosphere(graphics aside, if a game is well built, the visuals aren't really THAT important)

For anyone interested in learning a bit about the history of the game...

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sting/sting2.htm

has a nice writeup and decent(all be it small) screenshots of both the PSX and ps2/wii versions.

Yup, you bet. Where is the rolling eyes emoticon? I will use this instead.

You're a real class act man. You do Atlus proud as a Mod on their site and a representative of their corporate ideals.

[Kakizaki]

You're a real class act man. You do Atlus proud as a Mod on their site and a representative of their corporate ideals.I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are being sarcastic. ;P

Except for my comments explaining why necro posting is annoying and how Sting developed Baroque not Atlus, everything that I have said in this thread so far has been tongue-in-cheek.

Keep in mind that not every little thing that is commented on by mods in regards to policing is done so on a whim. There is this handy little reporting feature that people can use to report posts that they feel violate this or that. PMs are sometimes used in the same way. While it can be a great feature, nearly everyone that posts here on a regular basis has probably reported a post that didn't need to be reported. Sometimes there are really really silly, and a little petty, reported posts.

So what is my point in bringing this up? If you weren't joking, then you need to chill a little. There really isn't a need to get upset over a comment regarding necro posting or any of my other comments here. Just because you are cool with it doesn't mean it didn't bug someone else (Like I mentioned before, necro posting is pretty harmless in this area of the forum but I have witnessed it start somewhere, like this subforum, only to snowball to irritating proportions in other areas of the main forum). My initial comment was simply a warning to prevent it from possibly getting out of hand elsewhere. Sometimes you have to know when a battle is worth fighting if you catch my drift. If you want to debate this issue, feel free to PM me.

[Karkarov]

.... but also if you look close in the background image the "tarot" card for the MC ... is the fool... lol

Thats because the Fool Arcana card in the tarot deck is meant to symbolize a person with no real knowledge at the start of their journey in life. As in someone embarking on a new adventure like a transfer student to a new school or an amnesiac with no memory traveling through a tower.

[Exliam]

^Yeah which is interesting. In looking at the concept and art design for the remake, it has a lot of those similarities I cited above, yet they are not far from the original artwork for the Sega Saturn/PSX Version. The core story and "world" concept is still in tact, so I have to wonder if Sting pulled a lot of visual ideas from P3 due to p3's popularity and similarity to Baroque...

Either way I am glad to get the heads up on these games, whoever was inspired by what doesn't matter that much. From what I've read the original games were pretty freaky and the ps2 remake seems flawed but intriguing. I am not too sure I'd find these games "scary" but it really depends on how well they build atmosphere(graphics aside, if a game is well built, the visuals aren't really THAT important)

For anyone interested in learning a bit about the history of the game...

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sting/sting2.htm

has a nice writeup and decent(all be it small) screenshots of both the PSX and ps2/wii versions.

Yup, you bet. Where is the rolling eyes emoticon? I will use this instead.

You're a real class act man. You do Atlus proud as a Mod on their site and a representative of their corporate ideals.
it's not that scary at first, but by the time you reach -1000 floors, you'll be running like mad. also, Bubugbel is the scariest and most annoying enemy ever. if your not careful, he can make it near impossible to proceed. have a look:
http://www.atlus.com/baroque/ps2/ikei/ikei2/ikei16.htm