Let's Play Baroque: Distorted Delusions | Part 6 (Finale) - Refusing to Save the World
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Baroque is a roguelike role-playing video game developed by Sting Entertainment. It was originally released for the Sega Saturn in 1998 by Entertainment Software Publishing. The game was later ported to the PlayStation, releasing on October 28, 1999 with the subtitle Distorted Delusions. Several changes were made to the port including adjustments to floor generation, a new vendor in the town, and decreased difficulty. There was also an opening narration during one of the demo movies provided by actress Minami Takayama. She was brought in due to her role in Summer Vacation 1999. A new vocal theme, "Black in truth", was composed for the PlayStation release, and released by Meldac Records as both a single and part of a mini album titled Read my Lips. The theme was composed by Iwata at the company's insistence, though Yonemitsu disliked it and felt a vocal theme did not fit the game's tone. Iwata got together a small vocal group he dubbed Baroque Mode to perform the new theme, but had it playing in the game's new demo sequence as he disliked replacing his original opening track. A budget edition of the port was released on March 8, 2000.
Baroque is set in a post-apocalyptic world where an experiment to understand the Absolute God caused devastating climate change, with surviving humans becoming physically twisted by manifestations of guilt. This experiment was led by a being called Archangel. The protagonist is guided by Archangel through the Neuro Tower to find the Absolute God and fix the world. All versions of the game feature dungeon-crawling through randomly-generated floors of the Neuro Tower, with deaths in the dungeon advancing the narrative. The original uses a first-person perspective, which the remake includes a third-person camera and adjustable difficulty levels.
The game was conceived by Kazunari Yonemitsu, who was involved in multiple aspects of its design and created the narrative. Originally in production for the PC-9800 series, Yonemitsu's wish for 3D graphics resulted in it shifting to the Saturn. Its dark tone, a reaction to Yonemitsu's previous work, was influenced by European cinema and film noir. The gameplay drew inspiration from Torneko no DaibÅken: Fushigi no Dungeon. The music was composed by Masaharu Iwata, who blended ambient noise and sound samples into the tracks. Baroque was supported with several supplementary products, including a visual novel based on a promotional novella. The remake featured new staff and several changes, including redone character designs from Kenjiro Suzuki and replacement music by in-house composer Shigeki Hayashi