The one thing I’ve been waiting for out of the next-gen systems is more RPGs, and while it’s highly debatable that Wii games count as "next-gen," I’m still happy to see the appearance of new ones. Baroque looks as if it will fall into the JRPG category, pitting you up against a ruined world and a tower to descend in order to unearth the secrets of how it became that way (why do ruined lands always have towers still standing, I wonder?)

 

Outside of the usual hardcore dungeon crawler business, the press release mentions an intriguing feature: Each time your character dies, more secrets about the forsaken world are revealed. Apparently death is not the end, at least not within the world of Baroque. I’m very interested to see how that concept will work within gameplay. Is there any penalty to death, or is it more of a reward?

 

Between my beloved Trauma Center series and the stellar Persona 3, I trust Atlus implicitly to come up with great concepts and strong gameplay, so even the fact that this is not a high end graphics title doesn’t really phase me. Baroque launches in February 2008, so until then I’ve attached some screenshots to whet your appetite.