Cult classic RPG Baroque quietly gets a mobile spinoff

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-01-27 11:59 JST)

Japanese game developer Sting has released a free mobile game called Baroque ~Become a Meta-Being ~. The game is available on iOS and Android, and supports English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. It appears that the game was quietly released without any sort of announcement from developer Sting.

Baroque is a dark fantasy RPG that released for the Sega Saturn in 1998. The game takes place in a world that was destroyed by a cataclysm referred to as Blaze. The protagonist has no memory but a lingering awareness of a past sin. The protagonist also meets a winged character who tells him that by healing the world his sin will be forgiven. The protagonist then heads to Neuro Tower to purify his sin and save the world.

The game reached a cult classic status with its gloomy and desolate atmosphere. It was later remade for the PlayStation 2 and Wii, with a Nintendo Switch port based on the Sega Saturn version releasing in 2020 in Japan.

The Baroque title that just released is a hyper casual jump action game called Baroque ~Become a Meta-Being ~. The player takes the role of a Meta-Being called a Grue and pushes forward through Neuro Tower. Swiping the screen moves the Grue up, down, left, and right, and there are numerous creatures and gimmicks waiting along the way. You may fall from a moving platform and drown or be eaten or crushed by creatures that move sideways across the screen. The goal is to use good timing to make it as far as possible into the tower. The stage also changes with each retry.

Within the stage, there are pearls that can be picked up to unlock new Grue. There are also leader boards so you can compete with players around the world in categories like distance and number of deaths.

The game starts with no tutorial or any sort of story explanation. And it looks like the only way to even know if there’s an end point or not is to play the game and push as far as possible. It will be interesting to see if Sting ends up making an official announcement about the game.

Baroque ~Become a Meta-Being ~ is now available on iOS and Android.