A Month of Horror Games - Baroque

"This is the age of Great Heat. This is the world it destroyed."

Baroque is a supremely odd and unsettling game. Debuting on the Sega Saturn in 1998 (and receiving a PS1 port a year later), the plot involves...well, maybe you can explain it to me.

The general idea, though, is that a cataclysmic heat wave known as The Blaze has effectively ruined the world. Earth is a barren, red wasteland sparsely populated by what were once humans--over time their minds and forms have been warped by their "Baroques"; delusions and desires that they cling to in the absence of any other hope for the future. Everyone else has been completely changed into hostile creatures known as "meta-beings".

Few structures seem to remain standing in the world, but the most prominent is called the Neuro Tower. The Neuro Tower goes deep, deep underground, and somewhere within is the secret to the world's destruction. Your character has no memory of his past. It is only his unexplained sense of guilt and the guidance of a mysterious being called Archangel that compels him to enter the tower.

There isn't a pleasant bone in this game's body. Similar in style to King's Field and Shadow Tower, Baroque is actually a rogue-like; upon the player's death (it'll happen), they will revive outside of the Neuro Tower, minus any items and experience/levels. It's rough, but in some cases death is necessary to further the plot. Almost everything in the game is hostile, and to stave off death the player must regain health and stamina by eating the hearts and bones found in the Tower. Just existing is hazardous to your health as well, as your health will tick down endlessly whether you're being attacked or simply standing around.

For fans of the 32-bit aesthetic Baroque is a beautiful game!

Flying "meta-beings". These are by far the least weird ones you will encounter.

One of the warped humans. He's more or less on your side, at least.

The sound is excellent! Outside the Neuro Tower the only thing you can hear is the lonesome howling of the wind, occasionally interrupted by tortured howling of another kind. Could there be animals still alive, or is it from the meta-beings? Inside the tower the isolated, unwelcoming atmosphere is set by droning, antonal ambience reminiscent of Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill soundtrack.

The Neuro Tower is painted in drab, dark tones; all decaying concrete and pitted metal with the occasional wash of hot red, seemingly as a reminder of the devastation above ground. The industrial setting really brings to mind images of Kowloon Walled City. And should you reach the bottom of the Neuro Tower, well

that's reassuring

 Playstation 2 Remake

If you can read Japanese I highly recommend the Saturn or PS1 versions. For everyone else, the game was remade for the PS2 and Wii. The gameplay is marginally less clunky than the lo-fi original (notably including a character who can store items for you outside of the Neuro Tower), but a lot of the unique and creepy atmosphere was lost in translation due to the more polished graphics.

The worst thing about the remake, however, is the soundtrack--the moody, industrial ambience of the original has been replaced with hella lame dark techno that doesn't fit the mood whatsoever. I turn the music off in the options, personally. For some illuminating comparisons between the original and remake versions of Baroque, check out an earlier post I made on the subject.

ILLBLEED - Audio Easter Egg

October is coming!! So, I have a small bit of Sega ephemera for you.

Some games know they're dumb, and they embrace that. Illbleed takes this approach and runs off a cliff into a volcano with it. Released by Crazy Games (formerly Climax Graphics, the auteurs behind Blue Stinger), the premise behind Illbleed is just awesome: a horror theme park that is so scary that anyone who conquers it is awarded one million dollars (or one hundred million, depending on which script the voice actors are reading). The park isn't scary so much as it is filled floor to ceiling with ludicrous booby traps. Illbleed is a total mess, dumb as shit, poorly presented and I love it.

Apart from the many, many horror movie references sprinkled throughout there are two fun Sega references near the end--one extremely obvious one and one that is a little more subtle!

Enter Zodick the Hellhog, a boss in the final chapter of the game. There's your obvious reference. But check out the spoooooky sound that plays when he appears:



European and Japanese Sega fans probably picked up on this pretty quickly--the sound heralding Zodick's arrival is actually the boot up theme when you turn on a PAL or NTSC-J Sega Saturn!



I'll admit that when I first played Illbleed I was so disappointed, because I approached the game in the wrong way. Before it was released I was under the strange misconception that it would be a straight-faced horror game and to find that it was a goofy parody made me put it away for years. Now that I can appreciate how bonkers it is, going through and finding little touches like this is a real pleasure.

Playing it may be kind of a chore for some (most) people, but if you want to see it presented by someone who is Not Annoying and also has real enthusiasm for the game I recommend this series of videos by Stop Skeletons From Fighting!

Horror Games For October - Mr. Bones (Sega Saturn)

 This game is WEIRD AS SHIT

And why does the game have an advertisement for itself, on its own package?

If you haven't seen Zono Interactive's Mr. Bones you haven't seen one of the most fascinating, diverse and spoooooky experiences on the Sega Saturn. It is just so strange. The plot (told through numerous CG and FMV cutscenes) involves a certain blues-loving skeleton as he tries to escape the mad scientist DaGhoulian, a maniac who wants to "purify the world" by eliminating all conflict between good and evil by simply erasing everything that isn't evil. He will do this by playing a giant set of magical drums to animate the dead!

The most fascinating thing about this ol bag of bones is the variety of gameplay you deal with from stage to stage. Level one "Grave Escape" is an autoscrolling chase stage in which the player, controlling a sharply defined polygonal skeleton, must escape an army of pre-rendered skeletons through what is essentially an FMV movie of the stage (think the backgrounds in Space Channel 5). The result is a beautifully rendered stage, but overlaid with blurry, low res FMV skeleton characters chasing a high res player character--very eerie in its crappiness, but I imagine it was pretty impressive back in the day.

"The Mausoleum" is a continuation of the previous escape but now the action takes place on a two-screen-wide rooftop as enemies try to swat you off before charging you head on. The controls in this game feel quite awkward and the game suffers for it in my opinion, but stick with it. Unfortunately, losing your one life will boot you back to the title screen where you must use the level select menu to go back to where you were--a continue option would be nice here.

Stage 3 is a traditional "walk to the right" affair, and at this point you might think the game's early gimmicks are leveling out and it's going to become a normal game; then Mr. Bones comes upon a blind blues guitarist in a remote cabin and we experience what this game is probably best known for:

"Now ya'll can't talk but you can listen--and maybe even feel!"

Impromptu skeleton guitar solo! Now it's a music game in which Mr. Bones must use the D-pad and buttons to win over the skeleton army with his sick riffs. There are no instructions in this stage, you just have to feel it. I should point out at this point that the soundtrack is excellent, composed and performed in large part by rock and blues legend Ronnie Montrose. In addition to the kind of light horror music you would associate with a game about skeletons, the guitar in this game is absolutely legit.

Win over all the skeletons by playing well and you're on to a trio of stages that made me stop playing for a while: Night of the Bats, Dawn of the Bats and Day of the Bats.

...in which bats have taken all of your body parts aside from your skull and spine and you must retrieve enough bones to solve a simple puzzle at the end of the stage. Oh yeah, this is a thing that can happen by the way! Take a big enough impact from an enemy and a bone may fall off: lose your legs and you can't damage enemies from jumping. Lose your right arm and you can't attack with your skeleton laser (also there are skeleton lasers in this game). Once you're down to just a head you're in trouble so make sure you always pick up spare bones when you find them. These stages suck balls, they're very vertically oriented and precise jumping is very difficult. Get used to falling down onto Frankenstein monsters.

I haven't beaten the bat stages so I've yet to experience what comes next personally, but I did watch ahead a few stages on Youtube and I truly believe you must stick with it because the gameplay just keeps changing and getting stranger. Here's a shot of Mr. Bones navigating an alternate dimension of evil while a man in the soundtrack waxes philosophical about how even newborn babies have the blues--if you aren't planning on playing this game,  I strongly urge you to watch a playthrough.

Mr. Bones really seems like a passion project made by skeleton loving madmen; I've never seen anything quite like it. This is a little late for my October Horror Games posts but it's got enough skeletons to stretch Halloween straight through November. If you've got a Saturn, get it! It currently fetches about $30 on the secondary market so it's a bit expensive for a used game, but such a great gem to have in any retro game/skeleton collection.

Recommended for: Sega Saturn owners, skeleton enthusiasts, blues enthusiasts

Sega Saturn S-Video mod tutorial

Why S-Video? If you don't have a setup for SCART or RGB then this is the best video quality you can get for your retro systems...and it is DAMN good looking. The jump in quality from composite to S-Video is dramatic, and the jump from coaxial (if somehow you're stuck with that) to S-Video will flatten your balls.

Alternatives to this mod: You can find an S-Video cable for Saturn easily on eBay or Amazon for about 10 bucks, making this mod...kind of pointless.

HOWEVER, if you find modding your consoles fun (as I do), you want to use easy-to-find generic cords instead of relying upon proprietary Saturn cables, or you're worried about the Saturn's default video output port failing (It can get finicky over time) then you should give this a try. Having separate stereo sound ports also makes it easier for you to hook your console up to external speakers or for capturing sound and video from the Saturn.

There are a lot of photos here so click below to view the tutorial.

Games For October - Deep Fear

Deep Fear, developed by ISCO in 1998 (a contemporary of Resident Evil 2) and released onto Sega Saturn in Japan and Europe only. Deep Fear has the distinction of being Europe's last Saturn release, and they chose quite a note to go out on.

Gameplay wise? It's Resident Evil. Story wise? It's bananas. To briefly sum it up, ex-SEAL John Mayor is part of a rescue team called the ERS and must survive the horror of mutant creatures with murder on their mind--UNDER THE OCEAN. Gameplay takes place in an underwater research station called the Big Table.

The game's many cutscenes are well done for the time, but the voice acting must be heard to be believed.  The sound effects are sadly subpar, which hurts the immersion factor; still, I think the monster's moans can be downright haunting. This however is coming from a person who once paid his brother to walk through a scary room in Resident Evil, so take it as you will.

 For the record, this was the most fun "photoshoot" I've done yet--choosing which ones to post was tough. Of all things to have a passion for, themed video game package design photography is mine.

"Hereafter We Will Have Desperate Days With Nowhere To Escape..."
 
Hell yeah. Deep Fear's tagline certainly ranks up there with RE's "Enter The Survival Horror." And just in case that, the box art and the title didn't transmit the message clearly, blood red words at the bottom lay it on the line for you: DEEP-SEA HORROR AND SUSPENSE. I love this game's packaging more than the game itself.

While we're discussing promotional materials, here's the Japanese commercial for Deep Fear, featuring nothing but prerendered cutscenes and national treasure Segata Sanshiro butchering a fish.

If you can't get hold of the European version, the Japanese one is more affordable and very playable without knowing the language!

Ever played Deep Fear? Got any other suggestions for Survival Horror style games (any system)? I'm looking for more things to play this October!