How Does the Baroque Remake Differ from the Original?
The remake, released for PlayStation 2 in Japan on 28 June 2007 and built on the PlayStation port, is best understood as a translation of the 1998 game into a new sensory language. The camera leaves the protagonist's eyes for a third-person view with full analogue movement and more action-driven combat. The graphics are entirely 3D where the original mixed 3D rooms with 2D sprite people. Full voice acting arrives. Difficulty levels arrive too, a concession the Saturn original would never have made.
The art and sound were not updated so much as replaced. Character designs were redone by Kenjiro Suzuki, succeeding Hyoju Mu's originals, and the new opening animation was produced by Point Pictures. The score is entirely new music by Shigeki Hayashi, Sting's in-house composer from Yggdra Union, where Masaharu Iwata's ambient anti-music had defined the original. Producer Takeshi Santo and lead programmer Shinichi Abe returned from the 1998 team to supervise the handover.
The Wii version, Japan 13 March 2008, adds motion controls and widescreen, and quietly restores an optional first-person camera, the remake's one bow to the Saturn. Atlus USA released both versions in North America on 8 April 2008 with a full English dub, deliberately marketing the game as "hardcore", and Japan later re-imported the Western edition as Baroque International.
