How Does the PlayStation Port of Baroque Differ?
The Saturn original was a hard sell in every sense, and when Baroque moved to the PlayStation on 28 October 1999 it arrived with a subtitle, Distorted Delusions, and a series of mercies. Floor generation was adjusted, the difficulty was decreased, and the town gained a new vendor, small changes that add up to the most approachable version of the 1998 game.
The port also gained things the Saturn never had. A post-game Hell dungeon waits beyond the ending for players the main tower could not finish off. The opening demo movies gained narration by actress Minami Takayama, brought in because of her role in Summer Vacation 1999, one of director Kazunari Yonemitsu's key film influences. And the port was given a vocal theme, "Black in truth", composed by Masaharu Iwata at the record company's insistence. Yonemitsu disliked it and felt a vocal song did not fit the game's tone; Iwata placed it in a demo sequence rather than replacing his original opening.
A budget edition followed on 8 March 2000, and the port, not the Saturn disc, became the basis for the 2007 remake. If the Saturn version is the definitive object, the PlayStation version is the definitive text: the one later Baroque was built from.
