Nerve Tower -6 Great Heat Newsletter

Introduction

May 14th, 2026

    Although everything has been fairly quiet on this website, the world certainly seems on course for the coming apocalypse in six years. In the meantime, you will find below a review of Baroque news and updates from the past year. Sting has been putting out a surprising amount of Baroque content to discuss lately, so now if you will, head to the bottom. Those who survive will be rewarded with the heinous yet delicious red velvet Heart Seed cakes we baked in celebration this year.

Baroque-Ya

    On December 18th 2025, Sting released a compilation of their recent Baroque-related ports and remasters for the Nintendo Switch under the title "Baroque-Ya" (or "Baroque Shop"). The title (available both digitally and as a limited physical release) includes the Nintendo Switch port of the original Sega Saturn title, the "Baroque Syndrome" visual novel, a "Baroque Shooting" remaster, and an enhanced port of the mobile Frogger clone "I Awoke to Find I had Become a Grotesque" (localized as "Become a Meta-Being" in the West). With the exception of the original game's Switch port, all of these titles had been made available individually for the Nintendo Switch and Steam within the past year.

"Baroque -Original Version-" has remained unchanged since its initial release in 2020. It was, and still remains, an excellent port brought down only by Sting not porting over the smoother movement enabled by the Saturn 3D Controller. Otherwise, the game runs without slowdown thanks to the extra processing power of the Nintendo Switch and there's a host of extras accessible by pressing the "-" button. You can play in widescreen or enable a variety of borders, apply various distortion and CRT filters, utilize save states, peruse the first Baroque Report and the CD Data File, or watch the PS1 and remake attract mode FMVs. As with all official versions of the original Baroque, the game is Japanese only. If you can navigate that, then I highly recommend this port. Feel free to look up any terms or dialogue you don't understand on the main page of this website!

"Baroque Syndrome" is the same underwhelming experience full of grating stock SFX as ever, although this is notably the mobile version rather than a port of the PS1 version. That means upscaled graphics and some quality of life improvements, such as additional skip and resume functions plus more save slots. I did a quick runthrough of the game's same five routes and didn't notice any further changes or additions (although considering my disdain for this game, it's entirely possible I missed something). This edition of "Syndrome" is still Japanese only.

"Baroque Shooting: Reversed" is a full-fledged remake of the 26 year old "Baroque Shooting", Baroque's strange shmup spinoff. The game never featured very much text to begin with, but what little there was has now been translated into English. There are a number of new features, including more detailed HP indicators for bosses and background music from Baroque's Wii/PS2 remake (which can be muted via the options for the original ambient noise). Sting has also added the ability to continue upon death at the cost of your score, either from the start of the stage or exactly from where you died. I'm very thankful for this addition because the game's muddy visuals have always made it difficult to keep up with the action and that's an issue which becomes even worse on my Switch Lite's tiny screen.

A gallery of Sting's annual wallpapers is unlocked upon completing the game, from which you can select the main menu background. It's really nice to see these all in one place even if they are recycled content, especially because each one is now accompanied by a title to help describe what we're looking at. The game's only other extra is Score Attack which is just a renamed Time Attack from the original version. You play a stage on loop while collecting crystals from defeated enemies to temporarily pause the timer.

I'm pretty unfamiliar with shmup games as a whole so I don't know that I can recommend or trash on this game with any authority, but if you've been curious about Baroque Shooting, this is the way to play it. The only thing this version removes is Bulger's nudity (but not Niculi&Nicula's, weirdly enough).

"Become a Meta-Being Revive" is a port of 2022's Frogger-inspired mobile game "Baroque ~ I Awoke to Find I had Become a Grotesque" in which you play as a customizable Grue. Right away this is a massive improvement over the original because the player isn't constantly bombarded with the ads which plagued the mobile version. Getting actual controls over the original's unresponsive touch controls is another welcome addition, even if the game still feels a bit clunky to play. Revive also brings a time attack mode and an additional camera angle. Otherwise, it still plays the same for better or worse. Daily log-in bonuses and the (non-microtransaction based) gacha mechanics are still a thing, but unlock progression is much faster compared to the original mobile version.

Limited physical editions of "Baroque-Ya" were sold through online retailers and included various print-on-demand bonuses depending on which site you pre-ordered from ( listed at the bottom of the software's official website ). It's great to have a physical release for the Switch port of Baroque, especially with so many extras, but there's not really a reason to buy the whole thing if you're only interested in one or two of these titles. They're all sold separately and all the cartridge does is unceremoniously poop them out onto the Switch home menu, so there isn't any kind of game hub or exclusive content to the package aside from the frankly greedy array of cheaply produced pre-order bonuses.

Viractal -Will You Trust Your Party?-

    You awake to find yourself within a secluded, dimly lit shack as shadowy hands reach through the worringly green haze outside, beating desperately against the windowpane. The shack's only other occupant is a talking poster of a cartoon Baphomet, who forces you to play a fantasy boardgame they have generated. This is the introduction to Sting's new weirdery: Veractal, a "tactical board game RPG" for up to 3 players. As of April, a free update has been released which adds "Seeker No. XII" (a chibified Koriel No. 12) to the game, alongside a number of Baroque themed skill cards featuring new illustrations by OG Baroque character designer Hyoju Muu!

This is my first tactical deckbuilder game so I can't really compare it to any of its contemporaries, but I am having *way* more fun with this than I had with any of the spinoff titles included in Baroque-Ya. I don't know that this game is anything unique or special, but it is both extremely cute and extremely cozy. While the rest of the playable characters are busy casting fireball and doing typical D&D stuff, our boy is out here crawling with parasites and using them to empower bizarre, fetid hunks of twisted scrap metal. And I know I shouldn't be using it, but one shotting hyped up minibosses with the Angelic Rifle is just amazing. Despite being so grotesque, the Seeker is adorably rendered, always looking up at you with an endearingly vacant stare. If he's "sinned" by firing the Angelic Rifle, his posture will comically slump in the middle of his Level Up victory animation, as he stares into your soul with a gaze that could almost be read as pleading if he hadn't already lost all hope in this pointless, distorted world. Despite hating how Sting portrayed the protagonist's face in the remake, in this game? I just love him. Oh and be sure to keep an eye out for the notes he leaves you in the gameroom in between sessions!

Seeker No. XII is one of the few playable characters available for unlock right from the start of the game, and better still, until June he only costs 10 in-game credits (easily earned on your first attempt through the game). That 10 credit unlock also includes most of the Baroque skill cards, with only a few remaining locked until you play through two games with the Seeker. Sting very clearly wanted players to be able to jump right in with the Baroque content and I really love that. It's wonderful to see developers freely releasing new content for complete games you pay for only once. No microtransactions or battlepasses in sight. The wording of the game's patch notes seems to suggest that we may be seeing more crossover units/cards released in future too!

Site Updates & the Future

    There doesn't seem to be much room for the Nerve Tower to expand these days. There have been tweaks here and there, but nothing of consequence ( mostly just edits and additions to the Distorted Delusions theory page ). There's a new GifyPet (which will be familiar to any NeoCities regulars) added to the Credits/Update page just for fun (disclaimer: the text spoken by all GifyPets is exactly the same and can't be customized, so whatever <owaa> says has nothing to do with me). I also made a new collection page with more information on the Baroque merch in my collection , if you're into that kind of thing. But updates like this feel increasingly like navel gazing.

    Thanks to Plissken, my dream of seeing the original version of this game patched and accessible to a new generation of fans has come true. It's been an absolute privilege to take a backseat and just watch all these new players experience the game before going on to create their own fan works, theories, and discussions. It's something I've always wanted to see and I'm overjoyed that it's happening.

    I think my one request would be for creators like video essayists to lean less on my timeline article though. It's a giant mess that tries to tie the Syndrome stories in with the main game based on my own preferences and I think all that convolution does tend to overwhelm and turn away prospective players. That article is merely the delusional solution I came up with to the mystery of Baroque's world and story. I don't want my rambling to eclipse and discourage people in discovering their own version of the game. I believe that the form Baroque's story takes should be highly personal to each player.

    The neverending lost media conspiracy rabbithole that is Baroque's "23 Tales" is something I still continue to regularly, fruitlessly throw myself into. One day I desperately wish for these short stories to be restored and made publicly available. But otherwise? With every other piece of Baroque media I can get my hands on already translated and analyzed (and with Yonemitsu starting to sell AI-written articles on his Note blog), I don't know what else to do. Maybe I'll start doing fanart one day. But with the world ending in six years, my priorities are mostly limited to trying to survive while finding what enjoyment I can within our horrifically twisting world.

Things are really tough right now, but please, don't give up. Keep living and keep fighting, if for nothing else to spite the real world Malkuth, these religious nationalists so hellbent on erasing everyone they deem too irregular, too unique. Rebel, revolt. Find beauty in absolute distortion. Hold Baroque inside yourself.