Post by Aleu on Feb 24, 2007 17:28:38 GMT -6
Stealing RedX's format... xD
The Baten Kaitos series, produced by Monolith Soft, the ones that brought us the Xenosaga series, is a buried gem. Baten Kaitos: Origins, is the prequel to Monolith's Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, and takes place 20 years before the latter. One of the few existing RPG's for the Gamecube, it's easily one of the best.
Graphics:
Origins doesn't leave alot to be desired, graphics-wise. Most of the towns and backgrounds are exactly the same as their Eternal Wings counterparts, making for some great nostalgia. Even though they're old, they're still beautiful.
Character models are interesting, to say the least. You've got everything from the hyperactive, mandatory female in a frilly white dress to the naked (scandalous!) puppet decked out in a purple and blue... body. In addition, dialogue is presented with a small headshot of the speaking character next to the text box, whose expression changes depending on what they're saying. I still laugh when Sagi talks on the phone.
In battle is where the game shines, graphically. All the attacks flow into each other smoothly and quickly, never making you feel like the fights are slowing down. Special attacks are gorgeous, and even though the longer ones will actually slow down your Gamecube, it's well worth it.
Story:
The story in Baten Kaitos: Origins is absolutely wonderful. It borrows elements from age-old classics but adds things to back it up: while you have the same "evil empire with evil machines using evil plans to take over the world" kind of story, there's also an original second story, more mystic and magical, to back it up. The best spin I've seen, however, is that BKO makes you look at the "good guys" and the "bad guys" differently as the game progresses. Saying more would be spoiling, but you look at the characters very differently at about Disc 2. Very differently if you've played Eternal Wings.
There are only three party members throughout the game, and while this makes battles just a bit less varied, the gain in character development more than makes up for it. Each character has a wonderfully developed history, and the emotional distress and conflict they experience is an integral part of the game. While as a person they don't tend to change alot, it's forgiveable. Monolith would have been taking too much time out of the story, which moves at a respectable clip, if they wanted to develop that as well.
The last aspect of the story I want to mention is the unique role of the player, aka you. You are a guardian spirit; that is, you live within the protagonist (Sagi)'s heart and guide him on his quest. He often speaks to you, asking for advice (the answers you give influence the battles, more on that later). But he treats you like a friend, or confidant, and as a result you find yourself getting attached to him. You develop, strange as it sounds, an emotional bond to the characters. I remember an instance where I was asking Sagi to jump from a tall tower to get a card for my deck. Normally, I would have ordered my character off the tower and eagerly awaited my new paperback friend, but with Sagi, I hesitated.
And, dude. They've all got wings, and half have tailfeathers too. Bonus points out the wazoo.
Features/Battle System:
The battle system is novel, to say the least. All enemies are shown on the map, so no random encounters to be found. When you touch them, an encounter begins.
This is where I must say the one thing that everyone knows about Baten Kaitos: It has the only card-based battle system that isn't crap. (Yes, Chain of Memories was crap, fanboy). You have a single hand which all the characters share, which is a little annoying at times but speeds up the fighting nicely. The cards in your deck range in number from 0->7, and your objective is to create a string of cards in ascending order as long as possible. Cards with a number of 0 are equipments, 1-3 are normal attacks, and 4-7 are special attacks. When you finish a chain, however, and end with a special attack in addition to a level 1 card in your hand, you can do a cool little thing called a "Relay Combo." A party member plays the 1 card and begins their own chain, which links onto the end of yours for lots of damage x3 However, getting a big combo this way would require you to be very lucky indeed. So the programmers included a small bugger that, at times, will change the next card you draw into a card that you need for healing, for extending the relay, etc... This happens more and more the more often you give Sagi advice that he agrees with.
As you play your chain, your MP bar fills up. This is a nifty little bugger that lets you utilize special attacks. It caps at 5 MP. Special attacks cost MP to use depending on their level: Level 1 Special Attacks (Card Number 4) use 1 MP, Level 2 Special Attacks (Card Number 5) use 2 MP, etc. But, wait a sec, doesn't that mean you can't create a 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7 combo without running out of MP before your last card?
The last cool thing about this system is the Burst ability. When your MP maxes out at 5, you can hit Y to initiate a Burst, which gives you infinite MP for the duration of your next Relay Combo. This can be utilized to ownage ness :3
Sagi also gets a nifty ability called a "wingdash," where by holding B, he opens his wings and flies instead of walking. A small bar appears at the top of your screen when this happens, and if it fills up, Sagi must stop and rest, winded by the exertion. Why this matters is that depending how full the bar is when you touch an enemy, the more filled your "MP" bar is to begin with.
As a final note, battles can and will be hard. BKO has no problem kicking your ass if it wants to. This happens less towards the end, though.
Sound:
Motoi Sakuraba composed the music for this game and dang is it good. Eternal Wings's soundtrack was better, but Origins almost lives up to its predecessor with music that ranges from grandoise to lively and upbeat to imperial style marching.
Voice acting is solid, conveys a ton of emotion, and almost always fits. Not to mention there is no more "echo" as in Eternal Wings.
Overall:
There were a few hitches along the way, but a gripping story, a fast-paced battle system and a beautiful soundtrack more than make up for it.
Baten Kaitos: Origins gets a 9.5 out of 10.
The Baten Kaitos series, produced by Monolith Soft, the ones that brought us the Xenosaga series, is a buried gem. Baten Kaitos: Origins, is the prequel to Monolith's Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, and takes place 20 years before the latter. One of the few existing RPG's for the Gamecube, it's easily one of the best.
Graphics:
Origins doesn't leave alot to be desired, graphics-wise. Most of the towns and backgrounds are exactly the same as their Eternal Wings counterparts, making for some great nostalgia. Even though they're old, they're still beautiful.
Character models are interesting, to say the least. You've got everything from the hyperactive, mandatory female in a frilly white dress to the naked (scandalous!) puppet decked out in a purple and blue... body. In addition, dialogue is presented with a small headshot of the speaking character next to the text box, whose expression changes depending on what they're saying. I still laugh when Sagi talks on the phone.
In battle is where the game shines, graphically. All the attacks flow into each other smoothly and quickly, never making you feel like the fights are slowing down. Special attacks are gorgeous, and even though the longer ones will actually slow down your Gamecube, it's well worth it.
Story:
The story in Baten Kaitos: Origins is absolutely wonderful. It borrows elements from age-old classics but adds things to back it up: while you have the same "evil empire with evil machines using evil plans to take over the world" kind of story, there's also an original second story, more mystic and magical, to back it up. The best spin I've seen, however, is that BKO makes you look at the "good guys" and the "bad guys" differently as the game progresses. Saying more would be spoiling, but you look at the characters very differently at about Disc 2. Very differently if you've played Eternal Wings.
There are only three party members throughout the game, and while this makes battles just a bit less varied, the gain in character development more than makes up for it. Each character has a wonderfully developed history, and the emotional distress and conflict they experience is an integral part of the game. While as a person they don't tend to change alot, it's forgiveable. Monolith would have been taking too much time out of the story, which moves at a respectable clip, if they wanted to develop that as well.
The last aspect of the story I want to mention is the unique role of the player, aka you. You are a guardian spirit; that is, you live within the protagonist (Sagi)'s heart and guide him on his quest. He often speaks to you, asking for advice (the answers you give influence the battles, more on that later). But he treats you like a friend, or confidant, and as a result you find yourself getting attached to him. You develop, strange as it sounds, an emotional bond to the characters. I remember an instance where I was asking Sagi to jump from a tall tower to get a card for my deck. Normally, I would have ordered my character off the tower and eagerly awaited my new paperback friend, but with Sagi, I hesitated.
And, dude. They've all got wings, and half have tailfeathers too. Bonus points out the wazoo.
Features/Battle System:
The battle system is novel, to say the least. All enemies are shown on the map, so no random encounters to be found. When you touch them, an encounter begins.
This is where I must say the one thing that everyone knows about Baten Kaitos: It has the only card-based battle system that isn't crap. (Yes, Chain of Memories was crap, fanboy). You have a single hand which all the characters share, which is a little annoying at times but speeds up the fighting nicely. The cards in your deck range in number from 0->7, and your objective is to create a string of cards in ascending order as long as possible. Cards with a number of 0 are equipments, 1-3 are normal attacks, and 4-7 are special attacks. When you finish a chain, however, and end with a special attack in addition to a level 1 card in your hand, you can do a cool little thing called a "Relay Combo." A party member plays the 1 card and begins their own chain, which links onto the end of yours for lots of damage x3 However, getting a big combo this way would require you to be very lucky indeed. So the programmers included a small bugger that, at times, will change the next card you draw into a card that you need for healing, for extending the relay, etc... This happens more and more the more often you give Sagi advice that he agrees with.
As you play your chain, your MP bar fills up. This is a nifty little bugger that lets you utilize special attacks. It caps at 5 MP. Special attacks cost MP to use depending on their level: Level 1 Special Attacks (Card Number 4) use 1 MP, Level 2 Special Attacks (Card Number 5) use 2 MP, etc. But, wait a sec, doesn't that mean you can't create a 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7 combo without running out of MP before your last card?
The last cool thing about this system is the Burst ability. When your MP maxes out at 5, you can hit Y to initiate a Burst, which gives you infinite MP for the duration of your next Relay Combo. This can be utilized to ownage ness :3
Sagi also gets a nifty ability called a "wingdash," where by holding B, he opens his wings and flies instead of walking. A small bar appears at the top of your screen when this happens, and if it fills up, Sagi must stop and rest, winded by the exertion. Why this matters is that depending how full the bar is when you touch an enemy, the more filled your "MP" bar is to begin with.
As a final note, battles can and will be hard. BKO has no problem kicking your ass if it wants to. This happens less towards the end, though.
Sound:
Motoi Sakuraba composed the music for this game and dang is it good. Eternal Wings's soundtrack was better, but Origins almost lives up to its predecessor with music that ranges from grandoise to lively and upbeat to imperial style marching.
Voice acting is solid, conveys a ton of emotion, and almost always fits. Not to mention there is no more "echo" as in Eternal Wings.
Overall:
There were a few hitches along the way, but a gripping story, a fast-paced battle system and a beautiful soundtrack more than make up for it.
Baten Kaitos: Origins gets a 9.5 out of 10.