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an unique RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 18
Date: July 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Namco is preparing this wonderful card-based RPG whith graphics tha will blow your mind. Excellent storyline, unique card-bases combat-item-equipment system. From the creators of the Xenosaga.

be the spirit that joins Kalas in his journey around the world in floating islands, where the ocean is a legend.

A Game to REALLY Get Hyped About

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 30
Date: July 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

All right, people. Get excited. GET VERY EXCITED!!!!!!! Baten Kaitos is a GameCube RPG that is due out this fall. What looks so appealing about it, you ask? Well, let's start from the top. The publisher, Namco, has done such prestigious games as "Xenosaga" and "Tales of Symphonia". What's more, the development team has also lent their genius to games such as "Chrono Cross", "Xenogears", and "Xenosaga".
Still not convinced? Than let me tell you the CONTENT of the game. As I have already told you, it is an RPG, which, according to Namco, has over 60 hours of gameplay. The game's basic story is as follows: It has been many centuries since humankind defeated the Wicked God in a terrible war that ultimately forced them to live on islands in the sky, where the oceans of the planet became nothing more than a legend. (For a reason which is probably directly related to this, many of the characters seem to have wings.) Anyway, there seems to be some sort of empire that seeks to revive the ancient god, and your characters have to fight them. In what is possibly an RPG first, the game puts you, not into the role of the main character, (a boy named Kalas,) but that of a spirit who advises him throughout his journeys. The game's intriguing special feature is that items, spells, equiment and more are stored on over 1,000 "Magnus Cards". With this in mind, battles are turn-based, and revolve around the cards. Also, the items on the cards change over time: food will ripen or rot, weapons will rust, and the value of particular items will change.
As a parting word, I would like to add that the graphics look absolutely fantastic, as does the voice acting. I'm counting down the days, man!!!

EXCELLENT!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have just completed this game and am about to play it again :) I LOVED IT!! FIRST time EVER that I will go BACK to replay an RPG! I own several platforms and drawers filled with games especially RPG's.Do NOT miss this RPG. I do believe this is going to become a TRUE classic as well as the RPG of the year for Nintendo. I would say the RPG of the year PERIOD..but it came out at a bad time and did not get the advertising it needed/deserved. I also played Tales Of Symphonia but did not find it as riviting as this game!!!DO buy the Brady Game Strategy Guide since it is also one of the best guides to come along in awhile :)I had no problem with the voices and found the story to be sweet with twists and turns. The game play is EXCELLENT. DO NOT allow the fact that it has cards in battle to deter you. It is the most unboring battle system to date!!!! AND if a sixty year old finds it fun...you can be sure it is!! BECUZ there is not much I have missed doing in life :) I used VERY high tech equipment at work.If it were possible I would give this game 10 stars.The graphics are astounding. The gameplay takes a little getting used to but hey...so does any game that is DIFFERENT and interesting!I usually get bored with two disc games..but NOT this one! Remember the story unfolds and builds...like a good mystery :)There are only TWO VERY challenging difficult parts in the game but I won't spoil it for you. I can only say if you do not try this game you are missing something REALLY good! I also do not hand out excellent ratings easily :)

Final Fantasy on Cube? Not quite but very unique

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: January 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Baten Kaitos could be considered as another most anticipated RPG for Cube owners. Developed by the same minds behind Xenosaga and Chrono Cross, it could be understood why it is an anticipated title.

Baten Kaitos returns to the turn base RPG but with cards. Though most card battle systems are disappointing, the card battle system in Baten Kaitos provides the player both intuitive and strategic options in the battle. Players started off with a small number of cards they card hold and wield in the battle and as they "class up" the number of both increased. However, a "class up" also change the initially infinity time limit for wielding the first card to as short as 5 seconds. That means you have to make sure you get the right cards in the decks before the battle starts, for changes are not possible once it is started. Kills are relying on combos. Pairs and same cards in no matter what order increases your chance of scoring bonus, nonetheless, it is the straight numbers, no matter ascending or descending that counts most. The numbers are written on the cards, from initially one on the right to over all four corners. A good combo can triple damage to 300% of the face values. Further different characters have different speed in finishing one move. For example Savyna is extremely fast but devastating. So if you want her to kill fast, you have to think fast for once the action of the last card is finished, the string is broken and the turn is finished.

On top of that, the elemental factor plays a huge part in the game. To improve your kills, you have to have the right elements in your deck. So fire against water and vice versa. Nonetheless, in terms of defence, it is more difficult to predict for a water based enemy could cause more than one elemental damage, which mean you might need different armours to protect yourself, especially if the attacks on you are multiple.

The downside of this card system is the randomness in the cards available in each round. There could be a chance that you only have attack cards in your defence round, which means if your attack cards can't act as defence cards, you would just be standing there to be hit. Of course you can forfeit certain cards to hope that defence cards will come up, but that will also mean that you are losing attack cards in the next round.

Cards in the game could be purchased from shops but prices are steep. So the best will be getting them from the enemies. However, this would require players to spend huge amount of time to create their dream decks. Certain enemies drop certain cards repeatedly, so you can decide whether you would want to stay in one area for a long time just to level up your character and your cards.

Levelling up is done through visiting the church. Level up, as mentioned is by experience points but class up requires certain items that you could find throughout the adventure.

In terms of dungeons designs, there are areas that could be annoying especially considering your enemies will reappear if you leave one place and go back later. There are a number of dungeons requiring backtracking, which if you are not a levelling up fan you could find it annoying. Puzzles are pretty straight forward though. The graphic designs are lavishing and full of style. Different islands have different cultures and they are fully exhibited and exploited. Every bit of details that you could think about were attended to. The only downside is some of the non playable characters are quite unobvious that you can't see them. This would be annoying when you need to finish certain side quests. The opening scene is phenomenal and can rival to all current FF series.

Story wise, it is in fact very cliché and there are some really annoying bits. It is very typical Japanese style and some of the chauvinistic aspect would put some people off. Nonetheless, having said that there are still a number of twists that could impress you a lot in the plot. However, it is quite linear at certain points for you won't be able to do anything but what you are asked to do. The most innovative part comes in when you are actually playing the role of a guardian spirit. Characters will ask you for your opinion and advice and a good advice could increase your tie with your character. This improves the interactivity of the game.

In the department of music, the tunes are well composed but they are recycled too many times in the game. Sometimes after listening to the same tune again and again in different areas you would just want to switch the music off. The voice acting is even worse with cheeky tones connecting cheeky conversation, the best solution will be turn the voice off, though you still could not cut the voice off in battles, as you could do with Arc The Lac.

In all Baten Kaitos does offer a whole lot of good game plays. The battle system is good and the side quests are interesting, though pretty standard. It is more interactive and it definitely offers a different and unique experience in game plays. However, the story itself and the voice acting taxed out quite a bit of the game. Hopefully in the remaining a year or so for the Cube before the Revolution, Nintendo would be releasing more new and good RPG titles. Probably a lot of Cubers are looking forward to Zelda, Advance Wars on GC, Fire Emblem and Golden Sun. But at the meantime, just enjoy a good game with Baten Kaitos.

Eternal Changes and the Lost Hours

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought Baiten Kaitos simply because it looked interesting, and I wanted to try a card-based battle system to see if it was really as great/terrible as people keep saying. I must say that I was really quite impressed with this lovely little gem of a game.

Story: Above average. It's surprisingly coherent for a Japanese game (Final Fantasy players will know what I'm talking about)and the rather cliche and predictable plot is improved by several surprising twists. Playing as a Guardian Spirit rather than the main character is a nifty gimmick, but you're actually somewhat penalized if you don't agree with your "ward" all the time. The game is quite a long one, so naturally the story has to be extended over that length, but I never felt like it had outstayed its welcome.

Battle System: Not having played any other card-based games (at least none where you weren't actually playing a game of cards), it's hard for me to say how unique or innovative the system actually is. It is unusual for those of us who grew up on real-time combat or menu-based systems, but it's surprisingly easy to get used to. My biggest complaints are that as your character gains levels, you have less time to select your initial card (or "magnus") in the attack rounds, making it difficult to plan the long combos you need for the tougher bosses; and that you often need inhuman reflexes to pick a defensive magnus before the foe launches his first attack. The fact that damage isn't totalled until the end of the round helps offset this a bit, but I would still like a second to move my selection frame over the defensive card so I can choose it, thank you.

The fact that your cards change over time, while interesting, can be rather annoying at times. Say you have some Green Bananas, a weak attack item. After a few hours, they turn into normal yellow Bananas, a healing item. Fine and good. Then they turn into Blackened Bananas, another attack item a bit stronger than the green ones. Then they change AGAIN into Rotten Fruit, which can poison. All of this happens and they don't tell you, you actually have to open your Deck and look. You can get an item that tells you when stuff changes, but it goes away after 10 hours and there are some cards that change every 30 seconds or so, meaning that every time you open the menu you're informed that your Awful Fortune has yet again completed the cycle and returned to being an Awful Fortune.
And for those of you who are determined to collect every last one of the 1022 Magnus, you'd better be prepared to leave your GCN on all day for several days. One card takes 336 hours to change. That's two weeks.

Dialogue: This is probably the game's weakest point. The voice acting is, for the most part, fairly poor and unemotional, and also extremely slow. There are seconds-long pauses between sentences, and as has been mentioned repeatedly by others, everybody sounds like they're speaking through a cardboard tube. This isn't actually explained, though it could be written off as a side effect of hearing everything from two dimensions over (you're a Guardian Spirit, remember). It doesn't totally ruin it, but it's just one more thing that keeps this game from being perfect.
Also, heroes should NOT say "Say cheeseburger!" to ancient gods. I don't care HOW many pictures they take.

Music: Not too shabby. The music doesn't seem to suffer from transdimensional echoes and is pretty nice in its own right.

Graphics: Ooh! Why?! Most of the graphics are really quite splendid, but I couldn't help but feel cheated at times. For one thing, your perspective doesn't really change much when you're in a town or dungeon. This means that people who are tiny specks in the distance STAY tiny specks in the distance when you run over to talk to them. Also, instead of animating many things (changes in the world, characters moving places) it simply transitions from one state to the next. Even the most impressive bosses don't, you know, explode in unholy radiance or whatever, they just kind of fade away. As I'm a firm believer in the death sequence as an art form, this was highly disappointing. Presumably the whole "talking-through-a-pipe" voice thing is a side effect of a memory-saving technique. So what, might I ask, did they use all that memory they saved for?
The opening movie on the first disc is really nice, though. Very, very nice indeed.

FINAL WORD:
Baten Kaitos is the first worthwhile RPG I've picked up in a long time. Give it a try, you'll be glad you did. This oceanless world holds a great epic adventure that'll keep you playing for hours.

A riviting new RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I had picked up Baten Kaitos to add to my RPG collection one day at the store and thought it would be a nice game to enjoy. I was wrong this game redifined all RPGs I have played and impressed me a lot.
Gameplay- A lot of people get turned off by the card system of this game. It is nothing like a trading card game of your usual card based game with a 100 page rule book. No! The cards simply explain WHY you can carry 100 short swords or 50 lighting spells. Ever wonder how they did it in other games? Well finaly a logical answer to this predicament.
Music- Amazing music for an RPG. Much like Chrono cross and tales of symphonia.
Graphics- Beautiful prerendered graphics make for stunning bosses, fininshing moves, charaters and places. Yes sometimes it is hard to see a side door or something similar but still its worth it.
Story- I was very impressed with the story and thought it very creative with a lot of twists and turns. I do not know why a lot of people are saying how bad the voice acting was, personally I didn't think it was half bad. The story though I belive is one of the highpoints of this game so don't spoil it for your friends.
Overall- Overall this game blew me away. Far away. I loved every minute of playing and I think I'm gonna go play it again. Right now in fact.

Greatested RPG I've played in a LONG time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

(Please excuse my bad spelling.)

Like the title says: The greatest RPG I've played in a long time. No joke. I've played some pretty good RPGs in the past (I'm a FF fan.)but this... it blew me away! I mean, look at the other reveiws. None of them are a low score.

The music is fantastic! It's soundtrack I know will be a big hit along with the game. They have different songs/tracks for the different moods of the game and they all fit perfictly.

Voices weren't as bad as people said. I didn't find them bad at all.

Charactors: I liked the differnet types of charactors... even if one looks ALOT like Wakka on FF-10.

Battle stile: I found this a bit hard at the begining but I got a hold of it quick. It's not like a card game... I wish to stress that. It has cards in the battle system but it's not a card game.

Story line: I haven't finished the game yet but I can't wait untill I do!! It's a great story line. And your even one of the charactors, the Guardian Spirt!

I play this game every second I can. And I strongly sigjest that you get this game! If your a big RPG player, you should defintly add this one to your collection!

Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I think this is a very good game it has wonderful graphics and the story line is veary good.What I dont like about this game is the battle system its based on cards, but the game is still good.

The good and the bad- Baten Kaitos

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There are good things and bad things to Baten Kaitos.

*Type- this game is a battle after battle save the world from darkness game. You level up and gain better moves and skills as the game progressing. Your standard FF game type if you enjoy that.

*Characters- The characters are developed well but the attitude of the main character sometimes gets a bit annoying. He just cares about himself for a long time when you just want him to stop whinning and save the world. The other characters are all tolerable.

*Story- The story was interesting. Some parts were a little far fetched but in the the ends mostly connected. All finally made sense. The story is complex and intriguing and will keep you guessing until the very end.

*YOU- you are a guardian spirit. You can talk to the characters. By the end their trust for you became somewhat sickening. At the end all the characters line up and wave goodbye to you which seems a little stupid.

*Battle- the battle system is definitly original. The battles are based on cards which can be used to attack, defend, and cure. Each card has one or more numbers on it. You string together cards to make a combo for bonus points. I really enjoyed trying to put together combinations to blast the enemy with lots of damage.

*Sound- the music was good. Some music was definitly annoying but mostly it was tolerable. Some music was even good enough that I paused just to hear more. When Xhelda or "The Great" Misuti attack they talk a lot. XHELA'S SPEAKING WHILE SHE ATTACKS IS ABSOLUTLY AGGREVATING to start! but after a half hour or so you can easily block it out so stick with it don't let the sound scare you away.

*Graphics- the graphics are excellent throughout the game with only a few small exceptions. Most of the time the characters are running and interacting with the world, so it is good.

*ULTIMATE LETDOWN- NO MOVIES- there is not one single movie in the entire game, don't let the intro fool you. Even when you think that there HAS to be a movie, there isn't.

*The good- graphics, story, characters, music, and battle.
*The bad- movies, and the constant tendency for your characters to always arrive just a tiny bit late, this causes extreme frustration as the watch the world spiral down to darkness.

Overall I think the game was engaging. It kept my attention and focus for about a school week before I beat it. Make no mistake it is a long story-board but once I get involved I don't stop. Even with all its faults I recomend this game for everyone over 10 because of the need to quickly come up with number combinations.

sweet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you've ever read my review for FF Crystal Chronicles (the one that says "Unfortunately, this game sucks")you know that I was very dissapointed with it. All I want is a good RPG for the GC. Finally, I got what I wanted. Let me tell you, this game is awesome.
Graphics: 10/10- Watch the opening cutscene. You'll understand.
(The environments in the game itself are bursting with life and color as well.)
Sound: 9/10- It is really cool to be walking around in a town or village and hear people talking, birds crying, and wind blowing. Not many other games can offer environments that are so...alive. On a more bitter note, some of the voiceovers are laughable, especially Gibari when he says, "This might sting a little" in battle. (It sounds like he's been "Sniff" ing a little "Whoa" if you know what I mean.
Playability: 10/10- The controls in this game are absolutley perfect. I was able to pick up the game immediatley, but still can't master it.
Entertainment: 10/10- The characters, plot, graphics, sound, and general togetherness of this game make it an absolute blast to play. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got an empire to fight.

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