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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!!!

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.

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.

Gamecube's Best Kept Secret

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: October 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The era of three-dimensional RPGs has been rather thin compared to those role players that existed in 2D. Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube was an excellent game, albeit a little too linear and unoriginal. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean did not appeal to me when I first heard of it. A battle system based on magical cards and decks? I never liked card battle systems in any video game and quickly decided not to pick this game up. So here I am, about one year after Baten Kaitos's release, writing a review for the game I swore never to play and giving it five stars in both fun factor and overall. What gives? Well, read the rest of this review to find out.

So anyway, I found myself receiving a rented copy of Baten Kaitos via a free trial I obtained from a box of mechanical pencils. I put the first disc in, watched the intro movie (which was great, even if it none of it made sense to me at the time), zoomed through the title screens, then entered my gender and name when prompted to. Through my first couple hours of playing, I realized that the battle system wasn't what I expected. It was actually quite unique and fun, despite its basis on "Magnus" cards. While I wasn't too enthralled by the story (A wicked god threatening to awaken after a thousand year slumber? Yawn.), I had faith it would develop into a complex and epic tale of twists and turns.

Luckily I kept playing.

I fell more in love with the battle system every time I fought an enemy, and the story DID get better. Much better. So much better that I'd go to sleep at night trying to figure out the story to completion. The highlight of the plot is a gigantic twist that nobody would expect about halfway through the game. I won't spoil it for you here; go out and play the game if you want to know what it is. Of course, no video game story is perfect. There are always plot holes or inconsistencies that are never explained, even in Baten Kaitos. Not to mention the conveniences that the game takes in order to sneak a character or two out of a deadly situation. But the solidity of the central story is good enough for you to look past those negatives.

One of Tales of Symphonia's biggest problems was the lack of a good soundtrack. Thankfully Baten Kaitos more than makes up for it. This game probably has the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a game, and some of its songs are comparable to those in the movie theater. The main theme that plays in story progressions throughout the game is a masterpiece. And I promise you'll love the tune that plays while fighting Giacomo. If not, go ahead and click "No" to say my review was unhelpful.

Reading through other reviews, everyone's main gripe with Baten Kaitos is the voice acting. Some claim of getting ear infections or being forced to mute the TV while playing. To tell you the truth, I didn't have much of a problem with the voice acting. Sure, it's not great, but name one video game that had great voice acting. *crickets chirp* Great voice acting is an oxymoron. The acting in Baten Kaitos is decent, and the actors that play the characters' voices were wonderfully casted.

Let's see...battle system, story, music, voice acting...oh yes, graphics. Personally, I loved them. The pre-rendered backgrounds in towns and cities are beautiful. The character models are nicely done. The battle animations are exciting. My only problem is the way some screens in cities are zoomed out and its hard to tell whether you're trying to talk to a person or a tree.

To summarize, Baten Kaitos is an excellent GameCube title. Its "pros" are major and its "cons" are minor. It beats out Tales of Symphonia by far, and I'm very glad I happened to purchase the box of pencils that contained a GameFly trial, or I would have never layed hands on this game. In fact, I almost immediately returned the rented copy to GameFly and purchased my own. Anyone who owns a GameCube and is an RPG fan should go play this game right away. Anyone who owns a GameCube and isn't an RPG fan should go play this game right away. It is impossible to express in words how much I enjoyed this game. Highly recommended.

Another excellent RPG from Namco

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Baten Kaitos is an excellent inovative game that integrates many diverse RPG features with a card battling system. Though this game is based on a card battling system the game runs smoothly and is free from the many dumb rules the card battling genre seems to have been pulled into. The games starts as the hero Kalas awakens in a rural farming village though his head has been injured it is not he that has lost his memory but you his "guardian spirit" a being that has bonded with him. Throughout the game Kalas will turn right towards the screen and ask you questions and opinons.
Graphics 9/10 The Graphics are stunning the pre rendered beauty of the Baten Kaitos world is bustling with life and a treat for the eye. The only thing that keeps the graphics from a 10/10 is the fact that the pre rendered graphics (the camera does not move with the character) can sometimes create funky angles though this does not hamper gameplay to badly
Storyline 11/10 No that is not a typo i believe this game's storyline is perfect there are no flaws whatsoever At first you believe you are just out to get revenge but soon you find yourself caught between the power hungry empire and the you "save the world" friend Xhella (pronounced Shella) it is so intricatly woven nothing can top it

Characters 9/10 The characters in this game fit perfectally with the storyline first it is just Kalas a self serving vengeful hero soon you team up with Xhella a spellcaster out to save the world. Then you run into our newest teammate Gibari a gung ho firsherman out to help u achieve your goals, after that you meet the red haired imperial ambassador Lyude who abandons his evil emperors goals for you more righteous goals. After that you meet Savyna a quiet impassive warrior who seems to want nothing more that to defeat the emperor. The final party member is the mysterious masked enigma known as Mizuti his objectives are unknown when you first meet him.
Sound/Voice acting 7/10 The music in this game is superb but the voice acting is quite mediocre. Though some of the chars have great voices, the majority suffer from a strange almost hollow sound and thier voices have little emotion

Overall 10/10 Baten Kaitos is an excellent RPG that is a must buy for any Rpg fan if you liked Tales of Symphonia do not hesitate to buy this game. The huge game has over 40 hours of gameplay. This game will become an RPG classic.

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!

One of my new faves

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love this game and it is now ranked up there with FFX on my list of awesome RPGs. I really love this game, it's as simple as that. I recently bought a GCN solely for the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess that will be coming out soon and was just wandering the aisles looking for anything decent when I happened upon this bad boy. Everything about Baten Kaitos is ingenious-- battle engine is awesome and intuitive, graphics are amazing, and storyline is incredible. I'm a die hard RPG fan and have grown tired of the same hack and slash, cast magic, heal your party, etc... that's out there. BK answers the call of breaking through the monotony via a card-based battle system and it works very well. Leveling seems like less of a chore since every battle is literally different; each time you'll be dealt different cards to use. The customization of each player's deck is also emjoyable for those who like card-based games. The utility of time is a really cool aspect. For example, if you hang on to some green bananas (an attack item at first. You chuck 'em at the enemy) they'll ripen and become a healing item. Hang on to them for too long and they become rotten and their status changes again. Cards can also be combined to create new cards-- mix up some Light magic with a flower bud and you have a flower, etc... The manner in which you collect money is the most creative system I've encountered and I really like it. You aren't paid for every victory-- you have to take pictures of either the monsters you're fighting or your characters-- and you can only do so if you're dealt the "camera" card. It's a really cool system in my opinion. Leveling is also done a little differently. You're rewarded with experience after each battle but it doesn't do any good unless you visit a priest and have him level you up. All of the small things in this game that have been tweaked from the norm of the RPG genre is what really sets it apart and makes it different-- the reason why I like it so much. Sound and voice acting don't apply to me since I'm deaf, I know that seems to be something that most people are complaing about but it doesn't affect me at all. The intro cinematic is just breathtaking, the graphics are stunning, and the concept of the world being presented is clever. Some more CG scenes would be nice but the graphics in the game are good enough to compensate. Other than that I recommend this title to all RPG fans and GCN owners. BK is not to be missed.

Very good, few problems

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a wonderful game, unlike many games I've played in the past it has good replay value, an absolutely amazing battle system and great visuals and sound. The perspective you play from is unique, as the main character's guardian spirit, allowing you to make desicions that will change your relationship with Kalas, the main character. When I first heard that the game was card-based, I thought that the game would be a copy of Yu-Gi-Oh with a whole bunch of rules and special rules that would only allow you to play a certain defensive aura card in the third row from the bottom and would only affect magic- fairy type monsters, but it isn't like that at all. The battle system is incredible, and the cards work like this: You tkae out the card you want to use, called a Magnus, then you release the essence of the item that was trapped in the card, and the essence materializes in your hand as a weapon, so you aren't attacking with the card, you're using an actual weapon. Another really fun part of the game is the spirit numbers. Each card hes spirit numbers on it, and you try to string the numbers into certain combos, like straights, pairs and three of a kind. All the cards also have to be used in the pairs, so you cant play down cards with the spirit numbers 2,2, and 5 and get a pair, it has to be 2,2,2 or 2,3,4 etc. The voice acting, however, is terrible. The only good voice acting is done by Mizuti, who is actually really fun to listen to, but otherwise the voicezs are terrible. The kids are especially terrible, each of them sounding like theyre about 5 years old. The music is good and the graphics are absolutely stunning, especially in Mira, city of illusions. When you go into a building where they make pastries and other goodies, you see chocolate flowing down walls, and in Komo Mai, city of flowers, you can see garlands hanging across the screen and watch the wind gently ruffle the flowers. Aside from the voice acting, this game is amazing, a defenite must-buy for any RPG fan.

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