Gaming Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean

[James]

[color=#707875]Incase you haven't heard of it, Baten Kaitos is Monolith Soft's new GameCube RPG. When I first heard about it a while ago, it came as a surprise...Monolith Soft and GameCube? Woo!

Moreover, this game has some serious talent behind it, which I'll show you below. First, this is some background on the game:[/color]

[quote][i]IGN:[/i]
We attended Monolith Software's year 2003 product unveiling in Tokyo today expecting to see the latest in the Xenosaga series. While we got that, we also got something unexpected: a look at what should be one of the year's biggest GameCube RPGs, Baten Kaitos.
This Monolith Software-developed RPG set for a December Japanese GameCube release through Namco takes place on a continent that floats in the sky. The people of this land have evolved so-called "Heart Wings", which while not seen under normal conditions can be made to appear through great concentration or when under tension.

The world of Baten Kaitos is also populated by life spirits from another time, another place and another dimension. When a life spirit from the world of Baten Kaitos and one from the alternate world meet, it's possible that they will connect. Unfortunately, only a few people can communicate with these so-called souls of the dead.

So far only the game's two main characters (and the obligatory cute side kick character) have been revealed. Kalas, a seventeen year old male character, is the game's main character. He's out on a journey for revenge against those who killed his father and brother. Kalas was born with only one wing and so must make use of a mechanical wing to balance things out. It turns out that Kalas is one of those very few who can communicate with the spirit-kind, and at some point in the game a spirit will take rest within him.

At the other end is Xelha, a seventeen-year-old female character who serves as the game's heroine role. Xelha is simply out to stop an evil plan from taking effect. However, there may be more to the character than meets the eye.

The veil on the story opens up when these two characters meet while on their travels.

Talk of floating continents, spirits and characters with wings evokes pretty thoughts in us, and sure enough the game seems to have fantastic art direction. At the product unveiling today, Monolith unveiled a couple of exciting trailers, one produced via computer graphics and the other through in-game footage. Both showed off rich, color-filled visuals used in the environments and for the characters themselves. Characters walk on clouds, across ice bridges, and one scene seemed to show the characters traveling through a candy land. The pictures on the media page should hopefully convey the amount of care being put into the creation of the Baten Kaitos world.

In addition to the two trailers, Monolith also shared video footage of the game's battle system in motion. Battles make use of so-called "Magnus Cards" which are used to select your move. In order to do an attack or cast a spell, you must have the appropriate card in hand. To attack while in battle, you select cards one after another and your characters carry out their moves accordingly. Everything is card based -- you even need a card for fleeing from battle.

Despite the reliance on cards, the battle system seems to be quite fast, with characters constantly in motion. You actually select your next card before your current action is up, with the top of the screen (shown in the screenshots on the media page) displaying the moves set to come out next. We can't wait to sink our teeth into a few play sessions with this system. It certainly seems like a new experience as far as RPGs are concerned.

Still not excited about Baten Kaitos? Then check out this list of developers who are participating in the game's development:[b]

Producer: Tadashi Nomura - previous work on Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy

Director: Hiroya Hatsushiba - previous work on Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile

Director: Yasuyuki Honne - previous work on Chrono Cross and Xenosaga

Movie Producer: Mikitaka Kurasawa - previous work on Onimusha and Resident Evil

Scenario: Masato Kato - previous work on Final Fantasy and Chrono Cross

Music: Motoi Sakuraba - previous work on Star Ocean 3[/b]

At the unveiling, Monolith and Namco brought this all-star cast out and had each share a few comments with the audience. Given the quality of the games these guys have worked on in the past, it's probably okay to up the expectations for Baten Kaitos to high levels.

Video cameras were a strict no-no at today's unveiling, meaning we don't get to share the videos we saw with you. For now, the awesome pictures included on the media page linked below will have to do. Stay tuned for more as we learn it.
[/quote]

[color=#707875]I'm pretty excited about this RPG. The talent behind it is really heavyweight stuff...and the concept seems interesting. The battle system also looks to be pretty interesting, too.

Here are some of the latest shots:

[img]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/baiten_030721_bg14.jpg[/img]

[img]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/baiten_030721_bg13.jpg[/img]

[img]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/baiten_030721_bg04.jpg[/img]

If you want more shots, you can obviously go to IGN or something like that. I didn't want to put too many in here. But, I do want to put one more thing here.

[url]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/baiten_030721_bg10.jpg[/url]

That's a link to some really cool Baten Kaitos art. ~_^

So what do you guys think about this game? Especially those of you who are Final Fantasy goers...are you interested in something outside the FF sphere? ~_^[/color]

[Shinmaru]

Wow...

That's all that I could say after looking at the great looking screen shots and the amazing looking artwork. Needless to say, I'm very impressed right now.

That battle system sounds very interesting as well. I really hope that the action is as fast paced as they say it will be.

And the pedigree in this game is just mind-boggling. It's amazing how many big names with tons of RPG experience are working on this game; it almost seems too good to be true (hopefully, it won't be).

After reading this, I have some high hopes for this game. If there's a genre that the GameCube needs more games for, it's the RPG genre. I'll defintely be on the lookout for news about this game; thanks for the heads up, James.

By the way, James, do you know if the developers gave any indication as to when this game will come out?

[Semjaza]

Well, there goes the thread I was going to post heh. There are more impressive shots floating around, they're not at IGN for whatever reason.

I don't see this mentioned, but there are going to be over 1,000 cards in the game. I imagine it won't get too repetitive, especially since you can form combos with them.

As for dates... It's set to be released in December in Japan. I'd assume Spring in the US.

Namco is also releasing Tales of Symphonia (set for release in the US too) and another RPG I forget the name of that was announced in the past week.

The only way I think most FF gamers will try this game is if it was published by Square. I've seen little to indicate otherwise, considering other companies are making so many RPGs people seem to just be ignoring.

[James]

[color=#707875]I hope people don't ignore this game. And yes, there are more impressive shots elsewhere (some of the latest shots are simply breathtaking).

But yeah, I'm quite pleased that GameCube is becoming more of an RPG related platform lately. Tales of Symphonia is another big release that I'm really looking forward to.

Hopefully this will spur even more RPG releases on the console. I sure hope so, anyway. ~_^[/color]

[hiachi]

random thought: "Great, another RPG with the name 'Ryudo'!"

[Semjaza]

Here's some movies from Gpara. They normally make you register, but it's all in Japanese so I don't know how. Someone posted the links at GAF.

Story 11.4 MB:
[url]http://amada003.hp.infoseek.co.jp/baten_story.wmv[/url]

Battle 3.3 MB:
[url]http://amada003.hp.infoseek.co.jp/baten_battle.wmv[/url]

Opening/Intro, 6.8 MB:
[url]http://amada003.hp.infoseek.co.jp/baten_op.wmv[/url]

The backgrounds are prerendered, as most may know by now... but they're freaking gorgeous. The best I've seen in quite some time.

The battles look quite fun and fast paced. Animation is excellent.

The FMV is extremely professional, and surprisingly in English. I was happy to see the whole "boy with one wing" rumor turned out.

[Shinmaru]

Heh, I thought it looked good standing still...but in motion, it's just amazing! I was floored by the absolute quality of the animation and the graphics...very stunning! I'm also surprised that it's in English, especially with the release date so far away (per Semjaza's information). The battles are looking especially good right now. Hopefully, they'll be as fast paced and fun looking as they were in the movies.

Can't wait for this game to come out.

[Semjaza]

[url]http://cube.ign.com/articles/451/451698p1.html[/url]

[quote] Actual gameplay in the three areas was focused on running into enemies scattered about the stages and entering the game's battle system. Although we didn't have enough time to fully explore the battle system, it's clear that while the game is certainly be pretty to look at, the battle system may be an even bigger main draw.

As mentioned in our initial look at the game a few months back, battles make use of cards, which you use to determine your next move. Here's how the system seems to work. Characters have a set of cards that they've built up throughout their adventures. Prior to battle, the cards are shuffled and are dealt out to your character. You can select from the cards that appear on screen and no more. Once you've selected a card, it's replaced by a new one which can then be selected as well.

When it's a given character's turn to move, rather than selecting "fight," "magic," "equip," "flee," and so-forth from a menu, you select a move from the cards that are displayed on screen. You can choose to attack with a specific spell, like fire or water, for instance, or you may opt to select one of the more potent cards that features a powerful magic spell. Everything is done via card selection, from equipping your characters with new items to using even basic attacks.

At the game's unveiling, Monolith mentioned that despite the reliance on cards, the game wouldn't be kept at a slow pace. This definitely seems to be the case. You don't select a single card in a given turn. Instead, you select cards in succession as part of a combination, with moves coming out as you attack. Cards have numbers atop them which determine the kind of combo that you're performing. Lining up cards with "2," "3," "4," and "5" together (or in reverse) will give you a "straight" combo. A 2-2-1-1 combination is called a "pair." Building up a combo is the key to dealing out greater damage and even developing new cards.

There are other ways to build up combos aside from these poker-like combinations. You can try to think of natural combinations of the images presented on cards for some interesting results.

These cards, by the way, are properly referred to as "Maguns" in the Baten Kaitos world. Outside of performing combos, you can earn Magnus (or is the plural "magnii"?) through a variety of means. You can buy them in town, collect them in dungeons, and pick them up when enemies drop them. Magnus can also evolve into new forms (a rock ice magnus -- that is to say, a card with a picture of rock ice on it -- will change into a mineral water magnus, for instance). In all, you'll find 1000 different types of Maguns in the game, covering a range of battle spells, attacks and items.

The magnus aren't just used for attacks. Enemies also use cards in their attacks, and if you want to properly defend yourself, you have to select an appropriate combo. If an enemy sets up a straight, for instance, setting up a pair will result in less damage from the enemy's attack.

In most RPGs, clear a battle and you'll see a stats screen showing how much experience you gained and so-forth. In Baiten Katos, you see a similar screen after every mini-confrontation within a battle. The stats screen computes how much final damage you or the enemy incurs based off card use. It seems that you can think of battles as collections of short, fast-paced card-fights between enemies and the characters in your party.

To be honest, we were only able to scratch the surface of the battle system in our fifteen minutes with the game and there's plenty about which we're not sure (we're sure you're confused as well, having read the above description). Expect a deeper, clearer update once we've had a chance to spend quality time with the game, perhaps close to its early December Japanese release date.[/quote]

There's some new movies too, although they aren't the best quality. The game looks great though and the animation looks excellent. Sounds like a lot of fun. Namco has said this is coming to the US for sure, and considering we're not getting Tales of Symphonia until early Spring 2004, I wouldn't expect this until sometime after that (but who knows -- apparently the voices are all in English, so that's one less thing for them to do compared to ToS).

New videos from IGN:
[URL=http://streamingmovies.ign.com/cube/batenkaitos_092603_01_free.wmv]Snow Mountain and Battle[/URL]
[URL=http://streamingmovies.ign.com/cube/batenkaitos_092603_02_free.wmv]Boss Battle[/URL]
[URL=http://streamingmovies.ign.com/cube/batenkaitos_092603_03_free.wmv]Watery Area[/URL]

[Shinmaru]

Oh, that battle system sounds like it's going to be so much fun. I'm not usually the strategic type, but I could really go for something refreshing like the battle system in Baten Kaitos.

The graphics are still looking mighty fine. As I just told you over AIM, I think the transition to the battles looks quite cool. It flows very well and the battles start right away. It's very instantaneous; I like that.

The release date is looking farther and farther away everytime I see something new come up about the game...I wish it were out right now.

[Guest otakudragon]

Hello folks!
This is my first post on these boards (please be gentle!), and I figured if anyone would know the answer to my question it would be here. Also if this game has been addressed in another thread and I didn't see it I do apologize!
I saw the Japanese advert for Baten Kaitos today, and besides the game looking super awesome, the sdtrk music playing I fell in love with. :love:
*Shining Over You* by Hyde. I'm not sure if it's so new I can't find the track or if I'm looking for it in the wrong places, but if anyone knows where I can find it I'm all ears.

Here's the advert:

[URL=http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/software/gkbj/baten_kaitos_cf30c.mpg]Baten Kaitos[/URL]

Thanks so much :)

[Shinmaru]

[b][url=http://www.nintendo.com/pop_video.vm?url=http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/551fd702-5dee-4ad1-bc63-cbcbb2a7aa55.mov&width=600&height=420]Baten Kaitos video (large)[/url][/b]

[b][url=http://www.nintendo.com/pop_video.vm?url=http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/0eb641bf-7e7c-4325-a8ad-b2755122ecce.mov&width=600&height=420]Baten Kaitos video (small)[/url][/b]

Baten Kaitos video from Nintendo.com...it's a bit short, but it's a nice look at the kind of graphical prowess that you can expect from the game. It's still looking impressive right now, though slightly less impressive than when I saw screens and video for the game a few months back. Still, from what's been released about Baten Kaitos so far, it should definitely be worth picking up for GameCube gamers in need of a good RPG.

[b][url=http://cube.ign.com/articles/510/510950p1.html]Shinji Noguchi talks Baten Kaitos[/url][/b] An interview on IGN if you want to read up more on Baten Kaitos straight from one of the producers of Baten Kaitos.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

I'm still not sure whether to be excited or not about this game. It looks really pretty, and it might be great. But so far the only Monolith game I've played is Xenosaga, and I hate it. It's one of crappiest RPGs I've ever played. (Its soundtrack is sweet though, I have to admit.) It's the only RPG I've played that I decided I'll probably never finish.

Hopefully Baten Kaitos doesn't have the problems that Xenosaga does ([i]not[/i] the long cutscenes; I swear those were Xenosaga's highpoint for me). I'm keeping an eye on it for now, though.

[Mithos]

[COLOR=SlateGray][SIZE=1][FONT=Century Gothic]First thing first, t3h newbie guide.

~~~>>>THE NEWBIE'S GUIDE TO BATEN KAITOS<<<~~~

Sections (Ctrl+F and type in the code to jump to that section)
---

1. Basics (BSC)
2. Story (STY)
3. Gameplay (GMP)
4. Graphics (GRP)
5. Sound (SND)
6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
7. Random Links (LNK)

~~>>The Basics<<~~ (BSC)

-Original RPG from Monolith Soft, the makers of Xenosaga.
-Card based gameplay relying on "Magnus Cards".
-Turn based battle system which relies on both strategy and instinct.
-Pre-rendered CG backgrounds.
-Full voice acting.
-Music done by Motoi Sakuraba.

~~>>The Story<<~~ (STY)

~>Main Plotline<~

Baten Kaitos takes place in a world of floating continents. Long ago, a war took place between the people of the earth and the evil god. Fortunately, the god was sealed away, but the continents were ripped from the ground and now float through the sky. No one has seen the ocean in years, and now it is nothing but a legend.

People have adapted to living in the sky. and now have wings that appear during emotional pressure. They travel between the continents and empires using grand airships.

The story takes place with Kalas, the main character, awakens with no memory. He soon runs into Xelha, a girl on the run from the evil Al Faldo nation.

After speaking to Xelha, Kalas finds that Al Faldo's emperor, Geldobleim, is attempting to resurrect a certain deity from the so-called "End Magnus," and that Xelha holds the key.

Soon they go off on a long, treacherous journey across the continents and through the sky, eventually finding the fabled ocean and getting into who knows what kind of trouble.

~>Characters<~

Kalas- The main character. He was born with one wing so he has a mechanical prosthetic. He has the ability to house a spirit inside of himself. As a matter of fact, you, the player, are not Kalas, but the spirit housed inside of him.

Xelha- Female protagonist. She is on the run from the Al Faldo nation because Geldobleim thinks that she holds the key to the End Magnus. She owns a pet named "Meemai" which can turn into any object that it sees.

Gibari- Male Fisherman. He joins your party in an attempt to find out why the river near his village dried up.

Savyna- Female Monster Hunter. She joins your party because she fortold your coming.

Lyude- Male soldier of Al Faldo. He is a weapons specialist (mostly with guns) and has a strong sense of justice.

Mizuti- Some odd character. He (I think it's a he...) wears a mask and casts magic and such... Something of an enigma.

~>Setting<~

Baten Kaitos takes place is a land where, as mentioned before, the land was ripped from the sea and now the continents float aimlessly through the air. Each continent sports an inherently different theme, such as Ladhekahn, the land covered in clouds, or Sadal Suud, the agricultural giant.

~~>>The Gameplay<<~~ (GMP)

~>General Concepts<~

Everything in Baten Kaitos revolves around the cards. Let me explain:

In the world of Baten Kaitos, everything has an "essence," called "Magna Essence." Magna Essence can be drawn out of an item and placed into a card which is then called a "Magnus Card." The Magna Essence can then be drawn out at any time and restored into whatever it was originally. This makes them very helpful because they let you take whatever you want without and take up barely any space at all. However, they are still affected by time and space, which plays a big role in the game.

For example, if you have an unripe banana with you, holding it for long enough will make it ripe. However, hold it too long and you get a rotten banana. Another situation: let's say you have a sword. If you walk through a river, or swim somewhere or come in contact with too much water, that sword will rust unless you dry it.

Everything in BK is handled through Magnus. Rather than monsters carrying gold, you have to take pictures of them (using a camera Magnus, of course) and sell them to shops. Rather than buying items, you buy Magnus with the items in them.

Magnus come in four forms: Camp Magnus, Quest Magnus, Equip Magnus and Battle Magnus.

Camp Magnus are basically items. You can use them once, and after that they?re gone forever. Potions, food, they?re all Camp Magnus.

Quest Magnus are what are generally referred to as ?Key Items? in other RPGs. They have to do with the story, or with some sidequest or other, and have no purpose other than to further the plot. For example, if someone asks you to find them the Book of Mudora (^_^), when you find it it becomes a Quest Magnus, because it?s only purpose is to be given to that person.

Equipment Magnus are your, well, equipment. Swords, shields, accessories, it?s all here.

The final form, Battle Magnus, are pretty self explanatory. They are what you use in battle; spells, attacks, etc, etc. You stick them into your deck (explained below) and select them during battle.

~>Battle System<~

This game has one of the most unique, creative and innovative battle systems that I have seen in quite a while. Take a little Dragon Quest, mix in some Mario and Luigi, top it off with a nice dollop of Poker, and there you go.

First off, before battles, you have to create a deck. At the beginning of the game, your deck has a limit of 20 cards. As you go through the game you can increase that size. You stock your deck with what ever you like, items, attacks, spells, whatever. Then you go into battle.

Turn order is chosen by a speed stat, but I?m just going to assume that you go first.
Battles start off on your side. You get dealt a number of cards which is your hand. You have 30 seconds to play one of these cards. Now, once you do, things get interesting. You have the ability to make combos (called ?Prizes?). By playing a card right during the animation of the one you just played, you start a Prize. You have a limit to the length of each prize, and if you don?t play a card to start or continue a prize your turn automatically ends. After the turn is over, a screen comes up tallying how much damage was done, how big your prize was, what cards you played, stuff like that. (Don?t worry, it can be turned off if you want to.)

Then, after you have finished your stuff, the enemy goes. Unlike most RPGs where all you do is watch the enemy go, you actually take part in the action. While the enemy goes, you get dealt another hand, and this time you select defense cards. If you time your attacks just right, you can reduce the amount of damage done by choosing pieces of armor or shields at just the right time.

Battles continue on in this progression until one side or the other wins.

Now, I realize that this is probably a terrible explanation and doesn?t help much at all, so here are some videos:

[url]http://media.cube.ign.com/media/481/481671/vids_1.html?fromint=1[/url]

~>Going Deeper<~

Yeah, yeah, the title sounds dirty, deal with it?

First, to elaborate on prizes. Prizes can cause more or less damage based on what cards exactly you play. Each card has a number on it, and creating chains of these numbers can create a greater effect. For example, play all cards with 2s on them, and you?ll do more damage. Play cards that are consecutive (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) and you?ll do more damage.

However, damage is also changed by elements that you play. For example, play a Fire card that has a power of 120 and an Ice card of 110, you?re only going to do 10 damage in the end. This adds a level of strategy and think-on-your-feet-ness. (That is actually why the damage is shown on a screen at the end rather than as you do it; the screen lets all your attacks to finish to make a tally, and if you did something wrong you can see what you played and figure out what exactly you did wrong.)

Now, about leveling up. Instead of just gaining experience and growing as you go along, you have to exchange your experience for levels at a Church. But there isn?t just one kind of level: you have your normal level and your class level. (not sure if that?s actually the real name, though.)

The normal level is what most RPGs have. As it increases your stats increase based on predetermined gains. In this game, when you go to a Church and select the option to increase this, you are presented with a list of how many levels you have enough experience to gain. Like in Final Fantasy X, you can choose how many levels you want as long as you have enough experience to get them.

The class level is a little more different. This determines how big the hands you play can be, and maybe I think your deck size, too.

~~>>The Graphics<<~~ (GRP)

Baten Kaitos is a beautiful game. In my opinion, it is one of the best looking games of this generation.

Most games nowadays use fully 3D, real time rendered backgrounds. (This means that the game is constantly registering what is going on, like how fast the character is moving or how you?re moving the camera, and constantly changing [or rendering] what?s around you accordingly.) Baten Kaitos, however, goes back to the days of the Playstation when RPGs used prerendered backgrounds. For those of you that don?t know, prerendered backgrounds are backgrounds that are fully rendered before you even play the game. Since the backgrounds aren?t being rendered in real time, the camera can?t move aside from scrolling along with you. However, this also means that a whole lot more detail can be put into them. Think FMV detail.

Along with the beautiful prerendered backgrounds, Monolith Soft added a few real time effects, like trees swaying in the breeze or rivers flowing. Naturally, since there isn?t as much power being put into the scenery, these look extraordinarily good.

[url]http://media.cube.ign.com/media/481/481671/vids_1.html?fromint=1[/url]

~>FMV<~

Now, something that has brought BK to the attention of many gamers is the beautiful FMV footage that is shown on all the commercials. Sadly, the only FMV in the game is the intro. (It is rather lengthy, however.) If you want to know why, it?s because Monolith and Namco hired ROBOT, the same people that did Onimusha 3?s CG, to do it, and they are very expensive. They opted for one large FMV instead of a whole bunch of little ones. Take it as you will.

~~>>The Sound<<~~ (SND)

Baten Kaitos? music was composed by Motoi Sakuraba, the renowned composer of games like Valkyrie Profile, Tales of Symphonia and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. His battle themes, once again, sound magnificent and he has done some odd stuff that hasn?t really been heard before. For example, violins in battle music.

The music sounds like it was recorded by an actual orchestra, which is good.

Most of the game has voice acting, including battles. However, there is so much of it that MS had to highly compress it, leading to it sounding rather tinny and echoey. This can be remedied by changing the sound option to surround rather than stereo, but you?ll be missing a few voice sound channels too. No one is quite sure if it will be the same in the US version.

There isn?t really anything else to say?

I would provide a link for some music, but I don?t know where one could get the MIDIs, so, yeah.

~~>>The Frequently Asked Questions <<~~ (FAQ)

Uh? There aren?t really any. Everything that I can remember that has been asked here was about basic gameplay stuff, and that?s already here?

~~>>The Random Links <<~~ (LNK)

VIDEOS:

[url]http://media.cube.ign.com/media/481/481671/vids_1.html?fromint=1[/url]
[url]http://gametrailers.com/vault-b.html[/url] (About half way down)
[url]http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/rpg/batenkaitos/media.html[/url] (Check out the developer interview)

SCREENS:

[url]http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/rpg/batenkaitos/screenindex.html[/url]
[url]http://media.cube.ign.com/media/481/481671/imgs_1.html[/url]


So that?s it. Now, I?m sure that there are loads of discrepancies throughout this, so please tell me if I got a name wrong, or described something completely differently from how it actually works. And tell me if something is really confusing or incoherent or something like that.

Thanks for reading this guide!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Mods, if you thnk that some stuff above should be marked out for spoilers, feel free to do it.


Baten Katios for people in the US is coming out tommorrow *victory dance*. This game is commonly reffered as Chrono Cross 2...[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Readordie]

Okay, I've got the game. And it was

EVERYTHING

yes,

EVERYTHING

I had hoped it would be. The graphics, the odd characters, the battle system, and the pure uniqueness just MAKE this game.

My only problem is that the English dub is absolutely terrible. Everyone is talking in monotone.

[Erika]

[size=1][color=royalblue]*dies from Mithos's post* x_X;

Yeah, I love the whole title--it's too intriguing for me to pass up, lol. I'll end up buying it, since 95% of my games are RPGs anyway. I'm a bit turned off by the whole card-deal...I've always loved swords, armor, accessories, etc. I don't think those ever get old. :p

Oh, well. It's about time I tried something new.[/color][/size]

[Semjaza]

For the record, I think Xenosaga is trash, but this is something I think Monolith should be very happy with. I was interested in this game, but found myself less and less interested as time went on. I recently picked it up, however, and have been playing the hell out of it ever since.

I'm not going to bother talking about the graphics because everyone knows how good this looks. The game also has some simply excellent music. However, I think the sound effects often just don't sound right (footsteps and splashes particularly) and the voices are just this side of awful. I turned them off right away which is thankfully an option. Sadly, you still have to put up with it in the battles either way...

What this lacks in voice overs, however, it certainly makes up for in translation. The game is wonderfully written and I oftentimes found myself surprised by it. Even some of the most basic town-wandering NPCs have interesting, lengthy things to say. This is usually something console RPGs lack compared to PC RPGs. There's exceptions and not everyone is a blabbermouth, but it was definitely welcomed.

While the story makes use of some well-used ideas, I don't find myself minding. It's very well paced and things happen at welcome and opportune times. Twists and developments are all well done. Again, the translation is welcome here because I find myself very interested in the main characters and what exactly is going on with the Empire and their quest.

The battle system is also more interesting and challenging than I expected. Most people shy away from card RPGs simply because they're rarely done well, but this game makes a different use of it than any other I've played. It's really just an excuse to randomly mix up what you can and can't do each turn. Sometimes I find myself unable to attack without wasting a defense or healing item, for example. The combo system is well done and I really like the way mixing up opposite attacks (ice and fire or whatever) is handled and appropriately dealt out. The camera system for earning money is also quite unique and interesting.

Anyway, there's not much else to cover, but I've put about twelve hours into the game so far and I'm quite happy with it. I'm not sure if I like it more than Paper Mario, but it definitely beats out Tales of Symphonia as the best original RPG on the system.

[armana]

I just borrowed this from a friend - it's a game that I've really been looking forward too, especially after Tales of Symphonia.

I'm not that far into it but, from what I've seen so far, sadly, I'm unimpressed. I really wanted to enjoy this game, but there are a few points that have so far kept me from doing so.

The English dub is horrendous. Fair enough, you can turn it off, but the fact that the opening cut scene and battle sequences still retain the voice artistry means that you can never be completely void of them while playing.

I also have a problem with the battle sequence. The randomness really annoys me. I'm thinking that this aspect of the game would either be something that you love or hate. It'd be ok if the cards were random within their type (for example, your attack cards are randomly sorted and then distributed to you, likewise with defense cards), but the fact that when I'm almost out of HP and I'm dealt sheilds and green bananas instead of swords and healing items means that I'm about to be killed and there's nothing I can do about it. While traditional RPGs have always had a sense of the outcome being out of your control, it just seems to have been overly implemented in this title.

I did find positives within the title however - the music is excellent, as are the pre-rendered backgrounds (though the in-game graphics, such as in the battle scenes, don't quite cut it for me). The narrative is interesting, but so far nothing special, however, since I'm not very far into the game I'll reserve my judgement on it for now.

I am excited that Baten Kaitos 2l has been announced - perhaps I'll like it better than the original and, because it's a prequel, it should make things interesting.