It's time I got in on ripping off gaminggeek's Average Process of Reading a GameSpot review and breaking down the Baten Kaitos Origins review.


The Good
* Satisfying storyline that explores the origins of the Baten Kaitos world
* engaging card battles test your wits and skills
* good breadth of content.


Simple enough. Would have liked mention of the incredible soundtrack, but oh well, I guess that's preference.


The Bad
* Brutal boss fights with lots of level-grinding required
* level design encourages backtracking and introduces confusion into some puzzles
* lots of deck micromanagement required.


I'll get to level-grinding later and backtracking later, but "lots of deck micromanagement required"? That's a PLUS for a card game. The last thing I want in a game based around cards is to not have anything to do with my deck.

The narrative itself runs hot and cold. Some developments are obvious and telegraphed from the start, but there are also some cool, major plot twists. The script flows naturally, and the voice acting is mostly quite good, with only a few delivery issues here and there to mar things--which is good because there's quite a bit of spoken dialogue.

The lines can get occasionally cheesy, yes. Hmm, they just called the voice active "mostly quite good". What did Sound score, a 7? Let's check the first game, "Nasal-sounding voices distract rather than immerse". What did Sound Score? 8? Maybe she preferred the beautiful music in the first one compared to the excellent music in the second. Let's see what she said, "does a good job of setting the proper mood." Oh, and the only mention of it in the review of Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean? Apparently it "does a great job of setting mood and tone for the island nations and unfolding events."

Uh, run those by me again.

"does a good job of setting the proper mood."
"does a great job of setting mood and tone for the island nations and unfolding events."

Great, she just plagiarised her own review.

A casual mastery of the card system will not get you past the game's bosses, however, because they're all pretty much ruthless and have a number of devastating attacks.

Casual mastery? Isn't that an oxymoron? I guess you're saying the bosses are difficult.

To beat your toughest enemies, you'll need to choose character abilities intelligently, save good cards in your hand, build up magnus power, and perform relay attacks and "EX combos."

This is indeed true.

One issue is that the cards are dealt at random, so it's quite possible to end up in situations where you take massive hits but can't get healing item cards in time; or your hand gets clogged up with cards you cannot use, and you'll have to continually flush it.

OMFG a deck in a card game is SHUFFLED?! By the way, you have the option of pressing B to toss a card, an option not available in the first game. Additionally, this is why there's that "deck micromanagement" so you don't run into these problems very often.

Luckily, if you die during a boss battle, you're always given the option to try again, and you'll be able to adjust your deck before you do so.

One reason why I continue to love this game even more. The option to adjust your deck is brilliant.

But there's another problem--and that's level. The characters will gain experience and go up in level as you progress, getting more health points and access to better card options. However, it's possible to make it to a boss and still be hopelessly outclassed, without enough health to survive. The game is set up so that grinding levels at certain points is unavoidable.

If you picked up on it in my furious rant about Final Fantasy XII before, I hate level grinding and I don't do many sidequests. I will avoid doing so for as long as possible, and I never had to in Baten Kaitos Origins. There was one boss that I could barely get by, but from then on it was entirely about the deck and not the level. If you had to level grind in Origins, there are only two explanations:
1 - You avoid every enemy at every opportunity
2 - You suck

I don't like making the second argument, but frankly, if you have to level grind and are fighting a reasonable non-grinding amount, then you're just plain bad at the battle system, and RPGs cannot accomodate for the far ends of inept and godly. And it was stated that the game was hard -- you have the resources at your disposal to succeed without level grinding or sidequests to get overpowered cards.

The game's dungeons and other fighting areas are set up to accommodate this grinding, which is both good and bad. It is good because you'll need to improve your characters for later bosses, but it's bad because the areas feature restrictive paths, lots of monsters, and puzzles that necessitate a lot of backtracking to gather the proper quest magnus to allow you to proceed.

Wait a minute, are you telling me that I'll have to fight enemies in dungeons? What a horrible idea! As for "backtracking" you're not going somewhere, getting a key and then trecking all the way back. You'll do something like finish a puzzle that opens a door back to where you were where you can now progress further.

The game's prerendered backgrounds, while detailed, can sometimes obscure people you need to talk to or paths you need to take to progress. Move deep into some cities, and your character will be so far from the fixed viewpoint and so indistinct that you might have to squint to see where you're going.

The only points in which you're far away from the camera are ones where you're leaving the area from the top of the screen, in which case you're running in a straight line anyway. Also, if this is supposed to be the justification for the lower graphics score than the original, the first had more issues than Origins.

3D models run around in this fixed, 2D world. Visually, the characters aren't all that detailed, but the environments fare a bit better. The cities and towns definitely look the best, whether it is Diadem Island's castle, wreathed all in billowing pink clouds, or the glittering brass of the empire's capital of Mintaka. In fact, most of these cityscapes are recycled directly from the original Baten Kaitos.

The characters are quite detailed, again, much moreso than the first game. So there has been no explanation so far as to why this one looks worse. Wait a second, "a bit better"? The backgrounds are gorgeous, and abosolutely could not be more detailed.

The dungeons and other outside areas tend to be blander and almost too busy with all their narrow crooks and corners. As far as battle effects go, there are plenty of special abilities and combos to use, and they're all flashy and fun to watch.

It's pretty hard to make dungeons flashy, and yet they're quite unique in their own right.

Baten Kaitos Origins is packed with content and nostalgia for series fans, along with lots of difficulty and some good old-fashioned level grinding. You need not have played the original game to get a handle on events here, and the story holds up very well if you can survive the sometimes brutal card battles. If your GameCube is lonely, and you're looking for a challenging role-playing experience, consider giving Baten Kaitos Origins a shot.

So basically, you're negatives are:
-It's hard
-It uses cards

Ah, I see now. GameSpot doesn't have my Dedication Meter! Without that, how can they inform the reader how in depth they'll have to get with the game, and thereby must insult any game that the GameSpot crew can't finish in a weekend!

Strangely enough, she's not even right on things she says positively about the game--to properly understand the story, you do need to have played the first one. There is no explanation (or mention) as to why they are on floating islands, so events surrounding that as somehow surprising are completely lost.

Score in Sections relative to Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Deeper battle system: -1 Gameplay
Equal or better graphics: -2 Graphics
Better audio: -1 Sound
Longer game more content: Even Value
Better in every way: -1 Tilt

Overall: -1.0

Brilliant. GameSpot's not the only one on the hotseat, though, as most review outlets are pretty much in the same boat (although I haven't looked too much at other reviews). I remain astounded that Origins can get a lower score from anyone than Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (which I have beaten three times, to tell you I have nothing agains it). Almost completely objectively, Origins is better in every single way. Now I know user scores are usually higher, but they do even out a bit over time.

GameSpot: 7.5
GameRankings: 7.7
Users: 9.1

Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean?
GameSpot: 8.5
GameRankings: 8.1
Users: 8.8

But people love Prince of Persia and Eternal Darkness, so what do they know? Now hurry up, Nintendo, and get Monolith Soft working on Baten Kaitos 3.