O mighty ocean, guide us as we journey through the darkest pit of night....
Visuals: From a technical standpoint, the visuals in Baten Kaitos are nothing special (other than the fact the game constantly runs at 60 frames per second). Character models have a fairly low polygon count and 3D objects are rather unimpressive. Also, the absence of FMV (aside from the opening) is rather disappointing. This is probably due to the lack of space on the Gamecube discs. However, Baten Kaitos features stunningly beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, and the art is excruciatingly detailed. To further enhance this visual splendor, the pre-rendered backgrounds and art are actually animated. One might think that would look awkward, but animations are subtle and do nothing but immerse you more in the beautiful game world. The world in Baten Kaitos consists of island nations, and each have their own constant element or theme. These include the lush forests and wind imbued enemies of Anuenue, the dark and illusory enemies and dungeons of Mira, the barren lands and desert of Alfard, and many more. Each and every one of these islands is filled with spectacular artwork, but I only wish that artwork could be incorporated into battles. During battles, there are no beautiful backgrounds, instead the screen feels empty and textures are bland. Effects are a mixed bag. While all of them are shiny and detailed, even the final special attacks don't look super-powerful. However, this can be forgiven, as long, drawn out effects would make battles far too slow. On the whole, the visuals in Baten Kaitos are amazing, just because the art is so beautiful and varied you'll most likely forget about the technical shortcomings. Personally, I feel that the visuals are a LOT like those in Chrono Cross.
Sound: The music in Baten Kaitos not only augments the visuals and themes, but is great in its own right. Motoi Sakuraba, known for doing soundtracks for a multitude of JRPGs, composed the music for Baten Kaitos. The soundtrack for Baten Kaitos was definitely Sakuraba's best until recently; the music in Eternal Sonata surpasses that of Baten Kaitos. Unlike the sometimes synthesized sounding music Sakuraba has composed before, Baten Kaitos has a lot of string music, and the violin pieces are especially pretty. I would say that the soundtrack is closest to that of Eternal Sonata, and to a lesser extent, Tales of the Abyss. Sound effects are actually noteworthy, as the sound effects in battle change depending on the element of the defensive/offensive magnus (cards, more on that later.) Each element's sound is not only fitting, but satisfying to hear. Hearing a sort of shredding sound after your enemy has been slashed by a Wind God's Sword is oddly fun. Overall, the sound in Baten Kaitos does a lot to enhance the atmosphere and fun factor of this game.
Story: I don't want to give much away about the story of Baten Kaitos, but I'll say that's it is pretty unconventional-- and holds what I would call one of the biggest plot twists in RPG history. You play the game from the perspective of Kalas' (the protagonist) guardian spirit. To be fair, the plot does take a little while to get going. The two main characters in Baten Kaitos, Kalas and Xelha, are very well developed. The other characters are versatile in personality and motives, and the game delves just deep enough into their motivations and history.
Gameplay: This is where Baten Kaitos shines. You may have been turned off by the fact that the battle system is card based, but rest assured, the battle system is innovative, well done, and rarely (if ever) tedious. In the game world, objects such as fire, water, seeds, etc. can be stored in cards called Magnus. One cool thing about Magnus in Baten Kaitos is that they change over time. For example, some food will go rotten over time, or pristine water will change into water and finally into stagnant water as time passes. There are multiple side quests in which you have to get an item to a person within a certain amount of time, before it changes in form. More importantly to the combat, weapons are also carried in the form of Magnus, and then their "Magna Essence" is released when fighting. Each of your characters has a deck of Magnus cards, which gets increasingly bigger as you progress. Every Magnus in your deck has a spirit value (1-9). The number by itself doesn't determine the amount of damage you will do. However, there you are rewarded with bonuses for using cards with certain values in certain order. Before I explain that, I'll explain getting into battles. Battles are not random, and just as in Chrono Cross, you encounter enemies that are visible in the area, and you can avoid a good portion of these encounters. Once in a battle, the three members that are in your battle party (adjustable from the main menu) and your enemies appear on screen in typical RPG fashion. On the bottom of the screen, you are presented with a belt of sorts filled with cards (the number of these cards available at one time increases as you increase in class level and is referred to as your hand) that are randomly drawn from your deck. If it's an offensive turn, you will select a target (R cycles through enemies, while L cycles through ally targets) and then select a Magnus to use on that target. Before you use your first Magnus, you have a certain amount of time (as class level goes up, this time decreases) to think about what you want to do and switch targets. That character's turn ends if you fail to choose a Magnus before this time is up. After selecting a Magnus and your party member carries out that action, you'll automatically draw another card from your deck into your hand, after which you must select the next Magnus you want to use (the maximum number of Magnus usable in one combo increases with your party level). Same thing for defensive turns, except you have to use a Magnus before the enemy's attack animation finishes. Here's where card values come into play. There are two kinds of bonuses: the "pair" bonus and the "straight" bonus. A pair doesn't necessarily consist of two cards; it can be up to however many cards you can use in one combo. To get the pair bonus, all of the cards in your combo must have the same spirit value. If successful, you're rewarded by doing more damage. The magnitude of the bonus increases with the number of cards in the combo. Getting a straight is considerably harder, but also grants a huge damage/healing bonus. You must select cards in an ascending or descending order, and if even one card does not follow that rule, you don't get the bonus (example: 1, 2,3,4,6 will not work, you would need to stop after 4 to get a bonus in this scenario.) Sounds hard and it is, especially since everything occurs in real-time, but if you're good at it, you can get a damage bonus/reduction of up to 306%! You may be thinking "Isn't it mostly luck, though?" The answer is no. Later in the game you'll get cards with more than one spirit value (the value can be on the top, bottom, or any corner of the card), for which you'll want to use the C-stick to choose. Picking out the best possible card values when each of your cards has 4 of them takes a good amount of skill. Characters also have special attacks, which will automatically end your card combo. On to leveling up mechanics. You gain experience by fighting, just like your typical RPG. Leveling up can is done only at the church, which you can get to through magical blue flowers (save points). Some save flowers are red and do not give you the option to teleport to the church. You can gain multiple levels at one time, and leveling up restores your health, so in the case that you’re out of healing items, you may want to level up just once and save one to serve as means of healing. The game mechanics are unconventional, but range from solid to excellent in quality. The dialog is for the most part, considerably better than average. One of my favorite parts of RPGs is one that a lot of people don’t care for: talking to random people. I love hearing what they have to say, whether it’s listening to one of their problems or just reading a funny/clever line. Baten Kaitos is great in this category, partially because you can help many of these random people. For example, if a wealthy man in a pub wants to hear a story, you can trap the Magna Essence of a story and give it to him. Often times you’ll be rewarded for helping others out. Later in the game, more strange comedy is incorporated into the descriptions of Magnus. I remember I got a Lion Magnus of sorts, and the description was along the lines of “A fearsome feline, this lion is the king of the jungle. Big kitty!” Part of the reason some of this comedy is funny is because it feels so out of place in the game, due to there hardly being any moments like that in the first 75% of the game. Almost all lines are natural and not stilted. The personality of the characters shows through, thankfully. Some lines are awkward, and strangely, these lines are always the ones that are voiced. About the voice acting, it sounds very low quality and in some cases robotic. Thankfully the voice actors them selves do a decent job, and it’s never unbearably bad.
Value/difficulty: Difficulty in Baten Kaitos is extremely variable. At certain points in the game, you’ll find that monsters drop a particularly good Magnus or two. If you choose to, you can repeatedly kill these monsters and get tons of that Magnus. I did this with a Chrono sword Magnus (during two different occasions, the latter was for a similar but much more powerful sword) for Kalas, and that enabled me to kick the crap out of everything from that point in the game onwards. A guide said I should have being doing 2000 damage or so when getting lucky, whereas I could do upwards of 8000+ once every battle or so. This made the game pretty easy for me. Although, since cards are drawn randomly, you’re bound to have a few boss fights you’ll die on repeatedly just because you don’t get the right cards. Thankfully, you can retry a boss fight as many times as you want as soon as you die, and you can rearrange your deck after selecting the retry option. This option doesn’t make the game any easier, though, just less frustrating. As for value, I finished the game with about 65 hours on my file, but I didn’t finish any of the three “big” side quests. If you were to finish everything, I’d imagine you’d spend at least 75 hours on the game, possibly 80. If you’re looking to finish the game fast, know that spending less than 45 hours will be extremely difficult.
If you have a Gamecube or a Wii, even if you don’t like RPGs much, you should still pick up Baten Kaitos. If you are a fan of RPGs, you’ll probably have a blast with this game’s innovative combat, beautiful world, and engaging story.