"The empire's plans...the fate of the world...I couldn't care less."
I'm actually pretty upset right now since the XXX electricity went out for no apparent reason RIGHT after I finished my disgustingly long review and I lost my ENTIRE post, so sorry if it sounds a little rushed and for all the wikipedia inserts. Unfortunately, I had the whole thing on my wordpad since I hate using word and Firefox likes to crap itself out for no apparent reason, so it's gone...forever. I hate computers.
Anyway, on to the review...
Published by: Namco
Developed by: Monolith Software (JP)
Genre: Card RPG
Number of Players: 1
Release Date:
US: November 16, 2004
Japan: December 5, 2002
-opening video (with voices!)
Story
"The World of Baten Kaitos exists in an era where lands float in the sky and the once-vast oceans are mere legend. With your help, Kalas and Xelha must struggle to reveal the mystery of the lost ocean and destroy the corruption that threatens their world"
Wings of the Heart
The fact that many of the characters (from NPCs to most of the people who join the party) in Baten Kaitos have unique "soulwings" or "Wings of the Heart" is a fairly central focus of the plot. It is difficult to define exactly what the soulwings are, for the only comprehensive description of them given to us in the game is related in a flashback sequence by Georg, Kalas' grandfather: "The Wings of the Heart are the visual manifestation of the energy, willpower, and aura that any person has. They are strongly affected by an individual's emotions. As emotions are involved, so is the mind. That is to say, the electrical signals from the left and right hemispheres. .." It is explained in Baten Kaitos Origins that people were taught to manifest the power of their hearts to grow wings. When they first learned, everyone had angelic wings, but when they were forced to move to the Sky, people began to be born with them, and the wings reflected who they truly were. Hence qualities of the heart are attached to the idea of having, or desiring, a pair of wings and possessing only a single wing (as Kalas does), therefore being unable to fly, could be linked to matters inside his own heart. The Imperials, on the other hand, have sacrificed their wings in order to carry machines. (wikipedia)
Characters
Kalas
age: 18
pronunciation: Callous
biography: Kalas is the main protagonist in BK. He is on a mission to defeat one of men from the empire, Giacamo, because Giacamo killed his grandfather and brother, Fee. Kalas is considered malformed by many because he only has one wing of the heart while most people have two. Due to this, Kalas is a bit bitter and brash and doesn’t always like to help other people out unless he can get something out of it. He is somewhat callous, as his name implies, and seems to care only about himself and his mission for revenge. However, he can be very considerate at times to those who are nice to him.
Kalas sets off on his mission for revenge aided by Xelha and his guardian spirit.
Xelha
age: 17
pronunciation: Shell-uh
biography: Kalas meets Xelha near the beginning of the game. She is headed to some woods with some of her comrades and Kalas appears when she is at the brink of trouble, her comrades having fallen and herself left to fight a monster alone.
Unlike Kalas, Xelha is much more kind and considerate. She cares deeply for others and is on a mission to stop the empire’s tyrannical reign. She tries to enlist the unwilling Kalas for help, with some negative feedback.
Gibari
age: 34
pronunciation: Gih-bar-ee
biography: Kalas and Xelha meet Gibari in Nashira, a small fishing town. They ask him to ferry them over to the castle because the road there is blocked by some floods. The village’s policy is to not take strangers with them on the fishing boats because they think it scares the fish, but Gibari believes that it’s nothing but superstition and agrees to take them- at a price. They must help him find out why there is so much flooding.
Despite his rebellious ways against the village, Gibari is a kind man who cares deeply about the condition of his village. He tries to hide this concern by being good-natured and nonchalant, even when things get rough.
Lyude
age: 18
pronunciation: Lee-you-d
biography: I don’t know much about Lyude yet since I don’t have him on my team, but Lyude works as an ambassador of the empire of Diadem. Lyude spends much of his time in Nashira because he prefers the unchanging, relaxed village to the hustle and bustle of the city.
Lyude seems dissatisfied with his current position, saying that his job as an ambassador was only a way to get him away from the empire and that the Empire doesn’t really care about other countries. He thinks that his position isn’t quite as important as people make it out to be…
Guardian Spirit
NPC, sorta
The guardian spirit is a spirit that is bonded to Kalas’ soul. Its job is to give Kalas advice and aid him in battle. In the beginning of the game the player is told to pick a name and gender for the spirit and assumes the role as the guardian spirit. As Kalas’ spirit, the player is given options in the game. These options will help make or break a good relationship with Kalas, which will aid the two of you in battle and enable the player to perform more advanced magic.
Meemai
NPC
Meemai is Xelha's pet greythorne, a small, fairly intelligent creature that resembles a plump seal. Greythornes are very common throughout Baten Kaitos, though they do very little other than squeak. Meemai appears able to change shape from small dog-sized to palm-sized (small enough to fit in Xelha's hood.) Some of Xelha's finishing moves use Meemai as a magic focus. (wikipedia)
Other playable characters:
Name: Savyna,
Age: 25
Biography: A former elite soldier from the empire
Name: Mizuti
Age: 14
Biography: One of the Children of the Earth, the descendants of the Great mages that warred against the gods 1000 years ago.
Magnus Cards
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is marked by a unique card-based system using "Magnus cards." Magnus cards can magically absorb the "Magna essence" of real-world objects for storage and later use. Everything has a "Magna essence" inside of itself, even living people, yet living people cannot be contained inside Magnus. There are four varieties of Magnus: Quest, Camp, Battle, and Equipment.
(wikpedia)
Battle
Battle cards are used only in battle. Battle cards consist of swords and clubs as well as other knives and etc. They can also be used for defense items. Most battle cards can only be used by specific people, but even mages can use certain battle cards.
Quest
Quest cards are the blank cards that Kalas can trap magnus essence in. These mangnus cards do not assist Kalas in battle, but they help the party get past certain obstacles and further the story. For example, say there is a log in the road that the party cannot get past. By trapping the mangnus essence of fire, Kalas can use it to burn the log and clear the path.
Camp
Camp cards are cards that can only be used outside of battles. They consist of mainly healing cards.
Defense
Defense cards are used for, obviously, defense. Each character can only use certain kinds of defense cards, and most defense cards have certain attributes, like helping ward the player from poison or being frozen.
Magic
Magic cards are primarily used by Xelha, the black mage, but some cards can be used by numerous characters. Dark, Water, Fire, Light, Wind, and Ice are all examples of magic cards.
Healing
Healing cards can be used by anyone. They are spread out through your deck like normal cards. There are different kinds of healing cards with different abilities. Some cards heal HP, some remove poison, some wake the characters up, and etcetera.
Most of the HP restore cards are food items, like bananas, honey, and milk. Unfortunately, like real life, HP restore cards can go bad after a while. For example, bananas will heal HP, but if the player holds onto them for too long they will go bad and can no longer be used for recovering HP. Fortunately, monsters often drop healing cards and you can buy them at stores.
Advanced Magic Cards
Advanced magic cards can only be used in addition to other cards. Advanced Magic cards have different drawing levels, meaning the player has to play a certain amount of cards to be able to access them.
For example, Kalas’ fist advanced magic card is Blue Storm. To access Blue Story, Kalas must lay one card down. But one of his later attacks, Shadow Wing, is a level two card, meaning Kalas must lay down two cards before accessing Shadow Wing.
Spirit Attack
If the player maintains a good relationship with Kalas, additional powerful attacks known as "spirit attacks" become activated during combat. There is one spirit attack for each element: Distorting Wind, Lingering Time, Shining Seraph, Demons of Darkness, Sacred Spring, and Hellfire. Spirit attacks only appear at the end of a maximum-sized combo and are the strongest individual attacks in the game. (wikipedia)
Money System
The money system is quite unusual in BK. Unlike most games where money is obtained from random battles, in BK the player gets money from photographs. Kalas receives the camera card early on in the game and is instructed to take pictures of monsters. Once a picture is taken, it will appear in the spoils menu at the end of battle. The player may choose to pick up the photo or choose a different spoil. After the photograph is developed (it does that by itself), the player can sell it and get money from it.
EXP system
The EXP system is also different from most RPGs. The characters do get experience points from battle, but instead of leveling them up normally, they much go to the church and exchange their experience points for levels. To access a church, the player must seek out a blue flower save point and select the option of going to the church. There the player must speak to the priest to obtain more levels.
Expanding your deck capacity is virtually the same way, although the player doesn’t get EXP from battles to expand your deck. The player must find certain cards which will increase the number of cards you can have in your hand. After obtaining the card, the player must speak to the priest and select the option of leveling up his hand.
The Good
Battle- The battle is extremely fun, mostly because the player is never sure of what cards will pop up next, meaning each hand is a surprise. The player will know what cards he has in his deck, but the cards are dished out randomly during battles.
Music- I’m not big on videogame music, but BK’s music is awesome. Each area has its own unique theme and all are enjoyable to listen to. The boss battle themes are very techno sounding, and they wouldn’t be out of place at a dance club.
Graphics- The graphics may not compare to games nowadays, but for the time the game was published (2002), the graphics were very nicely done. The backgrounds are all very lush and detailed, and you can tell they’re not completely painted in because they will contain moving objects, like a waterfall or clouds moving in the sky.
The game also pays close attention to facial expressions and the speech bubbles, which contain an image of the character speaking will change its picture depending on the character’s mood and reactions.
The Bad
Healing abilities- This isn’t a BIG thing to complain about, but it can get a little unnerving sometimes. Because the deck is shuffled, the player is never sure when HP items will appear and in what order, meaning the player may not get the chance to heal his character before he or she dies. On the other hand, the player may be bogged down with healing items when he doesn’t need them.
This is also true for offense and defense items, but luckily the player can use offense items as defense items.
Voice Acting- The voice acting ranges from tolerable to awful in the game, failing especially with the NPC. The same three voice actors are used to speak for all of the NPCs and often times their voices sound ridiculous, the tone not matching what the character is really saying. Most of the time the voices sound like the character took too many happy pills. The men sound disgustingly over dramatic, and the girls, in addition to sounding over dramatic often sound seductive. One moment that especially had me sweatdropping was when the player meets an important NPC called Anna in the bar. Anna’s voice varies from sing-songy to very seductive. One particular line that made me wince was when she, leaning over the bar, asked Kalas, in a creepily flirtatious voice if he would like to stay and have a drink. I don’t consider myself a dirty person, and I’m sure the game wasn’t implying anything dirty, but the line and the way she said it just made me shudder….
In addition, the sound is awful. The characters' voices sound like they're talking through a pipe all the time. I'm not sure why that is since in the opening movie the voices were okay, but it's a little annoying.
Fortunately, most of the playable characters’ voices are bearable, save Xelha at times, and the player also has the option of turning the voices off.
Cards- If you don’t like card games you’re kind of screwed. You will either have to learn to deal with it like I have, or just turn the game off and return it. There is no way of getting around the card game system as it's essential for battle.
My Thoughts:
Or how Namco continues to own my soul...
Leave it to Namco to get me hooked on yet ANOTHER one of their games...
I am horribly addicted to this game, and I'm looking forward to playing more of it this Christmas break...
I think I posted my likes and dislikes pretty well above, so in summary I'll just say that the card fighting isn't bad, but sometimes it CAN get frustrating when you're not drawing what you want. Other than that and the meh VAing, the game is pretty good. Oh, and by the way, the loading times are AWESOME. I love playing Gamecube RPGs. ^_^
Screenshots
-Kalas fighting a bat
-One of the many world maps: how you move on the world map is very similar to Legend of Dragoon.
-Kalas in the opening movie
-Xehla using an advanced magic spell
-Kalas comes in to save the day...sorta
-yeah...I don't know either
-Back to sanity
And now to do my homework...
Anyway, on to the review...
Published by: Namco
Developed by: Monolith Software (JP)
Genre: Card RPG
Number of Players: 1
Release Date:
US: November 16, 2004
Japan: December 5, 2002
Click to view-opening video (with voices!)
Story
"The World of Baten Kaitos exists in an era where lands float in the sky and the once-vast oceans are mere legend. With your help, Kalas and Xelha must struggle to reveal the mystery of the lost ocean and destroy the corruption that threatens their world"
Wings of the Heart
The fact that many of the characters (from NPCs to most of the people who join the party) in Baten Kaitos have unique "soulwings" or "Wings of the Heart" is a fairly central focus of the plot. It is difficult to define exactly what the soulwings are, for the only comprehensive description of them given to us in the game is related in a flashback sequence by Georg, Kalas' grandfather: "The Wings of the Heart are the visual manifestation of the energy, willpower, and aura that any person has. They are strongly affected by an individual's emotions. As emotions are involved, so is the mind. That is to say, the electrical signals from the left and right hemispheres. .." It is explained in Baten Kaitos Origins that people were taught to manifest the power of their hearts to grow wings. When they first learned, everyone had angelic wings, but when they were forced to move to the Sky, people began to be born with them, and the wings reflected who they truly were. Hence qualities of the heart are attached to the idea of having, or desiring, a pair of wings and possessing only a single wing (as Kalas does), therefore being unable to fly, could be linked to matters inside his own heart. The Imperials, on the other hand, have sacrificed their wings in order to carry machines. (wikipedia)
Characters
Kalas
age: 18
pronunciation: Callous
biography: Kalas is the main protagonist in BK. He is on a mission to defeat one of men from the empire, Giacamo, because Giacamo killed his grandfather and brother, Fee. Kalas is considered malformed by many because he only has one wing of the heart while most people have two. Due to this, Kalas is a bit bitter and brash and doesn’t always like to help other people out unless he can get something out of it. He is somewhat callous, as his name implies, and seems to care only about himself and his mission for revenge. However, he can be very considerate at times to those who are nice to him.
Kalas sets off on his mission for revenge aided by Xelha and his guardian spirit.
Xelha
age: 17
pronunciation: Shell-uh
biography: Kalas meets Xelha near the beginning of the game. She is headed to some woods with some of her comrades and Kalas appears when she is at the brink of trouble, her comrades having fallen and herself left to fight a monster alone.
Unlike Kalas, Xelha is much more kind and considerate. She cares deeply for others and is on a mission to stop the empire’s tyrannical reign. She tries to enlist the unwilling Kalas for help, with some negative feedback.
Gibari
age: 34
pronunciation: Gih-bar-ee
biography: Kalas and Xelha meet Gibari in Nashira, a small fishing town. They ask him to ferry them over to the castle because the road there is blocked by some floods. The village’s policy is to not take strangers with them on the fishing boats because they think it scares the fish, but Gibari believes that it’s nothing but superstition and agrees to take them- at a price. They must help him find out why there is so much flooding.
Despite his rebellious ways against the village, Gibari is a kind man who cares deeply about the condition of his village. He tries to hide this concern by being good-natured and nonchalant, even when things get rough.
Lyude
age: 18
pronunciation: Lee-you-d
biography: I don’t know much about Lyude yet since I don’t have him on my team, but Lyude works as an ambassador of the empire of Diadem. Lyude spends much of his time in Nashira because he prefers the unchanging, relaxed village to the hustle and bustle of the city.
Lyude seems dissatisfied with his current position, saying that his job as an ambassador was only a way to get him away from the empire and that the Empire doesn’t really care about other countries. He thinks that his position isn’t quite as important as people make it out to be…
Guardian Spirit
NPC, sorta
The guardian spirit is a spirit that is bonded to Kalas’ soul. Its job is to give Kalas advice and aid him in battle. In the beginning of the game the player is told to pick a name and gender for the spirit and assumes the role as the guardian spirit. As Kalas’ spirit, the player is given options in the game. These options will help make or break a good relationship with Kalas, which will aid the two of you in battle and enable the player to perform more advanced magic.
Meemai
NPC
Meemai is Xelha's pet greythorne, a small, fairly intelligent creature that resembles a plump seal. Greythornes are very common throughout Baten Kaitos, though they do very little other than squeak. Meemai appears able to change shape from small dog-sized to palm-sized (small enough to fit in Xelha's hood.) Some of Xelha's finishing moves use Meemai as a magic focus. (wikipedia)
Other playable characters:
Name: Savyna,
Age: 25
Biography: A former elite soldier from the empire
Name: Mizuti
Age: 14
Biography: One of the Children of the Earth, the descendants of the Great mages that warred against the gods 1000 years ago.
Magnus Cards
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is marked by a unique card-based system using "Magnus cards." Magnus cards can magically absorb the "Magna essence" of real-world objects for storage and later use. Everything has a "Magna essence" inside of itself, even living people, yet living people cannot be contained inside Magnus. There are four varieties of Magnus: Quest, Camp, Battle, and Equipment.
(wikpedia)
Battle
Battle cards are used only in battle. Battle cards consist of swords and clubs as well as other knives and etc. They can also be used for defense items. Most battle cards can only be used by specific people, but even mages can use certain battle cards.
Quest
Quest cards are the blank cards that Kalas can trap magnus essence in. These mangnus cards do not assist Kalas in battle, but they help the party get past certain obstacles and further the story. For example, say there is a log in the road that the party cannot get past. By trapping the mangnus essence of fire, Kalas can use it to burn the log and clear the path.
Camp
Camp cards are cards that can only be used outside of battles. They consist of mainly healing cards.
Defense
Defense cards are used for, obviously, defense. Each character can only use certain kinds of defense cards, and most defense cards have certain attributes, like helping ward the player from poison or being frozen.
Magic
Magic cards are primarily used by Xelha, the black mage, but some cards can be used by numerous characters. Dark, Water, Fire, Light, Wind, and Ice are all examples of magic cards.
Healing
Healing cards can be used by anyone. They are spread out through your deck like normal cards. There are different kinds of healing cards with different abilities. Some cards heal HP, some remove poison, some wake the characters up, and etcetera.
Most of the HP restore cards are food items, like bananas, honey, and milk. Unfortunately, like real life, HP restore cards can go bad after a while. For example, bananas will heal HP, but if the player holds onto them for too long they will go bad and can no longer be used for recovering HP. Fortunately, monsters often drop healing cards and you can buy them at stores.
Advanced Magic Cards
Advanced magic cards can only be used in addition to other cards. Advanced Magic cards have different drawing levels, meaning the player has to play a certain amount of cards to be able to access them.
For example, Kalas’ fist advanced magic card is Blue Storm. To access Blue Story, Kalas must lay one card down. But one of his later attacks, Shadow Wing, is a level two card, meaning Kalas must lay down two cards before accessing Shadow Wing.
Spirit Attack
If the player maintains a good relationship with Kalas, additional powerful attacks known as "spirit attacks" become activated during combat. There is one spirit attack for each element: Distorting Wind, Lingering Time, Shining Seraph, Demons of Darkness, Sacred Spring, and Hellfire. Spirit attacks only appear at the end of a maximum-sized combo and are the strongest individual attacks in the game. (wikipedia)
Money System
The money system is quite unusual in BK. Unlike most games where money is obtained from random battles, in BK the player gets money from photographs. Kalas receives the camera card early on in the game and is instructed to take pictures of monsters. Once a picture is taken, it will appear in the spoils menu at the end of battle. The player may choose to pick up the photo or choose a different spoil. After the photograph is developed (it does that by itself), the player can sell it and get money from it.
EXP system
The EXP system is also different from most RPGs. The characters do get experience points from battle, but instead of leveling them up normally, they much go to the church and exchange their experience points for levels. To access a church, the player must seek out a blue flower save point and select the option of going to the church. There the player must speak to the priest to obtain more levels.
Expanding your deck capacity is virtually the same way, although the player doesn’t get EXP from battles to expand your deck. The player must find certain cards which will increase the number of cards you can have in your hand. After obtaining the card, the player must speak to the priest and select the option of leveling up his hand.
The Good
Battle- The battle is extremely fun, mostly because the player is never sure of what cards will pop up next, meaning each hand is a surprise. The player will know what cards he has in his deck, but the cards are dished out randomly during battles.
Music- I’m not big on videogame music, but BK’s music is awesome. Each area has its own unique theme and all are enjoyable to listen to. The boss battle themes are very techno sounding, and they wouldn’t be out of place at a dance club.
Graphics- The graphics may not compare to games nowadays, but for the time the game was published (2002), the graphics were very nicely done. The backgrounds are all very lush and detailed, and you can tell they’re not completely painted in because they will contain moving objects, like a waterfall or clouds moving in the sky.
The game also pays close attention to facial expressions and the speech bubbles, which contain an image of the character speaking will change its picture depending on the character’s mood and reactions.
The Bad
Healing abilities- This isn’t a BIG thing to complain about, but it can get a little unnerving sometimes. Because the deck is shuffled, the player is never sure when HP items will appear and in what order, meaning the player may not get the chance to heal his character before he or she dies. On the other hand, the player may be bogged down with healing items when he doesn’t need them.
This is also true for offense and defense items, but luckily the player can use offense items as defense items.
Voice Acting- The voice acting ranges from tolerable to awful in the game, failing especially with the NPC. The same three voice actors are used to speak for all of the NPCs and often times their voices sound ridiculous, the tone not matching what the character is really saying. Most of the time the voices sound like the character took too many happy pills. The men sound disgustingly over dramatic, and the girls, in addition to sounding over dramatic often sound seductive. One moment that especially had me sweatdropping was when the player meets an important NPC called Anna in the bar. Anna’s voice varies from sing-songy to very seductive. One particular line that made me wince was when she, leaning over the bar, asked Kalas, in a creepily flirtatious voice if he would like to stay and have a drink. I don’t consider myself a dirty person, and I’m sure the game wasn’t implying anything dirty, but the line and the way she said it just made me shudder….
In addition, the sound is awful. The characters' voices sound like they're talking through a pipe all the time. I'm not sure why that is since in the opening movie the voices were okay, but it's a little annoying.
Fortunately, most of the playable characters’ voices are bearable, save Xelha at times, and the player also has the option of turning the voices off.
Cards- If you don’t like card games you’re kind of screwed. You will either have to learn to deal with it like I have, or just turn the game off and return it. There is no way of getting around the card game system as it's essential for battle.
My Thoughts:
Or how Namco continues to own my soul...
Leave it to Namco to get me hooked on yet ANOTHER one of their games...
I am horribly addicted to this game, and I'm looking forward to playing more of it this Christmas break...
I think I posted my likes and dislikes pretty well above, so in summary I'll just say that the card fighting isn't bad, but sometimes it CAN get frustrating when you're not drawing what you want. Other than that and the meh VAing, the game is pretty good. Oh, and by the way, the loading times are AWESOME. I love playing Gamecube RPGs. ^_^
Screenshots
-Kalas fighting a bat
-One of the many world maps: how you move on the world map is very similar to Legend of Dragoon.
-Kalas in the opening movie
-Xehla using an advanced magic spell
-Kalas comes in to save the day...sorta
-yeah...I don't know either
-Back to sanity
And now to do my homework...