Customer Reviews

Baten Kaitos

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Oh, Baten Kaitos. What a fantastic game you could have been. With a little more care in your design, and a completely different voice cast, you could have been a game of the year. Instead, you're already fading from memory.

GAMEPLAY: Good
Potential buyers should be aware that the gameplay in Baten Kaitos will initially strike them as highly weird. Some aspects of RPG battling will be familiar: battle is turn-based, and your characters line up across a battle area from a group of baddies. At this point, though, things start to go a little strange, as you don't use mana, or technique points, or even equipment. Instead you play "Magnus Cards" that contain your spells, weapons, armor, and healing items. In a given turn you will "play" these cards from your hand, determine damage, and then "draw" new ones from your deck. You get to play cards any time you attack or defend yourself. By linking these cards together in an order determined by their "Spirit Numbers" you can play several at a time and enhance their effects. Playing certain cards in combination will create new cards entirely. Over time, some cards even change: a bamboo shoot becomes a bamboo spear, then a fishing pole. Bananas go from green, to ripe, to black and spotty. These aging events can change a healing item into an offensive one, and back again.

As your characters progress, the battle turn will start to depend more on reflexes, with a timer that limits how long you can wait to choose your first card. The amount of time you have available to choose cards after the first will depend on how long the character takes to attack -- if you don't choose one in time, your turn will end. The character Savyna attacks very quickly, so you're likely to end several turns prematurely in this way if you play with her. Additionally, as you start to get cards with more than one spirit number, the c-stick will come into play as a method for choosing which you want.

This card-based system allows for some astonishingly deep combat, but there is a significant problem: there is no discard feature. Most defensive cards cannot be played on an offensive turn, and unless you are supremely confident you will usually have more defensive cards in your deck than you can hold in your hand. It is therefore not uncommon to encounter a situation where a character has a hand consisting entirely of defensive cards, and no way to get rid of them except to play them one at a time as failed attempts at offense. Perversely, the game seems to sense which character is in this predicament and stop attacking him or her. A multi-card discard capability would have been most welcome, and anyone who's lost a battle because one of his characters had to sit out turn after turn would probably argue that it was essential.

Attacks deal "physical" and "elemental" damage; certain enemies are weak against certain elements, so this adds another layer of strategy. However, damage dealt by opposing elements cancels out. This gets to be a major problem for spellcasters, who primarily deal elemental damage, but who will not be able to continue attack combos in most cases without drawing from opposing elements. An obvious remedy for this difficulty is to adjust the characters' decks based on the situation. This proves to be time-consuming, however, and is made more so by the fact that you cannot save a deck setup. Furthermore, some characters have tendencies to receive useless elements. Kalas, for instance, ends up with an arsenal of high-level Darkness and Chronos based weapons, but his best finishing moves are based on Light and Wind (the opposite of Chronos in Baten Kaitos), and most late enemies are strong or immune to Darkness, limiting his usefulness.

As usual, characters earn experience by engaging in battle, though the characters who don't take part in a particular fight (only 3 can battle) earn *much* less. This sets up a dilemma: shuffle your characters in and out between fights so that everyone earns a moderate level of experience, or focus improvement on one or two? I ended up keeping Kalas in the party almost all the time, and rotating everyone except Savyna through the other two slots.

Almost all the characters have wings, but gameplay virtually ignores this fact. Indeed, in some areas you will be forced to use blocks to bridge very narrow canals of water, or you will have to take a very roundabout route to get past a low ledge or a little gap. It's not clear why the characters don't just fly over these obstacles, but my guess is that it's because the designers spent all their creativity on the battle system and couldn't spare any to devise less pedestrian puzzles for their dungeons. With the exception of some interesting block problems in the Tower of Zosma, the puzzles in Baten Kaitos are universally lame; even the game's "labyrinth" is small and easily navigated.

Ignoring the wings is a particular loss in battles. The idea of flying heroes brings to mind images of furious, kinetic aerial battles that are just as much about positioning and trajectory as they are about your choice of attacks and defenses. None of that here, though; it's just the same "line up and fight" arena that's been around since Final Fantasy I. It's a disappointment, but a survivable one.

The game offers an interesting and strategically deep battle system which is sorely lacking one key feature. The few puzzles you encounter are generally boring, and often make no sense in the context of the game world. In the end, although it's definitely different, I have trouble saying that the card-based system is measurably better than any other RPG battle system, and in fact I'd have to say the real-time battle system of Tales of Symphonia (also by Namco) was superior. Even on its own terms the system here is not as good as it could or should be: aside from the discard problem, magic-users are occasionally hamstrung by the elemental system, and some characters are significantly harder to use without being any more effective in battle. Overall, good but not exceptional.

STORY: Excellent
The story centers around Kalas, who seems strangely uninterested in saving the world for a lead character in an RPG. He's more intent on avenging himself against the people who killed his grandfather and brother. You play a guardian spirit who advises him on his journey, though you've developed a case of amnesia. Kalas seemingly gets dragged into a quest to gather strange cards called End Magnus by a girl named Xelha, but a twist about halfway through the game will simultaneously explain almost everything and also give you quite a jolt. From there on the story is much more straightforward, though it continues to be nicely constructed. Themes of loyalty, duty, and regret are prominent, and for the most part reasonably well-played.

However, there are some glaring weaknesses. Lyude in particular is poorly written; noble protector one moment, sobbing wimp the next. Giacomo's motivations are obscure, and Melodia's lines are often just awful. Some of the other characters are glossed over -- Gibari's personality is mostly unexplained, and Savyna's backstory doesn't quite fit with the timeline for anyone else. A couple of important plot points receive painfully bad explanations, and the love story is pretty weak, too. These weaknesses are often exacerbated by the bad voice acting.

Overall, though, the story is entertaining and progresses believably. Game areas serve the plot, rather than vice-versa, so you never feel like the developers were suffering through story to string together dungeons.

AUDIO: Poor
Baten Kaitos has the worst voice acting and dialogue recording quality of any piece of media I have ever encountered in my life, and this includes the radio dramas I recorded on tape with my brother when I was ten. I cannot imagine how anyone at Namco approved this terrible, terrible audio track. The actors themselves often seem incapable of emoting through any means except growling and howling; in this regard Kalas is particularly bad. Almost every line is overplayed. Only Gibari is passable. Of course, even if the voice acting had been fantastic, the recording quality would have ruined it. There's a tinny resonant noise in every line of dialogue, as if each was recorded by having the voice actors shout into a microphone at the bottom of a coffee can. The only good thing about the dialogue is that everything the characters say is also printed on screen, so you can turn it off and lose nothing. The character voices will still be inflicted upon you in battle, however. The sound effects are forgettable, except for the "finishing move" prelude, which has a high-end whine that grates on my ears.

The music is fair overall, and very good in some cases ("Imperial Dynamics" has a great violin flair at the beginning, and "Temple of Celestial Flowers" is just all-around good). A few pieces, however, seem to be recycled... "Mystery Crystal" sounds very similar to the music that plays in Exire and Heimdall in Tales of Symphonia, for instance. However, the music does not make up for the wretched voices, in my opinion.

VISUALS: Excellent
The game has a full 3-D intro that looks astounding, but don't get your hopes up. Nothing in the rest of the game (save for the Magnus shopkeepers) looks quite like that. Nonetheless, the character renders (which you'll only see full-sized in battle scenes) are quite good, though one or two are too cluttered. The backgrounds are layered and feature a fair amount of animation, all very well drawn. However, the scale of these environments occasionally dwarfs the onscreen character, making it difficult to track motion. The variety and bizarre beauty of these environments tends to compensate, however. Some of the special attacks look fantastic, though a few are duds.

The game's repertoire of enemy creatures is actually fairly limited, falling firmly into the design category of using 10-15 models and painting them different colors so you'll think you're fighting something new. Additionally, some of these monsters move very oddly. However, the artists seem to have produced several interesting and original designs for bosses and larger monsters, including some fantastic Lovecraftian grotesquerie (the first fight against Geldoblame, for instance).

The game's graphical weak point is the portraits that accompany speech boxes on screen. Flat, cartoonish, and occasionally outright ugly, they substantially detract from the look of the game. It would have been better to replace these with 3-D renders of the heads.

REPLAY VALUE: Average
The story doesn't really have a whole lot of variability, so the only thing to look forward to in the replay is finding new Magnus cards and fine-tuning your skills with the game's battle system. While a number of the combination Magnus are interesting to create, very few of them really do anything fantastic. And because information about which Magnus you've collected cannot be transferred from one game to another, you're not likely to know whether you've truly encountered everything unless you write that information down by hand.

OVERALL: Enjoyable (74%)
Despite its numerous issues, Baten Kaitos really is pretty fun to play. The card-based system is weird at first, but once you're used to it the depth of strategy will definitely appeal to you. The battle system could have used some work, and the elemental system is a little rough. And, as mentioned, the voice acting is terrible. However, the story is good and the visuals are fantastic in many places. If you enjoy RPGs you'll find this game a fun way to pass a day or three, and if you really like card-based gameplay then you should definitely give it a try.

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.

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.

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.

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.

First, let's get the bashing out of the way.

Voice Acting: Horrendous. I found maybe 4 characters (Mizuti, Gibari, Savyna, and the NPC Queen of Anuenue) who had interesting/worth-listening-to voices, and the rest were fairly painful, particularly the 2 main characters with the most dialogue.

Magnus System: Confusing and frustrating. Without warning, healing items can rot and can damage you, weapons may become useless, and you have a limited time in which to play a hand you're not even sure of half the time. If you have a limited memory or attention span, this game's system is not for you.

Lack of FMVs: After as stunning an intro as this game had, this is nothing short of an atrocity.

That said, I'm enjoying this game immensely regardless. I can't comment on the story, as I haven't yet finished it, but so far the standard "Let's stop the evil god from awakening" cliché is being carried off nicely, and the "Guardian Spirit" aspect of your persona makes for a neat sense of involvement. Despite its flaws, the card system is a fresh and different approach to combat, and the graphics are nothing short of beautiful, lack of FMVs notwithstanding. Despite their voices, the characters are largely likable, if a little wooden. I'm hoping the further I go into the game, the deeper they'll get; it's already happening at my current point in the game with one or two.

I also greatly enjoy the music, which creates a problem with the voice actors. You can't just mute it or you miss out on some great melodies. So turn it down for the in-game scenes and turn it back up when they're over.

All in all, if you have a decent memory (and your TV has a volume control), there isn't much wrong with this game. Everyone with a GameCube should at least give it a try.

(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!

Here goes another attempt at reviewing an old game that isn't even on the market anymore. That's what I hate about consoles... the games are so disposable, and even the true classics are forgotten, while a lot of the great classic PC and arcade games are still being sold and talked about today.

Anyway.. Baten Kaitos..

My experience with video game RPGs goes back to the NES game called Dragon Warrior. I remember that game fondly as it was the most time I'd ever spent on a game to that point, and the emphasis on exploring and customizing your character was something that really appealed to me. I've played a hell of a lot of them since then, including Chrono Cross, which was made by the same company that made this game. Chrono Cross is a great RPG and it was the sequel to my all time favorite RPG, Chrono Trigger for the SNES. So, with that in mind, I really wanted to like this one.

The thing that separates this game from the others is the lack of customization options and the really odd battle system. I will be complaining about the battle system toward the end, so stay tuned.

What's good about this game? A lot. The story is very well told, the characters are interesting (except for Lyude, who is really just annoying), and there is a lot of random humor sprinkled throughout. Humor is very important in a game like this, where you spend close to 1/3 of the game reading text and getting the story. It's nice to have a laugh once in a while what with all the cheesy sentimentality that the characters in RPGs are so fond of spewing.

There is definitely a LOT of text to scroll through in this game. I swear at one point I encountered about 15 solid minutes of cut scenes with characters just talking and talking and talking. Most of the time, I didn't mind it, because the story is interesting enough to keep you going. However, the placement in game of some of these cut scenes is a little bit on the ridiculous side, because there are sometimes very very long cut scenes right before a boss battle, which means if you lose the battle, you're going to have to sit through the cut scene again before you can retry the boss. To make it even more annoying, there are times when you have to sit through another really long cut scene (or series of cut scenes, as this game is fond of doing) before you can finally save.

All of this would be minor if not for the way the battle system works. I'm sure that if you're reading this, you know something about it. It's card based. Each member of your party can hold a certain number of cards that determine how they attack and defend in a battle. Also, for each turn in a battle, you can only use a few randomly selected cards at a time. This system is really fun and interesting in the beginning stages of the game, but very quickly starts to show its limitations as the enemies get tougher. In your attack rounds, you will very often find that you have only defensive cards available in your hand, which means you can either do nothing or discard. Discarding means you can throw off some of your active cards (which are usually healing items when you're in this position), or discard ONE of your inactive cards. As soon as you use an inactive card, your turn ends. I can't count the number of times that I've ended up with a handful of the exact wrong type of card at any given time. When this happens, it basically means you lose a turn. Alternatively, when you're being attacked, you will often find yourself with a hand full of offensive cards. Many of the melee weapons can be used defensively as well, but if you use them, you're likely to find yourself without any cards to attack with in the next round. I can tell you right now, when either of these starts happening in the middle of a tough fight, it is NOT FUN!

The card system is a great idea, but is very very flawed at its heart. It's a shame, too, because I really did enjoy playing through this game for the most part. There was one time in particular when I was in a boss battle, and was getting seriously screwed with the card shuffle. It took me 5 hours to get past it. I swear to God. Then, when I finally did get past it, I had to fight the exact same battle AGAIN because of the way the story goes. I almost threw the controller through my TV screen. Luckily, I got a better deal in the second battle, and after a 30 minute fight and another 10 minutes of cut scenes, I could finally save.

I hope I'm making myself clear here. I like the game, and it's got a great story that will ease the pain of spending hours and hours of your life fighting the same enemy, but this is for the hardcore only. Most normal people would have turned the game off halfway through and never thought of it again. I think maybe I should have done that too, but I'm I'm not ashamed of myself that I didn't.

Baten Kaitos: 3 1/2 stars. It reaches for the heavens, but it occasionally just brings back astronaut poop.

Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is an epic game that stretches over 60 hours of role playing gameplay. Besides having an original universe, story, and characters it is most well known for the unique gameplay with the very innovative and fun Real-Time Card-Based battle system. Also the graphics and soundtrack on this game is among the best found on the Gamecube or any platform really.

The kind of things that make the real-time card based battle system really fun are:

1. Each card has one or more number and you can select the cards using the numbers to create pairs, strings, etc to create combo attacks that do extra damage

2. Each card can evolve and change over time using the real-time clock so that something like a meat card which is a health item will become rotten meat card over time and then can be used as an offensive card that causes poisoning

3. Different cards when combined logically can yield new cards. A simple example is using a wood card followed by fire card will yield burnt wood card. Plenty of combinations to discover.

4. You the player are a spirit that resides in the main character. Throughout the game you are prompted with choices. The more your choice is in sync with the game character the more likely you will be to get defensive cards during the defence and also you will be more likely to get cards during your attack to continue building your combo.

5. Cards can have attributes like water or fire which can cause additional damage (especially if used against enemies weak to certain element). However if you use a water and fire card in the same attack then you will cancel out the elemental effect/damage.

6. Even though there are large variety of cards they add to variety instead of becoming cumbersome deck management like other card based games. This one is more about the combos then it is about the card statistics and this keeps the game more action oriented.

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is the first installment of a new series developed by Namco.

The game begins with Kalas, a sapphire-haired young man who ends up in Cebalrai, a rural village in the nation of Sadal Suud. He finds that he was knocked unconscious by Rock Cats in the Moonguile Forest, and was rescued. While exploring the small village, he comes across a young woman named Xelha, who is interested in the ruins of Moonguile Forest. Kalas, being slightly nosey, decides to check out these ruins for himself, thus beginning the epic saga known as Baten Kaitos.

As the game progresses, Kalas and Xelha will form a party, intent on defeating the emperor of Alfard, Geldoblame, who wishes to summon an evil god named Malpercio via the End Magnus, strange cards that possess godly powers. On their quest, Kalas and Xelha meet up with Gibari, a fisherman of Diadem; Lyude, an ex-soldier of the empire of Alfard; Savyna, a huntress of unknown origins living in Anuenue; and Mizuti, an enigmatic sorcerer with no known destination.

Baten Kaitos, although visually stunning, is faulted in several ways. The voice acting of the game is lacking, so the characters seem dull and boring. In some of the more crucial, plot-twisting areas of the story, the characters may sound uninterested or tired instead of excited, scared, or angry. During one of the more angst-y, memorable scenes of the game, Lyude's voice sounds crackled and distorted, although he's supposed to sound angry and sad. The voice actors also read their scripts slowly, as the text window will appear in the game, although it seems like hours before the VA finally finishes reading a few sentences.

Another lacking area of the game is the soundtrack. Although the available tracks are beautiful, breezy tunes, some are repeated multiple times thorough the game and lack variety. You may hear the same track in multiple areas of the game.

The battle system is an innovative system and is a breath of fresh air for many RPG fans. Baten Kaitos employs the infamous "card system" in which players will use cards - known as Magnus in the game - to attack, defend, and heal. Don't be confused with Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon TCG - this card system is something totally new and completely different, and a lot better to use. Although the new system is fun to use, it is also difficult to master. The game offers no immediate tutorial, save an NPC wandering in Moonguile Forest at the beginning of the game. Personally, I spent half an hour trying to figure out the difference between a Battle Magnus and a Healing Magnus and often spent more time accidentally healing my foe instead of hurting it. The lack of information may prove confusing to some gamers. But once you understand the Magnus system, it can be one of the best parts of the game.

The overall storyline of Baten Kaitos is emotionally charged and filled with suspense. The game offers one of the biggest plot twists of RPG history, causing the player to want to move forth in the game. But even though the storyline is exciting and suspenseful, it can also be confusing, and at times longwinded while characters explain different things, such as history or how something works in the game. But at times, the story is so deep that the player will feel immersed in the game. In some aspects, this is literal. The player becomes one of the main characters: Kalas' Guardian Spirit, a being who offers adivce and helps with moral choices. Throughout the game, Kalas will turn to the screen and ask for help from you, the Guardian Spirit. You will then be faced with choices that will affect both the game (not the ending, but smaller aspects of the game) and Kalas' performance in battle. The better you do as a Spirit, the more Spirit Points Kalas will gain. The amount of Spirit Points Kalas has will affect how many Spirit Cards he is offered in battle. Spirit Cards are high-level, powerful Battle Magnus that will help greatly in battle. Basically, the more Kalas trusts his Spirit, the more Spirit Cards you are offered in battle.

Overall, Baten Kaitos can be a wonderful game or a horrible game, depending on what type of gamer you are. Seasoned RPG fans may find it lacking, but will enjoy its storyline and gameplay. Newer RPG fans may not enjoy it as much, finding it confusing at times. Still, Baten Kaitos is a must-have for RPG gamers looking for a fresh new challenge.