Review: Baten Kaitos (NGC)
As the Gamecube shuffles inexorably towards retirement, it dawned on Gamestyle that there has been a distinct lack of RPG titles on the system. Aside from Skies of Arcadia: Legends and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, there was precious little else to challenge the PS2's position as king of the "proper" RPG. How, then, did Gamestyle miss Namco's offering, Baten Kaitos?
On booting up Baten Kaitos, it becomes immediately apparent that this is a title that has had a great deal of attention lavished upon it; the intro movie alone is absolutely beautiful. In game, both the visuals and music are first class, with only the weak American voice cast disappointing. Indeed, Baten Kaitos is so visually sumptuous it's arguably the best looking title available on the Gamecube. Everything is sharp and incredibly colourful. The backgrounds are pre-rendered, packed with incidental animation and give a real feeling of personality to each of the game's various locales. The characters themselves are well animated and extremely detailed. In particular, Gamestyle was impressed with the water effects and little details such as spiders making cobwebs in a dusty library. The trippy 'Trail of Souls' and spectacular 'Land of Illusions' are perhaps the ultimate visual highlights.
Gamestyle also fell in love with the beautiful score. There are two main themes played during exploration and combat which make for enjoyable, if slightly repetitive, listening. On top of this, the game features a whole host of incidental pieces some of which are stunning. Namco have wisely included a menu option that allows the player to listen to any piece of music already played in the game.
Move past the visuals and sounds and Baten Kaitos starts to tread a more well worn Japanese RPG path. The main protagonist, Kalas, is a wise-cracking anti-hero out for revenge who recruits the usual selection of waifs and strays into his travelling band, and ultimately becomes embroiled in a battle against an Evil Empire seeking to release the long sealed away power of an ancient god. The story plays out across five islands floating the sky, with humankind having evolved the use of wings. Sadly, you can't freely fly from island to island; instead, you're constrained to using a ship to fly from place to place as the story dictates until you've cleared enough of the game to unlock your own transport and travel at will.
The story pushes the player on briskly, and whilst you'll always know where you have to go and what to do next, the plot is sufficiently engaging and filled with enough twists to keep you hooked through the approximately 50 hours of gameplay. The characters, whilst initially flat and stereotypical, are served well by the plot and grow in stature, so you will find yourself attached to your band of heroes by the time events have played out.
Most RPGs live or die on two things: having a quality plot and a decent combat system. As Gamestyle has highlighted, the plot and characters in Baten are good enough but don't exactly break any new ground; but Namco have rung the changes with the combat system. Instead of kitting your characters out with weapons, armour and spells like normal, you kit them out with what the game calls 'Magnus'. These are cards containing the essence of all the weapons and items in the game, with each character carrying a deck into battle.
Prior to battle, you select which Magnus you want in your deck, aided by a full breakdown on the effects of each one. Once you find yourself in a fight, you are dealt a random hand of Magnus, selecting either the appropriate Magnus to attack or defend, depending on what's going on. Each Magnus has one or more 'spirit numbers' and chaining these numbers together either in pairs or runs will increase the damage done when attacking, or reduce it if defending. Playing certain combos of Magnus can also unlock special attacks and items. Some items trapped in Magnus can change with the passing of time - fruit can go mouldy, seeds will grow and the effects of the card will change.
It's an ingenious idea and all praise to Namco for setting out to do something different. However, this is real marmite gaming - you'll either love or hate this card-based system as it is such a leap from the usual "equip strongest weapon/spell and attack" school of RPG gaming. The scope for experimentation is huge and it will take a skilled player indeed to obtain all 1022 Magnus available. But, it can also be a hugely frustrating system at times. Ninja-like reflexes are often required to play a defensive Magnus before the enemy attacks and it's not uncommon to end up with a hand full of defensive cards and thus find yourself unable to attack (or vice-versa) for a turn or more. Both enemies and Magus are elemental and it can also be a chore adjusting your deck to ensure you are armed with the opposite element to your foe. Money can only be earned by taking photos of the enemy to sell in shops, but of course your camera is in a Magnus so, frustratingly, you might earn nothing at all if you don't get dealt the right Magnus.
When all is said and done, Baten Kaitos does have the substance to back up its style. With a substantial story and numerous side quests to keep the player in Baten's beautiful world for some time, this is a recommended purchase for all Gamecube owners starved of decent RPG titles, provided you can live with the title's idiosyncrasies of course.
Rating: 8 / 10
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