After two years of waiting, the Baten Kaitos universe is ready to expand in an all new adventure that tells the story of everything that started it all. Developed by an all star group composed of two great RPG developers: Monolith Soft and Tri-Crescendo, Baten Kaitos Origins is one of GameCube’s finest titles, and the system’s final “hurrah” before passing the torch entirely to Nintendo’s revolutionary Wii system. But does Baten Kaitos Origins have what it takes to win the hearts of anxious gamers who’re already part of next-gen?

Facts and Features:

Players explore a massive world filled with memorable characters and bizarre creatures. From the high-tech high-rises of the empire to a rustic farming hamlet, the level and character design in Baten Kaitos Origins is wildly innovative.

Players immerse themselves in the Baten Kaitos universe. With a twisting, turning storyline, dozens of side quests and thousands of lines of voice-acted dialogue, they will easily spend 60+ hours in this world.

Players leap into the fray with the real-time combat system. With hundreds of weapons, armor pieces and items at their disposal, even fights against the smallest monsters will be a fun and frantic experience.

True Wings of the Heart
First of all, let’s get something out of the way. No, this is not a “Card-Based” RPG. Yes, this is a Role Playing Game with a battle system based on cards. No, it does not mean this is a Yu-Gi-Oh clone. Yes, the battle system is dynamic and pretty much rocks. And no, it’s not that hard to learn –- but more on that later.

Baten Kaitos Origins is a genuine labor of love that can easily compete with big guys like the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and even the Tales series. The game is packed with huge production values: from the game’s introduction video (with hand painted designs that set the mood for the story), to the game’s fantastic musical score. As the name suggests, “Origins” takes place 20 years prior to the events of the original Baten Kaitos. It tells the story of Sagi, a “spiriter” on his first day as part of the Alfard Empire’s “Dark Service”. From the start, the gamer is introduced into the world of Baten Kaitos in a very original way. You -- the gamer -- are Sagi’s advisor, a “Spirit Guardian” if you will. While Sagi will act according to what he feels is right, he will often ask you for advice. Give him the right advice, and your relationship with Sagi will grow stronger. Give him the wrong advice, and well, you may not be so lucky.

The storyline in Baten Kaitos Origins is its greatest strength. It’s not predictable (somewhat of a staple of the franchise), and it’s always surprising you with the facts and information you already know (or at least think you do). For instance, at the start of the game, we’re already wondering why Sagi -- a kindhearted young man -- would work for an organization that’s clearly against his own values. Money? Ambition? Revenge? Moments later, Sagi is joined by Guillo, who is a “Paramachina” (mechanized robots that are constructed exclusively to assist army members), the only difference is that Guillo actually talks. Why does it talk? Aren’t Paramachina robots? The story is full of little mysteries like these, and will ultimately be incentive enough for you to keep playing and unraveling the bigger mysteries ahead.

Character development is also top-notch in Baten Kaitos Origins. Because the main party consists of three members, and continues to do so throughout the game, we get a chance to really know these characters, and really flesh out each of the individual storylines. Even though we missed having more characters to choose from, having a limited party is hardly a negative when you consider how trained they are by the end, and how well the story works.

For those of you who didn’t play the first game (why, oh why didn’t you!), Baten Kaitos Origins has a very innovative gameplay design. Based on standard RPG design, it builds upon that foundation but adds a coat of paint in the form of magnus cards, which is a key item in the Baten Kaitos universe. With magnus cards, you can bind the essence of everything in the world. Oh, we really do mean everything: Plants, oil, clouds, food, songs, seeds, chronic fatigue, and even a “poor excuse for a joke”. We promise you we’re not making this stuff up.

After harnessing the essence of, well, anything -- you utilize it by taking the essence to each person who needs it, at which you will probably get an item in return. Gathering magnus cards is one thing, but completing the entire magnus collection is another. There are almost 1000 cards to collect, and some only appear once in the entire game, so the task itself is quite challenging. Fans of the original should also remember the wide array of sidequests that had to be completed in order to finish the game, which could sometimes get confusing when you got more than one task at the same time. In Baten Kaitos Origins, the game registers each of the sidequests you have to complete, so you simply need to look at the list, and see which tasks you still have pending.


Baten Kaitos Origins has a superb script...

Overall, Baten Kaitos Origins is a huge game that will take experienced gamers up to 70+ hours to complete, and that’s without actually finishing up all the sidequests (watch for the awesome Sedna Village sidequest), and completing the magnus collection. Logically, replaying this beast of a game might not be such a good idea (if you have something called a "life"), but the first playthrough is so good that you shouldn’t worry about additional playthroughs.