Summary
Doesn't cast much light upon the darkened Earth...
The Good
Among the consoles of its generation, Playstation 2 is an undisputed leader when it comes to RPGs. In fact, nearly all Japanese RPGs of that time period were developed for this console. Xbox and GameCube fell miserably behind. GameCube was for a long time stuck with a virtually non-existent library of exclusive Japanese RPGs (
Tales of Symphonia was also released for PS2 as Japanese-only version), if we ignore action semi-RPG titles such as
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. "Baten Kaitos" is one of the few RPGs that were developed exclusively for this console.
While the game's story line generally suffers from lack of originality, it has some redeeming qualities. Early in the game the story gets an unexpected turn into detective category - a genre that is rarely present in RPGs. There is a cool "whoddunit" feeling that accompanies the story until it delivers one of its famous plot twists. Basically, you know that one of your party members is a traitor, but you don't know who it is. This holds on for a considerably long time, until the story reveals the traitor's identity and thrusts you into a totally different direction.
Plot twist is the main device the developers of "Baten Kaitos" use to capture the player's interest. In the middle of the game there comes a really great one. Nobody saw it coming. It took the story into a totally different direction. And it was not the only one; a couple of others (although less spectacular ones) followed. Even after the final battle there is still place for yet another unexpected turn. In fact, the enigmatic introductory sequence to the game, its starting point, becomes entirely clear only at the very end.
The game is set in a world that consists of floating islands, something like in
Skies of Arcadia. But unlike "Skies of Arcadia", which never gives any explanation as to why the world has become like this, and uses its unusual structure as a mere gimmick, "Baten Kaitos" actually focuses the storyline on the history of the world. The connection between old legends and the current story becomes entirely evident only near the end. And I must say that the legend of the whale and the lost ocean was quite beautiful. The game also has a very satisfying ending, which is in a way unlike anything we have seen before - even though technically it doesn't go much beyond the classical "save the world" ending.
There is also a cool twist in the game. Even though you control the party of good guys during exploration and battles, you actually don't play any of those characters. You play a Guardian Spirit with an amnesia (seriously), who got mysterious attached to a young man named Kalas, but you
don't play as Kalas himself. This might seem like a mere gimmick, but trust me - it is not. It has a vital importance to the game's plot, and it creates quite an unusual viewpoint on the story, allowing you to see all the characters from your own perspective, without identifying yourself with any of them. I really liked this feature. Sometimes you have to take decisions during the game (they don't influence the story, but are still a nice addition), and the characters keep talking to you, even though you aren't present anywhere on the screen. It was really cool to hear from Kalas: "Thanks, Oleg! I wouldn't have made it without your help"...
The graphics of "Baten Kaitos" are beautiful in a fine, artistic way. It is clear that a lot of effort was put into designing those backgrounds. Probably the best thing about them is the fact they combine animation with still pre-rendered images. There is rarely a background picture in the game that is not vividly and finely animated. Of course, the animation is not real-time and follows a certain pattern, but it still brings those backgrounds to life. The backgrounds also correspond with 3D characters much better than one could expect. In one locations you'll walk through deep snow, and all the traces are graphically shown, even though the backgrounds are still pre-rendered. There is something vulnerably beautiful in those simple pre-rendered images. This graphical style dominates the whole game, also the cut scenes. There is unfortunately only one CG video sequence in the game, the intro, but this intro is magnificent.
A lot of creativity also went into designing the game's locations. First of all, there are a lot of locations in the game - you travel through seven islands-worlds, each with its own world map, complete with towns, wilderness areas, and dungeons. Each world has a distinct style of its own, its own culture. Those cultures go beyond the clichés used in so many RPGs, most of which being simply locations copied from the real world. Of course, "Baten Kaitos" is primarily a medieval world, but it certainly doesn't look like a usual medieval European country. Nor does it resemble any other culture in our world, but rather borrows different elements from them and creates something of its own.
Some of the locations are downright grotesque. For example, on the island Mira you'll visit two towns, one of which is built entirely out of candy (!), while the other is populated by weird creatures and looks as if it were drawn by a child. The game certainly has sense of humor, which is revealed in such bizarre locations as those mentioned above, or the hilarious garden, also on Mira. In this garden there is a top-down maze that is drawn exactly like in very old arcade games, and is even accompanied by loud "beeping" tunes. It was a great location, a very refreshing touch of parody. Other than that, some of the game's situations and dialogues can also get funny. For example, in the candy town one of the characters has to eat a wall in order to escape from a prison.
The gameplay system of "Baten Kaitos" is its most original asset and one of the chief reasons for which most players will be interested in this game. Unlike any other traditional Japanese RPG, "Baten Kaitos" is a card game. I have played a lot of Japanese RPGs, but none of them uses such a system. The closest thing I know are the card systems of
Dragon Ball, but those games have a very restricted RPG-like gameplay and cannot be quite considered full-fledged RPGs. From what I heard, same applies to the well-known
Yu-Gi-Oh games. Unlike all those, "Baten Kaitos" plays and feels like a real traditional Japanese RPG with fully developed exploration and story.
The card system is actually not that difficult to figure out. Basically, all the stuff you collect in other RPGs - healing items, weapons, armor, magical spells, etc. - appear here in form of cards. You "equip" those cards, i.e. build up a deck for each one of the party members, pretty much the same way you would equip a weapon or a spell. The only difference is that you are not restricted at all as to what to equip, and in what quantities. You can have a deck consisting entirely of weapons, or of healing items, etc. Some cards can be equipped by anyone, while others are character-specific.
What happens in battles is the following: at the beginning of the battle, you are dealt several of the cards you have previously equipped on your active deck. During your turn, you draw attacking cards (weapons or healing items) that are visible on your hand. At first you are able to use only small combinations of three or four cards; later in the game, you can pull off a combination of nine. If you choose to draw a wrong card (for example, an armor during an attack turn), you lose your turn. When the enemy attacks, you don't just stand still, but actively participate in a defensive turn of your own, countering the enemy's combos with your armor. This is one of the coolest aspects of the battles - you can react directly to the enemies' attacks. What's more, the battles are not entirely turn-based. You have a time limit for everything - starting your turn, during a combo, defending, etc. The more cards you can use, the less time you have between them. You'll have to be really quick if you don't want to destroy a good combo or to heal an enemy. Also, cards of opposite elements (like fire and water) negate each other's effects when used in the same combo, whether attacking or defending, so you have also to think about that, otherwise you might end inflicting 10 damage with a 120 attack light-based and 110 attack dark-based swords used during the same attack.
The battle system of "Baten Kaitos" is interesting and can get quite addictive, especially because there are so many cards to collect. There is an enormous amount of weapons, armor, and various healing items in the game. A nice touch is the ability to "trap" into cards simple things like water, flowers, apples, pebble, etc. Some of those things are totally useless, while others can get you some good battle cards if given to a proper person, or serve as key items to advance the story. Various items on the cards can also change with time. For example, strawberry is a healing item. But carry it for some hours in your inventory and it will rot, just like a real strawberry. Same happens to meat and to pretty much anything, except things that can hold for a long time, like for instance salted fish. This is an example of attention to detail that I like so much in games. You carry an egg that increases defense, and after a long time discover an "ugly duckling" in your inventory, which can be used while attacking, but nothing happens...
The Bad
Despite all its fine qualities, "Baten Kaitos" has very serious flaws, some of which are big enough to ruin the whole experience.
The game's most significant problem is its traditional appearance. Everything develops strictly according to the unwritten rules of Japanese RPG-making. The amount of clichés used in the game is enough to drive away even the most ardent fan of the genre.
The story line relies on concepts that were used, cloned, and copied too many times. The impression the player gets from the game's story is likely to be a strong feeling of déja-vu. Pretty much since the beginning of the game, the direction becomes clear: a bunch of young nobodies is out to save the world from an evil empire that intends to revive a sealed evil god... is there
anything, but anything at all, that is more cliché than
that?! What's more, the party of good guys includes an unfriendly sword-wielding hero, a sweet, nice love interest, a big berserker type, and a sexy cool enemy officer who turned good; in short, all this makes an impression of a game that doesn't even try to be original. And it stays so in the end as well, following the grand scheme just the way one would expect.
Yes, it has the famous plot twist, but unfortunately, it becomes "undone" shortly after it is introduced. In other words, if for some reason you skip the part with that plot twist and then continue playing the game without knowing about it, you won't even notice that you've missed something. This is really disappointing, because the plot twist had the potential to fully make up for the lack of quality in the story line. The other plot twists are not exciting enough to bring this story onto a higher level.
The story unfolds much too slowly in the beginning. They really should have thrown in more suspense and mystery into the introductory part of the story. It follows old, stereotypical models too much.
The character cast is one of the most disappointing aspects of the game. The old-fashioned story could have been saved by a better cast. Although the game attempts to develop the characters, they are still much too dependent on old trusty concepts that have been populating the genre of Japanese RPG nearly since its birth. Characters like Lyude or Gibari are more like recurrent images than real personalities. The two main heroes, Kalas and Xelha, are not much better. You also won't find anyone interesting among the game's supporting cast and villains. The game's dialogue feels forced most of the time, with few exceptions.
The game is also too old-fashioned in its layout. You visit towns, talk to important people to advance the story, descend into dungeons, move on to the next locations, collect party members - everything is completely classical. Japanese RPG is probably the most conservative genre anyway, but "Baten Kaitos" really goes over the top in its strict adherence to traditions.
Although the graphics are beautiful, they are decidedly outdated technically. What's more, they feel a lot like old SNES graphics - colorful, but blatantly two-dimensional. The picture often scrolls horizontally or vertically, slowly revealing a location, just the same way it would in an old 16-bit RPG. There is absolutely no camera work in the game, which is a shame. Today, when most games try to resemble movies and develop movie-like qualities, "Baten Kaitos" almost feels like a mere nostalgic reminiscence devoid of true value. The decision to abandon camera completely in favor of still backgrounds was a big mistake. Cut scenes suffer most from this, they sorely lack a cinematic approach, close-ups on characters, zooming in and out, in short - camera work. Also, it is a real shame there is only one (!) video sequence in the whole game (the intro).
Then there is the voice acting. I haven't played the Japanese version of "Baten Kaitos", but the English voice acting is simply not acceptable. The lines are read clearly and the voices sound nice, but the words are
read, not acted. Most of the time they are just
too clear, devoid of emotions and sterile.
The music is generally good, there are some nice orchestral pieces, but also some rock songs which are totally out of place. Often the music that is playing is beautiful, but doesn't fit the location at all.
As interesting as the gameplay system seems in the beginning, it is fundamentally flawed. Since every battle takes the shape of a card game, the battles become unnecessarily long. It simply takes too much time to execute an attack, and then to parry the opponent's move with defensive cards. This can get tedious very quickly. What's more, the challenge in the game doesn't depend much on your skill. You can build the most balanced deck for a character, but if the game deals you the wrong cards, there is nothing you can do. You can prepare the strongest line-up of light-based swords and get armor pieces during your offensive turn. The turn will be wasted without any real reason. That's why it's impossible to say whether the game is difficult or not. Sometimes you'll get damaged for several turns in simple regular battles; another time you'll breeze past a boss battle. The whole card system feels like a gimmick and doesn't have much substance; it makes the already slow-paced turn-based system even slower and more cumbersome.
There are also the usual problems of the genre that were not addressed in this game. It is linear, and its world is narrow and has an artificial structure, severely hindering exploration. The two-dimensional graphics only make the world look even smaller and more limited.
Finally, there is an irritating design flaw in the game. I usually don't pay attention to such things, but here it was obvious. All the people in the world of "Baten Kaitos" have wings. But they don't fly. One could argue their wings serve just as a decoration, but in fact there is
one cut scene, early in the game, that shows the characters flying. Other than that, nobody will fly at all in the game. This becomes particularly ridiculous because in many cases you'll have to climb over obstacles and solve puzzles to remove them, unable to simply fly over! A minor, but annoying omission.
The Bottom Line
+ Interesting card-based system
+ One great plot twist
+ Good location variety
- Too many clichés in the story line
- The concept of card-based battles is flawed
- Characters are for the most part bland and annoying
- Outdated graphical style
It is not easy to sum up "Baten Kaitos" in a few words. It can be appealing and disappointing at the same time, and within the same aspect. The storyline is predictable, yet has some good twists; the setting seems at times unique and original, at times old-fashioned; the gameplay system offers a lot of innovation with its card-based battles, yet largely follows the same old stereotype; the graphics can seem beautiful or plainly outdated at the same time. Unfortunately, not everyone will agree to forgive the painful lack of originality in story line and character cast, the dubious combat system, and the outdated graphical engine in order to enjoy the few plot twists and the fresh gameplay ideas of "Baten Kaitos". As it stands, "Baten Kaitos" is an interesting attempt, but not a game that will enter the hall of fame of Japanese RPGs.
