Score
Gameplay:	10
Graphics:	9
Sound:	7
FunFactor:	9
PlasmaFactor:	8
Overall:	8.6

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean Review
June 10, 2007 by Whitney Booker

Baten Kaitos is a video game that takes the traditional RPG formula and puts a spin on it by combining it with a card battle system. This game makes this seemingly simple spin effective in being both innovative and fun, a fun and refreshing spin on a tried and true formula.

Deal Out Some Damage

 

Baten Kaitos uses the traditional turn-based battle system that is true to RPGs, but to fight, heal, or inflict status ailments, you must use cards. Taking another step apart from traditional RPGs, Baten Kaitos gives you the freedom to battle in real time. This makes fighting much more fast-paced and urgent, though an in-battle pause button would have been much appreciated. The cards have attack and defense attributes, and some will do nothing at all to the enemy…by itself. In addition to the attack and defense aspect, the cards also have a number in the corner of the card, from one to nine. These numbers you use to deal more damage to the enemy by creating pairs or card matches for a decent attack point increase. The real way to deal out the extra damage is to choose cards with values in ascending or descending sequential order. The same applies in healing your characters, matching cards or cards in sequential order award more healing points.

As in other RPGs, you use the elements to your advantage. There are six elements in the game which each have a cancelling opposite. As is traditional, light is opposed to dark and fire is opposed to ice/water, but wind and chronos are also opposites. It’s a really good idea to have a healthy share of physical weapon and defense cards, you never know what elemental surprises may pop up. Some areas will have enemies all of a specific element, only to have the boss have the opposite element, leaving your card inventory ill-prepared for battling the big boss. In cases like these, you have to count on matching your cards, or trying to make three to nine card straights to gain the upper hand.

Among the attack and defense cards are also voice cards, item cards, and camera cards. The item cards include useful cards that can be used to heal characters, cause status changes, prevent status changes, or seemingly do nothing. The healing cards are usually easy to identify because they tend to be some type of food…normally. I wasn’t aware that people could eat bamboo shoots, but it’s a healing item in the game, so it must be edible. One thing to be wary of with the healing cards is that any of your cards can change over time, depending on what it is. So food cards become rotten food or mold and can cause damage or poison you instead of healing. Most of the food cards have some type of preventative attribute (if it’s not rotten), and are also used to cure status ailments. Non-food item cards tend to do nothing in battle when you use it, other than being part of a match or straight. But there’s a catch. They do do something when you combine them with other cards. Two useless cards can be used in a combo to create a new, useful item card….or one more seeming-useless card.

Voice cards are another non-attack/defense card that can be used to increase damage during battle. Basically, the character taunts the enemy with some lame trash-talking. Voice cards have different levels. The taunts don’t get better as you get higher.

The camera is the last non-attack/defense card that can be used during battle. It does what all other cameras do, take pictures. But they also keep bread on the table and cards in your deck. You can pick up cards as rewards after battles, but you’re limited to one card, and you get no money. If you don’t want to starve, you’ve gotta take pictures. And not of yourself. People don’t buy those, I’ve tried, they sell cheap. Take pictures of enemies and monsters to sell at stores, this is the only way to make money.

Outside of battle you have cards that can only be used in camp (to heal characters, cure status ailments, increase stats, etc.). You also have blank quest Magnus to absorb the essence of things and carry them in your cards. These are important in side quests, which, by the way, are rather involved. There are some mandatory short quests, but the optional side quests take a lot to complete.

Ace Graphics

 

The graphics of Baten Kaitos are detailed and pretty impressive. The designs for the scenery and environments are near-flawless and beautiful. The environment animation is pretty good, but it’s hard to tell how good as almost all of the game is in isometric view. The only time you get closer looks at things are when you’re in battle, or in a shop. Like the environments, the characters are really well designed (for the most part). The personalities suit the character designs, and the main character, Kalas, is a good design overall. Most of the characters I would say the same about. But Xelha, the female lead…well, maybe if you like puffy collars and pants, she’s okay as well.

The characters are very well designed, and the execution of the modeling and animation of them seem to be very good. I say seem because, like the environments, the characters are always seem from a decent distance in isometric view. The secondary character shopkeepers are some of the only characters to be seen close-up, and from them you can conclude that everything is well-designed and executed. The only time you see a high-quality rendering of the characters is in the video before the game starts. The graphics could really have been on a new level with a few cut scenes or even just some closer shots on the characters during key moments. Despite that, the graphics are really beautiful and well done.

Put On Your Poker Voice

 

The music in Baten Kaitos is excellent. From the more classical compositions to the more modern arrangements, this is one of those go-out-and-buy-the-game-soundtrack scores. The tunes go well with each town or site you visit. All of the music is very catchy and is not of the type to get extremely annoying after a while. The variability in combination with the overall excellence just makes this soundtrack extremely extraordinary.

But to ruin the music we have the sound, or more specifically, the voices and voice acting. The quality of the voice recordings is surprisingly bad. Not bad as in cracks, pops, etc. in the voice track, but in the recording quality of the voices. Maybe the cut scene before the start of the game was done outside the development studio, because I did not notice the same problems in the start video, but the reverb or echo that gives that recorded-in-a-tin-can sound needed to be corrected in-game.

Besides the quality of the voice recordings, the voice acting leaves much to be desired in most character’s cases. Only about half of the playable characters have decent voice acting, Xelha once again getting the short end of the stick in this department as well. And to even mention the voice acting of non-important secondary characters would be laughable. Compared to the unimportant non-playable characters, the voice acting of the least impressive of the playable characters is like music to the ears.

Combo Number Five

 

The most fun to be had in this game is definitely in the battle combos. Not matches or straights, but in the useless item cards that usually don’t do anything. Combining cards can give some great results for attacks or new items on one end and on the other end some great useless junk. The useless junk is actually the most fun. It takes a lot of experimenting to even get a card to properly combo, but the results are worth it…usually. Some combos give cool results that are again just as useless as what you started with, but are cooler. Use a unicorn horn that does nothing with a minimally useful small knife to get a unicorn blow horn…that does nothing. But it looks cool! Is it worth it? I think so.

Plasmafactor

 

The factor that makes this game unique and makes it stand out above other games is….the card descriptions. Really. If you go into the menu and take a look at some of the cards in your deck you will find some pretty interesting and amusing descriptions. The descriptions should contain some clues as to how to combo the cards, but some of the funniest descriptions are of the cards made from pictures you take with your camera. Experiment, take pictures (make sure you take a picture of the evil grimoire, its description is hilarious.)

 

Deal Me Out

 

This game has some flaws, but it is definitely a keeper. The graphics are worth the watch, though it would be even more so with high-quality CGI cut scenes. The story really does keep your interest and manages to help you ignore the horrible voice acting, and the echoing sound. But the superior music compositions, the beautifully modeled scenes and characters, and the engrossing story really make it worth ignoring the other flaws. Baten Kaitos is worth the gamble.