Video Game Review Series - Baten Kaitos Origins

Alright faithful SNSG subscribers, time to retape your glasses, and polish your pocket protectors, because it’s time for another video game review.

Today’s review focuses on one of the most underrated, underappreciated, under loved games of all time, including soccer. I’m talking of course, about Baten Kaitos Origins. Just how did such a fine piece of art, a work of absolute, unblemished genius, slip through the fingers of so many noble gamers, and receive a paltry 77.54% on Gamerankings? Well, it’s because the people reviewing those games are idiots, and since the title of the game did not contain the magical letter combination of H-A-L-O, or C-O-D, the game never surpassed the mythical 90% mark.

But it’s not all about the numbers. Sometimes, games with really good numbers can be bad (Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach, Halo ODST, Halo WTF). And sometimes, games with really bad numbers can be good! Like Shadow the Hedgehog for the GameCube! Just kidding. Still can’t believe I shelled out $50 for that worthless mess. The game disc didn’t even make for a good frisbee. But for games that fall in that no-man’s-land of mediocrity, only the true fanboys, or the truly delusional will give the game a shot. Alas, Baten Kaitos Origins falls into this category, and it is completely undeserving of this nefarious title. Let’s see why.

Background: So this game takes place about 50 years before the original Baten Kaitos game, making it a sort of prequel. You don’t have to know what happened in the first game (which chronologically happens after this one) to appreciate BKO.

Story (8.4 – that’s right, it’s not a multiple of .5): In most video games, the “story” to me is a sort of mini game, where I keep mashing the A button until the text boxes disappear, and I can continue to play the game. You see, most Gamespot reviewers probably do the same thing, except they don’t admit it, but that’s a different tangent. In my eyes, Super Monkey Ball 2 had as good a “story” as Tales of Vesperia. What I’m trying to say is that I skip the story aspect of most games, EXCEPT for a select few. BKO, if you haven’t guessed already, has my blessing as one of the few games where I actually paid attention to the story. The story is great. The pacing and progression are excellent, and the plot twists are some of the most earth shattering sequences of any video game story I’ve paid attention to. There is also a very interesting time shift mechanic in the story line, which leads to greater plot depth, and helps to explain some of the events that occurred in the first game.



The main characters, Sagi, Guillo, and Miliarde are the characters you control, and constitute the bulk of the story. They are largely a hit-or-miss cast. Sagi should have done a cameo in The Breakfast Club, because he is a perfect embodiment of teenage angst. Guillo’s voice casting must have been done by combining the voices of Fran Drescher and 50 Cent, because it is one of the strangest sounds I have ever heard in my life. Miliarde, aka Milly, has all of the charm and charisma of a metal table. In most JRPGs, (Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean 4) the characters get progressively more and more annoying… except for the Star Ocean 4, where the characters are so annoying to begin with that you end up not playing the game. But strangely, in BKO, these three characters, who seem to have no cohesive personality at first, all complement one another in a strange sort of way. Sagi emerges as the hero from the beginning, Guillo is the trusty sidekick, and Miliarde, who at first is only a “wench,” according to Guillo, eventually proves her worth when her skills are most desperately needed. As the plot thickens, you begin to really feel for these characters. Or, you may not, because as I said before, the cast is hit-or-miss.

Graphics (9.0): I’m a sucker for good graphics. While you can always skip boring storylines, or turn off bad music, if the graphics are bad, there really isn’t a quick fix. Since BKO was crafted near the end of the GameCube’s glorious regime, one would expect it to have sufficiently high graphical standards – and it does not disappoint. BKO is a beautiful game, with charm emanating from the screen. Since the worlds are all on a fixed 2-dimensional plane, there is a profusion of highly-detailed environments, with plenty of NPCs milling about, each just bursting at the seams for you to interact with them. It looks like a painting that has come to life. The battle sequences are very busy, with plenty of flashy special effects that scale based on the damage dealt. The enemies are also quite detailed, and the same enemy types are not recycled too often. One complaint I have is that one of the bosses was used over and over throughout the game, but this was an integral part of the storyline. Unlike many modern games, there are no load screens, or graphical slow down ever. Overall, this is a very pretty game.

Sound (8.6): I have some of the music in my iTunes library. Bear in mind, that BKO is not a game that one would describe as “mainstream.” So for me to have gone through the trouble to get some of the songs in this game means that the game has good music. That is all.

Gameplay (9.5): Alright, so I sort of skimped through the sound part, because honestly, who cares. Chances are you have an mp3 device or a cassette player or something nice to listen to anyways. I really wanted to talk about the one aspect of every video game that people actually care about. In fact, if you skipped all the other parts of this now long-winded narrative just to read the gameplay section, I would feel slightly offended, but would also applaud your practicality.
Let me preface everything by saying that Baten Kaitos Origins has the best battle system of any RPG, JRPG or otherwise, that I have EVER played. “Alright Captain Superlative,” you may say, “but what makes the system so great?” The reduction of luck as a deciding factor, and the emphasis on skill and decision making as an integral part of the battle mechanic are the reasons this game is so great.
The game is a card-based RPG, where every attack you perform is determined by a card, which is called magnus, which you play. As the game progresses, you find and can even create bigger and badder cards. You control all 3 characters, who all share the same deck. You can chain cards and create longer and longer combos, by going up by the magnus number listed on each card. So, you can play a card with a 1, then a 2, then a 3, and then finish by unleashing a finisher, which are numbered 4 or higher. If you build up a sufficient burst gauge, by playing non-finisher cards, you can activate a burst, which lets you play a nearly unlimited range of cards, providing you go up by ascending order. The relay mechanic allows you to chain together complete combos of two characters, which can deal absurd amounts of damage.



Magnus fall under the categories of attack, defense, healing, equip, and miscellaneous. Each of them has a very distinct purpose, except defense, which are just pointless. Pro tip: don’t use defense cards because they suck.
You have a time limit to play each card, and if you can’t make a decision quick enough, the character’s turn ends. You also have the option to discard cards in a character’s turn, to try to get a better combo for the next character. So you sort of get the idea of where this going. In a limited amount of time, you are trying to maximize damage, while keeping your characters alive. This is why you have to be skilled! You can’t just sit around and keep abusing the most powerful spells, or chopping up your enemies with the most powerful sword. *Cough* like in almost every JRPG *cough*.

Deck management is also key. Throughout the game, you will uncover new and more powerful magnus, and will be modifying your decks constantly to adapt to the constantly changing array of enemies that the game throws at you. This = luck minimization.

Also, the fact that you are only tasked with managing three characters is a blessing. In literally every other JRPG, you end up having to switch between a small army of useless clowns, many of who are repulsive little children who even some of the characters on Nick Jr. would find annoying. (Karol in Tales of Vesperia, Sam and Cooke in Lost Odyssey, every character in Star Ocean 4). The fact that you use the same 3 characters throughout the game builds a sort of unity amongst the trio.




So we’ve got this incredible battle system, which forces you to use skill. But what bogs down the game then? Well, when you’re not fighting, you’re in one of those JRPG towns, with the market and the houses that you can’t go into, and the townspeople that are content but worried about some sort of an invasion, you just wish you could keep on fighting. And Tri Crescendo realized that, so they added in a Coliseum, which you can enter any time, and just keep on fighting and fighting and fighting. But if you do that, you won’t progress very far in the story.
So to progress in the story, you have to complete some usually dull and monotonous task, which tests your patience. This really serves to hinder the flow of the game, and while some segments are necessary for story-related reasons, other could have been left out. You go from the adrenaline-pumping battles to the yawn-inducing scavenger hunt to join some little kids’ play group (that actually happens, sort of).
But overall, the battle mechanic, and deck creation aspects are nearly flawless. The bosses are challenging, and the enemies are varied. If it weren’t for the scavenger hunts, the gameplay would achieve perfection.

Replayability: Took me 60 hours to beat it the first time around, and about 50 the second time. Yeah, it’s a long game, and you’ll have a fantastic time playing it.

FINAL VERDICT: 9.1/10