Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and Lost Ocean is an RPG developed by Tri-Crescendo and Monolith Soft, a well established game development company that has worked with some great titles such as the Xenosaga and the recent Skyward Sword.
Baten Kaitos is one of the many beautiful RPG games I've played. It has some of the most stunning environment work which has been achieved through a mixture of pre-rendered backgrounds and FMV (film motion video). This combined with the unique battle system, great character designs and one of my favourite composers, Motoi Sakuraba, makes a game that's worth playing.
Just to help you get a feel for the game, here's the game intro.
When I first watched this opening I was totally captivated by the graphics at the time. The characters and the settings were beyond amazing.
I was actually shown this game by one of my friends and after watching the opening sequence I went out and bought the game.
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Story
The story of this game is like any other fantasy based game really, but I don't think that it makes this game unappealing in any way. I think it's hard to break out of this 'cliché' storyline because for there to be a 'hero' figure, bad events must take place for them to save the day. But I'm aware that not everyone agrees and there is a demand for something a little more fresh and new.
--Back to the storyline
The story revolves around a world in the sky. The story states that an evil God called Malpercio engulfed the ocean leaving a number of floating islands in the sky, which ultimately make the world map for the game. This evil god was then defeated and sealed by a group of heroes. The heroes sealed the evil God in the form of 5 "End Magnus", Magnus being the term used for a magical seal or container which can be used to store items.
NOTE: I'll be going into more detail about the world map and about what Magnus are in another section.
Long after these events have taken place, the people of the sky had evolved in such a way that it was pretty much standard to own a pair of wings.
In a small rural town on the outskirts of the city, is where your adventure begins with the introduction of the protagonist, a witty and ill-mannered young man that goes by the name of Kalas. Kalas wakes up after suffering from some serious injury to the head which has made his memory a little hazy. And to my surprise, despite the fact Kalas is the protagonist, you actually take on the role of his companion, the guardian spirit.
From here on out, the plot unfolds as you start to explore this world in the sky, making friends who join you in your cause to put the God Malpercio to and end by collecting the End Magnus before your enemies do.
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Game-play
Baten Kaitos is a role-playing/puzzle game. I think these two aspects come hand-in-hand really otherwise games wouldn't be as fun as they are if they didn't get our brains working. Anyway, I think the concept they took on for the role play side of things is pretty interesting. Because your role isn't that of the protagonist which is a very strange and rare thing to find among games these days, the control you have over the main character is obviously approached differently. It's more similar to giving advice to a friend. This is actually a nice alternative to having control over the protagonist or 'being' the protagonist, which is more commonly seen in most games.
The Magnus I mentioned earlier, is the name used for a card that seal away items enabling you to carry around anything from food to weaponry, large or small. These Magnus play a big role in this game because you use them for pretty much everything including the puzzles and quests that you come across in the game. I think the way they've given such an importance to Magnus is actually really cool because to me it puts life in perspective a little by showing how small things can have great power over us and how we live. A good example of that being money.
Magnus are also used in the unique fighting system this game introduced. Because they're in the form of cards they use a card-based battle system. No surprises there huh? But anyway, Magnus can be used to store anything, food recovers your health and weapons deal damage. You can also take photos of all the enemies and bosses you come across and sell them to make money so you can buy more Magnus to make a powerful deck as the adventure goes on.
Another great things about the items that you can collect is that they age over time. For example... Milk turns into cheese and then into yoghurt. And if you leave food for too long it will rot. I found this idea really creative and it really helps add the passing of time in the game world.
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Characters
.:Kalas:.
Kalas is the protagonist of the game and he's got quite the story to tell. As the adventure unfolds you find out more about his background which is one of the things that drives him to continue. He seeks revenge on a man called Giacomo for killing his grandfather Georg. One of Giacomo's subordinates Ayme, left both Kalas and his little brother Fee injured after burning their house down. They managed to escape but only got so far before Fee collapsed and died in his arms. There are some more things you find out later on but I won't mention anything cos that's for you to find out.
Kalas is very good in battle because pretty much all of his attack cards can also be used for defence so you'll never really find yourself in a sticky situation. He can also wield all of the elements which makes him very versatile in battle.
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.:Xelha:.
Xelha is the heroine of the game, she has a very caring nature and it quite fragile and naive at times. She is however very strong willed and driven and she plays a very important role as the story unfolds.
She's a magic based character and can use all the elements but her special moves are light based so it'd be wise to build a deck that doesn't include dark elements. Because she mainly wield magic cards you tend to find she has a lack of defence cards so you struggle a little at the beginning of the game when she eventually joins your party.
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.:Gibari:.
Gibari has a very bold personally and is quite loud and full of life. He's a very carefree guy and lives life as a humble fishermen from Nashira. He absolutely loves food and always seems to be hungry but he also seems quite hungry for action and never stops until the job is done. He is a very determined individual.
In combat Gibari is similar to Kalas in a sense that pretty much all his offensive card can also be used for defence. Being a man of the sea his final attacks are water based.
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.:Lyude:.
Lyude is a very humble military officer and appears as an enemy when you first encounter him. His story is quite a moving one and although he is always perceived as a coward he is one of the bravest characters and his strength grows as his story does.
I think Lyude is a very difficult character to use especially at the beginning because he wields both light and dark magic and because of this conflict of elements his moves are really hard to link up. Lyude is probably best to use when you gather more cards as the game goes on.
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.:Savyna:.
Savyna is a very mysterious woman. She's very to herself and is a woman of very little words. Her background has quite the story to it though and is probably the most intriguing character out of all of them because she doesn't give a lot away.
Just like Lyude she wields conflicting elements, fire and water and is a funny one to use until you polish out her deck. If i remember correctly though, she is the fastest character which is a very useful thing because no one likes to make their move last.
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.:Mizuti:.
Mizuti I another mysterious yet very loveable character. She's very quirky, knowledgable and wise. And her hometown is very beautiful and has a lot of mind boggling puzzles and secrets.
In combat, Mizuti is very much like Xelha and is a magic user of all the elements so I recommend having either one or the other in your party because it's better to have more variety otherwise I think the game will be quite challenging.
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Environment/World Design
The environment concept art for this game I find is really something. It looks very strange to begin with because the way the background has been put together (combination of pre-rendere backgrounds and FMV backgrounds) is something the eyes aren't exactly use to seeing but I think it works really well and definitely puts a unique stamp on the game.
These are just a few of my favourite places you explore in the game.
I really like the sharp angles and the shapes in this background. They're very unusual and add a nice quirky edge to this baron village. It also shows a huge contrast to the design of the sweet town underneath but I do think that the aesthetic appeal of the game itself overpowers the story plot sometimes.
This town is probably my favourite one. You can't go wrong when everything is made out f sweets! I really love the lighting and the colours in this town. They're very light hearted and fun and the little faces even blink! This picture also goes quite well with the current brief because I chose a fairytale theme and this ha a lot of reference to Hansel and Gretel, not just because of the sweet buildings but the story plot when yo reach this place gets quite interesting.
I put these two images in there to just show the beauty of the 'overworld' when you travel in and out of towns.
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Overall this game is gold in my eyes but the only faults I could give it is that the aesthetics of the game overpower the story and you can sometime forget the plot and lose track at what you're doing because you're too busy admiring clouds. The second being the voice acting. The quality of the voice acting is very poor yet the more i played it the more Kalas' arrogant personality and voice grew on me so you never know~
So if you ever come across this game, get it! It's one of the great games that was released on the lovely Gamecube.
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