Baten Kaitos Origins

"The GameCube Definitely Went Out With a Bang Here"

Let me begin by stating that I got this game a while ago for 40 bucks at my local Wal-Mart, shortly before I stopped doing business with them ever again, it was sitting in the bargain bin, calling out to me, in spite of the fact that I knew it was a prequel, and lemme tell you, I normally hate prequels with a passion.

However, while I had played the first Baten Kaitos, I never completed it, so I picked this game up, and shortly afterward, I picked up the first BK as well, but told myself I would not play the first BK until I completed the prequel. I am happy to say, I kept to my word, I successfully beat BKO today, and well, here I am now writing a review of my experience with this game.

I can safely say it's one of the better RPGs I've played in a long while, as it kept me glued to the TV for a good long time between bouts. The many unique aspects of the game itself, like the battle system, the magnus, the engrossing story, as well as the cast of likeable characters, really helped things along as I got deeper and deeper into the game, and as I approached it's end, I didn't want to stop. Honestly, it was that damn good, so good that I now want to get to the main part of the review....

Story: 10/10

In this game, you play the role of Sagi, a 15-year-old assassin who is in the Alfard Empire's Dark Forces unit, an elite brigade of soldiers that report to chancellor Baelheit, your first mission is to break into Emperor Olgan's home, and assassinate him, you do so eagerly, taking your paramachina, and close friend, Guillo, along with you, however, by the time you get there, a mysterious figure had already killed him, you're accused of murdering the emperor, and become a wanted man.

From there, you meet a familiar face from the first game, only in younger form, who helps you bust out of Emperor Olgan's house, you end up having to leave Alfard, but before you do, you run into yet another familiar face from the first game in younger form, and your third party member, a mysterious young girl named Milly.

The story takes one hell of a rollercoaster ride from here and will keep you enthralled throughout the entire affair, all the way until the very end. Trust me when I say this folks, you'll want to play this game first, then when you're done, you'll want to play it's sequel afterward, it is that damn good.

Gameplay: 9.5/10

The game controls fine, almost perfect even, however, there are definite moments where I felt it could've used some tweaking. For instance, during one of the quests, the objective is to move three rocks to the top of an area, that's all well and good, but moving these things was a huge pain in the ass because they kept getting stuck in some places, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get the character to move it properly for a while, it ended up adding wasted time to my gameplay.

However, that is just a small burr on the ass of an otherwise wonderful game. I loved pretty much every other aspect of the game itself, from using Sagi's wings of the heart to move around, which was actually necessary to solve some puzzles in the game I discovered, and my favorite, the fast-paced, and frantic battle system, which really can get quite frantic, you need to be quick on the draw here in order to execute things properly.

Graphics: 9.5/10

Many of the first game's environments are reused here, and that's not a bad thing as the first game still looks downright gorgeous if you ask me. However, there are a handful of new lands and areas to explore, and a fair amount of them are gorgeous to look at. The character designs themselves look decent enough, they could've used a little more detail, but they get the job done, and they do it well, since they are very well animated.

The props, in my books, go to the enemies. A good majority of them are jaw-dropping to look at in battle, especially the bosses, all of which looked fantastic in their own right, and menacing to boot. Every enemy is well detailed, you can tell that Bandai/Namco really pulled out all the stops and pushed the power of the Cube to it's limit. The game's "true" final boss, has to be seen to be believed, he looks awesome, like a final boss should in my books.

Sound: 9/10

Props go to Motoi Sakuraba, the composer of the songs from the original Baten Kaitos, he returns here in full force, and manages to capture the mood of things perfectly, while the soundtrack overall, isn't quite as good as the first BK, it's still quite powerful, and definitely has some downright beautiful songs that must be heard, especially one track called "Le Ali Del Principio (The Prinicpal of Love as translated into English)", where Mr. Sakuraba has his daughter Mio, sing, wow, that little girl REALLY has a beautiful voice, I will say this, that track is hands down, one of the best soothing songs I've heard in a video game in a long time.

The voice-overs are excellent for the most part, with some of the best work being from the two voice-actors that played Guillo, the loveable tool of destruction that has such a wonderful and biting sense of humour, and Roger L. Jackson, the guy who played the character Verus in the game, but my personal favorite, and I am not kidding here, is the announcer, this is a unique touch to any RPG, I've never heard anything like this in my life.

Imagine every time you get into a battle, you hear someone scream "FIGHT!" like how they do it in fighting games before you begin, the same effect applies here, that announcer deserves a reward, because he did an awesome, awesome job with the few lines he says, seriously, when I heard him scream "FIGHT!" during the last battle of the game, I got so pumped it wasn't funny.

The only reason I am detracting a whole point is bacause while Crawford Wilson, the voice-actor who played Sagi, did a fine job delivering his lines for the most part, there were moments where I felt he could've done better, and along with that, as I said, I felt the soundtrack as a whole, while awesome as hell, still wasn't quite as good as the first Baten Kaitos.

Overall: 9/10

What can I say? This game was an awesome experience, one that definitely deserves to be played through at least once. With it's cast of likeable characters, great soundtrack, engrossing story, and of course, that announcer who says "FIGHT!" at the beginning of every battle, combined with the fact that it's one of the few RPGs the Cube ever had in it's lifetime.

This is one game that I can safely recommend to not only Cube and Wii owners (I played through the entire game on my Wii myself with no troubles whatsoever), but also to RPG fanatics who are starving for a good story. Get this, and the first Baten Kaitos, and play through this game first, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/08

Game Release: Baten Kaitos Origins (US, 09/25/06)