"Namco wins big with a Royal Flush"

Boy, oh boy, oh golly, oh my... another RPG for the gamecube! Looks like i've been a good boy, 'cause Santa's been bringing out the goods. I wonder if Santa's japanese...

Here we have another RPG for the cube, and it's been good times. Tales of Symphonia, Paper Mario 2, and now this. With stiff competition in it's shadow, how well do Baten's cards stack up against the opposition?

First Impressions:
"Boo! Whine! Hiss! A card game! Those are poopy!" are the cries heard by legions of closed minded video game "fans" the world around. After finding such enjoyment with PSO ep. III, I realized that card games aren't quite the gamble that people make them out to be, and in an rpg setting, can be pretty damn good.

I said to myself, a unique card battle system that is more than just a card game. Check. It's made my Namco, who's had a good track record as of late. Check. With a name like Baten Kaitos, it's destined to be a sleeper hit. Double Check. Let's get this review started.

Story:
Stories in video games are pretty important if video games are a source of entertainment for you. RPGs, especially. Why else would someone want to play a game for sixty hours if there's nothing to carry it along. Gameplay, true, but RPGs are best known for their tales of fantasy.

In Baten Kaitos, we are greeting my a seemingly familiar quest. Good guys, bad guys. Evil empire taking over the world, mysterious relics to collect... what is this crap, you say? Yeah, it's the same old "been there, done that" formula... at first. As the game progresses, you're met by a wonderful cast of characters and a story line that paces itself very well considering the high amount of cliches.
Without spoiling the story, there isn't much I can say here, except that it gets the job done in an above average fashion and with an incredible amount of emotion behind it. More importantly, this game has one of the most impressive plot twists ever presented in a video game to date. And when it comes to it's conclusion, you'll start to think differently about this game's story, and before you know it, you're completely caught up with it, and the end credits are rolling. It's a good time that's very slow to start up, but it builds up, it can't be stopped. The ending is also one of the best that i've seen in recent memory.

One last point of interest that i've found, is that you, the player, is actually involved in the courses of events which unfold in this plot. It's interesting to see a game acknowledge the player as a factor in it's world.

The game begins with Kalas, a one-winged angel of sorts who develops a bond with you, the player, who is known as a spirit guardian, who are on a quest to avenge the death of his grandfather and younger brother. Along the way, you meet up with many different characters, who most of which happen to be your usual cliched types. You quickly meet Xelha, your seemingly typical female lead. Thankfully, the game spices her story up quite a bit later on with yet another interesting plot twist. You've got the burly Gibari, who's a light hearted free spirit. Lyude, who's an ambassador to the empire who eventually joins your cause. Then there's the mysterious Savyna, your typical battle hardened female void of all emotion, and the enigmatic (and sometimes annoying) Mizuti, who prefers to be referred to as the Great Mizuti.

In this world, everything is in the sky, as the world below has long been tainted by the influence of the dark god, Malpercio. Somewhat unique to this plot is the involvement of Magnus cards - cards which hold the essence of many different items and spells with them.

As I mentioned before, the plot isn't exactly unique at the start, but then again, which rpg is nowadays? With everything intertwining, it's hard to come up with a completely new and fresh idea. Taking that into consideration, I believe that Baten embraces that, and delivers a story that despite it's cliches, attempts to do it better than stories past, and with a lot of heartfelt emotion as well. I will say, that they accomplished that nicely, even though it could have been a touch better.

Gameplay:
Uh oh, card based battles! Woe is me! We all know how hated these titles are in the video game world, and I don't think i'll ever know why. Especially not this one, which breaks the norm with it's battle system.

Unlike most card games, this one couldn't be done in a typical trading card game fashion. Your characters level up and have equipment, and the cards are merely an extension of that. Each character can have a limited deck at first, along with a maximum number of cards which can be played.

For example, rather than equipping a sword and merely selecting attack, the player selects a specific card depicting the said weapon, and an attack is done. Once combos are involved, it becomes an entirely different beast.

Selecting a few cards within your current limit, the player is able to string together attacks from different weapons, and afterwards, the total is added up. For the most part, players cannot use a defense item on offense. Makes sense, right? You just wouldn't see someone beating an enemy over the head with a robe, so you won't be seeing that here.

Along the way you'll find elemental cards, which inflict elemental damage along with physical. And here's where the "card game" strategy comes into play. Rather than blindly moosh cards together, it does no good to have a deck with conflicting elements.

Let's say you use a fire sword which does 20 damage, and within the combo you play a water sword which does 30 damage. Since they are opposing elements, they'll cancel one another out, and you'll be left with a piddly 10 damage (the remainder after the cancellation). But if you want, you can use them on separate turns so the effect isn't minimized.

Combos are also influenced by poker-like rules. On each and every card, you'll find "spirit numbers" strewn across the face. A maximum of 8 can be found on any card, each tucked away a corner of the card. You can select a position on the card using the C-stick by simply tilting it in the direction of the number. And why would you want to use this? Well, since it's based on poker, you'll get a bonus on your attack/defense. Pairing two cards will give a little boost, while getting 9 numbers in a row will give a tremendous bonus to the player. Paired in with the fact that you want to have a deck that isn't detrimental to itself, and the concideration of whether tacking on another card to the end of that combo will be worth more than the bonus you'd get if you left it as is, allows for a lot of strategy. But as your characters grow more powerful and upgrade their class, the time allowed to select your card grows less and less, which makes you quickly formulate a strategy, providing some incredible twitch based gameplay. And if that is too much, you always have the option not to upgrade your class if you wish... that level up system doesn't sound too unforgiving now, does it? Lastly, there is the addiction of special moves, which instantly end the combo, but do a touch more damage. Certain special moves require a prerequisite number of cards in a combo to be used first before you can activate them, so once again comes strategy.

It might seem a little confusing at first, but this system goes a long way and truly rewards a player for constructing a well made deck. The same formula on attack works for defense, as well, so sometimes it's better to make a deck with similar elements rather than just going for the highest defense total.
One of the best things about this card format, is the addition of combinations. Let's say you combine meat with some fire. You'll get roasted meat, which becomes more useful than the previous. The best part of this, is that by merely combining cards, you'll have the option to pick up the new card after battle. So by proper combination and patience, you'll be able to design a powerful deck with cards that would normally be unavailable. And with 1022 cards, you'll be kept busy for awhile.

Another thing that separates this game from average rpgs, is the money and leveling system. Money is acquired by taking photos of various enemies by using a camera. Sounds simple, right? Well, Baten just loves to add complexity to the picture. Pun intended. When taking pictures, the enemy itself and the background factor in when it comes to final quality. A quick enemy will be hard to catch on film, so the picture will be blurry and bring less money. Taking a picture in a dark forest won't provide much value, since it'll be tough to see what the image is. The beauty of this game, is that it allows you to remedy that. Paralyze or put an enemy to sleep to keep them from moving. Cast a light/dark spell to adjust the brightness/darkness. Although it seems annoying at times, you'll definitely feel rewarded by taking the time to get the perfect shot.

As for leveling up, you acquire experience as you would in another other rpg, but in a different change of pace, you must go to a church (located at certain save points) which allows you to then level up your character for stat bonuses, or upgrade their class, which lets the character hold more cards in his/her deck, and combo more cards in one turn. Once again, it seems foreign to most, but it's a nice addition that lets you dictate the pace and difficulty of the game. Which mind you, is a very challenging game as is, and is thankfully appreciated in rpgs, which recently tend to be nothing more than extremely easy movies that you just randomly push "confirm" over and over. The gameplay is fresh, and it's harder to explain than I thought.

However, all isn't sunny in the world above the clouds. The inability to make custom decks is a pain, since if you want to change a characters setup, you have to do it all manually, which takes an obscene amount of time. Also, the organization seems a little flawed as well. You can sort by type, attack power, defense power, price, element, and etcetera, but for some odd reason you can't simply select card types for healing or status changes in battle. Which makes for some unnecessary searching. It would have been nice if they would have sorted them into their own categories, such as one list for weapons, one for defense, and so on. Despite that one flaw, the game manages to be highly playable and quite honestly, you forget about how much of a mess the set up can be.

One last thing that I don't view as a negative, is the fact that every attack and spell is only targeted for a single person. You have no ability to attack every enemy, or heal all in your party at once. That might annoy some people, but after thinking about it, it would be a pain to manage that all at once. So it's not a complaint; but rather, something people should expect when playing.

Graphics:
Baten features prerendered graphics which are beautifully presented, vibrant, and full of life. While most prerendered graphics tend to be static, the graphics are full of little animations which make them even more lively. Imagine looking at a moving painting, and Baten's graphics are what you have. Character models, obviously, are 3d, and are designed pretty well. In battle, effects are flashy, although not overwhelming. You shouldn't expect to see a 10 minute long cinema depicting a fireball, when a 3 second burst of flame that this game provides is more than enough.

One minor nitpick that I have (and this is purely opinion), is that the character designs are moronic for the most part. Gibari, for example, looks ridiculously similar to Wakka from FFX. I've never been a fan of Nomura's style of art, so seeing someone practically copy his style makes me somewhat sick to my stomach. It seems as if they just threw a bunch of random objects which are randomly colored on a character. However, the art for the characters is pretty damn good. Especially Lyude's squinty-eyed happy pic. lol.

Sound/Music:
This is probably Baten's greatest feature. The music in this game is positively astounding.. it's hard to believe a game like this with little to no recognition would get such an incredible sound track.

There is a large variety in battle themes, so fighting will never get stale, and it makes boss battles something to look forward to. Almost every dungeon and town is presented with it's own unique song, and they all fit nicely. It feels as if i'm not doing enough to express how good the music in the game is, and I can't express how good it truly is. I would definitely suggest playing this game as loud as possible, if it weren't for...

...the single most HORRID voice over work ever. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it's still pretty crappy. These voice actors are weird. A lot of the village kids sound like a bunch of 5 year old british brats. And there's this one voice actor who has no emotion whatsoever. I will say that Xelha's voice is appropriate, and Kalas' is one of the best for the most part. There's a few scenes where you're embarrassed to be in the same room as the speakers that these "noises" are coming from, but thankfully you're able to shut off the voices, right? Sorta.. you can turn off the voices for the game's script, but not for battles. I personally wanted to murder someone after hearing Mizuti say, "Chronos Blow!" for the first time, but it's tolerable. Sorta.

I really don't understand why companies do that. Just let us shut off all of the damn voices and everything will be fine. Or better yet, hire more competent VAs, and don't shove them all in a recording studio that makes their voices sound like they're trapped in a tube, okay?

Closing Thoughts:
All in all, this game is everything I hoped it would be. Good story line, great gameplay, amazing music... this is a gem that sadly will be overlooking. It picked a bad time to be released, since it had to compete with the likes of Halo 2, GTA, and MGS3.. and it doesn't help that it bears the title of "card based rpg". Hopefully, more people will give this game a shot and realize how high quality this title is.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/05