After months of holding onto life for the sole reason of seeing Baten Kaitos reappear, which is not an exaggeration, the forgotten classic joins the pantheon of very rare games that I've completed more than once. I can only think of half a dozen linear experiences that have that honor and most of them are Final Fantasy. Thanks to the severe memory loss I've developed, especially from within that 2005 era where I was a full-on alcoholic, most of the game's later beats were new all over again. And they say drinking is bad for you, ha! Do you know how good a game had to be for me to notice it during that time period? Again, there's this and Final Fantasy XII. Anyway.
Technically, this was just the appetizer; an excuse to revisit a magical moment in time that just happened to be wedged on this cartridge. Playing Origins, which was never released here, is the piece de resistance. Before diving into that, I wanted a few moments to decompress and gather my thoughts about what I thought was one of the best games of all time. Do I still think that? I mean, I hope you've not stumbled upon my thoughts randomly; the answer is "yes." Some of that might be because I still see the adventure through this lens from 18 years ago. So, why not use this as an excuse to do a big ol' info dump! It's kinda like a review, except I have no desire to shape the parts into a whole for a game you should've played on GameCube. Seems redundant, no? Cool.
Info dump in Read More 👇
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Games as art: I don't know how they managed to pull off a world that's more enchanting than many peers in the current year. Everything, from the bafflingly beautiful sceneries to the beautifully scored music, has so much laborious care put into it. The amount of palpable attention to detail in every new scrap never ceased to amaze me. Hands-on, curated love is also a powerful driving force to keep me from contracting the usual Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) disease, where my eyes start glazing over around the midpoint of a playthrough. There are only like two lower points, making it pretty easy to hurdle that barrier. To see this feat done on GameCube has really made me wonder why it's been such a rare recurrence since. I think there aren't more than a handful of larger games that achieve the artistry on display in Baten Kaitos. Disco Elysium kinda walks in that direction, but I wouldn't put it above all the crazy ambitions executed here.
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It just works: That dynamic card system; it's pretty good huh? Again, I wonder why no one has recreated it, ever. Aside from just regular numbers being constantly fun and hectic to work around, I found out that I'm a lot worse at finding combos than I was. Probably, I used to grind a ton more, as fights are more easily avoidable now, meaning that I used to try a lot more combinations. My runtime was 56 hours now, whereas the original was well over 80 hours, especially since items can expire. The great thing is that you can play without being beholden to the hidden crafting system. I just found a few foolproof items that worked for me. A big tea cup? I wonder if you can pour tea in there? What an elegantly built system; there's always something to think about. The dungeons, equally, always have some novelty around them, so you don't have to feel like you're stuck in this repetitive grind loop. Even towns and other places urge you to explore the space, since there are cards hidden every-where. Every tiny bit of this game matters and that's rare.
- It just keeps going: Like I said, I only remember flashes from the later parts. It's mostly vague stuff where Mizuti shows up, because they're a contender for top 10 best characters of all time. Maybe. Possibly. Definitely debatable. I do remember the first major twist, because it blew my pea brain apart when I first witnessed it. Yet, that's only the half point of this game! Beyond that, there are like several more incredible story beats; you'd forget that there's some ancient JRPG God to go kill. By being more than just going through the motions, this rollercoaster also allowed me to grow closer to some lesser characters. I wasn't too hot on Lyude, but they certainly wrap it up nicely. Even you, the player, play a metaphysical part here. Arguably the best feature in Baten Kaitos is that you are written into the story. Characters address you like you're in the room, because you are. Keeping you engaged in the story is built in at the core level. That's pretty damn cool.
- You got this: Malpercio is kind of a pushover? Don't get me wrong, the big bad sucks, but by the time I had to get to the final confrontation, I was laser focused. My decks had themes relevant to their finisher moves and I had made sure to make potent healing cards, finely distributed to each person. Malpercio hits like a truck and you're not getting around that, but the Giacomo encounters were a lot harder. Any fight where you're dealing with a multitude of targets is a much tighter race to not get overwhelmed than just one dude who keeps beating the brakes off someone. You can heal one party member. It's refreshing to have a final battle, after that daunting endgame, that doesn't feel like a test of wills. I was incredibly tired and not ready to be subjected to sadism, but also no one wants a freebie. It's very tough for a final fight to ride that perfect line in-between. I was ready for the second form, but that's just the JRPG axiom: There is always a second form.
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Completion is for suckers: I started the game writing stuff down, making sure I catalogued the items I would need on my return trip. This is a 50+ hours game, so I realized that I didn't want to do that for every new step I needed to take. It's perfectly fine to not partake in that world. You're not the greatest errand boy to ever live; you've got hero stuff to do. It helps that the majority of side quests just give you one card. You can live without the one card. Hell, just craft your own or go grind some monsters. You have options, rather than it all being a necessity for endgame gear. Pick one. That's an approach that more games should handle well, rather than leveraging the fear of missing out. The creativity is there, should you want it.
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The bad: That one singular block in the Mizuti trials that you have to push halfway is straightup evil. And it's in a pit where every aspect of the developer logic is dialed up to full blast. They're great puzzles, but that one block can suck an egg. That's it; no further notes.
Baten Kaitos; it's a pretty good game. Some would say it's an all-timer.