Baten Kaitos - Monolith Soft

Mai Valentine

Mai Valentine

Moderator
http://cube.ign.com/articles/445/445082p1.html

The GameCube has been seeing some big RPG support of late, but perhaps none of the games are as big as Baten Kaitos. This completely original RPG is being developed by an all star cast of developers with production supervision by Monolith Software, the folks behind Xenosaga. That's some heavy hitting RPG support for a system that's not known for its RPGs.

From what we can tell, having played through the first couple of hours of the recently released Japanese version, GameCube owners aren't just getting any old generic RPG here. Right off the bat, it's clear that Monolith has, perhaps purposely, done away with many of the conventional notions of what makes an RPG.

You can read our various previews for a summary of the game's background story, but here's the cool new thing we learned today. You, the player, actually have a role in the game. While the main character's name is unchangeable from Kalas, you seem to server as his conscience. Kalas actually speaks to you from time to time (referring to you by the name that you input at the start of the game) and asks you questions about what you'd like to do at key points. And he's not the only one you can hear you. The heroine, Xelha hears your voice faintly and describes you as a ghost.
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I've never played Xenosaga, but that sounds pretty cool. I'm starting to warm up to Baten Kaitos even though it's card based.
 
That sounds really cool; how the main character actually "talks" to the player. Never seen that type of thing in a game before...
 
exactly, its going to be a decent game (to say the least).

Hopefully the title is not blown out to all systems.

It would be cool to some some NICE (non-online) RPG's hitting again.

BV
 
In my opinion the Cube is the best anyway, original (yes Neph, original!) games like this just make it even better. :)

How did GC steal Resident Evil from Sony? It wasn't written in stone that Capcom HAD to only make RE games for Playstation. From what I hear, GC made an offer and Capcom accepted. Also, Capcom still make the odd RE game for PS2.
 
OMG, you guys. Give it a rest.

Let's just say that EVERY system gets the occasional original game, and leave it that. No more flaming in my thread! :p

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. According the people who have played the import, the card-based battles actually go really fast, almost as if it is real-time. The IGN report also says that learning how to use the cards is really easy, and that they didn't even need to read the instructions.
 
Nephlabobo said:
I'm not flaming anything - but when someone makes an assinine point, it's my duty to challenge it.

And John Gamer - you're exactly right. It wasn't written in stone that Capcom had to make RE games only for Sony.

But why is it that when Sony gets a game previously exclusive to GC, they're "stealing" - but when GC gets a game previously exclusive to Sony, it's great for the system? It's a hypocritical point of view.

That was my point.

Anyways - Baten Kaitos looks pretty good. And John Gamer...I know full well it's original - had you read the previous *positive* comments I'd made about this game, you would've seen that.
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I think retro is right neph :)

The Gamecube (IMO) still has the most uniqueness to it.... mainly the Nin 1st party games of course.

Oh well... lets get back to the BK topic :D


†B†V† :hat
 
Ok, maybe "stealing" was too strong a term. What I meant was that I'd just be annoyed if this game doesn't stay exclusive to Nintendo.

No, it's not wrong that PS2 and XBOX gets Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, although it does annoy me as a Nintendo fan. I didn't think Sony and Microsoft cared for the "kiddy games".

Anyway, i'm really looking forward to this game. :D
 
Lol, I didn't say any of that stuff...

But anyway, has anyone played any "card based" RPGs in the past and could tell me if they're any good? I've never really been into that sort of thing, but hopefully this game will handle it well.
 
Man. Getting off topic in my own post. *sigh*

I don't believe that it is hypocritical to be upset when the Gamecube loses a game to the PS2. After all, the PS2 has a huge game library with a ton of exclusives already...what is losing one game going to hurt it? The Gamecube is the one that suffers when it loses an exclusive, because it gives even less incentive to buy it. On the PS2, you won't be able to get Baten Kaitos, but there's a hundred other rpgs you could choose from. On the Gamecube, there are very few standout rpgs, so losing an exclusive is going to hurt a lot.

Secondly, it's almost always from GC--->PS2/XBOX. It's never in reverse. Why is that?? Why isn't Capcom like, "Hey, Devil May Cry did pretty well on the PS2. Why don't we put it on the Gamecube and XBOX as well?" Why is it always, "Gee, such-and-such game did pretty well on the Gamecube. Let's port it to PS2 and XBOX to try and make even more money." Why do the other systems get to keep their exclusives but the Gamecube doesn't?

And the only reason GC got Resident Evil is because Nintendo paid Capcom. Most likely Namco was paid for Baten Kaitos, too. The companies are usually not willing to make games for the GC without being paid for it, whereas on the PS2, because of its huge user base and the fact that even craptacular games sell pretty well, they will make games on their own.

Exclusives can make or break a console. XBOX wouldn't be where it is today without the success of Halo. Nintendo wouldn't be here today without the original success of games like Super Mario Bros. and the Legend of Zelda. The PSone took off due to the success of Final Fantasy VII. If not for exclusives, I know I wouldn't feel the need to own every console. But there are exclusives, so I have all the consoles.
 
I never said they didn't put themselves there. I think everyone (with the possible exception of BV), including myself, acknowledges that Nintendo shot themselves in the foot with third parties not only by their practices, but also because they decided to keep using cartridges instead of CDs when that was something important. As far as I know, that's the real reason why Square went with the PSone, because FFVII would have never fit on a cartridge.

But there's also the problem that these publishers release crappy ports which people don't buy because they are crappy, and then blame the GCN users for not buying them, which leads to no further support. But when they quit this support, instead of saying: "Well we did a crappy port and people didn't buy it because there are games of better quality available to them," they go out and say: "Well the GCN is for kids, so we cannot develop for them anymore." Or they refuse to make games for the GC because they think they won't sell, but how can they tell if they don't even try? Like I said before, it's like basketball...you can't win if you don't play.

And as far as publicity, yes, Nintendo does need to advertise both their own games and games by third parties more. But you have to admit that mainstream media is no help. Even video game magazines are no help. They are always writing about the next stupid, generic warfare-based first person shooter or the next GTA wannabe and ignoring gems like Katamari Damacy, Tales of Symphonia, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, etc.

Anyway, a little back on topic. EGM reports that Baten Kaitos might feel like a pseudosequel to Chrono Cross, since the games share the same director and scenario writer.
 
Like what ports exactly? The Soul Calibur II port sold the most of the three! (In fact - even *I* own the GC version of Soul Calibur!) Blood Omen 2 was supposed to be the least buggy on the GC. What ports are you talking about exactly?
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Well...maybe not so much that they were crappy games, but also a bit of "duh" moments.

Need For Speed 2: Hot Pursuit ran terribly on the GC and XBOX, so that was just a bad port. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance wasn't a bad port, but it came out 6 months after the PS2 version and was priced at $50 while the PS2 version was already $20, but Vivendi for whatever reason was like, "Gee, it didn't sell very well on Gamecube." And I'm like, "Duh. You released it on the GC and XBOX for $50 months after it had already been out on PS2 and at $20 for some time. Honestly, how well did you expect it to sell with that in mind?" Like me....I had BG: DA for the PS2 already and there was no way I was going to pay $50 just for faster loading times on the XBOX or GC. It's a fun game but it's not that great.

And I think TimeSplitters, while also a good port, also suffered from being released on the GC way after it was already out on the other systems.
 
Anyway, a little back on topic. EGM reports that Baten Kaitos might feel like a pseudosequel to Chrono Cross, since the games share the same director and scenario writer.
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Awesome, this game is sounding better and better.
 
Nephlabobo said:
As far as belated released - I think we can lay the blame on both parties - Nintendo and the company - for that.
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See, that, I don't know about. Obviously, developing for each system is different because of how they are built, and also accounting for the controller set-up. But if EA was able to launch SSX3 on all three systems at the same time despite having to tweak the controls significantly for the GC version due to the controller having less buttons, why can't other companies have simultaneous launches? Maybe it has to do with EA being much bigger, I suppose.
 
Johngamer said:
Nevermind, I just read a preview that said it was Motoi Sakuraba from Star Ocean 3.
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Motoi Sakuraba? He, along with Shinji Tamura, did the Tales of Symphonia soundtrack, which is awesome! That definitely catches my attention.
 
I don't think I've played any games where they did the soundtrack. Mitsuda is my favorite though, which is why I hoped he'd be working on this project.
 
Motoi Sakuraba also did the Golden Sun soundtracks. I kind of thought so...there are some parts of the Tales of Symphonia soundtrack that reminded me of Golden Sun.

But anyway, I will probably buy Baten Kaitos to support Namco games on the Gamecube. It looks like a neat game.
 
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