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I by no means had an opportunity to play the Baten Kaitos video games once they got here out on the GameCube. I wasn’t an RPG fan till my late teenagers, so I in all probability wouldn’t have appreciated them even when I did have a possibility to play them. Fall appears to be the season for reviving dormant IPs, and it’s now Baten Kaitos’ time to shine as soon as extra.
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster accommodates precisely that, HD remasters of the primary (and solely) two video games within the sequence: Baten Kaitos: Everlasting Wings and the Misplaced Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins. Bringing over employees that labored on Chrono Cross to steer the undertaking, and developed by Monolith Comfortable within the period the place they didn’t primarily work on Xeno titles, the Baten Kaitos video games are in contrast to most RPGs on the market. Each single factor you do in these video games revolves round playing cards.
Before everything, your battle system makes use of playing cards collected, traded, or bought all through the world. Baten Kaitos is a turn-based RPG with an advanced deck builder there for individuals who adore min-maxing to their coronary heart’s content material. Sometimes I’m not keen on card RPGs, however Baten goes to this point in on the idea that I couldn’t assist however get invested in it.
Battles play out in an ATB-like fashion. Your characters construct up a bar till it’s their flip, unleash a sequence of assaults to construct a excessive combo, after which preserve going till the battle is completed. Within the authentic Baten Kaitos, the quantity of assaults a personality can use in a flip relies on their class. As a result of turns are so sluggish I believe it tends to pull down simply how enjoyable ATB battle programs are usually. There’s nothing worse than having 7 playing cards to play in a flip, choosing your assaults, after which killing it in a single. You don’t simply pivot your assaults to a brand new enemy, however as a substitute, simply sit there and let that whole flip play out. It’s fairly sluggish and punishes correct planning.
Baten Kaitos Origins fixes this, with sooner battle animations and a brand new combo system the place you are supposed to play card numbers in ascending order. It nonetheless doesn’t pivot your assaults to a brand new enemy when you kill your goal, however battles being tougher and the combo system being extra partaking saved me from ever becoming bored like I did with the unique. I believe Baten Kaitos’ fight is an unfun blight on a really quirky and fascinating sport, and am grateful that they included loads of choices to change the expertise for individuals who get bored.
Most likely my favourite means the sport implements playing cards although is how they’re used exterior of battles. Baten Kaitos is perhaps an RPG, however the sport design thrives within the point-and-click journey period. There are particular area playing cards known as Magnus, which let you soak up objects from the surroundings and use them elsewhere to resolve particular puzzles. For instance, if I had a block of ice in entrance of me I may go right into a villager’s home and get a Blaze magnus out of their fireplace pit. Then once I return to the block, I may use that to soften the ice and proceed. That isn’t an actual instance from the video games, but it surely explains simply what sort of puzzle-solving you’ll be able to count on from Baten Kaitos. The primary story and aspect quests each make the most of this sort of puzzle-solving, so that you’re anticipated to speak to everybody and use your mind.
The tales of those video games are laborious to speak about with out giving an excessive amount of away, however I believe essentially the most fascinating facet of them is how they’re designed round participant interplay. Alongside your two protagonists – Kalas within the authentic sport and Sagi in Baten Kaitos Origins – is a power known as a Guardian Spirit. This spirit is sure to them, and infrequently different individuals can talk with them as effectively. You’re this spirit, and the protagonists will incessantly ask you on your enter on the occasions happening round them. Your bond along with your protagonist will have an effect on how environment friendly they’re in battles, based mostly on how typically you agree with them. In case your bond is excessive with Kalas, he’ll get extra particular assaults to look in his deck. In case your bond with Sagi is excessive, playing cards you would possibly want in a decent spot will seem extra typically. The place this turns into attention-grabbing, particularly in Kalas’ case, is that they’re not all the time essentially the most agreeable protagonists. Kalas is impolite and plain egocentric to only about everybody you meet, however when you disagree with him too typically battles shall be rather a lot tougher. It’s a captivating dynamic between participant and protagonist with actual gameplay penalties, I’ve by no means seen anything prefer it earlier than.
If I needed to decide which of the video games I want, I’d in all probability need to say Baten Kaitos Origins edged out the unique. Whereas it’s not as in your face with its eccentricities, it makes up for it by refining and sprucing your core set of mechanics. You’ve gotten a splash on the overworld that may decide issues up if you’re making an attempt to traverse in a rush. Fight has a sooner rhythm with its new number-based combo system, and stage ups truly occur because of battles as a substitute of needing to cease at a church. The entire tedium was stripped away, and also you’re left with a a lot sooner and extra approachable expertise that I believe is much extra considerable for newcomers. As a prequel, there are spots that play in your expectations based mostly on data within the authentic sport, however I don’t assume it’d be to your detriment.
The best factor this remaster has completed has touched up the visuals. Not precisely the character fashions, which look stable in a better decision, however the backgrounds look really gorgeous in HD. We have now a considerable amount of basic RPG remasters within the earlier console technology that appeared to place the naked minimal quantity of effort into preserving the standard of the backgrounds. There’s no affirmation, but it surely nearly looks like they saved the unique background photographs. Perhaps they have been AI Upscaled, but when so it was completed expertly. These are the most effective cleaned-up backgrounds I’ve seen because the remaster of Legend of Mana. They’re stellar.
When the remasters launched, I’d name the efficiency nearly unacceptable. Baten Kaitos Origins appears to have been operating and searching good since day one and doubtless is even cleaner because the first patch. The unique Baten Kaitos has a wildly inconsistent body price that went all the best way from 30-60 on a whim. Outside areas have been nearer to 30, and small indoor areas have been often a locked 60. That is unusual since each space in each video games are pre-rendered backgrounds. Battles would go from about 33-47 fps, and it felt simply terrible to play. Since each video games have a pseudo-ATB system, your timing issues rather a lot.
However one other situation with timing comes from the QoL launched right here, particularly the speed-up choices. You possibly can improve sport speeds in each battle and out of doors to as much as 300%, and whereas that’s nice when you find yourself roaming the world issues come up in battles. With regards to protection within the authentic Baten Kaitos, you’ll want to choose your protection playing cards on the fly to dam assaults. With the sport pace so excessive, your window to get these blocks in time is sort of nonexistent. The QoL menu can’t be pulled up in battles although, so there’s no on-the-fly pace altering. When you decide one, you’re locked into that pace till your battle is finished. In Baten Kaitos Origins, you decide passive protection playing cards that’ll provide you with a few blocks stocked up, however the speed-up will in all probability additionally provide you with hassle with regular assaults. Since Baten Kaitos Origins is simply total a tougher and mechanically tighter expertise, I’m certain many will discover this pace choice not possible.
We even have a number of the traditional HD Remaster QoL right here, like having the ability to flip off encounters and kill issues immediately. An incredible choice they’ve added within the authentic Baten Kaitos is the flexibility to skip the flip battle outcomes display, rushing up battles exponentially. I nonetheless assume that the unique sport is a bit too sluggish for my liking.
On the present second, the one main remaining level of competition with the remaster is the exclusion of the English voice tracks from each authentic video games. Supposedly it is because they’d be incompatible with script adjustments, however from my analysis these variations are miniscule. A lot of the script is identical, however I’ve observed that the remaster refers back to the participant as genderless now. I wouldn’t be shocked if the Japanese model all the time did it like this, which is why that voice observe remained. I want the choice would have been obtainable, even when supposedly the dub for the primary sport is subpar in high quality. I’d all the time heard good issues about Baten Kaitos Origins’ localization, so on the very least, we get to learn that sport’s great script.
General (and after some post-launch updates) I’m content material with the state of Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster. That’s not precisely the tone I used to be anticipating to have through the launch interval, so I’m grateful that they mounted it rapidly even when I used to be annoyed that we wanted to attend every week in any respect. These are two very particular video games that deserved an excellent re-release, and I’m grateful that I used to be capable of expertise them on this style. They won’t appease each hardcore fan of the unique, however I doubt many would be capable of deny how good of a steal that is for newcomers seeking to expertise some cult classics. They’re flawed gems, however they’re sure to seize the eye of anybody on the lookout for one thing really distinctive.
Model Examined: Nintendo Swap
Evaluation copy offered by Bandai Namco Leisure
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