Baten Kaitos: Origins [USA]

[elkatas]

I noticed that there isn't first play thread for this game, so I decided to create one. Baten Kaitos: Origins prequel for first Baten Kaitos, RPG game with card based combat system that you either loved or hated. Main gripe that most players had with first Baten Kaitos was the combat system. Baten Kaitos: Origins hasn't discarded predecessor's card based combat system, but the system has got major revamp.

The most important change in the system is that every character in your group uses same deck. Basic attack cards are same for everyone, but special attacks are character specific. You can play another combat card on the top of last one so long as it has higher number that card that was played before it. Instead of attacking, each character can use single healing or status card. Different armor cards are also there, but they are always valued with 0 and can be played only on the start of the combo. By my experience, this really weakens their effectiveness.

Another major change in combat mechanics is that you can discard more than one card from your hand in single round. How many cards you can keep in your hand and discard during your turn is based on party's current deck level, that steadily raises as you collect technical points from defeated enemies. Progession is quite fast, and after playing game for nine hours, I can discard three cards per each character's turn. This makes game less luck and more deck building based than its predecessor, as you can relatively quickly shuffle around deck and get cards you need.

Graphically Baten Kaitos: Origins doesn't really differ from its predecessor with its beautifully handdrawn backgrounds. As game is marketed as a sequel for the first game, you will visit many places from first game, but each background has at least some minor changes if compared to first Baten Kaitos. Music is little worse than in first Baten Kaitos and remind more of Motoi Sakuraba's Tales works. On the positive side, voice acting is much better now. It isn't great by any means, but not bad either (in first game, you just wanted to switch voice acting off so soon as it was possible).

As I said before, I have played game now for nine hours and thematically it follows your standard JRPG conventions. You only have three characters in the game, so interaction between characters is bit better than in most JRPGs. Before I understood to manage my decks, combat did take very long time to resolve, and I was also forced to grind levels to beat certain bosses. But after I started to pay more attention to deck building and use discard button more actively, combat has gone way more quicker than before.

In overall, so far Baten Kaitos: Origins has been fun little JRPG with fresh combat system. But from what I have heard from other players, game will get better more farther you play and there will be some serious WTF plot twists, like the case was with first Baten Kaitos.

[briareos_kerensky]

Baten Kaitos Origins

So, here we have one of the last important titles for the GameCube.
Baten Kaitos Origins is set before the first BK, and this means that some characters and locations met in the original game will be encountered in this game too...and, if I might add, this is one of the complaints I have. But I'll speak of that later.
The game, except its battle system, plays like the previous game, with the player taking the part of a guardian spirit residint in the main character's hearth. As with the original game, sometimes you'll be asked to speak with Sagi, the main character, give him suggestions and similar things; if the guardian spirit and Sagi share the same vision, it will be easier to draw favorable cards during battle and probably this will influence the ending, too.
Talking about characters, it's nice to see that the game designers put some effort in making somewhat original characters: we've got a young boy working for a secret service talking out loud to thin air, a rich, sheltered girl usign armored balls to fight and my favourite: a foul-mouthed, sarcastic, sexually challenged android with enloging arms. Can't wait to see what the other party members will look like. And, thankfully enough, these three character voices are good, though not excellent, and the dubbing quality seems higher than the first title, though heavy accents might not be everyone's liking and some voices are just plain.
As with the first Baten Kaitos, Origins features 3D characters over preredenred 2D backgrounds; I liked how they blended together but now looks like they don't bled that good, with characters not interacting with reflective floors or too detailed when compared to the sorroundings. There are some places where everything feels more uniform, though. I'd like also to point out that the new 2D backgrounds sometime lack any perception of depth, resulting in much confusion on heights and terrain structure. As I said before the game features some locations took from the first game, and this, gameplay wise is a double-edged sword: it's good to walk again the same streets of the same town of the previous game, visiting houses that haven't changed much and so on, but it feels so...recycled.
Unfortunately locations aren't the only thing took from the first episode: some enemies and battle cards are the same, and in the case of battle cards, this is bad, because some of them have changed the way they work. In fact, the whole battle system is new, and having played the original BK will only give you a rough idea of the new system. Without an in-game tutorial, reading a manual if a must for both newcomers and seasoned players, or you'll just end up in guessing how the system work.
The basics are the same: there are no classical actions, just a deck of cards (Magnus) representing attacks, special attacks, items and the usual things you find in any other RPG as a command. At the beggining of each battle, dependign on your class, you'll draw a certain amount of card from this deck and will begin to fight. Most cards have a number on their lower right corner, ranging from 0 to 6, instead than a full scale of the original. Also, cards can also be played in increasing value, and no cards with the same number can be played in the same attack phase. Not enough, the deck is shared between all party active members, so defensive items or special attacks for a specific party member could end in your hand when it's someone's else turn to attack. It's true that you can discard unwated cards to foirce new cards to be drawn and doing so won't keep the party member as busy as using an item, but battles are fast, and it's somewhat hard to decide what cards to discard remembering who can use them and who will be the next to attack. A shared deck also mean that the only difference between characters are their special attacks and useable items: standard attacks do not have any elemental affinity and this effect can be added only by playing a "0" card. Such "0" cards are reffered as equipment cards, and once played they will last for a certain amount of uses (number of attacks for weapons and number of defeces for armors) or until they will be replaced with a new "0" card.
A new addition to the battle system is the "R" capability of few cards which are used to link attacks between party members.
The highlights of this new battle system is that battles are much more faster and with a better rhtym, as there is no more division between attack and defense phases.
However, these faster battles also mean that they are a bit more chaotich and the limited time a player has to select a card or the target for that card means that newcomers might end up in losing turns because they weren't fast enough to reach the card with the cursor. Also, the whole thing seems even more luck-based that the first game. This is especially true in the first hour, where you only have access to the stock deck and you'll feel always short-handed of attack cards. Doing some shopping in the first store will help, but with the addiction of party members and a somewhat slow-growing number of maximum cards in the deck you'll always feel that non-attack items are a bit too much. Unfortunately, mindless use or discard won't let you play a much needed curative item until the deck has been completely played and therefore reshuffled.
Musically speaking...well, some tracks from the first game remixed and rearragend, nothing really new nor particularly interesting.

So far Baten Kaitos Origins is a mixed bag. Despite all battles are fun and the game feels like a decent RPG. However, it will be on hold until Xeno III and Okami are done, the game itself is nothing really new...I do hope in some nasty plot twist as in the first game to spice up things, however.

[eastyy]

In the original i just did not like the random cards

It really put me off i had hoped that at the very least you could choose what order you wanted the cards drawn

[AdamJW]

I have this myself but haven't had time to spend any decent time with it yet because I'm firmly locked inside a serious Disgaea 2 habit that I don't intend going cold turkey for, for some time.

[elkatas]

Can't wait to see what the other party members will look like.

There isn't any other party members. I have now played game for 18 hours, and I think this is actually good decision, because dialog / other interaction between characters is more fleshed out than in your usual JRPG.

Also, the whole thing seems even more luck-based that the first game. This is especially true in the first hour, where you only have access to the stock deck and you'll feel always short-handed of attack cards.

Luck is really big factor only during first hours, as you don't have enough cards to create good deck. When game progressess, you have access to more cards and game gets much easier. Plus discard button is very important part of the combat.

Musically speaking...well, some tracks from the first game remixed and rearragend, nothing really new nor particularly interesting.

Yeah, musically game is pretty average. There is some really good pieces (like: The Poacher), but also some really lame stuff.

[lilman]

Ordered this earlier, looking forward to giving it a go later this week

[elkatas]

I do hope in some nasty plot twist as in the first game to spice up things, however.

I can confirm that the game has some really plot twists on the second disc.