this is my first review... so I'll try to make it good :)
User Rating: 8 | Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean GC
Ok, this is my very first review. I'll try my best to make it good but no promises. Feel free to PM me with constructive criticism but try not to be too harsh. Baten Kaitos is probably one of the most controversial games in that you can ask for people's opinions on it and more or less get an equal number of people who say "it's great" and people who say "it sucks". So how is one to know whether the game is actually good or not? With this game, you'll pretty much either love it or you'll hate it, plain and simple. The game's story starts off slow, which is why I gave it a "grows on you" for classification. I didn't really like the game at first, but after a while (pretty much the entire first disk) the story really got good and I loved the game. If you decide to get this game, don't base your entire opinion on the first... oh 20 hours or so. Long time i know, but in my opinion, if you just stick with the game through that time, it's more than worth it. There are so many unexpected twists right up until the end. You'll laugh, you'll cry... it's just great lol. If you want to know the actual story, look it up on the site because I don't think that's something I should talk about here. I think the thing that makes people have such opposite opinions on this game is its card battle system. Yes, how many times have you read posts that talk about that. My opinion: it's a great and unique combat system. But obviously many don't agree. Of course, the system does have its flaws. For example, you have an offensive turn but only have all defensive cards in your hand, or vice-versa. Same thing with healing cards (especially when you accidentally heal the enemy). Perhaps the most annoying thing about healing in this game is that you use food magnus (cards) for that, and they not only rot very quickly and so are completely useless for healing, but can also rot during battle, which can be very bad when you're against a tough boss. However if you get the right cards, you can do massive amounts of damage, or, massive amounts of healing, which makes this game overall pretty easy. You will come across some tough bosses definately, but If you lose to a boss once, don't get discouraged because often if you get a better hand the next time you fight it you can win easily. Everyone's opinion on this battle system is different, so you'll just have to try it and make up your own mind. The graphics are definately amazing. The environments are great, the character sprites are pretty good, but the drawings in their dialougue boxes really helps with that. The movies, or should I say movie, is really realistic. The graphics in it are amazing, which is why it's really a shame the only movie in the whole game is the beginning movie. The sound in this game was pretty good, the music was great but the voice acting was only OK in most cases. I would say that only about half of the characters had good voice acting, or maybe even less than that. I gave the game such a huge tilt because even though the sound was just OK as far as voice acting went everything else was amazing. But because of the controversial battle system, I would still suggest a rent before a buy. Bottom line: as long as you like the battle system initially, give the game some time and you won't be sorry. 
