"Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Ocean is beautiful and has the gameplay and sound to make it easy to recommend."
User Rating: 8.6 | Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean GC
Alright, so I have a cube. My favourite genre, though, is by far the RPG genre. I love Final Fantasy, loved ToS, but I was running out of good RPGs. So when I heard of Monoliths new RPG, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, I was thrilled. That said, the game certainly lived up to the hype. Story Baten Kaitos is a little typical in terms of story. You are some guy, you meet some girl, you try to stop an empire from destroying the world with some evil god... but there are some interesting twists making it worthwhile. The world of Baten Kaitos is floating in the sky. The ocean is but a myth, and so is the whale. However the evil god, Malpercio, sucked up the ocean and the whale. I don’t want to spoil it for you though :) Now, the core of any RPG.... Gameplay: 8/10 Baten Kaitos did a good job with controls, being akin to any FF game. It has a new way of looking at things; you are not Kalas, the main hero, you are his guardian angle. You can pick what he says and does, and sometimes he turns to speak with you. The battle system uses cards called Magnus. Magnus (Magna Essence) is the essence of an object, trapped in a card. For example, a Long Sword Magnus used in battle makes Kalas, use a sword attack on the enemy. Over time, magnus changes. So, you may start with a green banana essence which is used as a weapon, but over time it will turn into a normal one which is for healing, then into a brown one, also a weapon. You are even able to trap things around the world into Magnus cards, which can be used for side-quests. Last, you can take pictures of enemies that develop over time and can be sold for money. Graphics: 10/10 Baten Kaitos is beautiful…stunning. The battle effects are godly and the characters look great. The characters all have anime counterparts in the speech bubbles, and let me say, they look better there than in ToS. I cannot stop myself from saying this is the most beautiful game for gamecube. Sound: 8/10 Baten Kaitos has great music. It always seams fitting and has a nice catchy battle tune. The voice acting is descent, and Monolith even distorted the voices, because you hear it from an alternate dimension. There are enough battle cries to make it a good recommendation in terms of sound. Value: 8/10 Baten Kaitos is definitely worth the money and usually plays around 60h, a little more than most of the genre. It has no multi player, but makes up for it with the strong single player. Tilt: 9/10 The game is worth playing over many times, with over 1000 magnus cards and many choices. Not much more to say here. Bottom line: Baten Kaitos is beautiful and has the game play and sound to make it easy to recommend. 
