Baten Kaitos Origins

Once we though the gods were gone. But now their shadows rise anew…

JP release: 23rd February 2006
NA release: 25th September 2006
EU release: N/A
Developer: Monolith Soft, tri-Crescendo
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine Score: 79%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

After loving the first Baten Kaitos, I was very much looking forward to Origins, as it looked to be more of the same, but with a refined combat system. It all sounds good on paper, but not every game can gel with you, even if they might be better overall. I think a huge issue I have with this game is due to my patience, although I do think that a good start is still a very important factor, especially to an RPG.

And Baten Kaitos Origins pretty much fails completely in this regard. Because of a huge focus on mystery, nothing is clearly introduced. There’s three main character who all seem to have shady things about them, and I didn’t really like any of them. Loads of plots are introduced early on, but don’t really give you enough to understand them in the context of the universe, even though this is a prequel.

The starting areas are also rather grey, dark and static. The original game have you loads of beautiful looking animated backgrounds, ones where you could sit and stare at and get lost in, but nothing wowed me in the 7 hours I played the game for. Now, there are some stunning locations later on in the game, but that’s just the problem with the game overall: you have to wait far too long for the good stuff.

This even affects the combat. I’ve heard a lot of prise for the combat system in Baten Kaitos Origins, with it being a big improvement on the first. However, once again, it doesn’t really get good until you reach its full potential later on. For the first large chunk of the game, there aren’t many options and it pretty much plays itself. It does seem very much about building your deck of cards, which is a very slow process. It also doesn’t help that the game doesn’t explain anything about it.

Origins also seems to take one of my big problems with the first game and make it far worse: figuring out what to do. I had to look things up plenty of times, sometimes I missed one person to talk to and the game won’t let you progress until you’ve spoken to everyone, sometimes I missed a path because it was hidden by other objects. The most frustrating ones are where you have to talk to one specific person multiple times. It’s just frustrating evert time it happens.

Now, I’m certain that there’s a ton of great stuff in Baten Kaitos Origins, but no game should force you to to play 10+ hours of utter tedium before you get to experience any of that. It’s really a massive shame.

Fine

It mightn’t be as memorable an RPG as the classics (or even the first Kaitos), and the characterisation mightn’t be as strong, but Origins has managed to tame even the ever-grumbling RPG haters in the NGamer office.
Geraint Evans, NGamer #4

Remake or remaster?

This has had a remaster, although you need a mod to restore the English voice acting.

Official Ways to get the game

Baten Kaitos Origins is available on PC and Switch.