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Baten Kaitos Preview
Mark Simons
28/07/2003
We take a first look at this Namco published GameCube RPG from Monolith...
Namco have recently announced a new GameCube role-playing game from developers Monolith Soft, entitled 'Baten Kaitos'. It looks to offer some traditional gameplay, innovation and fantastic visuals, not to mention a suitably epic story in a spectacularly realised world. The people behind this game are something approaching a dream team for RPG fans, having worked on a number of classic titles between them.
Producer Tadashi Nomura has worked on 'Kingdom Hearts' and the 'Final Fantasy' series while director 'Hiroya Hatsushiba' has his experience on 'Star Ocean' and 'Valkyrie Profile' with the second director Yasuyuki Honne has 'Chrono Cross' and 'Xenosaga' on his resume. The cut-scenes will be handled by Mikitaka Kurasawa, who has previous form on 'Onimusha' and 'Resident Evil', which have some of the best video sequences in the videogames world. Story scenarios are delivered courtesy of Masato Kato who is another ex Square man with 'Final Fantasy' and 'Chrono Cross' experience. Finally the music is from Motoi Sakuraba who did compositions for 'Star Ocean 3'.
These are some heavyweights in key roles, so we can safely get excited about the prospects of this game delivering a great experience for GameCube owners ? as at the moment it seems it will only be out on Nintendo's machine.
'Baten Kaitos' is set in a world of massive floating islands with inhabitants who look rather human, there is however a twist. The inhabitants of the world have evolved 'Heart Wings' which look like angels wings, these cannot normally be seen, only under intense concentration or tension do they become visible. We get the feeling this could well tie into the storyline and gameplay, but we'll have to wait and see for sure.
Another feature of the world is that the humanoid characters are not alone; there are spirts, who happen to be from another time, place and dimension. Only a few people from 'Baten Kaitos'' world can communicate with these spirits, but we?re sure that these are some of the more interesting individuals you can meet on your journey. Some inhabitants of the world can do more than just communicate with the spirits, they can in fact harness their power, a sort of fusion of minds and body we guess, with implications for battles, calling on the spirits, that sort of thing.
Who will be going on this journey, and it always is a journey in RPGs, a physical trek, coupled with emotional development, soul searching and a journey deep into one?s soul to find out the true nature of your character. Or something. Anyway, who will be going with you on this epic mission?
So far we only know the two main characters:
Kalas is the major protagonist of the game, a seventeen year old boy, we?re sure he'll become a man by the end of the game, who only has one wing. In order to fly between the floating islands he has a mechanical wing to make up for his lop-sided nature. Interestingly Kalas is one of the few people who can use his body as a conduit for the spirits, this should come into play at various points in the game, we?re guessing in with battles, acting as a sort of summon facility, and the possibly in plot perhaps in a clairvoyant style.
Early on in the game Kalas meets up with Xelha, who appears to be the heroine, a seventeen year old girl she knows that a decidedly wicked plan has been put into action, and intends to put a stop to it. We don't know much more about her beyond that, but suffice to say, there is more than it seems at first glance, and no doubt this will become clear as the game progresses.
Namco also revealed a rather cute little creature called Meemai, which is Xelha's pet. This odd looking thing can transform into and imitate any creature it sees, a very useful skill for sure, and this could have some interesting applications in a battle scenario.
We?ll talk about the battles in a moment, but first let's talk about the visual style of the game.
With all of these spirits, floating islands and winged creatures, Baten Kaitos is definitely on the fantasy side of things, and has a look that does justice to the setting. The adventure parts of the game seem to be done in a traditional two-dimensional style, harking back to a golden age of SNES RPGs. With vastly increased storage since those days, the backdrops have a resolution that allows them to look absolutely stunning. The impact they make is also down to the style, varied but consistently spectacular, whether it's a floating island, bridge of ice in a cavern, candy land, classic medieval style village or bizarre and fantastical everything looks wonderful from an artistic standpoint.
Characters are rendered in three dimensions, but because of the style they are drawn in they fit with the world that surrounds them. Battle scenes are fully fleshed out in three-dimensions, they are filled with required spectacular particle effects to accompany attacks and feature some interesting enemies, not to mention interesting control system.
The battle system in 'Baten Kaitos' is rather interesting, not entirely new, but a variant on a theme that is becoming more popular; it is card based. A bit like the system used in the 'Lost Kingdoms' series and Sega's upcoming 'Phantasy Star Online' game, but Monolith have their own take on things.
Rather than go for a turn based tactical approach 'Baten Kaitos', whilst still requiring thought, has its focus on speed and reflexes. You will need cards to perform everything, even moves that are seemingly standard in role-playing battles. This requires you to think a little bit more about preparing for battles, so that you can perform adequately once you?re in them.
There are time limits on moves, but this keeps the pace up and everthing seems to flow quite well. We are sure that there will be depth to this system, with combo attacks Monolith say you can utilise over 1000 different moves, which is a lot by anyone?s reckoning.
