Baten Kaitos: Origins Official Thread

**magnifiedplaid** · 11 Oct 2006, 11:32 PM

I was finally able to pick up a copy of Baten Kaitos Origins yesterday, and so far its been a very "hit and miss" affair. I highly recommend that everyone RENT THIS GAME before purchasing it. I LOVED the first game, its one of my all time favorite games. So I am saddened by the fact that I am starting to wish that I didn't buy this. Here are some brief impressions of what I have played so far, and hopefully these will help you make an informed buying decision:

- One complaint that many people had with the first game was the voice acting. The developers of BK purposely recorded the voices like they were coming through a tunnel or something. I had no problems with these voice overs, but they saw fit to "improve" the voices, and they sound normal and clear now.

- Graphics wise, Baten Kaitos Origins is just as amazing looking as the first game. In fact, everything in the game (down to the menu screens) looks even more gorgeous than the first game. It again uses the gorgeously drawn static backgrounds, mixed with the polygonal character models to create some truly awe inspiring environments. In short, the graphics alone are almost enough to warrant playing through this game.

- One problem with the environments though, is that some of them are RECYCLED! I know this game is supposed to be a prequel, but did they really need to recycle some of the environments? SERIOUSLY, I mean that these environments are EXACTLY the same, right down to the placement of the NPC's and ENEMIES. This is a very disappointing aspect of the game, because it feels like I am playing the exact same game over again. They should have at least made the original environments look older or something...

NOW, the big difference between BK and BK: Origins is the battle system. The changes made to the battle system MIGHT ALIENATE some fans of the first game....and in my opinion...this battle system is slightly broken. So sorry if this post gets a bit lengthy but I feel some detailed explanation is needed

The main problem with the battle system is that it does not give you enough combinations of cards to succeed in battle. In the first game, each card had a spirit number and you could use attack cards in any sequential order from highest to lowest. For example, you could use a combo of 1,2,3, or 6,5,4. Furthermore, in the first game you could use combinations of "two (or three) of a kind" (e.g. 2,2). So, basically the first game implemented some poker type rules which allowed the player to creat MANY DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS of attacks and defensive manuevers. Thus, it was rare that you would be dealt a totally useless hand in Baten Kaitos.

For some odd reason Baten Kaitos Origins decided to drop the whole "poker combos." In BK:O you can only use cards that are sequentially higher than each other (e.g. 2,3,4) and you can NOT use cards that are sequentially lower (e.g. 4,3,2). Furthermore, BK:O does not allow you to use "two or three of a kinds." So, for example, if you are dealt a hand that has three attack cards that all have the spirit number "1" you can only use one card and then your turn in the battle is over (in the original game you could use all three of those cards in one turn). So, basically it feels like I end up with a useless hand of cards more often in this game than in the original.

The second difference in the battle system is they have basically eliminated defensive cards. You still have defensive cards, but now the character equips the card and it only lasts a certain amount of turns. After getting hit so many times the defensive card disappears. Thus your characters are open to attacks far more often, and this is much less enjoyable than simply using a defensive card to block when you want to, like in the first game.

The third change is the fact that in BK:O all the characters in the party share the same deck of cards. In the first game all the characters had a separate deck and you could customize how many healing items, weapons, and defensive cards each character would have. Now, they all share most of the same weapons and healing items. This just adds to the frustration of not being able to draw the proper cards at the right time, and major battles become more about luck than skill.

As far as the battles are concerned, I never became bored of them in the original BK. However, the battles in BK:O seem so disjointed and random that I am already dreading every battle in the game....which means that I probably wont be able to finish this game

- A final complaint about this game is some of the randomness of the subquests. From what I have played so far, it seems like their are more sidequests in this game than the actual main storyline (which creates needless backtracking)...which wouldn't be so bad if the sidequests made any sense. I have found myself stuck in quite a few places early on in the game for the most random non-sense....and I mean stupid stuff....like I talked to an NPC 2 times and I received a card from her. However, I was really supposed to talk to her 3 times to trigger an event...in order to receive a card I needed....so I could use the card to get the oil I needed....in order to give the oil to another dude...so I could get another item that would allow me to progress in the game. Of course I found this out after wandering aimlessly in the same area for two hours. Stupid BS like this is simply NOT FUN

BOTTOM LINE: It seems like they tried to simplify the combat system to gain more of a mainstream "EA Crowd", and in doing so they ripped out the heart of what made the battle system actually work. As most people who play RPG's know, an RPG without a compelling battle system is completely unplayable. However, I still encourage a RENTAL of BK: Origins for anybody who even slightly liked the first game...because who knows...you may end up liking it more than me.

**Finch** · 12 Oct 2006, 05:53 AM

The first game is sitting on my 40 dvd rack (which is currently overflowing with ... around 80 dvd's), practically unplayed. I'll play Origins first, so maybe i'll like it better.
I've read that the story is better in Origins. What do you think?

**Vasteel** · 12 Oct 2006, 09:25 PM

I played through the first one, and despite the atrocious design putting the excellent graphics to waste and abysmal story, the battle system was awesome, fast paced and kept me coming back.

So basically you're saying they neutered the best thing this game had going for it, and failed to rectify the poor character and level design- by recycling it?

As for the story, there's no excuse for not improving there- it better be a lot more than marginally better to be a selling point.