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Baten Kaitos
Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean
Clocked up 4 and a half hours on this so far, and I have to say I'm becoming a fan of Namco. They've given us two fantastic (and exclusive) RPGs this year, Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos. Both similar, and yet very different.
Tales has the younger anime style look to it, where as Kaitos has a more adult look to it. Have to say I prefer Kaitos' graphics over Tales, they are far more detailed and yet still retain that 'warm' look. It's a bit weird at first, the backgrounds look finely hand drawn and are similar to RE's pre-rendered backdrops. This means you can't move the camera around yourself, and in bigger areas your character is going to be look tiny running around at the back end of the screen, which can make it a little difficult to spot everything you can interact with or enter/exit from. After the first 40 minutes or so I'd fully adjusted to this and it's no longer an issue.
Combat differs greatly as well. Tales uses a real time combat system where you can pause to issue commands to other team members, and Kaitos uses a good old turn based system, it also uses cards. Now I've never been a big fan of card systems, and I had my doubts at the start of the game. Naturally I hadn't read the manual, and while working everything out was simple enough, the battle system, had me a little puzzled over the fine details. But I can confirm that, like the rest of the game, what initially starts out as a bit dodgy soon becomes enjoyable and feels natural. Here's a little run down of the coolness battle system:
Everything comes on cards, items, weapons, equipment etc.
You have a combat 'deck' of cards (starts at 20). You choose which of your cards (can hold 1000) you want to use in this deck. In battle you recieve your hand of 3 (gets bigger later) active cards randomly, you have to use these cards to attack/defend/use items. As you use each card, the next from the battle deck is added to your active hand. When you've used them all the battle deck is simply reshuffled and you work through them again.
These are some cards you will start with:
Short Sword - Attack 5 Defend 3
This means when you use this card on an offensive turn you will do 5 damage (although this is obviously modified by character stats and stuff, I'll keep it simple). If you use it to defend you will block 3 physical damage.
Long Sword - Attack 12 Defend 6
Round Shield - Defend 10
Bananas - Heal 90 HP
Nothing you use in battle is used up. If you use some Bananas outside of battle to heal, you lose that card. If you use them in battle you keep the card and can use it as many times as you like, though it returns to the deck after use.
You can use more than 1 card to create combos, initially you can use two cards in your offense round. In the defense round you can use as many defence cards as they use offense cards. At the moment I can use up to 3 cards in offense. Damage is worked out from the total of the combo and the total of the combo defense, so what order you set it up in is irrelvant (except something I'll come on to in a bit). This means if you used a fire attack and a water attack in the same combo, they would negate each other and you would do hardly any damage.
Every card has a spirit number. These are used to get extra combat bonuses called 'Prizes'. For example, if I do a 2 card combo and both cards have spirit number 4, I would get a 10% bonus to the total damage done. If I used a 3 card offense combo with spirit numbers 5,6 and 7 (has to be played in order though) I would recieve a 30% bonus to total damage. Likewise with defensive cards, except there you would recieve a % reduction on total damage you took.
Later cards have more than 1 number (up to 4), at this point you'll start using the C-stick to choose cards, as you tilt it in the direction of the number you wish to use this round. That obviously makes it easier to earn prizes.
When certain cards are played in a certain order you can uncover secret special attacks, or create a brand new card to use in the future.
Types of attacks are physical, fire, water, light, dark, ice, wind and chrono. Same for types of defense. Something like an ice shield can absorb up to 8 points of physical damage, and 14 points of fire damage.
The battle system is good as it keeps you on your toes, you have to be quick selecting your defense cards as they are playing their attacks. And you have to be quick to select the right cards in a combo whilst looking for spirit point patterns. There is more but, cba.
Like Tales, Kaitos has a decent storyline and feels grand, it uses two discs and I would guess at it being roughly the same length as Tales. The characters look and sound good and the world is beautiful indeed. One of my favourite aspects so far is that you don't pick up coins by killing wild creatures. Instead, you have to use the camera card to take pictures of enemies which you can sell for much gold. Pics take about 10 minutes real time to develop fully, selling them earlier won't earn as much. Alos, clarity and exposure make a difference, if you're in a cave and use a dark move followed by a picture, the lack of light will produce a rubbish picture that is too dark. But do not fear, it's nothing like as fiddly or crappy as it sounds.
The only let down is the speech of the 'extras' characters. Main characters is fine, but the rest sound a bit...off, not quite the quality of Tales but still fine anyway.
Basically this RPG pwns and Namco should be proud of themselves. Two excellent and very different RPGs within a few months of each other, so if you hate one style (like turn based) you should at least enjoy the other. And for people like me you'll be in RPG bliss this December. I would give both a nice 8.5/10, though obviously I've barely scratched the surface of Baten Kaitos.
Only problem now is I'm 8 hours into the brilliant Paper Mario 2, and now nearly 5 hours into this...I just can't decide which to play at a time.
In short: buy buy buy in February or whenever. Of if you import put your silly DS away with it's tiny screens and import a mans game :)
Baten Kaitos
Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean
Clocked up 4 and a half hours on this so far, and I have to say I'm becoming a fan of Namco. They've given us two fantastic (and exclusive) RPGs this year, Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos. Both similar, and yet very different.
Tales has the younger anime style look to it, where as Kaitos has a more adult look to it. Have to say I prefer Kaitos' graphics over Tales, they are far more detailed and yet still retain that 'warm' look. It's a bit weird at first, the backgrounds look finely hand drawn and are similar to RE's pre-rendered backdrops. This means you can't move the camera around yourself, and in bigger areas your character is going to be look tiny running around at the back end of the screen, which can make it a little difficult to spot everything you can interact with or enter/exit from. After the first 40 minutes or so I'd fully adjusted to this and it's no longer an issue.
Combat differs greatly as well. Tales uses a real time combat system where you can pause to issue commands to other team members, and Kaitos uses a good old turn based system, it also uses cards. Now I've never been a big fan of card systems, and I had my doubts at the start of the game. Naturally I hadn't read the manual, and while working everything out was simple enough, the battle system, had me a little puzzled over the fine details. But I can confirm that, like the rest of the game, what initially starts out as a bit dodgy soon becomes enjoyable and feels natural. Here's a little run down of the coolness battle system:
Everything comes on cards, items, weapons, equipment etc.
You have a combat 'deck' of cards (starts at 20). You choose which of your cards (can hold 1000) you want to use in this deck. In battle you recieve your hand of 3 (gets bigger later) active cards randomly, you have to use these cards to attack/defend/use items. As you use each card, the next from the battle deck is added to your active hand. When you've used them all the battle deck is simply reshuffled and you work through them again.
These are some cards you will start with:
Short Sword - Attack 5 Defend 3
This means when you use this card on an offensive turn you will do 5 damage (although this is obviously modified by character stats and stuff, I'll keep it simple). If you use it to defend you will block 3 physical damage.
Long Sword - Attack 12 Defend 6
Round Shield - Defend 10
Bananas - Heal 90 HP
Nothing you use in battle is used up. If you use some Bananas outside of battle to heal, you lose that card. If you use them in battle you keep the card and can use it as many times as you like, though it returns to the deck after use.
You can use more than 1 card to create combos, initially you can use two cards in your offense round. In the defense round you can use as many defence cards as they use offense cards. At the moment I can use up to 3 cards in offense. Damage is worked out from the total of the combo and the total of the combo defense, so what order you set it up in is irrelvant (except something I'll come on to in a bit). This means if you used a fire attack and a water attack in the same combo, they would negate each other and you would do hardly any damage.
Every card has a spirit number. These are used to get extra combat bonuses called 'Prizes'. For example, if I do a 2 card combo and both cards have spirit number 4, I would get a 10% bonus to the total damage done. If I used a 3 card offense combo with spirit numbers 5,6 and 7 (has to be played in order though) I would recieve a 30% bonus to total damage. Likewise with defensive cards, except there you would recieve a % reduction on total damage you took.
Later cards have more than 1 number (up to 4), at this point you'll start using the C-stick to choose cards, as you tilt it in the direction of the number you wish to use this round. That obviously makes it easier to earn prizes.
When certain cards are played in a certain order you can uncover secret special attacks, or create a brand new card to use in the future.
Types of attacks are physical, fire, water, light, dark, ice, wind and chrono. Same for types of defense. Something like an ice shield can absorb up to 8 points of physical damage, and 14 points of fire damage.
The battle system is good as it keeps you on your toes, you have to be quick selecting your defense cards as they are playing their attacks. And you have to be quick to select the right cards in a combo whilst looking for spirit point patterns. There is more but, cba.
Like Tales, Kaitos has a decent storyline and feels grand, it uses two discs and I would guess at it being roughly the same length as Tales. The characters look and sound good and the world is beautiful indeed. One of my favourite aspects so far is that you don't pick up coins by killing wild creatures. Instead, you have to use the camera card to take pictures of enemies which you can sell for much gold. Pics take about 10 minutes real time to develop fully, selling them earlier won't earn as much. Alos, clarity and exposure make a difference, if you're in a cave and use a dark move followed by a picture, the lack of light will produce a rubbish picture that is too dark. But do not fear, it's nothing like as fiddly or crappy as it sounds.
The only let down is the speech of the 'extras' characters. Main characters is fine, but the rest sound a bit...off, not quite the quality of Tales but still fine anyway.
Basically this RPG pwns and Namco should be proud of themselves. Two excellent and very different RPGs within a few months of each other, so if you hate one style (like turn based) you should at least enjoy the other. And for people like me you'll be in RPG bliss this December. I would give both a nice 8.5/10, though obviously I've barely scratched the surface of Baten Kaitos.
Only problem now is I'm 8 hours into the brilliant Paper Mario 2, and now nearly 5 hours into this...I just can't decide which to play at a time.
In short: buy buy buy in February or whenever. Of if you import put your silly DS away with it's tiny screens and import a mans game :)
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Whitestripes DX wrote:
> No that's Mitzudo or something. Haven't met him yet.
>
> Lyude is the Imperial guy who turns against his own Empire, a bit
> like Enrique from SOA.
How does the gayness match up?
> No that's Mitzudo or something. Haven't met him yet.
>
> Lyude is the Imperial guy who turns against his own Empire, a bit
> like Enrique from SOA.
How does the gayness match up?
FinalFantasyFanatic wrote:
> Whitestripes DX wrote:
> No that's Mitzudo or something. Haven't met him yet.
>
> Lyude is the Imperial guy who turns against his own Empire, a bit
> like Enrique from SOA.
>
> How does the gayness match up?
Lol I never considered Enrique as gay, ecpecially since he gets married to the princess of Yafutoma.
> Whitestripes DX wrote:
> No that's Mitzudo or something. Haven't met him yet.
>
> Lyude is the Imperial guy who turns against his own Empire, a bit
> like Enrique from SOA.
>
> How does the gayness match up?
Lol I never considered Enrique as gay, ecpecially since he gets married to the princess of Yafutoma.
Much less gay.
He's a weapons expert and he certainly isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
Looks cooler too.
He's a weapons expert and he certainly isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
Looks cooler too.
Whitestripes DX wrote:
> Much less gay.
>isn't afraid to get his hands dirty
A contradiction in terms, surely?
Aoh-ho-ho.
Does the game feel as good as the intro looks?
> Much less gay.
>isn't afraid to get his hands dirty
A contradiction in terms, surely?
Aoh-ho-ho.
Does the game feel as good as the intro looks?
Well I'm certainly enjoying it, but it is very linear and formulaic so far. I haven't had the freedom to travel where I want yet, it's like the start of Wind Waker where you're told to 'go here and do that', although it does make sense with the storyline and the urgency of your mission. And it will open up for exploration later.
What really annoys me is that, like with Tales, none of the clips of FMV scenes at the start actually exist in the game. I've actually reached most of the points you see FMV clips of, and instead it's just the characters standing around talking with the in game graphics. They've already made some of it so why not finish it and stick them all in the game?
I do love FMV scenes :(
What really annoys me is that, like with Tales, none of the clips of FMV scenes at the start actually exist in the game. I've actually reached most of the points you see FMV clips of, and instead it's just the characters standing around talking with the in game graphics. They've already made some of it so why not finish it and stick them all in the game?
I do love FMV scenes :(
Whitestripes DX wrote:
>And it will open up for exploration later.
Sure?
Promise?
> I do love FMV scenes :(
As do I - they can really make a game. Especially in RPGs, they're one of the most important things.
>And it will open up for exploration later.
Sure?
Promise?
> I do love FMV scenes :(
As do I - they can really make a game. Especially in RPGs, they're one of the most important things.
But the problem is have you even put any MV scenes into the game? Coz tales had at least 2 or 3 especially the ending one, now that was cool.
these two games have been giving me trouble
im soo confused on which one to get. Ill ask a few questions which may help me decide.
I want to knwo what the whole cooking thing is about in tales
Can you customize how the charecters look in any of the games
Which game has more freedom to do side quests and level up more
Right now i feel i want to get Baten Kaitos but the only thing that is holding me back is that do the charecters always look the same apart from the different weapons, can you change their clothes and stuff.
Thanks.
im soo confused on which one to get. Ill ask a few questions which may help me decide.
I want to knwo what the whole cooking thing is about in tales
Can you customize how the charecters look in any of the games
Which game has more freedom to do side quests and level up more
Right now i feel i want to get Baten Kaitos but the only thing that is holding me back is that do the charecters always look the same apart from the different weapons, can you change their clothes and stuff.
Thanks.
You're really choosing between them based on whether you can dress the characters up differently or not?
no its not like that but like in pso you had charecter creation is there anything like that or is it kust that the weapons change.
Anyway i know its silly
can you please just tell me which one is better and which i should go for. I dont mind at all about the card battle system as i am importing the game. Either tales or Baten Kaitos.
Please help
Anyway i know its silly
can you please just tell me which one is better and which i should go for. I dont mind at all about the card battle system as i am importing the game. Either tales or Baten Kaitos.
Please help
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