Baten Kaitos?

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Poet_JD

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I overlooked this game last generation, but for some reason I've gotten curious about this franchise. I know that the GC had Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and Baten Kaitos: Origins. Do you guys have any recommendations over which one was better?

How is the pacing of the battle system? Do you end up grinding a lot, and is there a lot of time wasted waiting through animations, menu selections, and other actions inherent to turn-based battling? I used to play Magic: The Gathering, and I was wondering if the card-battling here kind of follows a similar strategic bend.

A part of me just feels like this would be a great portable game. I prefer to play the 'faster' and more intense games (i.e. Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden Sigma) on my home theater and push all the other slower-paced stuff to handheld.
 
Yeah, if you are looking for something similar to Magic, you will be very disappointed in BK's card system. That said I really enjoyed the original (never played origins). The card system give you just enough input so that it's not just mindlessly hitting "Fight" over and over again. The way cards age and combine is a lot of fun too. But don't be thinking this is some super fast paced action game. It's still an rpg, they just have you trying to make runs of numbers while not cancelling out your elemental damage so your brain is engaged a bit more in the "regular" battles and not just at bosses.
 
I've played both and enjoyed both, but for different reasons. Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is probably my favorite GameCube game, and definitely in my all-time top 5. I loved the battle system, the story and the characters.

The battle system in Origins is much faster -- which can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. I was about 6-8 hours into Origins before I stopped wishing for the old battle system. I wasn't too keen on using only one deck for all of the characters at first (Eternal Wings had separate decks for each character) but I later found that I enjoyed the challenge of building a deck that would work for everyone. I wasn't very impressed with the characters or the story in Origins, but I did enjoy the humor and the cameos from characters in Eternal Wings.

I think the best advice I can give is, play Eternal Wings first, and if you like that (or even if you don't, especially if you think the battle system is too slow), pick up Origins.
 
[quote name='MidnightRain']I've played both and enjoyed both, but for different reasons. Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is probably my favorite GameCube game, and definitely in my all-time top 5. I loved the battle system, the story and the characters.

The battle system in Origins is much faster -- which can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. I was about 6-8 hours into Origins before I stopped wishing for the old battle system. I wasn't too keen on using only one deck for all of the characters at first (Eternal Wings had separate decks for each character) but I later found that I enjoyed the challenge of building a deck that would work for everyone. I wasn't very impressed with the characters or the story in Origins, but I did enjoy the humor and the cameos from characters in Eternal Wings.

I think the best advice I can give is, play Eternal Wings first, and if you like that (or even if you don't, especially if you think the battle system is too slow), pick up Origins.[/quote]

I agree I just got Origins and it took a few hours but I like the battle system. They're both good in different ways. Get them both.
 
[quote name='MidnightRain']I've played both and enjoyed both, but for different reasons. Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is probably my favorite GameCube game, and definitely in my all-time top 5. I loved the battle system, the story and the characters. [/QUOTE]

I think this is the first I've seen anyone say it was their favorite.

I bought the first because my brother said he liked the demo. I played for about an hour but I didn't really like it. But then again, 1 hour isn't a good way to check whether or not an RPG is good.
 
I'm real close to beating eternal wings right now.

It took me a long time to give the game a chance. I nabbed it for 10 bucks at a clearance sale, stashed it away, and didn't think about it much other than having another rpg in the backlog. Put it in a couple of times, played for an hour or so, and thought, meh, then went back to something else.

Fastforward a couple of years, I pop it in and give it a real chance. The game absolutely blew me away. The soundtrack is awesome. The backgrounds are beautiful. I've always liked games that had portraits in the dialog boxes. The battle system isn't really like anything else I've played. The story is solid for the most part. I really like the pacing. A lot of times you can pick up and play for 30 minutes or an hour and feel like you really are moving along in the story. None of the dungeons or bosses are super hard, but there is challenge in there(and I would reccomend using 2 save files, you can get stuck if you're not careful).

For the negatives - I personally did not like the character models. But I usually am picky with that. The dialog does seem unnatural at times(probly due to so-so translation) but it isn't major. And of course there is the voice acting. But with few exceptions, I despise voice acting so going w/o it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I would definitely reccomend the game. It's a real gem.
 
[quote name='Poet_JD']

How is the pacing of the battle system? Do you end up grinding a lot, and is there a lot of time wasted waiting through animations, menu selections, and other actions inherent to turn-based battling? [/QUOTE]

There really isn't much grinding required for the game. You might want to "farm" some cards that enemies drop to get a better deck, but it really isn't required. You do level up the characters, but I never really had a need to level up anyone.

The animations are mostly quick, and a lot of times you are picking your next move while the animation is going on anyway.

There is no real battle menu. The only part of dealing with the menus that might get tedious is building the decks. At first it will be easy, but in eternal wings you'll end up with a ton of cards and it can be a little cumbersome going through all of them.

I don't know which is better as I haven't played origins yet, but eternal wings led me to buy origins, which I will get around to eventually. I'd say get whatever is cheaper, and then get the other one if you like it.
 
I've played through them both. They are both solid RPGs, although the first game's voicework leaves something to be desired. Origins is, in my view, the better game, although playing the first BK does a lot to help flesh out Origins' plot, since Origins is a prequel. For me, once I played through Origins battle system, I had a hard time going back to the first BK.

If someone had the desire, I would suggest playing through them in the order they were published.
 
The original is one of my favorite games of the entire last generation. The deck building, the story, graphics and music are all top notch. There are tons of little side errands to do, and 2 game spanning deep sidequest that are done pretty well too. Voice acting is terrible in a way that it actually makes the game funny at moments that aren't supposed to be funny. Seriously, the voice acting is so beyond terrible that it loops back around the meter and becomes good again.

Origins was just about my most disappointing gaming moment at least in the past few years. The battling is faster but at the cost of individual decks, which seemed like a huge step back imo. The story is still damn good in origins, as is the music and visuals, and the voice acting quality is miles and miles better than Lost Oceans.
 
Thanks everyone, all that info was incredibly helpful! I've added Eternal Wings to my goozex requests. I'll likely jump on this game after Odin Sphere and Resident Evil 4 (Wii)... which could be a loooong time from now. =)
 
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