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[Eric-GCA]

http://cube.ign.com/articles/566/566127p1.html

Closing Comments
In short, Baten Kaitos delivers one of the finer experiences on the GameCube. If you own the system and love RPGs, go buy this sucker just as soon as it lands on store shelves. It boasts great visuals, genuine characters and a solid, albeit somewhat unoriginal, story. The combat is fast and unique, with over 1,000 cards to form your perfect deck. The journey should last around 45 hours for the average gamer, but expect to spend some extra time if you want to unlock everything this game has to offer. Highly recommended.
-- Juan Castro

Presentation 8.5
Beautiful game world. The entire package is slick and polished.

Graphics 8.5
Spectacular vistas and world design. Smooth character animation and nifty enviornmental effects.

Sound 9.0
Awesome soundtrack. One of the best on the system.

Gameplay 8.5
Solid combat, great pacing and a refreshing take on inventory management and battles.

Lasting Appeal 8.0
A lengthy, 45-plus hour RPG. Unlockable combos take time to discover.


8.8 Overall

 

[TheGreenGiant]

holy fuck. Still not buying.

 

[paul777]

45-plus hour game = 8.0 lasting appeal? Am I missing something?

 

[ferricide]

genuine characters and a solid, albeit somewhat unoriginal, story

more like "unbelievably shitty characters and the most cliched story of this generation" but hey. at least it's purty!

 

[Mejilan]

Reading but that mini-lecture about exclusives in the beginning is nauseating.

 

[SantaC]

Sound 9.0
Awesome soundtrack. One of the best on the system.

and it's a 9.0?

anyway i am surprised by the high score. 8.8 is great. ToS got 8.5

 

[Mejilan]

Soundtrack is indeed freaking awesome. Perhaps the sounds effects weren't as good?

 

[Soul4ger]

I really want this game. This review doesn't change that desire. Doesn't augment it, either.

 

[ferricide]

Soundtrack is indeed freaking awesome. Perhaps the sounds effects weren't as good?

the voice acting is among the worst of this generation. certainly for an RPG. if i had to grade it on "sound" (thank god i don't) i'd jack it down at least a few points -- it's that bad. the only saving grace is that you can turn it off in the options. not only is the acting abysmally amaturish, there's this weird tinny quality to the recording and/or encoding that sounds awful.

it's a good game. it just has lots of annoying flaws, some of which are pretty big ones.

 

[SantaC]

the voice acting is among the worst of this generation. certainly for an RPG. if i had to grade it on "sound" (thank god i don't) i'd jack it down at least a few points -- it's that bad. the only saving grace is that you can turn it off in the options. not only is the acting abysmally amaturish, there's this weird tinny quality to the recording and/or encoding that sounds awful.

it's a good game. it just has lots of annoying flaws, some of which are pretty big ones.

and people were saying BK had better voiceacting than ToS...

 

[Eric-GCA]

Wow, and I remember people complaining about the TOS voice acting, even though I thought it wasn't bad. But now it seems that BK has much worse VA, is Namco inept at finding competent Direction for the VA's? I mean, just look at/listen to Soul Calibur 2

 

[ferricide]

and people were saying BK had better voiceacting than ToS...

maybe the imports did; i don't know.

as for the US version? whoever is saying that is on some scary fucking crack.

i think xenosaga and TOS have A-OK voice acting. BK's is profoundly poor.

 

[captmcblack]

Oh, so fucking beautiful.

...but cards. WHY ROBOT CHRIST, WHY?

 

[Speevy]

When I played the demo, I thought the battle backgrounds had some awful textures. I mean, like PS2 generic.

 

[Soul4ger]

Oh, so fucking beautiful.

...but cards. WHY ROBOT CHRIST, WHY?

Oh ROBOT CHRIST, shut up.

 

[ferricide]

Oh, so fucking beautiful.

...but cards. WHY ROBOT CHRIST, WHY?

cards are good. the cards are a large part of what keeps this game from being shit, actually.

everyone hates cards but i don't think anyone really has any reason to hate cards besides some sort of prejudice. i mean, just because yu-gi-oh! is stupid does not mean that cards are an invalid form of game design.

 

[Mejilan]

Juan Carlos = 1 BAd spellAR!1!

What a boring review.

 

[SantaC]

maybe the imports did; i don't know.

as for the US version? whoever is saying that is on some scary fucking crack.

i think xenosaga and TOS have A-OK voice acting. BK's is profoundly poor.

oh well guess I turn it off then. 8.8 is still surprisingly high.

 

[Speevy]

I don't see how anyone could possibly be surprised by this review. IGN basically confirmed that every one of the "Gamecube Holiday 5" would get over an 8.5. I think Mario Tennis is much better, frankly.



But this also means that Mario Party 6 sucks.

 

[belgurdo]

So this game is typical JRPG cliched badness, but disguising the menus with cards and rubbing oil pastels over the art elevates its score, then?

 

[GaimeGuy]

So this game is typical JRPG cliched badness, but disguising the menus with cards and rubbing oil pastels over the art elevates its score, then?

for the love of god, NO. -_-

 

[snapty00]

How much does this game cost?

I might pick it up...I just don't know. I want to like it, but I don't want to be burned out of $50 if it ends up sucking, either. Is the game fast-paced enough to keep me from being bored but slow enough to give me time to think?

 

[ferricide]

disguising the menus with cards

if that's acutally all they did, then it wouldn't. but there's a fair bit of depth to the card system, with some really interesting ideas (unfortunately, not all of them are as fleshed out as they should be, but they're still interesting.) also the game's quite easy so you don't really need to use the card strategy, which is irksome and makes it kind of dull.

fans were just telling people "it's just like a regular RPG! don't worry!" to try and win back people who were like OMG CARDS NO!!!!! in truth there's more to it, and that's enough to keep the game from completely faltering.

if this game just had a push-X battle system i would have savaged it. i gave it a 6.5 in the ol' EGM, and (obviously) i think that's quite right.

How much does this game cost?

full price. outpost.com has it for $38, i believe wario64 posted.

I might pick it up...I just don't know. I want to like it, but I don't want to be burned out of $50 if it ends up sucking, either. Is the game fast-paced enough to keep me from being bored but slow enough to give me time to think?

the battles aren't so fast-paced. they're like, square-paced. but it has this annoying timer that ends your turn (for no real reason but to make sure you have to act quickly -- the game isn't actually ATB at all) if you don't keep picking cards, which is yet another dumb little flaw in the game.

 

[Greenpanda]

I'd be all over this except I'm still finishing Shin Megaten III, and then I'll probably pick up Nightmare of Druaga.

Maybe in 2005, I guess

edit : Oh, it's that easy, huh? Well, I'll probably still play it eventually...

 

[GaimeGuy]

How much does this game cost?

I might pick it up...I just don't know. I want to like it, but I don't want to be burned out of $50 if it ends up sucking, either. Is the game fast-paced enough to keep me from being bored but slow enough to give me time to think?

snapty, you should maybe rent it first, and then see what you think about it. If you like what you play, buy. If not, well, you saved 45 dollars.

 

[Che]

the voice acting is among the worst of this generation. certainly for an RPG.

Is it worse than FFX?

 

[ferricide]

Is it worse than FFX?

...

 

[Culex]

I think the most amazing part is that the GC is having the best year out of all three systems, RPG-wise.

 

[cvxfreak]

Very nice that Namco decided to bring this here. The game bombed in Japan, so I hope high U.S. sales make up for it.

 

[Speevy]

I think the most amazing part is that the GC is having the best year out of all three systems, RPG-wise.

The Gamecube's game of the year has already been released, and so many sites underrated it.

 

[Bebpo]

more like "unbelievably shitty characters and the most cliched story of this generation" but hey. at least it's purty!

heh, IAWTP but hey it had one good plot twist!

Well and the whole 'you are in the game' aspect was pretty cool throughout especially in the ending.

But otherwise it's a generic 8-bit story structure without an interesting cast.

but the gameplay system does rock heavily. The battle engine is A LOT of fun and well designed. But the game is too easy and doesn't force you do take full advantage of the system (or if you do then you're godly unstoppable ) Also the dungeons are pretty nice (Druaga one especially) except the one that's like a Zork dungeon and you have to use a piece of paper to get through it >_<

 

[AniHawk]

I think the most amazing part is that the GC is having the best year out of all three systems, RPG-wise.

I wouldn't go THAT far. It is having a good year as far as post-SNES Nintendo systems go, though.

*hasn't played SMT, SH:C, or BKaitos yet*

And since ferricide loves this game, I'm sold on it.

 

[Dead]

As god awfully and mind numbingly horrible as FFX was, Voice Acting was never really sub par.

I think the most amazing part is that the GC is having the best year out of all three systems, RPG-wise.

yeah, no.

 

[Speevy]

As god awfully and mind numbingly horrible as FFX was, Voice Acting was never really sub par.

Disturbing and annoying it was, however.

 

[ferricide]

heh, IAWTP but hey it had one good plot twist!

the plot twist was pretty boss, yeah. that was a REALLY enjoyable 10 minutes of scenario in the middle of a goddamn desert.

and then back to (retarded) business as usual. this is one of those games where everyone seems to have the reasoning powers of a slow kindergartner.

 

[bitwise]

ign cube :lol

 

[Culex]

yeah, no.

Great opinion backed by facts!

I love the internet.

So far, the GC has 3 highly rated exclusive RPG's this year. I stand by my comment.

 

[Bebpo]

GC in the US this year has ToS + BK + PM2
PS2 in the US this year has SO3 + SMT3 + SH2

hmmm, yea that's pretty close to call. If you throw Phantom Brave into the PS2 side then the scale tips towards it's favor a bit. Megaman CM is for both so that doesn't count.

In Japan it's no competition :
GC with PM2
PS2 with SH2, DDS, Suikoden IV, XSep2, Magna Carta, ArcIV, DQVIII, ToR and Stelladeus if you'll count SRPGs.

 

[Dead]

Great opinion backed by facts!

I love the internet.

So far, the GC has 3 highly rated exclusive RPG's this year. I stand by my comment.

these pretty much trump all 3 of those

But aside from that, I love tos, I basically bought my 2nd cube for Baten Kaitos. I could care less about paper mario

PS2 also has SO3 and SH2 (which although I hate, it seems most like it, so it counts as well)

 

[jiggle]

 

[Dead]

I think ill rebuy SH2 and give it another chance

 

[Kobun Heat]

worst reviewar evar !! !!! !

6.5 my ass.

 

[Soul4ger]

:lol

Oh, please.

 

[Mejilan]

IMHO...

GCN:
ToS - Great
PM2 - EXCELLENT
BK - Dunno yet

PS2:
SO3 - Terrible
SH2 - Good
SMT3 - AWESOME
NoD - Great

Not counting SRPGs or multiconsole/non-exclusive RPGs.

It really is closer than I would have thought. PS2 has more quality games overall, but PM2 is my RPG of the year so far. SMT3 is a VERY close second.

 

[Soul4ger]

NoD - Great

You counting Nightmare of Druaga?

And I agree with you on Star Ocean.

 

[mumu]

The only RPG up there with PM2 is SMT3. The rest is just so incredibly meh and average.

 

[Dead]

Star Ocean is probably in my top 5 RPG for this gen, along with Dragon Quarter, Dark Cloud 2 and seemingly SMT3. Destroys every offering ive played on Cube.

 

[Mejilan]

You counting Nightmare of Druaga?

And I agree with you on Star Ocean.

Yes. Druaga is a rogue-like dungeon hack through and through, but it's one of the better ones I've played, so I'm happy with it. Most won't like it though.

 

[Culex]

IMHO...
NoD - Great

:lol

 

[Dead]

How similar is Druaga to Azure Dreams? I think thats the closest game ive played in that genre, and hated it with every fiber of my being