Baten Kaitos is beautiful, fun, and awesome
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ToyMachine228
Member
I've played about two hours of it before...I gotta get through it to review it. But the battle system is very fast paced, and fun. It definitely is more involved than other turn-based battle systems.
Musashi Wins!
FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
Is the battle system fun enough to carry through the story people keep writing/talking about? It's hard to get through a long game that poorly written.
Simply stating it due to there being a million naysayers that will cry out "this story isn't complex enough, it deserves a thumbs down!"Amir0x said:
I always thought that the foundation basis of an RPG are it's characters, basic yet workable battle system and of course, a dash of fun - something that Chrono Trigger thrived on, story wasn't that great (like very other Yuji Hori scenario written) but everyone lapped it up and herald CT as the greatest RPG there is today.
speedpop said:
Avoiding debate as much as I can, but RPGs are about playing the ROLE of a person. This is true. Characters need to be strong and well developed (and written). But since in any given RPG at least 75% of the (non battle) time is spent on dialogue, it's only a bit ridiculous to say that an RPG isn't first and foremost about storyline. Without a decent story line, generally an RPG won't be compelling enough to suffer through any of the other aspects. Certainly not a game with an archaic random battle system, that's for sure! I have spoke to certain people that claim that an RPG can be fun without a good storyline. That may be true for them, but it simply does not work that way for me.
Tales of Symphonia had a horrible storyline and the characters were dreadfully cliche and atrociously written. That already slashed the appeal of the game by 75% for me. So you can understand why I do not enjoy said game.
Complexity has nothing to do with quality of a story/writing.
Tortfeasor
Member
I really like this game but I must say that the voice acting is among the worst I have ever heard in a game....
Baron Aloha
A Shining Example
Kiriku said:
It may disappear from store shelves before then. For instance the only place I've seen Tales of Symphonia lately is at EB.
the latter. well, i don't know if they were really tourists, but the localization was done entirely in japan.belgurdo said:
i agree -- people tend to overexaggerate the quality of voice acting in games to a *ridiculous* extent, but this game's acting truly is totally flat and amaturish.
btw, the story and characters in this game make tales of symphonia look like a work of unbelievable genius. seriously, this game's story and its characters are near-total shit.
I was a little hesitant about Baten Kaitos due to the card battles, but I'm glad I picked it up. After playing it, the battles are one of the stronger points of the game, and I hope future RPG's use some of its elements.
The graphics in this game are absolutely beautiful, you really have to see it. As for the audio, the soundtrack it good, but as others have pointed out, the voices are bad. It's not just the voice work though, you can tell it's compressed. No doubt this is due to the large amount of voice present in the game, and the smaller disc size the Cube uses.
Even with the voice problems, if you like turn-based Japanese RPG's you owe it to yourself to pick this game up. The game is solid enough to please fans of Tales of Symphonia and/or Chrono Cross. If you don't like them though, this game isn't going to change your mind.
The graphics in this game are absolutely beautiful, you really have to see it. As for the audio, the soundtrack it good, but as others have pointed out, the voices are bad. It's not just the voice work though, you can tell it's compressed. No doubt this is due to the large amount of voice present in the game, and the smaller disc size the Cube uses.
Even with the voice problems, if you like turn-based Japanese RPG's you owe it to yourself to pick this game up. The game is solid enough to please fans of Tales of Symphonia and/or Chrono Cross. If you don't like them though, this game isn't going to change your mind.
I agree that most VA complaints are exaggerated. BK isn't genius stuff however. I've heard the "tin-can" effect explained away as this is how the spirit you really play as, would hear the voices. That may be believable, but it still makes for some crappy-sounded (and even crappier voiced) VA.
That said, it doesn't really affect me much. Awesome VA is a bonus, but bad VA can be ignored. I haven't even disabled it. Why? Because I read MUCH faster than any actor can voice the lines. As soon as I'm done reading (usually 1 or 2 words into the voicework) I just hit A to continue. For the record, I do this even with good voice work. I can't be arsed to wait. I'm not watching a movie, I'm playing a game.
Off topic for a bit. I liked ToS quite a bit. The voicework was better than average, imho (BK is much worse than average, by comparison), and the storyline was pretty convoluted and 'meh', and the characters were pretty cliche (but what JRPG doesn't feature that these days?) But I think that the characters in ToS was WONDERFULLY realized and scripted. A generally fantastic translation with many, many truly touching and memorable moments, particularly in the Z-button cutscenes that happened throughout the adventure.
We'll see how BK fares in comparison. I'm only about 11 hours in. That said, I was prepared for a game significantly worse than ToS, as that seemed to be the consensus amongst early adopters of both. I must admit that I'm pleasantly surprised. The combat system is fun and engaging (once it develops a bit more, after the first 2 hours or so), and lends itself to quite a bit of strategy. I can't stand card battlers, but thankfully, this isn't really one of them. It has some of the overarcing strategy involved in card battlers, but without the obfuscated and mostly random bullshit they put you through. Unlike most card battlers (to me) there is a VERY clear strengthening of options, strategy, and powers, more like a regular RPG. It's very satisfying to build a "deck" of 30 (so far) cards per character, and create fun little combinations of attacks (physical, elements) AND defenses, it's a very unique twist, and despite the strategy and turn based nature of the offensive rounds, combat generally passes quickly. Defense is fun, because it's much more twitch-orientated than the fighting is.
It's just very, very interesting gameplay so far. I like it! I hope it holds up.
Edit - Just wanted to add that Kalas LOOKS great. As a main character, he features the strongest character design so far, and combined with his slick stance and animations, makes for a very appealing lead character (so far.) The art style for this game is very unique and bold, very colorful, and the backgrounds are just FANTASTIC. The music. G-d, some of Motoi Sakuraba's best ever. Up there with Valkyrie Profile, imho.
That said, it doesn't really affect me much. Awesome VA is a bonus, but bad VA can be ignored. I haven't even disabled it. Why? Because I read MUCH faster than any actor can voice the lines. As soon as I'm done reading (usually 1 or 2 words into the voicework) I just hit A to continue. For the record, I do this even with good voice work. I can't be arsed to wait. I'm not watching a movie, I'm playing a game.
Off topic for a bit. I liked ToS quite a bit. The voicework was better than average, imho (BK is much worse than average, by comparison), and the storyline was pretty convoluted and 'meh', and the characters were pretty cliche (but what JRPG doesn't feature that these days?) But I think that the characters in ToS was WONDERFULLY realized and scripted. A generally fantastic translation with many, many truly touching and memorable moments, particularly in the Z-button cutscenes that happened throughout the adventure.
We'll see how BK fares in comparison. I'm only about 11 hours in. That said, I was prepared for a game significantly worse than ToS, as that seemed to be the consensus amongst early adopters of both. I must admit that I'm pleasantly surprised. The combat system is fun and engaging (once it develops a bit more, after the first 2 hours or so), and lends itself to quite a bit of strategy. I can't stand card battlers, but thankfully, this isn't really one of them. It has some of the overarcing strategy involved in card battlers, but without the obfuscated and mostly random bullshit they put you through. Unlike most card battlers (to me) there is a VERY clear strengthening of options, strategy, and powers, more like a regular RPG. It's very satisfying to build a "deck" of 30 (so far) cards per character, and create fun little combinations of attacks (physical, elements) AND defenses, it's a very unique twist, and despite the strategy and turn based nature of the offensive rounds, combat generally passes quickly. Defense is fun, because it's much more twitch-orientated than the fighting is.
It's just very, very interesting gameplay so far. I like it! I hope it holds up.
Edit - Just wanted to add that Kalas LOOKS great. As a main character, he features the strongest character design so far, and combined with his slick stance and animations, makes for a very appealing lead character (so far.) The art style for this game is very unique and bold, very colorful, and the backgrounds are just FANTASTIC. The music. G-d, some of Motoi Sakuraba's best ever. Up there with Valkyrie Profile, imho.
Too much Symphonia hate. I loved every part of that game. Story, characters, battles, music... awesome. I even enjoyed the voice acting for the most part. Much more so than Star Ocean 3 which was good as a whole but very disappointing.
Anyways, I just rented Baten Kaitos and it's only okay at the moment. I don't care for any of the characters and the story seems pretty dry. The graphics feel outdated (The art direction, animation and deatail in the backgrounds are top notch though). I'm loving the soundtrack and the battle system. Amazing since I almost always hate card based systems.
Anyways, I just rented Baten Kaitos and it's only okay at the moment. I don't care for any of the characters and the story seems pretty dry. The graphics feel outdated (The art direction, animation and deatail in the backgrounds are top notch though). I'm loving the soundtrack and the battle system. Amazing since I almost always hate card based systems.
Oh, the music in ToS is great too, but it's also filled with lots of generic filler crap. Baten Kaitos has a consisently GORGEOUS soundtrack. I loved it from beginning to end, and it was tied as my favorite soundtrack last year. To finally be able to put a scene, character, or moment to its near-60 fantastic tunes is amazing. 
(Particularly in light that I highly doubted that Namco was going to ultimately localize and release the game here, despite their early announcements.)
(Particularly in light that I highly doubted that Namco was going to ultimately localize and release the game here, despite their early announcements.)I'd probably lean towards Tales of Symphonia, as I think it best nails the whole hectic, real time action-based combat thing down pat.
Baten Kaitos seems more original right now, to me, but for the slower, more strategic combat, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne does it better, imho. (Though, to be fair, BK is totally unique and original in its style and execution.)
Baten Kaitos seems more original right now, to me, but for the slower, more strategic combat, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne does it better, imho. (Though, to be fair, BK is totally unique and original in its style and execution.)
Went out to buy this game on impulse today after finding out that my brother deleted my 24 hours Star Ocean 3 save. Spent 3 hours on it so far and I must say that I've enjoyed every single mimute of it. Btw, a higher spirit point ( the number on the top right?) does not imply a higer potency right? Its solely for for the purpose of gaining prizes rite?
gamergirly
Member
Tales of Symphonia is one of my favorite rpgs of all time. The only thing with BK that concerns me is the storyline(I also heard that the main character shares one of the voice actors from TOS). You need something to keep you going
Tritroid
Member
Well if it's similar in any way to ToS then that sounds like a purchase for me.
I've been waiting to see peoples' reactions to this game outside the reviews, and I think this is literally the first impression thread on GAF. :\
If I get around to my EB I'll probably pick it up. If it ends up sucking however, I'll murder you in your sleep Gaime.
I've been waiting to see peoples' reactions to this game outside the reviews, and I think this is literally the first impression thread on GAF. :\
If I get around to my EB I'll probably pick it up. If it ends up sucking however, I'll murder you in your sleep Gaime.
Rogerkiller
Member
Fongul said:Don't worry...the game has progressive scan and looks quite wonderful on a VGA monitor
It will work!
sorry the question but how can i see if my tv suport progressive scan ? and how do i turn on in the game?
btw the game is Beautiful
Tritroid
Member
It depends upon how old your tv is. Most new top brand models today support Progressive Scan 480p at least (Unless you have a really crappy brand model).Rogerkiller said:sorry the question but how can i see if my tv suport progressive scan ? and how do i turn on in the game?
btw the game is Beautiful
If your tv does support 480p or above, it'll no doubt be listed in the tv manual. Manufacturers tend to like to brag about a model being PS capable.
Either way, if you have to have GC component cables for games to be activated in Progressive Scan. If you have those hooked up already, an option will appear before the game logos start asking if you want to display the game in progressive scan, yes or no.