AnchorCrab Reviews Baten Kaitos: Origins

Originally published September 2012

Alternate Title: AnchorCrab Returns!

Some games fade into obscurity because they are released so late into a console’s life that they are overshadowed by the impending release of next-gen systems. Baten Kaitos Origins is a JRPG made by Namco-Bandai and Monolith Soft as a prequel to the 2003 JRPG Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. It had the misfortune of being a Gamecube game released in fall 2006, at the same time as the Nintendo Wii.

The game’s story is about a young man named Sagi who enlisted in the Alfard Empire’s special forces along with his mysterious friend, Guillo. The two are blamed for the assassination of the Emperor, and so they must flee from the Empire’s forces while trying to resolve the power struggle between senators over who will fill the power vacuum created by the Emperor’s untimely death. Along the way, they meet Milly, the daughter of a senator who ran away from her boarding school because she doesn’t like the way her father has sheltered her. The three must face mysterious and nearly invincible creatures called afterlings that seem to be connected to Guillo. Encounters with these afterlings can send Sagi and his friends to another world where winged vigilantes are going on a journey to defeat the mage known only as “Wiseman” and everybody thinks Sagi is somebody named Marno, who apparently has known them for their entire lives. The two stories seem unrelated at first, but they become more and more interconnected with each other as the story goes on.

These two storylines contrast each other in interesting ways. Both stories feature a conflict between magic and technology. In the main storyline, Sagi and his friends must fight the empire’s steampunk technology by using magnus- the magical essence of things such as swords, spells, and even intangible concepts such as “good times” that can be stored in cards for later use. Meanwhile, in the other world where people think Sagi is Marno, the antagonist is Wiseman, a powerful wizard who thinks he can liberate people by separating their soul from their body and preserving them as magnus by absorbing them into himself.

The story is accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack. It was composed by none other than Motoi Sakuraba, who has also done soundtracks for the Tales of series and Star Ocean. The battle themes are great- The normal battle theme, “Valedictory Elegy” is a song I don’t mind having stuck in my head. “Iconoclast”, “Evidential Material”, and “Chaotic Dance II” are all great boss themes that I feel properly convey the intensity of the battles taking place. The dungeon music is great, too. I especially like the theme of the final dungeon, which is called “An Archaic Soul’s Wordcraft”. Wandering around and getting lost in large dungeons like that is made bearable by the great music, even though the song’s title has nothing to do with anything.

The characters are great, too. There are only three playable characters, but Guillo more than makes up for it. Guillo has to be the coolest character in the game. In fact, this article has been delayed significantly because every time I proofread it, I discover that instead of writing a paragraph about the characters, I have written a ten-page erotic fanfiction about Guillo paired up with Sheena from Tales of Symphonia. I’ve never run across that pairing before, but fanart of it would be grand. His voice is the voice of a man and a woman speaking the same line, then layered over each other for a very otherworldly effect. On top of that, Guillo is much more badass than the physically weak wizards from other RPGs I have played. Instead of wielding a staff, he tears up monsters with claws. His spells are elementally charged without being just basic elemental attacks. Take Levinsnake’s Rise, for instance: instead of creating a single bolt of lightning, he vomits electrically-charged snakes that he swallowed specifically for this spell. I assume that being a magical puppet like Guillo means that you don’t have a gag reflex. But that’s enough about Guillo for now, at least. Anyways, where was I? Something about magnus…

Magnus do everything in this game. Magnus essence can be extracted from a variety of objects in order to form quest magnus that act as key items. They also provide minor bonuses in battle. For instance, a drinking water quest magnus slightly boosts the power of water-elemental attacks. The rarer quest magnus can be made by fusing other quest magnus together, but sometimes the fusion recipes are so strange that I can’t help but wonder who programmed them and what kind of insane moon logic they follow. Would you have guessed that a heartbreaking song can be made by mixing salt with a terrible song? Whoever thought that one up probably thinks that cutting a slice out of a wedge of cheese and then replacing it with an equally sized wedge of gold will open a portal to Hell. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t work, but just in case, I would not advocate trying that indoors.

The game’s combat system revolves around the collectible magnus cards. The player builds a deck using basic attack cards, along with character-specific weapons, spells, and techniques. All three characters share the same deck, so putting too many equipment or spell cards into the deck can result in situations where it is Sagi’s turn, but he can’t do anything but discard because the only cards in your hand are spells for Guillo. This makes some of the more advanced EX combos-arrangements of cards that activate a powerful
attack when ordered correctly- impractical or impossible to use.

The game’s encounter system is similar to Earthbound or Tales of Symphonia- instead of fighting random encounters, clearly visible monsters chase the player and start a battle when they catch the player. These monsters can be powerful, but since HP restores after battles and healing items are not expendable, there is no need to pull punches. I like this system better than other RPGs where the player must ration out potions and mana while wading through a dungeon full of weak monsters nipping at their heels. This is probably one of the only RPGs I’ve ever played where I liked the battle system so much that I actively sought out combat.

Although the battles can be hard, the game never becomes too hard. At least, the main story doesn’t. Certain side quests can drive a 100% completionist insane. There are 655 magnus cards altogether, and some of them can only be obtained by having a save file on your memory card from the previous Baten Kaitos game. Some can only be received during the Pac-Man sidequest, which is the single most infuriating cameo in any video game ever. To give you an idea of what this involves, an NPC can give Sagi his “pet”, which is a quest magnus card of Pac-Man. This pet will eat quest magnus in your inventory. If he eats enough magnus, he will evolve and give you a battle magnus card. However, to reach the maximum level of evolution and complete the quest, Pac-Man must be fed every quest magnus in the game. That’s 147 cards, some of which can only be obtained through odd fusion combinations (heartbreaking song!) or by aging certain quest magnus for a long, long time. It’s as if the sidequest was designed by the Terrible Trivium from the Phantom Tollbooth- “Feed Pac-Man 147 cards, and then when you’re done with that you should move this pile of sand over there with nothing but tweezers and empty that well with an eye dropper. You can’t fight Wiseman until after you’ve finished your chores, young man.” That’s exactly what it is- a chore! It takes so long that I bet that all the people in the entire world that have completed the Pac-Man quest could fit into a single phone booth.

Even though the sidequests are insane, the main game is great. The characters, story, music, and battle system are great. I think I’m going to say that yes, you should play this. Baten Kaitos: Origins is a game that doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves.