Review: Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean‏

Title: Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Developer: tri-Crescendo, Monolith Soft
Publisher: Namco
Year: 2003 (JP), 2004 (NA), 2005 (PAL)

My brother bought a copy of Eternal Sonata the other week, so taking advantage of the 'multiplayer' mode, I played it with him. Despite being about Chopin and girls in frilly dresses who are dying and can use magic, I noted that certain aspects of it were similar to another game I had played ages past: Baten Kaitos. So of course, with the memories of the game in my mind, I tracked down a copy and bought it.

There's nothing really special about the story, and indeed, it's typical Japanese RPG fare. Perhaps the point that stands out the most is that you don't play as the main character per se. Instead, you play as a Guardian Spirit assigned to the main character, Kalas, at the beginning of the game. Oh, and you're a Guardian Spirit with amnesia.

So Kalas is on a typical quest for revenge of the deaths of his grandfather and brother when he rescues a girl named Xelha from death by giant monster. As it turns out, Xelha is on a quest to warn the world of an evil scheme to resurrect the evil god who was thought to have made the ocean disappear and they begin tagging along together, meeting interesting folk and whatnot. Did I mention Baten Kaitos takes place in the sky? Personally, I'm a sucker for games/movies/etc. that take place in the sky, so I forgave the plot because of this.

The thing I like the most about Baten Kaitos (and indeed, I think this was the main selling point) is that its combat system features a unique turn-based card battle system. Unlike a fair few Japanese RPGs which involve hammering the confirm button over and over again, the player's success in Baten Kaitos relies heavily on quick thinking, card management and a good amount of luck.

The cards, known as Magnus in the game, come in several different flavours, such as offensive, defensive, equip and quest. The tricky part of this system is that some Magnus will evolve over time. This can either be advantageous or disastrous. For example, while a common item such as a 'Cedar Tree' may be useless for a fair bit, but will eventually turn into 'Cedar Tree Sap', which can heal up to 380HP. On the other hand, several healing items will rot.

Of course, there are several opportunities to gain new Magnus. This applies to all types of Magnus across the board, as having more powerful attacks does not only mean leveling your character. To ensure your success in battle as the game progresses, you must obtain Magnus that have higher offense and defense ratings and can heal more HP.

Moreover, leveling up does not happen automatically. To gain levels, you must access the Church via the blue flowers scattered throughout the game world (which also act as save points). The Church not only allows you to level your character but also allows you to increase your class, should you have the special Magnus required to do so. A character's class is important as it determines how many cards appear in his/her hand at once and how many cards he/she can play in any one round.

Another high point of the game is its stunning graphics. Baten Kaitos was released in 2003 yet playing it now, I'm still awestruck at the quality. Everything looks fresh and clean, with just the right amount of visual effects to wow you, but not causing you to shut your eyes in fears of being blinded. The character portraits are well-drawn and the colour schemes for the various locations in the game are chosen with utmost care to convey the appropriate atmosphere to the player.

The musical score does an equally impressive job of feeding emotion into the game's world. Composed by Motoi Sakuraba (a JRPG soundtrack veteran, considering he also composed the music for Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile and Eternal Sonata), the tunes are memorable and are likely to stay with you long after your game session has ended. In fact, one of the main reasons I began wanting to play Baten Kaitos again was because the battle theme in Eternal Sonata sounded so similar.

However, I can't say such positive things about the voice acting. It is worth noting that Baten Kaitos contains a rather good plot twist in the middle of the game but unfortunately, this scene is ruined by the worst voice acting I have ever heard. The voice acting in the rest of the game is not as bad, ranging from amusingly corny to slightly cringe-worthy. As a result, it's somewhat embarrassing to play if there are other people in your immediate vicinity.

Despite the laughable voice acting and the somewhat atypical Japanese RPG storyline, there is a lot to love about Baten Kaitos. It must be commended for having unique gameplay, gorgeous graphics and a wonderful score. And while it is not a game that will appeal to the masses, I have no doubt that it will always be remembered by those who played it as one of the most memorable games they have ever experienced.

[8/10]

SAIYUKI RELOAD IS OVER

Just finished the remainder of Saiyuki Reload. Without any spoilers, I will say that it was pretty anti-climatic.

There are shades of what happened at the end of Gunlock (from the little that I remember of Gunlock anyway) as well as a 'WHAT THE FUCK' moment that I'm pretty sure didn't happen in the anime at all.

No, they haven't reached the West. But they will in the next series!

The end of Reload included a preview of the next series, titled Saiyuki Reload Blast. Oh goodie! Summed up in a picture by Haru:

Getting to the goddamn West already aside, things I want included:
- The inevitable Nataku vs Goku showdown
- More displays of affection between Sanzo and Goku (because I can't kick that habit)
- LESS SHITTY FILLER (in the anime, anyway)
- Kougaiji manning the fuck up and doing something about Gyokumen.
- Zakuro.

Looks like this could be a real 'blast'! Hahahahahahahaha! ... Oh.

Gaiden also finished up, with Kanzeon Bosatsu erasing Goku's memory - except for his name, that is. The series finished off with what could be the scene that has been used the most times - Sanzo reaching out for Goku. Happy tears.

BONUS ROUND

Just created Vioectrolysis, a blog for my writing (mostly fanfiction). So if I ever stop being such a lazy ass and actually decide to continue that damn GI Joe Mary Sue fic, chances are it'll be over there.

WARNING: Blog contains a metric fuckton of slash and will possibly contain porn in the future. Warning for you impressionable folks.

More Linkin Park than you can shake a servo at

Made a trip to the cinema with Chip today to see Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. Somewhere in the process I accidentally spoiled it for at least half the people sitting in the cinema. I blurted out a spoiler that I didn't know was a spoiler. Which doesn't make sense. But to anyone who knows anything about Transformers, it's a pretty fucking obvious plot twist.

A few of the news publications here have given it 2.5 stars out of 5 (which is a star for every hour!). This score is more or less correct, but you don't watch a movie like ROTF for quality cinema. You go to see robots bashing the fuck out of each other, which is something you get a fair bit of.

The problem is that it is still quite dull; the battles lack the real 'HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD WOW' factor which is what it rests on. And of course, Bidoof and Fox are back with the teenage love story thing thrown into the mix. And I'm still a dick about that, you know? We don't need no humans in our movies about giant robots!

For some reason, there was a LOT of Linkin Park in this movie. Loads. Everytime you hear music that isn't orchestral, that's Linkin Park. However, ROTF also had some of the themes from the first movie, which made me incredibly glad because I fucking loved the score. I also have to admit that there was a point in the film where 'The Touch' by Stan Bush looped in my head, which made it a very snicker-worthy moment.

The new Decepticons and Autobots look all very pretty and shiny, but ROTF made me feel as though they had no purpose. I was looking forward to an epic, huge Devastator battle.

The only characters that were really built upon were Megatron and Starscream. Which makes me wonder why they decided to change Starscream's voice for ROTF - I was actually perfectly happy with it in the first movie and read the sequel comics in his voice. I feel as though the more traditional Starscream voice does not suit him, especially given his stature and appearance. (Incidentally, the scene in which Megatron and Starscream meet again totally reminds me of Power Rangers: The Movie.)

Speaking of pointless, there's also a branch in the movie that is completely pointless and quite frankly, I think it was tacked in there to appeal to the teenage masses. I found the humour to be much too juvenile and tasteless for my liking, but I suppose that's how you target an audience.

What did this movie do for me? It made me respect Bumblebee. It also made me root for the Autobots. Also, ROTF contains the coolest incarnation of Jetfire ever. And All Hail Optimus.

OVERALL: Six out of ten broken Bidoof bones

EDIT: After watching it a second time, I've finally pinpointed the thing that really irked me about ROTF. The events from Reign of Starscream after never actually referenced or mentioned, other than perhaps the alien tattoos Starscream sports. It's like the Decepticons suddenly forgot that Starscream wasn't their leader anymore and just dropped what they were doing before going back to serve Megatron. What the fuck. I feel raped and cheated.

Future ambitions

This is the part where I get really ambitious and perhaps even ahead of myself and think about the time in the future when I become an accomplished videogame designer.

It's a ballsy project, because we all know how hard it is to make a balanced and decent 2D fighter. But I go ahead with anyway, even though I know I will never be able to be good at my own game.

Maybe we decide to throw in all the archetypes - broody Japanese 'main character', MC's rival+fuckbuddy, cute chinese girl, deadly assassin woman, huge muscled guy, robot, animal, sexy skank (or is that all of them? oh, never mind) - and design the stages, which are nice enough, but once again, pretty samey. Nothing you wouldn't expect to miss in a fighting game. Oh, but I want a stage on a crowded subway. That's when I say: "Hey team, I have an idea."

In Japan, subways are hugely crowded, so it's no wonder that groping is an extremely common crime. So I propose: "When a female character is chosen (or hell, even that one really pretty guy, because we're working with archetypes), an event triggers once per female character per battle. Said event involves the female/pretty boy character being stunned for a few seconds due to being groped, leaving her/him, uh, vulnerable to attack by the other player. Unless she/he is stunned as well." Despite the fact that we're not Japanese (and we are hopefully not flaming Japanophiles) we'll throw that in for shits and giggles.

But then there's more: we'll throw in a fat, unattractive female character. She does not get groped at all but instead causes part of the crowd on the subway to run away. This temporarily stuns her as well.

Some media outlet gets a hold of those particular details of our game. We get in trouble, one for portraying women as objects, and two for insulting and degrading fat people (see also Fat Princess). I release a press statement that is rather rude and derogatory.

From then on, I become known as the douchebag of the industry. My game sells millions.

If one of you fancy game designers out there is reading this and decides to use my whole 'subway groping' idea, I can see you.

OLD, BUT HOLY GOD WOW

FROM KOJIMA'S OWN MOUTH, GUYS

This shit is old and all, but I only just found this link today, my curiousity having been piqued after reading something on TVTropes about Big Boss/Ocelot being totally canon. Nifty little translations of the MGS3 Cinema Commentary here confirm this. Only lucky Japan got it and we didn't. Working chronologically through the game and the respective commentary track:

- Snake's line "You got good senses" is remembered by Ocelot. Tens of years later Ocelot repeats this line to Solid Snake. This is where Ocelot starts to like Snake.

- In this scene, the gun Ocelot is holding is the engraved model. This is the only place it appears. He brought it expecting to be praised by Snake. To Ocelot, he brought a revolver just like Snake said to, but it didn't work, the shock to him is great. Around his neck is the commemorative bullet that jammed before. Ocelot wears it as a pendant.

- Ocelot : "That stance, it's that stance!"
Ocelot seems happy, he's been hoping to see that stance again. He's very happy about meeting Snake.

- Snake : "There is a difference between for-practical-use and for-aesthetic-use."
Ocelot : "Grrr..."
Ocelot is deeply hurt by what Snake just said here.

- Ocelot looks at Snake, his face filled with frustration from his two failures and losses of composure. But he likes Snake even more.

- Snake stops Eva from shooting the running away Ocelot because he is starting to like Ocelot.

- Snake and Ocelot, from the first moment they set eyes upon each other, they both fell into liking with each other. It is a pure love.

- The Boss : "The Fear and The End are defeated."
Ocelot : "He's really something..."
Volgin : "Fallen for him?"
In an off guarded moment, Ocelet accidentally spoke his real mind.
Ocelot has already fallen into a dream state regarding Snake.

- Seeing Snake take Volgin's torture and not give in, this is when Ocelot first awakened to the art of torture interrogation.

- Also, with the SAA Revolver equipped here in first person view, rotate the Right Stick, and Snake will perform gun play. During the second and subsequent playthroughs, in front of Ocelot, if you do this gun play move, he will be extremely overjoyed.

- When Ocelot leaves, without the Colonel seeing, he gives Snake a guts pose, as if saying "Do it."

- In many ways, Ocelot considers Big Boss his teacher. That is why many years later he joined Fox Hound, because he wants to be in the same organization Big Boss was in, even though when he joined, Big Boss was already dead. That is why Ocelot joined in Liquid's unit, even though Liquid did not know this reason.

- Here (when Ocelot pokes Snake in the patched eye), the two of them exchange a look, it's like an inside joke shared between just the two of them.

YEAH, THAT SOUNDS PRETTY FUCKING CANON TO ME

Also, holy shit, this is impressive:

Ocelot's revolver rotating gun-play here, it should be in the Guinness Book of Records. In the scene it is divided by edit cuts, but during motion capture it was filmed all in one take.

Dream #1

Last night, I dreamt that my mother started liking, no, loving Twilight. In said dream, we went to some fancy clothes boutique for some reason, and she started rambling about how it was the finest piece of literature ever to the male shop assistant.

The sad thing is, this is the closest thing to a nightmare I'll ever have.

ALL ABOARD THE CHILDHOOD TRAIN

FUCK YEAH

April 30 is important after all...

10 years.

JACK

Solidus: Do you know what day it is today?
Raiden: ...April 30th?
Solidus: That's right. George Washington took office as the first president of the United States of America 200 years ago today. And it happened right here. We were going to declare another independence -- the dawn of a new nation -- here. The end of the Patriots' secret rule, liberation of this country -- this was where it was supposed to begin, this is where freedom could have been born.

... Actually, I really wanted to do a full run of MGS2 spanning across yesterday and today. Damn Economics.