Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean [GC]

As one of few remaining exclusives on the Nintendo GameCube, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean represents more than just another entry in the systems surprisingly thin library of RPGs. It's something that Cube loyalists can call their own.

It may sound odd, it may sound funny, but in the system wars, a good exclusive is the equivalent of a megaton bomb. And the more you have the greater chance a system has of rallying troops to its side. Baten Kaitos is one such quality exclusive.

With Baten Kaitos, Monolith Software has crafted a beautiful and thoroughly engrossing game filled with great characters, impressive visuals and solid combat. The world of Baten Kaitos has been fully realized through a spectacular mixture of pre-rendered backgrounds and FMV. It also boasts one of the more unique approaches to combat and inventory management in recent memory, basing acquisition of items and weapons on magical cards known as "Magnus."

The story, so far…

In fact, much of the game revolves around these "Magnus" cards, including the narrative. The story of Baten Kaitos takes place in a world of floating islands, at a time when people have evolved to a point of sprouting wings on their backs.

According to legend, an evil deity by the name of Malpercio once invaded the world and sucked the oceans dry, leaving everyone to make homes for themselves in the sky. Malpercio ultimately fell under the power of spiritual heroes. Using five Magnus cards known as the "End Magnus," these heroes confined Malpercio. Peace returned to the world.

Like any good RPG, this peace eventually comes to and end. This is where Kalas, the ill-mannered and selfish protagonist, makes his entrance. At the start of the game, Kalas wakes up in pastoral village on the Sadal Suud Frontier, the most rural of the floating island continents. Upon getting his bearings, Kalas joins a fellow traveler by the name of Xelha, a strong-willed yet naïve traveler. Together, they inadvertently unleash the first End Magnus which binds Malpercio. Before they can claim it as their own, the Empire, the ruling body governing the floating continents, steals the End Magnus. They also kidnap Xelha and leave Kalas for dead.

Admittedly, the setup sounds cliché. Evil Empire? Check. Reluctant hero? Check. Slumbering evil just bursting to destroy the world? Check. But it's not all bad. What the story behind Baten Kaitos lacks in originality, it makes up in solid character development and great pacing. The story progresses at a brisk pace, with plot twists and revelations popping up when you least expect them. The five characters that join you appear flat and two-dimensional at first, but wind up growing on you and greatly effect your emotional investment in the game. And if there's one thing RPGs can do without (or any game emphasizing narrative over action) it's a lack of genuine characters.

Just be sure to turn off the voiceovers. The voice acting here hurts. One realizes that time, effort and money went into recording the speech in Baten Kaitos, of which there is plenty, but the result simply robs from the experience. When all you have to go on in terms of character is text and a few facial expressions (displayed on the bottom of the screen next to the dialogue), it's all up to the writing to convey personality and any kind of emotional depth. Well, Baten Kaitos has good writing but the voice acting simply ruins it. It sounds like a bad dubbing job on an anime film, with voices sounding confused and overly anxious, even during the most mundane conversations. To be fair, you have the option to turn it off. So, please do so. Simply reading the text makes for a far more genuine and believable experience.