Baten Kaitos: A Retrospective

Okay, who remembers the game Baten Kaitos for the Nintendo Gamecube? That’s what I thought. The reason I ask is because it was one of the few games that actually used card-based gameplay during combat and was fun. Honestly, I feel this game was one of the most underrated titles on the Gamecube. I spent over 60 hours on that thing.

For those of you unfamiliar with Namco’s masterpiece, the game’s combat system was the standard turn-based fare you might see in most any JRPG. Now for me, JRPG combat can become a tad bit boring and tedious due to the micromanagment. I equate turn-based combat to chess, where you have to plan at least three or four attacks in advance and take into account enemies’ moves while doing so.

Baten Kaitos was unique in that it utilized a card system that, while not exactly fleshed out through the game, gave players the basic gist.If you looked in the guidebook or the manual, lots of additional info was supplied , but in practice it was quite simple.

Each character in your party had their own deck which consisted of attack and defense cards. You could have as many of each as you deemed necessary, depending on the role you wanted the party member to have. For instance, one party member could be all defense and healing cards while another’s purpose could be solely to attack..

The cards had elemental characteristics and energy qualities and all that cool jazz that you might expect tosee in modern day Pokemon card matches. However, at the tops of cards (and sometimes on the bottoms) were numbers. These could be matched to other numbers for pairs, straights, even or odd pairings and so on.

To me, this is what made the game so unique. Not only were you building your decks based off element and strength of card, but mid-battle you were trying to make the best poker hand possible to add points or more damage to your attack. Not to mention that special attacks were activated when certain combos with specific cards were used. It was genius!

Making a player invested in their inventory prior to a battle or a location is a hard task. Games that don’t make you think about what you’re carrying into battle, or give you everything to use at any time, eliminate a level of strategy that a lot of people crave in their games. If you were allowed to customize your load-out for Call of Duty single-player stories and you were not allowed to field-strip anything, wouldn’t you be more discerning about what guns you brought with you?

Having a “hand” for your cards and shuffling them also adds an amount of tension to your fight. You never know what you’ll get so you have to fill your deck with cards you know you’ll use or you hope will come up at the opportune time. The best part about Baten Kaitos is not having to worry about your poker face because you can jump and scream with joy when a special attack or a particularly good combo comes up.

One of the biggest obstacles that turn-based-fighting games face is the investment in the combat and action. For example, Pokemon has players just pick the attack and then see how much damage is done, and the same thing is true for any number of the Final Fantasy games that are turn-based. I don’t feel connected to the attack because I’m just sitting there going, “Pikachu, use thunder bolt” or“Cloud, hit him with your sword”. I feel like some sort of overlord watching the combatants and then reaping the rewards of their work. Baten Kaitos had me searching my hand mid-way through attack selection to ensure that my combo would be perfect, without having to worry about blocking or dodging, and adding a level of presence to the player’s interaction. If I screwed up or missed a card, it was all on me.

I suppose that the main point is that Baten Kaitos really did relate a sense of strategy and tension even though there wasn’t real-time action occurring. It was using a proven gaming formula as a base for combat.

I had more fun picking cards and doing simple math equations with card numbers in this game than I had in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or in any of the recent turn-based fighting games.. It’s not too often that we get sucked into combat while it’s primarily stationary and not reliant on reflexes and quick fingers. Baten Kaitos rewards a mind that is prepared and sharp at recognizing patterns over simply having good timing. It’s been some time since Baten Kaitos was out, but I just hope that some other developers take the time to go back into gaming history, and learn from some of its worthwhile techniques.