Chances are you didn't buy Baten Kaitos. Chances are even greater you didn't buy its prequel, Baten Kaitos Origins. Neither one exactly tore up the charts.
I remember folks talking about how they didn't want to play card RPGs at the time. There were some valid complaints about the original's slow pacing that picked up some steam, too. I don't think these excuses hold any water, however. Both titles, especially the prequel—which I'm finally finishing now, playing an hour a night while I exercise—rank right up there amongst my favorites for the GameCube.
If your Wii looks like it might be lying idle until Nintendo deigns to unveil their next big franchise entry, I think you owe it to yourself to track down copies of both games (you can pick them up for about $20 combined these days) and give them a fair shake.
As I alluded to earlier, I'm actually nearly done with my first complete playthrough of Origins; a little thing called Wii intervened when I was playing it the first time through. When I finally experienced lull in Wii-playing and later got back to it, I found myself a little lost. I could have gotten back into it with enough effort, but I decided that as great as the game had been up till then, it deserved a restart. Since I'd forgotten so much of the original game's story in the intervening years, I tacked a replay of that one on as well. Origins plays off its predecessor extensively, making it worth my time.
Dismissing the games as mere "card RPGs" does them a disservice. You are, of course, picking cards from a randomly-dealt hand as the battle progresses, but the emphasis isn't on playing single cards loaded down with all sorts of effects. Instead, both games are all about the damage you can deal with large combinations of cards, selecting them within ever-briefer time limits. When you've ramped up enough to be able to play huge quantities in one turn, the effect is tremendously satisfying.
The original Baten Kaitos packs separate decks for each member of your party. In each deck are attack and defense cards, as well as others such as healing cards. You play them in real time, putting up defense cards before the enemy lands each attack, and playing attack and other cards within a time limit that decreases as you class up over the course of the game. (Of course, you do want to class up—that's how you get the ability to play bigger numbers of cards at once.)
The key to BK's battle system is how the cards you play interact: cards are adorned with numbers on their corners which you can use to create pairs, three-or-more-of-a-kinds, and straights, which give you potentially insane bonuses. I've personally had the joy of playing a full 9-straight, the biggest possible play in the game, against the final boss for a 255% bonus. I was positively giddy.
Origins came along a few years later, and while you still play cards in battle, the battle system is completely different. Your party draws from a common deck, which you generally want to load up primarily with generic shared attack cards. Weapon, armor, and special attack cards are generally party-member specific. You can play as many cards as you have the time or the MP to, as long as you count up on the cards' numbers. You start off with weapon or armor if you can at zero, generic attacks at 1-3, and finish with special attacks at 4-7. You can't use specials unless you have the MP for it, and building this is done by either playing as many attack cards as you can or by using special stratagem cards that exchange your turn for an MP boost.
What makes this system really awesome is relay combos. To play one of these, you start your first character off with a turn ending in a special attack. If you've got a "relay" weapon card (which most are) and a 1 attack card ready to go for the next player waiting in line, you can start playing those cards as well and join all three players in one massive attack. I've not quite managed to pull off attacks with this technique as impressive as some people, but I love setting up for a big combo while enemies breathe down my neck.
Both games have some great storylines as well. Although BK suffers a bit from poor voice acting (Origins doesn't have this problem and its localization is excellent), both games' tales are told masterfully, with twists that make a mockery of the all-too-prevalent clichéd RPG. The one I can tell you about is that you are a player in the story itself, as a guardian spirit to the main character. (This arrangement actually has gameplay impact—when a character asks you a question, your answers' synchronicity with the main character's own mind increases your power in battle, transforming special attack cards in BK and drawing useful cards for your hands more often in Origins.) I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that your own role figures strongly in both games, and the surprises in store left me with my jaw hanging open more than once.
There's a persistent rumor that a DS entry in the series might still surface, especially with Nintendo's Monolith purchase. I'm not holding my breath, especially considering how poorly Origins sold, but I would love to revisit the series' world, especially as I consider that whatever Monolith would throw at me in a third installment would likely be something I'd never have dreamed of. In my ideal world, when tri-Crescendo wraps Fragile, they could team up and make it happen. In the mean time, both games are definitely worth revisiting—and I recommend you give them a spin if your Wiis or GameCubes are collecting dust.
If your Wii looks like it might be lying idle until Nintendo deigns to unveil their next big franchise entry, I think you owe it to yourself to track down copies of both games (you can pick them up for about $20 combined these days) and give them a fair shake.
As I alluded to earlier, I'm actually nearly done with my first complete playthrough of Origins; a little thing called Wii intervened when I was playing it the first time through. When I finally experienced lull in Wii-playing and later got back to it, I found myself a little lost. I could have gotten back into it with enough effort, but I decided that as great as the game had been up till then, it deserved a restart. Since I'd forgotten so much of the original game's story in the intervening years, I tacked a replay of that one on as well. Origins plays off its predecessor extensively, making it worth my time.
Dismissing the games as mere "card RPGs" does them a disservice. You are, of course, picking cards from a randomly-dealt hand as the battle progresses, but the emphasis isn't on playing single cards loaded down with all sorts of effects. Instead, both games are all about the damage you can deal with large combinations of cards, selecting them within ever-briefer time limits. When you've ramped up enough to be able to play huge quantities in one turn, the effect is tremendously satisfying.
Baten Kaitos
The key to BK's battle system is how the cards you play interact: cards are adorned with numbers on their corners which you can use to create pairs, three-or-more-of-a-kinds, and straights, which give you potentially insane bonuses. I've personally had the joy of playing a full 9-straight, the biggest possible play in the game, against the final boss for a 255% bonus. I was positively giddy.
Origins came along a few years later, and while you still play cards in battle, the battle system is completely different. Your party draws from a common deck, which you generally want to load up primarily with generic shared attack cards. Weapon, armor, and special attack cards are generally party-member specific. You can play as many cards as you have the time or the MP to, as long as you count up on the cards' numbers. You start off with weapon or armor if you can at zero, generic attacks at 1-3, and finish with special attacks at 4-7. You can't use specials unless you have the MP for it, and building this is done by either playing as many attack cards as you can or by using special stratagem cards that exchange your turn for an MP boost.
Baten Kaitos Origins
Both games have some great storylines as well. Although BK suffers a bit from poor voice acting (Origins doesn't have this problem and its localization is excellent), both games' tales are told masterfully, with twists that make a mockery of the all-too-prevalent clichéd RPG. The one I can tell you about is that you are a player in the story itself, as a guardian spirit to the main character. (This arrangement actually has gameplay impact—when a character asks you a question, your answers' synchronicity with the main character's own mind increases your power in battle, transforming special attack cards in BK and drawing useful cards for your hands more often in Origins.) I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that your own role figures strongly in both games, and the surprises in store left me with my jaw hanging open more than once.
There's a persistent rumor that a DS entry in the series might still surface, especially with Nintendo's Monolith purchase. I'm not holding my breath, especially considering how poorly Origins sold, but I would love to revisit the series' world, especially as I consider that whatever Monolith would throw at me in a third installment would likely be something I'd never have dreamed of. In my ideal world, when tri-Crescendo wraps Fragile, they could team up and make it happen. In the mean time, both games are definitely worth revisiting—and I recommend you give them a spin if your Wiis or GameCubes are collecting dust.