Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean

Baten Kaitos was on display from Namco.  This game is a card based RPG that is developed by Monolith Software.  In case you don’t know, Monolith Software is the developer of Xenosaga.   The game at E3 was an early version of the import copy and the game was entirely in Japanese.  One of the Namco reps explained that even though the game was still in Japanese that it only took him about an hour to figure out how to play.  The ease of play is because the battle system is based on a card system that is similar to poker.  If you draw four cards out of your deck and two of them match, then you can use those two to execute a move.  But unlike other card based systems, the game will become easier if you build one all powerful deck. 

The game will change depending on the different areas you explore and you will need to adjust your cards based on each area.  If you enter a world where the enemies are water based then you probably don’t want a deck building on water attacks.  There will be over 1000 different cards in the game and you will have the ability to create new cards when you entrap items in blank cards.  The graphics for the game were quite stunning.  All of the characters and monsters looked great.  The cinema display was breath taking as well. 

Look for Baten Kaitos on GameCube probably sometime in 2005. 

For All E3 2004 Previews