Like I said in the previous blog, I've been playing this game recently. I finished this game today and it has been one experience I'll not forget soon. Actually, it's been an experience I'll probably never forget.

It's card-based RPG where you attack and defend using your available cards (Magnus). You have an offensive turn and adefensive turn and it's up to you to choose the cards that best match the battle. There are 7 types of cards: water and fire, light and dark, chronos and wind, and neutral. Every type has it's weak point and strong point (except for neutral cards). For example, water's weakness is fire and fire's weakness is water and so on. Also, when you attack with two opposite-element magnus, their effect will cancel out. For example, if you attack with a water-based card that has 100 damage, and then attack with a 150 damaged fire-based attack, then the final damage would be only 50. This forces you toactually use your cards wisely especially in big boss battles. Speaking of which, the boss battles could prove to be very very challenging so don't be discouraged if you lost several times. If you do though, then increase the levels of yourcharacters and try to manage your deck according to the boss's weaknesses.

One thing I didn't like much is the levelling up itself. In the game you find big flowers around where you can save at and this is fine. However, there are two types of flower, red and blue. In the red one all you can do is save but you only level up in the blue flowers, and this is also fine. But, the blue flowers can only be found in big towns so if you're in a long dungeon and fought many opponents, you'll have to go back to the town to level up THEN go meet the boss....it could've been implemented in a better way IMO.

You start the game with Kalas, a blue-haired 19-year old guy who has some avenging to do. As you progress through thestory, you will meet more characters and at the end you'll have a total of 6 characters, but you only use 3 of them on the battlefield. I never really had a fixed set of characters because in every part of the story you'll need to use different characters according to the weeknesses of the opponenets. This is because some characters are specialized in different types of opponents. The battle-system may require time to get master, but it'll satisfy you at the end thanks to its complexity.

That being said, let's go to the presentation. The visuals in Baten Kaitos are absolutely stunning, one of the best in the GameCube. It's most probably the most beautiful game I've ever seen. The artwork, the background and the effects are simply amazing. It really helped enhance the experience. The soundtracks are equally amazing, just what you come to expect from a fantasy RPG. You can also listen to the music at any time of the game from the main menu, but you haveunlock them (I think).

Another strong point in the game is the story. What a story it was! One of the best I've seen in a video game if not the best. It's deep, emotional, accurate and very entertaining and expectt some very unexpected plot twists...What makes it even better is the very long quest. It took my exactly 53 hours and 14 minutes to get it over with. Before the final boss I spent about 2 hours raising my characters' levels and looking for some upgrades so that I'd be ready to beat the boss. This is one SOLID and very entertaining story I assure you. The game had one obvious disappointing weakness though, the voice-acting. I was very disappointed with them as they play a big a role in the story-telling. At some points you might get bored of their voices. The story is still very entertaining though but could've been more if it wasn't for the weak voice-acting. You can turn them off but I never did that, they weren't so bad that they kill the story at least. You can still bear through it.

After spending the 53 hours playing the game and looking at the very small amount of RPGs for the GameCube, I can safely say that this game is one of the best games on the GameCube and is an absolute must have for RPG gamers. Along with Tales of Symphonia, this game stands out as one of the console RPGs and you'll be rewarded with one heck of an experience.

Gameplay- 9.0: satisfyingly complex. But you could be left behind at some points of the game, but once familiar with there'd be no problem.
Graphics- 9.5: most beatiful game on the GameCube and of the most in all consoles. You're in for a treat.
Sound - 9.0: Other than the boring voice-overs, the effects and soundtracks are one of the best on the console.
Lasting Appeal - 9.0: the 50+ hour speaks for itself, plus 1000+ magnus cards to collect.
Value - 9.0: I'm sure every RPG gamer will be proud to have the game in his collection.

My Final Baten Kaitos Score:

9.1