Media in Review: Baten Kaitos Origins
(This review has some minor spoilers for Baten Kaitos 1)
I'm not entirely sure how to phrase my feelings on BKO. I guess the best way I can describe it is that it feels small. Not always in a bad way, the focus on only three main characters helps it stay on track, but it also feels small in the sense that nothing really happens? It's missing multiple areas from the first game, and even when you go to the areas it does have, more often than not they're smaller, less interesting, and the plot is basically non-existent until about 80% of the way through it. Honestly, it reminds me a lot of how Monolith has handled the Xenoblade DLC and I would not be surprised at all if BK was made today, that Origins would be the equivalent of its Torna or Future Redeemed.
What is there is...okay? It's More Baten Kaitos™, for good or ill, but the filler feels cranked up in comparison to the first game. The surface notes are the same - Kalas also went to each island and (usually) failed to secure whatever the objective of the moment was, but the circumstances were more varied, it had a more compelling plot all around, and most notably had you get a few wins along the way. Sure, Giacomo swooped in and stole the End Magnus most of the time, but not in Anuenue! Plus, the big midgame twist was handled a lot better, even if it ultimately went nowhere. Origins, by comparison, has Sagi lose over and over while his boss constantly tells him what a great job he's doing and sends him off to the next continent to lose again. By the time this changes and you start making actual progress...the game is ready to send you to the final dungeon and all those guys you thought you would be going back for are actually just side quests that don't even matter in the long run (if the game remembers that they exist at all, hello Origins Giacomo). It just feels bad as a plot progression, you know?
I am a sicko who is an apologist for BK1, so it probably isn't a surprise that I don't care for the new combat system. It is fine, but loses a lot of the nuance and depth that BK1's provided, though I will freely admit it's much easier to understand how to use it. Maintaining one deck instead of six is undoubtedly an improvement, but with that you lose the ability to tune any given character's role - if I knew Gibari was going to be a bad choice for an upcoming boss because it's strong against Water, I can switch him out for Savyna, or load him up with healing cards to make him a tanky healer instead. Plus, the combo system is so much less interesting than the poker system of BK1. Most of them you'll do by accident, require stupid combinations of finishers and B-Attack cards, or both, and only the biggest and chunkiest combos are really worth chasing.
If either of these games interest you, check out the remaster on Switch or Steam, although be aware they're not dubbed because Namco are cowards - the voice acting in BK1 is "so bad it's good", and BKO's is just flat-out good. They're both really interesting games that do some wild shit with cards and deck building that I don't think I've ever seen since, and I would welcome a BK3 if Nintendo can get the rights.