Reminder that the hd remaster(?) Rerelease of both Baten Kaitos games is coming out on the Switch in like, 4 days.
Listen, the advertising wasn't that great, and even if the original voice acting of the first game was awful (but so funny and charming imo, the 'so bad it's good'), the second game honestly has some of THE best voice acting in any game I've played. Such as the main character being voiced by Crawford Wilson (guy who voiced Jet in ATLA,) or another important character being voiced by Shanelle Workman Grey (voiced Larxenne in KH.) And so much more.
The gameplay itself is a card based rpg that's very fun and fast paced! It's easy to get a hold of and influences the story itself and the world, and I've never seen anything else come remotely close to it (which is honestly why chain of memories disappointed me so much lol, like, Baten Kaitos is such a gold standard for card games.) The first game is a bit slower, while the 2nd game (the prequel) is a lot faster and has some small differences but overall it's the same principles. Combos, downward or upward counting, paring the right elements, multiples and so on. Also deck organization! As well as maintaining stuff in the real world/real time since things can spoil or change over time.
The ART direction is absolutely gorgeous, using 2d backgrounds with moving 3d models, think chrono trigger. With I believe are Arabic and Mediterranean (?) Influences, and cartography. As well as a buncha weird mixed media stuff! Honestly you can find a lot to gnaw on art wise since Baten Kaitos isn't afraid to get weird and funky! With some places looking like standard fantasy land, gorgeous cloudscape, playdough world, multiple mirror worlds, a land made of sweets and the list just keeps going. One of the most beautiful games ever, really. It's up their with TWEWY, KH, Ni No Kuni, Skyward Sword, Wind Waker, BioShock, just a whole lotta games known for their aesthetic choices.
The characters are also super solid! Solid jrpg ragtag band/trio! I love them all so much, they're all so weird and vary from age and backgrounds so again if you're into any final fantasy game or other jrpgs you'll be right at home. The story in the first game, Wings is very solid with a neat twist, and then it's made richer after when you play the 2nd game, Origins (the prequel) which gives more insight and a crazier twist... Kinda gives u a bittersweetness at the end too. Please play Eternal Wings before Origins.
And lastly; The MUSIC. My god.
It's just... Chef's kiss. Honestly one of my favourite soundtracks of ALL DAMN TIME I think I'd die happy listening to Castle in the Sand before I go. Again, like the art direction, it's a grab bag of different genres, with it mostly being rock/speedrock, orchestral-esk grand pieces with organs and harpsichord, the occasional weird synths and keyboards, to funkier grooves. Evidential Material, Chaotic Dance, both of the battle themes for each game, Castle in the Sand, Valley of the Wind- literally has no skips!! It's all honestly imo, the best of Motoi Sakuraba's work, so if your into any of his, be it the Tales games or Dark Souls you'll get it all.
Unfortunately, the game doesn't seem to be getting a physical release in the US, potential a limited run in Europe, and mostly in Asia is getting copies which is a damn shame since they already took out the voice acting, and probably didn't even do much to really remaster it. I believe it'll mostly be a basic, if a little lacking, port, but even then! I encourage people to get it! Developed by the same people who worked on the xenosaga, then onto botw in some ways and more. It's like, an origin point so so many iconic creators and developers in jrpgs as a whole. I'm honestly just happy enough to see it survive past the GameCube. Which, while STILL the best way to enjoy and experience it, isn't as viable for it to survive. So yes, I'm glad it's being preserved and hope to see many new fans prop up!! Please come join in the like, 5 people still here lol. We're few but passionate! It's like, a cornerstone of my entire life unironically. Kinda like how KH or Zelda is for anyone else.
So... Please give the Baten Kaitos 1&2 HD remasters a shot! Or at least just listen to the music damn.
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Getting through the Kickass Video Essay of the Week is always dangerous because it makes me desperately want to make video essays myself, except I wouldn’t know Adobe After Effects if you slapped me across the face with it, YouTube terrifies me as anything except something I consume, and all my actual best thinking is done via Tumblr afterthought tags because in my head I imagine it’s sorta like glancing sidelong at the camera and adding additional context to any given moment or thought like I’m in the Emperor’s New Groove
also I genuinely do hyperfixate so it would be niche topics I can’t imagine anyone else on the planet finding entertaining (except me) like, “Is the Grid It’s Own Character?”; “Are Programs Posthuman?”; “How Kevin Flynn Destroys the Sublime”; “Why Tron Legacy is a Horror Movie”; “The Grid and the Closet” and it analyzes how, symbolically, a dude constantly leaving his heterosexual day life to live within a neon-lit fever dream where traditional procreation is literally unheard of and everyone wears skin-tight body suits and stilettos and oscillate between high-octane performance and nightclubs, and he’s unable to talk about this double life to others outside of this place, might be construed as possibly a lil LGBT+ (would this make CLU a physical manifestation of Flynn’s own fear of his homosexuality?); over an hour of me going through Scars 1 and 2 screenshot by screenshot and it’s titled something like “WATCH TRON UPRISINF” in all misspelled caps where it’s painfully obvious I have no background in Film Theory but by god that’s not about to stop me,
and idk something like “Identity in Tron” where I cheekily compare Tron Identity and the Uprising episode “Identity” that have nothing in common other then a fixation on identity discs and like what are those? Halo symbolism? The soul? Are programs angels? (insert here about previous scholarship on this bc I *know* somebody’s talked about this somewhere already) Are programs without discs fallen angels? Is Tron Identity purgatory? Is Query on the level of a User with how easily he manipulates information on a program’s disc? Does the Grid have its own disc somewhere??? Where’s the MCP’s disc?? Why is there a pawn shop in Argon; do programs really buy and sell used goods, and is this due to an ever shrinking amount of space/memory on the Grid? Is currency on the Grid held within the disc? Does this mean programs are their own currency? Is this capitalism or communism if the means of production (the programs) are also the currency? If a program steals another program’s disc and learns all their secrets, could the disc-less program not just take the thief program’ s disc and use it as their own, since it technically holds all their memories now? What happens when a program’s disc runs out of space; do they all intermittently explode in a giant cloud of amnesia like Cass does? If seeing Tron’s face was enough to momentarily snap Beck out of his amnesia via the power of friendship, does this hint at the possibility that programs may not need discs at all?
and so on so forth until my brain finds something else to chew into infinite nothingness
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