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Baten Kaitos Origins
BatenKaitosOrigins box
North American cover
Game in the Baten Kaitos series
Developers Monolith Soft
tri-Crescendo
Publisher Nintendo
Platform GameCube
Medium Nintendo optical disc ×2
Release Dates JP February 23, 2006
NA September 25, 2006
Designers Yasuyuki Honne
Hiroya Hatsushiba
Lead Writer Koh Kojima
Composer Motoi Sakuraba
Lead Artist Yasuyuki Honne
Character Design Nakaba Higurashi

Baten Kaitos Origins (バテン・カイトスII 始まりの翼と神々の嗣子, Baten Kaitosu II: Hajimari no Tsubasa to Kamigami no Shishi, literally Baten Kaitos II: Beginning of the Wings and the Heir of the Gods) is a 2006 role-playing video game first unveiled at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show (TGS). The official name was revealed at E3 2006.

It is the second video game from the Baten Kaitos series made by Monolith Soft and tri-Crescendo. Despite being the second game, it is a prequel to Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and takes place 20 years prior to its events.

Published by Nintendo, it was released on February 23, 2006 in Japan, and in North America on September 25, 2006.

Story[]

World[]

Main article: World of Baten Kaitos

Plot[]

Baten Kaitos Origins takes place 20 years prior to the events of the original Baten Kaitos. The main character, Sagi, works for the Alfard Empire in an elite unit, The Dark Service, that reports directly to a powerful politician, Lord Baelheit. He is joined by Guillo, who, while resembling a Paramachina, or mechanized puppet, is actually sentient and animated by magic. At the start of the game, the unit is given a dubious assignment to assassinate Emperor Olgan, although the ultimate source of the order is unclear. Before the two have a chance to actually carry out or reflect on the morality of this act, Olgan is killed by a third party. Blamed for the murder, Sagi and Guillo are then forced to flee. During their escape, they encounter a giant beast called an Umbra, which Guillo has been mysteriously programmed to defeat. While trying to leave the city, they meet up with the third member of the party, a young woman named Milly. The three of them must work to clear Sagi's name while trying to uncover the nature of the threat caused by the maneuvering of Alfard's various power-hungry politicians, as they work under Alfard's Quaestor Verus.

The overall theme is that of a struggle between Pro-magnation (the power of heart, Wings of the Heart, and magic) and Pro-Machination (mechanical) forces.

The main antagonist in Baten Kaitos Origins is eventually revealed to be a being encountered in the past named Wiseman, a mysterious sorcerer with a thirst to turn every being in the world into pure Magnus. In order to obtain his prize he instigates a devastating war by spreading his own corrupt version of ideals on pro-magnation , intent on devouring the magnus of the fallen dead to become stronger. As Sagi, Milly and Guillo go back and forth between the present and a "dream world"(Which is actually the world of the past before the continents were raised.), they eventually discover the reason why the evil god Malpercio was created.In actuality Malpercio was originally a group of five youths who gained immense power to combat Wiseman but ultimately failed in their goal. Near the end of the game, it is revealed that the spirit which the player actually plays is connected to that world. In fact the spirit is of one of the members of Malpercio later learned to be Marno. It also comes to light that Sagi is not a Spiriter at all, but is instead part of the Empire's Malideiter Project. This came about as a result of experiments which Lord Baelheit was ordered to perform on behalf of Emperor Olgan in an effort to create artificial spiriters, rivaling their power with Malpercio's afterlings. Although the experiments were ultimately abandoned after a mishap, the test subjects were released still containing pieces of Malpercio. Years later, while stopping the maniacal plots of the politicians, Sagi learns of his true nature and must attempt to reach equilibrium with the being inside him or risk certain death.

Slightly later in the tale, Milly's true intentions are revealed, as well as her past, and connection to Baelheit, who is actually her father. Near the ending, Baelheit also reveals that Milly is half-Machina; when she was just a child, a failed malideiter experiment (along the lines of the one which created Sagi's "spirit") tore her in half and killed her mother. With the help of his own guardian spirit, Baelheit managed to revive Milly using Machina. It is shortly after Milly's revival that Baelhaeit; after witnessing the raw power of pro-magination and learning that it was responsible for the devastating war that was started by Wiseman and had ruined the world below 1000 years ago, decides that the world would only truly be safe if everything related to "wings of the heart" were destroyed, including Sagi. To accomplish this Baelheit used his new found knowledge of Machina to create an army to purge the world of Magnus.

Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles encountered during the quest is the Machina Vanguard, consisting of three high-ranking Mintakan officers, Valara, Heughes and Nasca (who is Heughes' younger brother), who report to Lord Balheit. They hold the power of Machina Armas, the strongest weapons in Machina warfare, and thwart the plans of Sagi and his comrades several times over the course of the adventure. However, after joining powers with the force inside him, Sagi acquires immense strength. With this strength, he is finally able to defeat the Machina Vanguard that were pro-machinating each of the floating continents. He then sets off to defeat Baelheit once and for all. In the interim, though, Baelheit finishes construction on a huge flying fortress built completely out of machina called Tarazed. He orders that everyone move onto the fortress, as he intends to destroy the continents. Verus orders Sagi to stop Baelheit, and although Sagi does so, Verus reveals he has been pulling the strings and using the group for his own ends,intending for himself to gain control over Baelheit's army of Machina. Verus then stabs Baelheit in cold blood and escapes to the control center of Tarazad.The group ultimately defeats Verus shortly afterwards in the core of Tarazed, but Wiseman,(who is revealed to have survived the battle with Sagi in the past and wandered the world as a being of pure Magnus for 1000 years) is drawn to the power of magnus from the battle, and possesses the dying body of Verus and attacks the group.He proves to be an overwhelming force and is almost victorious,however with the aid of the members of Malpercio linked spiritually to Sagi, they are able to defeat Wiseman, but this leads to Tarazed's collapse.

In a mad panic, Sagi, Milly and Guillo flee, trying to escape, eventually succeeding, but through sacrifice. The final flight is further aided by defeated villains, Nasca, Heughes and Valara, all of whom do their part in helping the party to escape (although this depends on previous player decisions in sparing their lives). Guillo also sacrifices himself to save Sagi, but it is heavily implied that Sagi salvages Guillo's head from his body.

When Sagi and Milly return to Alfard, the two have a happy reunion with all of their past friends and the various rulers of the continents. Finally, Sagi and Milly decide to elope and move to Mira. Sagi and the power within decide that they will be together forever, and wherever life takes them (although this depends on the choice of the player as well). The last screen is a picture of a baby, and although many things hint to this baby being

Kalas (as only one wing is visible), others theorize that this is instead Melodia, mostly because Kalas was a failed attempt at the creation of the divine child by Georg. In addition, Milly's dress and hair style is similar to the way Melodia's, and her hair color is the same as Sagi's, hinting that Sagi and Milly are Melodia's parents at the end of the game when they go to live in Mira (Melodia's home).

Characters[]

Main article: Main Characters

Gameplay[]

Magnus[]

Main article: Magnus

Field[]

Battle[]

Battle in Baten Kaitos Origins is different from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Instead of taking turns based on a speed stat, attacking first or last is determined by how fast you input your magnus combos. There are also three different types of beginnings a battle can have. The first is the Normal mode, which is when you simply walk into an enemy, or enter a boss fight. This mode starts with your action gauge empty for all characters (meaning characters can instantly act). The second is the best, where all all action gauges are empty and your boost gauge is filled proportional to how much of your heart gauge (dash gauge) is filled at the start of a field enemy encounter (this does not apply in boss fights or the Colosseum). The third is the worst, where all of your party members gauges are filled to a certain point (practically guaranteeing ALL enemies going first).

Finishers can now be chained as well. In BK: EWatLO, finishers could only be used one at a time in a combo, and only if a certain amount of magnus were used before it according to the Roman Numeral Number on it (For example, Xelha's finisher Soul Flash, can only be used after 2+ magnus have been used, because the number at the bottom of that Magnus is III (3) (Not to be confused with the Magnus Combo Number(s) on the corners of the Magnus card). In Origins, Finisher Magnus can be used at any time as long as there are enough levels accumulated in the Boost Gauge. The amount ranges anywhere from 3/4 to all levels.

Using the Boost Gauge also allows for stringing together combos with no limit. However, after the chain combo, the bar will completely deplete and will not fill up again for some time. Generally, if your combo is long enough (Example Sagi 123+Finisher 1-4 -->Relay---> Guillo 123+ Finisher 1-4---> Relay---> Milly 123+ Finisher 1-3) the gauge will be ready again to fill, so the key to using it well is to chain long combos so that the "cooldown" period for it doesn't effect chaining other Combos and using artifacts.

Artifacts use up a certain level of the Boost Gauge and cannot be chained. For Example, Fate's Idol uses up about 1 bar because the number indicated on it is one. It will never use up more than one bar, but cannot be used unless there is at least one bar. Hence, Energy Boosting should be used carefully, as you can easily wreck yourself against a strong boss by relying on healing items that are Artifact based only.

Camp

Music[]

Main article: Baten Kaitos II: First Wings and the Heirs of Gods Original Soundtrack

Trivia[]

  • The name Baten Kaitos comes from an existing star: Zeta Ceti, a star in the constellation Cetus ("The Whale"), which traditional name is Baten Kaitos, a name derived from Arabic, meaning "belly of the sea monster" or "belly of the whale". This is an obvious reference to the legendary Whale.
  • This naming convention can be found throughout the series, with most of the names of locations in both games being derived from a stars.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

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