Bandai Namco have revealed that Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, and Baten Kaitos: Origins, are being summoned from the Gamecube back to the modern day. The new remaster bundles both games under the name Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster.
The compilation was announced in their February 2023 Nintendo Direct, and has a set release window of Summer 2023.
The franchise received its name from the star Baten Kaitos, a star in the Cetus solar system. It is Arabic, meaning the belly of the whale. The game itself holds a unique position in the sixth console generation of RPGs.
In that generation, the lion’s share of Japanese RPGs were produced for the powerhouse that was the PlayStation 2, numbering in the three digit mark. While the Xbox would find that they would not be able to procure JRPGs for their platform, Nintendo had a better chance to compete with some new and unique RPGs of their own.
And so, to complement Gamecube’s JRPG library, that did include Fire Emblem Path To Radiance, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Tales of Symphonia, Monolith Soft worked with tri-Crescendo on Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean.
At the time, Monolith Soft themselves just released Xenosaga Episode 1 on the PlayStation 2, and were still owned by Bandai Namco. Monolith’s interest in developing for the Gamecube led to them pitching this wholly new game idea, which would innovate on JRPGs by introducing card collecting and card battle mechanics. Their development of the two Baten Kaitos happened to come when Monolith Soft was going through a lot of changes as a studio. They would eventually negotiate their sale from Bandai Namco to Nintendo, just in time to start fresh with the Xenoblade games on the Wii.
The Baten Kaitos games were also well remembered for a visually stunning world for its time, with dense, if small, locations, and its unique story. Players took on the role, not of the lead character, but a guardian spirit, who the lead character is talking to. You then instruct your characters on what actions to take in the world, but every character sees you and knows you exist as someone from another world.
The Baten Kaitos games are the living definition of hidden gems. These are games that did not sell well in their own time, but were recognized and became beloved years after the fact, thanks in part to their rabid fans.
With the Switch’s reputation as a platform for remasters of classic games from multiple generations, it’s a great platform for the franchise to come back. One final note: curiously, while we know Monolith Soft and tri-Crescendo made the original games, the developer for the remasters have not yet been named themselves.
You can watch the official trailer below.
