Bandai Namco simply surprise-dropped 2 basic Baten Kaitos RPGs on Steam

Eleven entire months in the past, a South African scores board indicated that the Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 HD Remaster assortment existed for PC, regardless of 2023’s Bandai Namco solely asserting it for the Nintendo Change. That is a very long time for a PC launch to be MIA with no different signal it exists, however swiftly, whammo, right here we’re—Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 are out on Steam proper now, after being launched on the Nintendo Change final September.

If there is a option to launch a sport with lower than zero fanfare, this could be it. There is not any signal of the video games on the Steam homepage or perhaps a information article on the Steam web page itself contextualizing the launch. Which is a disgrace, as a result of seeing these video games now accessible on a platform the place they will be playable for many years to come back is a good factor.

The Baten Kaitos video games are among the many final of a technology developed with extremely detailed pre-rendered environments as an alternative of totally counting on real-time 3D. There is a lush, painterly high quality to them that few video games evoke even right this moment, although I am unsure how effectively they maintain as much as fashionable resolutions (upscaling these sorts of detailed 2D graphics can sadly get fairly muddy).

I’ve solely performed a couple of hours of the primary Baten Kaitos, however the second sport, Origins, is a last-of-its-breed basic, a Japanese RPG with attractive artwork, an attention-grabbing world and surprisingly well-written and voice acted characters for this style in 2006. It additionally has a crackling battle system: each video games are card battlers, now en vogue however unusual on the time. The place the unique sport’s battles are a bit stodgy, Origins brings in an arcadey sensibility the place you are enjoying playing cards at a speedy clip and stacking them into killer combos. Origins has movement, one thing Baten Kaitos’s fight did not fairly nail, regardless that it nonetheless provides you some meaty technique and card mechanics to chew on. And hey: they’re each within the assortment, anyway.

As a result of the pair of RPGs have been initially developed by Monolith Comfortable for the Nintendo GameCube, which is now owned by Nintendo—and Origins was additionally revealed by Nintendo—there was hypothesis final 12 months that maybe a launch on any platform aside from the Change was off the desk. I am glad that turned out to not be the case. I’ve had a operating save file of Baten Kaitos Origins loaded up in my Dolphin emulator for years now, returning to it once in a while simply to benefit from the battles. It is nice to see an official launch carry one other little bit of JRPG historical past to PC, just some days after the Kingdom Hearts collection lastly made it to Steam, too.

It would not appear like Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 HD Remaster is Steam Deck verified, however I am certain the collection’ followers will get it engaged on the Deck earlier than lengthy, regardless.