Ratings board leaks suggest another classic Nintendo JRPG series is getting freed from its console prison
South Africa's Film and Publication Board has rated a PC version of Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 HD Remaster.
Folks, they've done it again. A loose-lipped ratings board (via Gematsu) has leaked the existence of likely PC ports of the recently announced remasters of Baten Kaitos 1 and Baten Kaitos Origins, meaning the pair of classic GameCube JRPGs can join the Teapot Dome Scandal and the Vela Incident in the list of 'things governmental bodies have tried and failed to hide'.
The real surprise is that it was South Africa's ratings board that did it instead of South Korea's. Though to be fair, I guess the latter is busy being razed to its foundations by angry fans of anime nudity. You can find the rating (as a downloadable spreadsheet) here. Note the sizeable tag that reads "PC Game" next to the Baten Kaitos entry. First Etrian Odyssey, now this? We're being spoiled.
The Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 HD Remaster is currently only announced for the Nintendo Switch, and is set to release on that platform on September 14 this year. Unless South Africa's ratings board has got its wires crossed—or it's playing an elaborate prank—the release of a PC port will be the first time the series has been freed from its Nintendo console prison.
If you've got no idea what a "Baten Kaitos" is and are frankly unnerved by how I keep repeating it, here's a breakdown. They're JRPGs with a fast-paced combat system that sees you chain together card-based abilities to achieve combos and overcome your foes. They're very pretty, in that old-school pre-rendered background JRPG way, and the remastered versions are coming with a bunch of quality of life changes to make things a bit smoother for the delicate sensibilities of the modern gamer. Also, the eShop description says it takes place in a world where people have chosen to "abandon the land and live in the sky," which I too would choose to do if I could.
That's great news, if you ask me. I've never had the pleasure of playing a Baten Kaitos game, but I've heard people jaw about them for about as long as I've been online. The first game got its western release date in 2004 (2005 in Europe), while Origins—a prequel—came out in 2006, and were both generally well-liked. Since then, they've languished on GameCube, forcing PC players like our own Wes Fenlon to turn to emulators like Dolphin to play them in the modern era. It'll be good to see them freed from the grasp of a dead console generation.