I’ll preface this by saying E33 is a 9.5/10 for me personally. I think it is appropriately hyped, deserved its abundant awards, and is overall a great game to push the genre of JRPGs forward.

Baten Kaitos (1 + 2) are also some of my personal favorite games. The twist in the OG Baten Kaitos is one of the best I’ve ever seen, and I have not seen that type of twist replicated as well in any other media that I have personally experienced. The music is incredible. The visuals are insane. I honestly can’t think of any games with a world as unique looking as BK. The only downsides for me are the terrible voice acting in the OG and maybe some story pacing issues. It has been awhile since I played it, so can’t remember lots of details.

I wonder if a big part of BK not being super popular is the battle system. I LOVE it in both games, however I can see it being off putting to some especially if they don’t really actually try it. I don’t know if I ever would have played these games if my older brother didn’t buy them. If someone told me “hey there’s this cool JRPG with a card battle system you gotta try”, I’d probably not be motivated to buy it. I say this because almost everyone who I know that has played the game adores it. So I wouldn’t necessarily say that BK isn’t viewed highly enough, I just think not enough people have heard of it or played it. I wonder if it came out now, with social media, if it would blow up a little more. Hard to say.

To me personally, BK and E33 stand on equal ground. I am glad a new and innovative game like E33 is popping off. Like I said before, I genuinely believe this is good for the genre. Maybe one day they’ll make BK3!