Baten Kaitos Origins[a] is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Monolith Soft and Tri-Crescendo for the GameCube video game console. The game is a prequel to Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Similar to the first entry, the player assume the role of a "guardian spirit" – an unseen player avatar – who guides protagonist Sagi and his party of companions in an adventure across an aerial floating island-based kingdom in the clouds. The game retains the original's focus around the concept of "Magnus" – magical cards that capture the "essence" of items found in the in-game world, where the concept is still used as a plot device, for in-game item management, and as a basis for the card-themed battle system, albeit with minor tweaks. Unlike the first game, which was published by then-Monolith Soft owner Namco, Origins was published by Nintendo, and was not released in Europe. It was released on February 23, 2006, in Japan, and in North America on September 25, 2006.
