Baten Kaitos 3 Was Canceled, Monolith Soft Art Director Wants to Bring It Back
According to Monolith Soft Art Director Yasuyuki Honne, Baten Kaitos 3 was in development at one point in time but was then canceled by the parties involved. However, if there is one title that Honne would like to go back to, it would be the third entry in the series that was only ever released on the Nintendo GameCube.
News of this comes via French website Gamekyo where it notes that with the recent release of Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna The Golden Country, the developer of the JRPG is now looking forward to the future. Honne, in particular, expressed interest in going back to the Baten Kaitos series which only saw two entries on the GameCube.
This was followed up by a tweet from Honne himself, who gave some more thoughts on what exactly happened to Baten Kaitos 3. You can find his full thoughts below as translated by Siliconera:
“It’s been 10 years since the release of Baten Kaitos 2 (Baten Kaitos Origins) and it pains me to continue getting requests for a sequel. Since enough time has gone by I think it’s okay to talk about it a bit. Right after the release of Baten Kaitos 2, I was working on a sequel at Namco (now Bandai Namco) and we were onto pre-productions, however before Baten Kaitos 3 could become a reality, talk between involved parties ended due to circumstances.
Had we released the game, it would’ve been something grand and would take you to the bottom of the seas, the earth, and the sky. Bandai Namco still has a lot of my plan work that’s been sealed away. For those of you requesting a sequel, don’t just ask Monolith Soft and me, but Bandai Namco as well.”
The original Baten Kaitos released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2003 with only one released sequel, Origins, that came out for the GameCube as well in 2006. There was also a canceled DS title in addition to the third main entry.