Xenoblade studio bringing Baten Kaitos to Switch this summer says report

Baten Kaitos Bandai Namco — Baten Kaitos – between the next Legend Of Zelda and Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s DLC, Monolith Soft is extremely busy (pic: Bandai Namco)

Both Baten Kaitos games are allegedly being remade for Nintendo Switch, with nearly all the original parties reuniting for the project.

Back in 2021, Bandai Namco filed new trademarks for the two Baten Kaitos games, a pair of Nintendo GameCube role-players from the mid-2000s.

Fans of the games hoped this was a sign of a re-release or remaster and were further emboldened when Bandai Namco job listings from last year mentioned it was working on a remaster for Nintendo.

Now, a new report is claiming that that’s exactly what’s happening, with Bandai Namco and Nintendo working together to bring the Baten Kaitos games to Nintendo Switch this summer.

One new detail is that Xenoblade Chronicles studio Monolith Soft is in charge of development. That’s hardly surprising, as it was one of the original developers behind Baten Kaitos, back when it was owned by Namco (the company hadn’t merged with Bandai at that point).

However, there’s no mention of the other developer, tri-Crescendo, having any involvement.

These details come from eXputer, which claims to have not only heard the information from its sources but has even seen ‘graphical evidence’, which it’s unable to share publicly.

Although eXputer describes the project as a remake, it admits the actual scope is unclear. So, there’s no telling if it’s a full-fledged remake akin to something like Demon’s Souls for the PlayStation 5 or closer to a remaster with enhanced graphics and new voice acting, like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion.

It’s also not known whether the two games will be released separately or as a bundle, or how much involvement Nintendo has in the project.

Although Nintendo did publish the second game, it’s probably safe to assume that the IP still belongs to Bandai Namco, but Nintendo holds some sort of exclusivity right.

Regardless, the possibility of Baten Kaitos coming back is exciting for fans of the original games, especially since the second one never launched in Europe.

If they manage to perform better sales-wise than when they first came out, it could even lead to Bandai Namco reviving the cancelled third game.

Monolith Soft has already expressed an interest in returning to the series before, with Baten Kaitos director Yasuyuki Honne saying as much in a 2018 interview with Gamekyo.