Read more about Kalas (Baten Kaitos) at: Wikipedia

Official Site: Namco Bandai

is a 2003 role-playing video game that was developed by tri-Crescendo and Monolith Soft and published by Namco in Japan, North America and Europe and by Nintendo Australia for Australia and New Zealand for the Nintendo GameCube. First released in Japan in 2003, it is the first game in the Baten Kaitos series, and takes place after Baten Kaitos Origins, a prequel released in 2006. It tells the story of a young man named Kalas and his companion Xelha, who live in an aerial island-based kingdom in the clouds. The title, Baten Kaitos, comes from Arabic meaning "belly of the sea monster" and is also the name of the star Zeta Ceti.

Baten Kaitos is a role-playing video game with some puzzle elements. While not actually taking on the role of the protagonist, the player is an active participant as a Guardian Spirit who guides the main character, Kalas, on all of his decisions. Maintaining a positive relationship with Kalas can help the player, particularly during combat, by enabling special "Spirit Attacks". The game mechanics rely heavily on magical cards known as , which absorb the "Magna essence" of real-world objects for storage and later use.

Saving the game and leveling a character up can be done at specific locations in the game, albeit in a somewhat unconventional manner. Large red and blue flowers are scattered through the game. The player can save by directing the character to stand over a flower (both red and blue), although saving can also be done when navigating the sub-world screen. Leveling up can only be done via a blue flower, which allows the player to warp back to a church. At the church, he/she can pray to the priest in order to level up, as well as to upgrade their class. A level up results in an increase in the character's primary attributes such as HP and attack and defense, while a class up results in an increase in the character's deck capacity. The latter can only be done once a certain item Magnus is obtained (one per character per class).

Money is primarily obtained in an unusual way. One of the Magnus that can be put into a deck is a camera, available in three different levels of quality or effectiveness. When in battle, the character can use the camera to take a picture of an enemy. After the battle, that picture will develop in about ten real time minutes. Once fully developed, a photo's value is primarily determined by the enemy photographed as well as conditions in effect at the time. Photos of rarer enemies (i.e. bosses) are worth more. If the enemy blocks a camera shot, the enemy in the photo will appear somewhat distorted and will be worth less. Using light or dark attacks along with the camera will make the photo lighter or darker, respectively. A photo will sell for less if it is too bright or too dark. Photos of PCs normally have very low sellback value, but there is a small chance of getting "rare shots" that are worth a decent amount.

Kalas (Baten Kaitos) has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.