Game News It takes 337 hours to 100% complete this Gamecube RPG… and we’re talking a world record, literally!
337 hours to complete a JRPG 100% is the record time achieved by a very, very br ave Japanese player.
337 for 100%
Could you spend more than 300 hours on the same game to reach 100%? That’s what the game Baten Kaitos requires, which requires a significant time investment that is obviously not affordable for everyone. For experienced and seasoned players: It is possible to speed up the game and reach 100% in about 337 hours and 55 minutes. This is also the world record that the Japanese speedrunner “hyphen_m” recently set in 2023. For those interested, the anecdote is told at the very end of this video from the DoctorSwellman channel.
The performance was even praised by one of his competitors, a Frenchman, who praised the player’s performance in a Reddit thread: “After missing a run last month (he got 342 hours due to a 5 hour error), today hyphen_m set the new Baten Kaitos 100% Speedrun World Record in 337 hours and 55 minutes, beating my previous record by over 48 minutes!”before adding:
“You may know me as the usual 100 percent runner in the game. But to be honest, I was never the best runner in the game. Hyphen is a huge fan of the game/series, very knowledgeable about the subject, he has a… I’ve done a lot of research and documentation since the game came out almost 20 years ago, and when he came to talk to me a few years ago, we naturally exchanged a lot“. Frenchman Julien “Baffan” Jaffrès spent 342 hours, 19 minutes and 56 seconds in front of his screen, or about 14 days. A story told in Vice’s columns in 2016 and this is explained in particular by a colossal waiting time for the upgrade of objects: the shampoo alone, for example, requires two weeks of playing time, i.e. 336 hours.
To reach 100%, all the mistakes you can make without external cheat codes are allowed, but Baten Kaitos has almost no flaws, so patience is required. On the website Speedrun.com, hyphen_m takes first place with an exact play time of 14 days, 1 hour and 55 minutes. If you try the experience, plan your water and food reserves.
A cult game on Gamecube
For those unfamiliar, Baten Kaitos is a role-playing game on Gamecube in which you lead a group of heroes whose destiny it is to save the world. The setting is set in a time when the earth and the ocean are nothing but legends, and when huge islands floating high in the sky have taken the place of continents. Developed by Monolith Soft and Tri-Crescendo, this game impressed players with its original combat system and immersive universe However, it never achieved the expected commercial success. The sequel, Baten Kaitos Origins, failed to reverse the trend and the franchise fell into obscurity, allowing Monolith Soft to focus on the Xenoblade Chronicles series. However, for several years now, rumors have been circulating about a possible return of Baten Kaitos in the form of a remake on Nintendo Switch, which would of course be excellent news for fans of the franchise.
