The Baten Kaitos series might not have the fame of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but it has plenty of fans – and is likely to get many more thanks to Switch updates coming later this year.
Director Yasuyuki Honne has taken to Twitter to share some memories of working on the games, and has revealed that Namco (the first game was released prior to the company joining forces with Bandai in 2006 to become Bandai Namco) didn't like the title (thanks, Nintendo Everything):
Thanks to the kindness of Bandai Namco, the world I worked so hard to create, and the maps I worked so hard to draw twenty years ago have been resurrected! Incidentally I was the one that named the title ‘Baten Kaitos’, but there was a lot of opposition from higher-ups at Namco to the name… we got it passed though!
According to GoNintendo, the name wasn't created solely for the game itself; it is an alternative name for the star Zeta Ceti, which is found in the constellation Cetus – also known as 'The Whale'. which is traditionally named Baten Kaitos. In Arabic, this name means "belly of the whale."