Baten Kaitos

So back in the day I had a GameCube for a tragically short period of time. I was still in high school and had no real money so I was forced to trade it in in order to get a PS2 so i could play Metal Gear Solid 3.

Still, I have money nowadays and I plan on getting a used GCN. (I was gonna get a Wii but apparently this "Wii-U" thing is coming out so why waste the money) I was thinking over the games that I wanted to play for the GameCube but never got around to and Baten Kaitos was one of the first titles to spring to mind. it was given a pretty positive review by a friend of mine but he didn't go into too much detail on the things I'm most interested in.

How is the story in the game? The world and characters? Does it have various towns and are those towns interesting?

I realize it has a sequel so same questions.

Also I've hear all about the terrible voice-acting and I'm not worried about that if everything else is at least decent. I made it through the Silent Hill games so I'll be fine.

I already know it has some pretty awesome music.

I never really got into the story because I couldn't get past the pukingly, gawdawfully hideous character designs and the bizarre Yu-Gi-Oh style card battle system.

It's got a pretty strong cult following though, so it must have some redeeming qualities that I didn't give it the chance to reveal to me.