RPG from the makers of Shining Force, featuring an adventure filled with tried-and-true overhead-wandering, random-battle gameplay that looks absolutely sweet on the Game Boy Advance small screen...in fact, this game arguably rivals most of the classic RPGs that have ended up on the console systems, like Dragon Warrior or the aforementioned Final Fantasy series, for example. You play Isaac, a young swordsman and resident of the town of Vale, and at the beginning of the adventure a storm is brewing outside that forces Isaac to flee to safety. But every virtual adventurer knows that it's never as simple as that, and eventually you're thrust into the role of the world's savior, befriending other skilled adventurers that will join your crusade...there's strength in numbers, as the phrase goes.
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One of the most vaunted GBA-original JRPGs, Golden Sun is a nostalgic love letter to the SNES-era golden age of the genre. Practically the definition of cult classic, Golden Sun enjoys a great deal of fond remembrance, but I don't think it bears up as well as we'd all like it to.
The basics of Golden Sun's story as as fundamental as they get. Our party is led by Isaac, a young chap whose village is attacked and nearly destroyed by a trio of villains seeking to awaken the Elemental Lighthouses and bring the sealed forbidden power of Alchemy back to the world. Isaac and co. set off from Vale to stop them, but obviously there's some hijinks and scrapes along the way.
Perhaps the most well-remembered part of Golden Sun are the Djinn. Taking cues from Pokemon, Golden Sun features a range of small elementally-aligned critters called Djinn who can found and recruited during your travels. They form the basis of a surprisingly deep magic and class system. Djinn can be assigned to characters in order to manipulate their class, with each character getting access to a wide range of spells depending on what Djinn are assigned to them, but they can also be used in battle for effects or leveraged against performing huge, flashy summons for massive damage. It's a really fun combat system, and is by far the main reason to play Golden Sun.
Unfortunately lots of factors about Golden Sun haven't aged gracefully. Its dungeons are simple and unremarkable, its soundtrack is fairly bland, and its dialogue is plain. It's got a fantastic magic system and that alone might be enough reason to give it a try, but I think time has ultimately taken a toll on Golden Sun.
The basics of Golden Sun's story as as fundamental as they get. Our party is led by Isaac, a young chap whose village is attacked and nearly destroyed by a trio of villains seeking to awaken the Elemental Lighthouses and bring the sealed forbidden power of Alchemy back to the world. Isaac and co. set off from Vale to stop them, but obviously there's some hijinks and scrapes along the way.
Perhaps the most well-remembered part of Golden Sun are the Djinn. Taking cues from Pokemon, Golden Sun features a range of small elementally-aligned critters called Djinn who can found and recruited during your travels. They form the basis of a surprisingly deep magic and class system. Djinn can be assigned to characters in order to manipulate their class, with each character getting access to a wide range of spells depending on what Djinn are assigned to them, but they can also be used in battle for effects or leveraged against performing huge, flashy summons for massive damage. It's a really fun combat system, and is by far the main reason to play Golden Sun.
Unfortunately lots of factors about Golden Sun haven't aged gracefully. Its dungeons are simple and unremarkable, its soundtrack is fairly bland, and its dialogue is plain. It's got a fantastic magic system and that alone might be enough reason to give it a try, but I think time has ultimately taken a toll on Golden Sun.
I like finding Djinni in the overworld and adding them to my characters to see what abilities they get, but outside of that the combat is pretty shallow. I wish the game would have some better descriptions for damaging abilities. All your given is how many enemies the spell will hit,the element and the mana cost, damage values and whether or not it applies your weapons damage is guesswork for the most part. The characters are also kinda shallow as well, I don't feel especially strongly about really any of them. I'm not the type of person who weighs story too strongly when judging a game
I do like the dungeons offering puzzles in order to progress. Its very unique and Nintendo-esque. That and what depth the combat does have, kept me going for the entire run. I'm aware this is a part 1 and part 2 improves a lot. Im overall positive on this one but I'm not absolutely itching to play The Lost Age right away.
I do like the dungeons offering puzzles in order to progress. Its very unique and Nintendo-esque. That and what depth the combat does have, kept me going for the entire run. I'm aware this is a part 1 and part 2 improves a lot. Im overall positive on this one but I'm not absolutely itching to play The Lost Age right away.
I had no clue what to expect going into Golden Sun. I have only heard of the game through insufferable Smash Bros fans banging their chests for Isaac to be in the game. So when I saw this game for 30 bucks at my local game store, I was not sure if I should buy or not. I have heard stellar things about this title, yet I found those fans to be among the most grating folks in the not too distant past. I bit the bullet and bought the game, as I knew I had my backlit GBA coming in the mail, and I would want a new game to christen the handheld. I do not regret it at all.
Golden Sun is the most solid RPG I've played in recent years. Not exceptional, but solid and does a great job at scratching that itch. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad either, but it's the most 6/10 average RPG. I had a fun time with it, but I can understand people skipping on this as well. Let me break it down a little, as I feel like the cult following for this game has the nostalgia blinders on a little bit (no shame in that at all, btw).
This game starts SLOW. Not quite Persona 4 slow, but it's a bit of a struggle to get rolling. This does get you familiar with the characters and their role in this story, but I found the opening to be the weakest part of this game. Once you finally get to the world map and get the journey underway, I found myself a lot more invested. I liked exploring the charming world, as well as trying to find all of the secrets in the towns, etc. The atmosphere and setting were pretty alright for an RPG on the Gameboy Advance. I felt like the characters were a little wanting in terms of development, especially Isaac. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, but the story does leave a bit to be desired, at least in this entry. Isaac has "Blank Slate Main Character Syndrome," which wouldn't be so bad, except that the game prompts you for Isaac's input every so often, and your answers are "yes" or "yes" because there is seldom any real changes behind your choice. Not that I'm expecting an epic Bioware RPG, but why even ask me at a certain point? The story is probably the weakest point for Golden Sun, asides from the music.
Quick paragraph about the music, this game has a few really great songs, like the main battle theme, or "Venus Lighthouse." But the vast majority are just serviceable. They did their job, but nothing super memorable outside of the handful of great tracks. Not much else to say on that.
Getting to the actual meat and potatoes, the gameplay is super neat. I found that the Djinn class system was MUCH more intricate than I gave it credit for at first. I will say that it is a bit of a snowballing effect, as the classes are pretty rudimentary at first, but get way more interesting as you unlock all the Djinns. I found myself clamoring to try out every new class permutation upon unlocking a new Djinn, and I for the most part enjoyed this system a lot. Something I was a little on the fence about was the limited selection. You can get up to 28 Djinn in this entry, and that means 7 per party member. This is neat, but you have pretty limited flexibility since there aren't any in reserves, and if you want one class on a certain person, that means another person can't have that class. Still, a pretty neat system overall, just feels like it needed to be pushed a step or two further.
Some tiny RPG related nitpicks that I had. 1) no teleportation spell, backtracking fucking SUCKS in this game, granted you don't have to that often. 2) Cursed equipment is not nearly good enough for how annoying it is, you would think that it would be better than regular gear given the blatant downsides, but not really. 3) I absolutely hate the fucking inventory system in this game. The fact that there is no backpack or bag for storing items is exhausting, especially when you need to constantly trade items off of Isaac because his bag fills up SO FAST. It's a chore, I wish there was storage, or at least a slightly bigger item capacity.
At the end of the day, Golden Sun is a really neat game. The RPG catalogue on the GBA isn't super expansive, so I found it to be a unique experience, but it felt like the formula could have been pushed a little bit farther. The game ends on a cliffhanger, which is a little frustrating, but I am definitely going to be playing The Lost Age to see how Camelot expands upon this solid start.
Golden Sun is the most solid RPG I've played in recent years. Not exceptional, but solid and does a great job at scratching that itch. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad either, but it's the most 6/10 average RPG. I had a fun time with it, but I can understand people skipping on this as well. Let me break it down a little, as I feel like the cult following for this game has the nostalgia blinders on a little bit (no shame in that at all, btw).
This game starts SLOW. Not quite Persona 4 slow, but it's a bit of a struggle to get rolling. This does get you familiar with the characters and their role in this story, but I found the opening to be the weakest part of this game. Once you finally get to the world map and get the journey underway, I found myself a lot more invested. I liked exploring the charming world, as well as trying to find all of the secrets in the towns, etc. The atmosphere and setting were pretty alright for an RPG on the Gameboy Advance. I felt like the characters were a little wanting in terms of development, especially Isaac. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, but the story does leave a bit to be desired, at least in this entry. Isaac has "Blank Slate Main Character Syndrome," which wouldn't be so bad, except that the game prompts you for Isaac's input every so often, and your answers are "yes" or "yes" because there is seldom any real changes behind your choice. Not that I'm expecting an epic Bioware RPG, but why even ask me at a certain point? The story is probably the weakest point for Golden Sun, asides from the music.
Quick paragraph about the music, this game has a few really great songs, like the main battle theme, or "Venus Lighthouse." But the vast majority are just serviceable. They did their job, but nothing super memorable outside of the handful of great tracks. Not much else to say on that.
Getting to the actual meat and potatoes, the gameplay is super neat. I found that the Djinn class system was MUCH more intricate than I gave it credit for at first. I will say that it is a bit of a snowballing effect, as the classes are pretty rudimentary at first, but get way more interesting as you unlock all the Djinns. I found myself clamoring to try out every new class permutation upon unlocking a new Djinn, and I for the most part enjoyed this system a lot. Something I was a little on the fence about was the limited selection. You can get up to 28 Djinn in this entry, and that means 7 per party member. This is neat, but you have pretty limited flexibility since there aren't any in reserves, and if you want one class on a certain person, that means another person can't have that class. Still, a pretty neat system overall, just feels like it needed to be pushed a step or two further.
Some tiny RPG related nitpicks that I had. 1) no teleportation spell, backtracking fucking SUCKS in this game, granted you don't have to that often. 2) Cursed equipment is not nearly good enough for how annoying it is, you would think that it would be better than regular gear given the blatant downsides, but not really. 3) I absolutely hate the fucking inventory system in this game. The fact that there is no backpack or bag for storing items is exhausting, especially when you need to constantly trade items off of Isaac because his bag fills up SO FAST. It's a chore, I wish there was storage, or at least a slightly bigger item capacity.
At the end of the day, Golden Sun is a really neat game. The RPG catalogue on the GBA isn't super expansive, so I found it to be a unique experience, but it felt like the formula could have been pushed a little bit farther. The game ends on a cliffhanger, which is a little frustrating, but I am definitely going to be playing The Lost Age to see how Camelot expands upon this solid start.
Tout est bon dans Golden Sun. Son seul défaut est d'être dirigiste et de se présenter comme un épisode 1. Mais sinon, et ce malgré une écriture effacée, l'univers comme le gameplay sont d'une justesse assez insolente, et permet d'expérimenter et d'explorer d'une manière satisfaisante. Un bon JRPG au moins, un grand pour moi.
I remember getting this for my birthday back in 4th grade. It was maybe the very first JRPG I ever played. (aside from Pokemon, though back then I didn't know Pokemon was a JRPG, let alone what a JRPG even was!) I was completely enraptured by this game - how can something that runs on the GBA look and sound so good? I was never good enough to beat the game as a kid, but I've replayed it several times between then and now, and saying it still holds up is a massive understatement.
There's something about the presentation that elevates the game above being an easy, simple JRPG (though the Djinn system does add a fun wrinkle to character building) and turns it into a must-play experience for anyone who's a fan of JRPGs, although anyone who's already a fan has likely played this!
There's something about the presentation that elevates the game above being an easy, simple JRPG (though the Djinn system does add a fun wrinkle to character building) and turns it into a must-play experience for anyone who's a fan of JRPGs, although anyone who's already a fan has likely played this!
Un monton de ideas geniales, pero se hace simplon