this game is FANTASTIC

big step up from what was already a great game in the first golden sun, although some fundamental shortcomings are maintained.

job, djinn, and summoning is even more in depth with even more options, but once again you are hardly ever incentivized or given an outlet to fully take advantage of the gameplay mechanics at present. still its quite fun to just mess with for the sake of it, as opposed to how obnoxious and stressful jrpg class/progression systems can often be

puzzles and dungeons are much more in depth now, and its cool just how massive every dungeon is, but the lack of a map system really seemed archaic to me. was often very hard to figure out where exactly felix and the gang were and where everything else was.

what kind of held this back from being masterpiece time for me was the lack of meaningful character development, you barely get any scenes of the assorted party members just talking to eachother until the final post-credits scene lol. what you do get is fun but for the amount of talking and talking from random meaningless npcs in this game, a bit more time spent on the core cast would have really elevated this duology as jrpgs for me.

seeing how many games nowadays seem to love lifting from jrpgs of this particular point in time, it would make me very happy to see more jrpgs with these zelda-y exploration mechanics and this particular class system.

The fact that you can get through Golden Sun and then jump into this game and it's just a flat upgrade is a miracle. The dungeons are all so much fun and full of cool puzzles that are familiar in design language but have their own novelty. The combat is just cranked up to 11 with new unleashes on weapons that make you feel stronger and summons being a much more dynamic mix of Djinn. The class system is much deeper but hard to really parse on a first go around, which can make the game feel samey to the first title. BANGER soundtrack with some of the best on the GBA and in JRPGs in general

To say that The Lost Age is the swan song of Camelot would be misunderstanding the drive behind its storytelling and purpose. I believe in Golden Sun being the most charming, exquisite example of an handheld RPG duology and this review will NOT cover everything there is to say, because frankly I don't have the words to express just how much I adore this franchise and what it means to me.

Sakuraba's soundtrack is simply the cherry on top this beautiful cake, made out of incredibly well designed puzzles, clever battle system and class roles rigorously dictated by Djinn management. You want to unleash the Megiddo out of your party? You'll want to explore every crevice of Weyard, even more astonishing and jaw dropping in lore tidbits and ambience: the new temples are the best addition to the Lighthouses we know already from the first game, adding a little more context behind the world's religion and myths. It's a win-win scenario: battling is fun, you'll get stronger, you'll want to become stronger, you'll want to explore for Djinn and equip, you'll see more of the world and you'll battle even more enemies, a deceptively clever gameplay loop.

If you played other Camelot games you'll see some resemblances to events and characters from older games ... you'll also see how the storytelling and the plotlines converge to a world-ending finale, as usual, yet a bit limping along the way. Yes, The Lost Age does a lot to mitigate the padding and meandering of the original game, in part thanks to the urgency of the mission, the exquisite plot twists and the conflict between Golden Sun and The Lost Age heroes, being fundamentally enemies in purpose, but sometimes you'll just keep reading these exchanges between characters that go on and on, sure they are charming, but relevant? In hindsight, I'm not so sure anymore. Still it was funny playing through Shining Force II and seeing the same issues with characters talking a little bit too much. Also, weird how like in Shining Force III, The Lost Age makes us play from the other perspective, it's also got some weird purple guys with ulterior motives and Machiavelli like characters scheming and not explaining what they're doing.

Wait, have they been making Golden Sun since the 90s? I'll let you decide on that.

A bit too much prose is a small price to pay for what I'd wager it's the quintessential GBA JRPG experience and the culmination of Camelot's storytelling. Is it the end though? I don't think so. I'm sure, while developing some more Mario sports games, they are working on something else. I cannot imagine otherwise, for what I've played and what I've seen, Camelot's vision is great, purposeful and inspiring to say the least. Verbose as well, but at this point it's just the Camelot I love and respect.

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Golden Sun as a series does a great job capturing a sense of adventure, and the aesthetic elements are among the best on the GBA. Some of the puzzles and dungeons are on par with Zelda or Lufia II. However: as much as I love the overall feel of this game, it really doesn't respect my time. Backtracking is an integral part of both the overall plot and individual puzzles, which results in excessive, dull random battles. Although the cutscenes are often funny, they are way too long-winded, often circling the same plot point several times before moving on. The story of this sequel doesn't feel very strongly connected to the high stakes of the first game, which made these first few hours feel pretty aimless. Overall the pace is just too slow to keep me engaged. Stopped at the Gabomba Statue.

The second half of the Golden Sun duology picks up literally right where the original ends, but shifts perspective to the (ostensibly) antagonists' side. Basically every point I made about the first game still stands here--they are basically one full game split in half with very little difference between them.

You have a new party of four characters, but they generally fill the same archetypes as the original four, and you eventually even team up for a full party of eight by the end. Everything you did in the first game is carried over--if you're willing to manually write down and input the 260-character password generated at the end (or are lucky enough to possess physical cartridges, two GBAs, and a link cable to do it automatically).