Golden Sun Dark Dawn was the first Golden Sun I ever played. I had always been interested in the series, but I never got around to playing it until I lucked out in getting a physical copy of Dark Dawn. Its been years since I last played it, and since then I’ve finally gotten around to playing the original two Golden Suns. With that, while I still really enjoyed Dark Dawn, I’ve noticed a lot more of the issues it has, both ones that are the fault of the game, and those that aren’t. Dark Dawn is a game that could entirely change quality-wise depending on if a new Golden Sun ever releases, as this game is just an incomplete storyline. Even then, Dark Dawn still has some innate design choices that I entirely disagree with, so even if the game gets a sequel, it’ll still be flawed.
To begin, Dark Dawn may be the most engaging of the trilogy when looking at combat. It fully polishes out the combat of prior Golden Suns, though unfortunately it’s noticeably easier because of it. There were also very few bosses in the entire game, and even then, only two bosses were ever noticeably challenging. One near the beginning of the game, and of course, the final boss. I think one of the biggest reasons why Dark Dawn is such an easy game is because MP regenerates as you walk. Oftentimes with RPGs with random encounters, some part of the game’s difficulty is having to constantly go back to heal MP, or use items to recover MP. Ofentimes this may then make the player choose to more likely run away, than fight. However, MP regenerates as you walk both in the overworld, and dungeons, meaning you can practically fight every battle, without worrying about running out of MP. Because of this, I never felt like I was grinding at all, or that I ever needed to grind.
I also adore the weapon master mechanics, where each weapon has unique skills tied to them. It makes weapons more than just the stats they give, but some weapons have unique abilities. Sometimes a weapon gives a skill that hits all enemies, or drains enemy health. It’s really cool, and it makes you have a sort of personal connection the weapons each character has, and I absolutely adore it.
Psynergy and most puzzles throughout the game are really fun. They’re not as complicated as puzzles from the original two games, but I still found them to be really fun! I do wish there was more psynergies, there were a lot more in the previous two games, and I think it’d be really fun to have more puzzle variety. The biggest difference I noticed was the lack of teleport, which worked as fast travel in the original two games. Eventually, the explorable world of Dark Dawn becomes really big, with a decently high encounter rate. I think a fast travel ability in Dark Dawn would really help, but then again, I might’ve just been really unlikely with random encounters, and I imagine I wouldn’t have this complaint if I was luckier.
One of the big bad design choices Dark Dawn has especially is the multiple points-of-no-return. There will be moments in the game, that aren’t perfectly telegraphed that will gate off access to certain areas of the game. Now, that isn’t terrible by any means, but if you pass a point of no return and miss 1 or 2 djinn, you’ll never be able to get them again. If the game accounted for this somehow it would be fine, but it doesn’t at all which to me at least is a really bad design choice. It doesn’t help either that multiple points-of-no-return feel narratively forced, and doesn’t really feel natural.
Now, the biggest problems come with Dark Dawn’s story. And I personally believe that most of the problems with Dark Dawn’s story would not exist if there was a fourth game. As I played through Dark Dawn, I noticed so many different things that were set up and never resolved. So much had been hinted to a greater plot than what we see the characters go through, but practically none of it gets resolved within the game. I believe Dark Dawn tries to do the same thing that the original two Golden Suns do, where they’re both 2 halves of a much greater story. Where Dark Dawn differs, is that it doesn’t have the second half, leading so much of the game’s setup to be unfulfilled. The most impactful moment of this is the post-credits moment of the game, which leaves on a gigantic, yet-again-unfulfilled cliffhanger. In a hypothetical world where the DS also had a Golden Sun 4 with the second half of the story, these problems wouldn’t exist, but until there is a fourth Golden Sun, this game’s story is left at an unsatisfactory false conclusion.
Even aside from that, the story is somewhat weak. This is due in part to the sort of vague-ness to the overall grand scheme. So often it revolves around the main cast being controlled by the villains, but the game barely elaborates on the villains or what they want, so it leaves little impact. So much of the game is presented as a long-winded goose chase to get a specific item, which isn’t bad as a starting motivation, but to be the motivation for practically 2/3rds of the entire game definitely drags it out a bit. The characters as well are a mixed bag, some interesting, and some not. Primarily, the first couple characters aren’t super unique, they’re good executions of typical RPG archetypes, but they don’t blow anything out of the water. On the other hand, some characters join the party so late in the game, they get so little time to shine, so even though they’re conceptually really good characters, they don’t get the proper time to make a lasting impact.
But when looking at the game’s main playable character, the absolute shining late of the game is Sveta. Sveta is my favorite character in all of Golden Sun, and has the most stakes throughout the entire story of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. She exists the way she does because of the events of the first two Golden Sun titles, and practically all of the major plot elements of Dark Dawn are tied to her. She feels like she’s the only character who has actually growth and an arc through the game, and she’s a standout character because of it. Not only that, but she is the only playable character in the game with a mechanic unique to her, which makes her an extremely powerful physical attacker which I adore.
Though through and through, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is an innately flawed game, though not all the fault of its own. It feels clearly intending for there to be a fourth Golden Sun, to resolve all that was set up in this title, but without it, this game is lacking in resolution. Its story though lacks notable depth, even though I adore Sveta. And even though I deplore the points-of-no-return, the combat and puzzles are really fun so it’s still a game I believe is worth playing. One day I really hope that a new Golden Sun releases to finally resolve the storyline of Dark Dawn. Once that game releases and hopefully resolves the storyline, the perception on this game may be entirely different, for better, or for worse.
To begin, Dark Dawn may be the most engaging of the trilogy when looking at combat. It fully polishes out the combat of prior Golden Suns, though unfortunately it’s noticeably easier because of it. There were also very few bosses in the entire game, and even then, only two bosses were ever noticeably challenging. One near the beginning of the game, and of course, the final boss. I think one of the biggest reasons why Dark Dawn is such an easy game is because MP regenerates as you walk. Oftentimes with RPGs with random encounters, some part of the game’s difficulty is having to constantly go back to heal MP, or use items to recover MP. Ofentimes this may then make the player choose to more likely run away, than fight. However, MP regenerates as you walk both in the overworld, and dungeons, meaning you can practically fight every battle, without worrying about running out of MP. Because of this, I never felt like I was grinding at all, or that I ever needed to grind.
I also adore the weapon master mechanics, where each weapon has unique skills tied to them. It makes weapons more than just the stats they give, but some weapons have unique abilities. Sometimes a weapon gives a skill that hits all enemies, or drains enemy health. It’s really cool, and it makes you have a sort of personal connection the weapons each character has, and I absolutely adore it.
Psynergy and most puzzles throughout the game are really fun. They’re not as complicated as puzzles from the original two games, but I still found them to be really fun! I do wish there was more psynergies, there were a lot more in the previous two games, and I think it’d be really fun to have more puzzle variety. The biggest difference I noticed was the lack of teleport, which worked as fast travel in the original two games. Eventually, the explorable world of Dark Dawn becomes really big, with a decently high encounter rate. I think a fast travel ability in Dark Dawn would really help, but then again, I might’ve just been really unlikely with random encounters, and I imagine I wouldn’t have this complaint if I was luckier.
One of the big bad design choices Dark Dawn has especially is the multiple points-of-no-return. There will be moments in the game, that aren’t perfectly telegraphed that will gate off access to certain areas of the game. Now, that isn’t terrible by any means, but if you pass a point of no return and miss 1 or 2 djinn, you’ll never be able to get them again. If the game accounted for this somehow it would be fine, but it doesn’t at all which to me at least is a really bad design choice. It doesn’t help either that multiple points-of-no-return feel narratively forced, and doesn’t really feel natural.
Now, the biggest problems come with Dark Dawn’s story. And I personally believe that most of the problems with Dark Dawn’s story would not exist if there was a fourth game. As I played through Dark Dawn, I noticed so many different things that were set up and never resolved. So much had been hinted to a greater plot than what we see the characters go through, but practically none of it gets resolved within the game. I believe Dark Dawn tries to do the same thing that the original two Golden Suns do, where they’re both 2 halves of a much greater story. Where Dark Dawn differs, is that it doesn’t have the second half, leading so much of the game’s setup to be unfulfilled. The most impactful moment of this is the post-credits moment of the game, which leaves on a gigantic, yet-again-unfulfilled cliffhanger. In a hypothetical world where the DS also had a Golden Sun 4 with the second half of the story, these problems wouldn’t exist, but until there is a fourth Golden Sun, this game’s story is left at an unsatisfactory false conclusion.
Even aside from that, the story is somewhat weak. This is due in part to the sort of vague-ness to the overall grand scheme. So often it revolves around the main cast being controlled by the villains, but the game barely elaborates on the villains or what they want, so it leaves little impact. So much of the game is presented as a long-winded goose chase to get a specific item, which isn’t bad as a starting motivation, but to be the motivation for practically 2/3rds of the entire game definitely drags it out a bit. The characters as well are a mixed bag, some interesting, and some not. Primarily, the first couple characters aren’t super unique, they’re good executions of typical RPG archetypes, but they don’t blow anything out of the water. On the other hand, some characters join the party so late in the game, they get so little time to shine, so even though they’re conceptually really good characters, they don’t get the proper time to make a lasting impact.
But when looking at the game’s main playable character, the absolute shining late of the game is Sveta. Sveta is my favorite character in all of Golden Sun, and has the most stakes throughout the entire story of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. She exists the way she does because of the events of the first two Golden Sun titles, and practically all of the major plot elements of Dark Dawn are tied to her. She feels like she’s the only character who has actually growth and an arc through the game, and she’s a standout character because of it. Not only that, but she is the only playable character in the game with a mechanic unique to her, which makes her an extremely powerful physical attacker which I adore.
Though through and through, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is an innately flawed game, though not all the fault of its own. It feels clearly intending for there to be a fourth Golden Sun, to resolve all that was set up in this title, but without it, this game is lacking in resolution. Its story though lacks notable depth, even though I adore Sveta. And even though I deplore the points-of-no-return, the combat and puzzles are really fun so it’s still a game I believe is worth playing. One day I really hope that a new Golden Sun releases to finally resolve the storyline of Dark Dawn. Once that game releases and hopefully resolves the storyline, the perception on this game may be entirely different, for better, or for worse.
They kind of make the flaws from GS1 and GS2 worse but they get 2 1/2 stars because they do more with the beastmen, who I think are cute.
This isn't important, but it does make me kind of sad that Felix is maligned by the narrative and vanishes. I know that the Sun Saga books also mention that even though he was opposed to Isaac & Co. in Golden Sun 1&2 he was doing the right thing, but it really bugged me. What if your living legacy was that you were evil but not really JK haha?
This isn't important, but it does make me kind of sad that Felix is maligned by the narrative and vanishes. I know that the Sun Saga books also mention that even though he was opposed to Isaac & Co. in Golden Sun 1&2 he was doing the right thing, but it really bugged me. What if your living legacy was that you were evil but not really JK haha?