Right after finishing Chrono Trigger, I saw that I had two GBA games sitting on my desk next to my pile of DS games. Those games were Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. I’ve borrowed them from Lester for heaven knows how long! I finally gave Golden Sun another try after playing it and putting it down due to school a couple years back. I wanted to start where I left off, but I was extremely lost when I started the file. I ended up starting fresh about a week ago, determined to finish it. ~30 hours later, I’m thirsting for more. Really pretty graphics, especially for the GBA, a crazy in-depth plot, loads of puzzles, inspiring music, and a customizable statistical-enhancing system: love it.
Before I go on, any suggestions for intriguing RPGs for the GBA, DS, PS2, PS3, or Wii are welcome.
There are four main characters in your party. Isaac is the silent main protagonist from Vale and is a Venus Adept. Garet is the brash, loud-mouthed companion of Isaac’s who is also from Vale and is a Mars Adept. Ivan is a Jupiter Adept that can read minds and conjure whirlwinds. Mia is a Mercury Adept from Imil and one of the last descendants of the Mercury Clan.
I don’t want to tell the plot since it gets really complicated and would be best to just play it through to understand it all. I’ll tell you this much: it’s intense. Very intense.
This is a fair warning: Golden Sun is very text-heavy. There is an insane amount of dialogue, chit-chat, and player interaction, asking a lot of yes-no questions which don’t really change the storyline, but rather alter the way people answer back. For me, it bothered me for a while because in the beginning, it felt really slow having to sift through loads of dialogue before actually getting into battle, but it eventually grew on me. I felt it actually enhanced gameplay a lot more especially since I’m really one to go through towns, quests, and what not inside-out. I like to search through every since nook and cranny of a place and talk to every person.
Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles. There are loads of puzzles. Some that even stumped me for a good while! The results for solving these puzzles are worth it, though. Crossbone Isle: I’m glad I’ve conquered you.
I’m a huge, huge, HUGE fan of Golden Sun’s music! It’s so upbeat and inspiring that it actually makes me want to grind and level up! There are lots of times in games when I start to loathe grinding because it gets tedious after a while, but for some reason, I actually don’t mind it this time around. Leave it to Motoi Sakuraba to have a kick-ass soundtrack. Loved his stuff with Star Ocean III: Till The End of Time, and this was no exception.
The Djinn system is what really took the cake for me. They are scattered all across the game and are used to enhance the player’s abilities, giving them things like statistical boosts and new powers. They’re really cute-looking, too.
Here’s where it gets interesting. You can manipulate the powers and classes of your characters by attaching different Djinni to one another! There are so many different possibilities with equipping Djinn that you can have different strategies when going about your game. You can go on in the game with just sticking Djinn with their respective Adepts, but what fun would that be? By switching around some of the Djinn, you could end up with new classes, new moves, and even stronger stats!
When Djinni are set to a character, they can be used for attack or buffer purposes. After they are used, they are set in standby. From there, you can either set them to your character again, or you can summon them. The more Djinni you have in standby mode, the more powerful your summon will be. They’re very impressive.
After beating Golden Sun last night, I’m definitely ready for Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Bring it!
What’s even cooler is that you can import your clear data from Golden Sun to your Golden Sun: The Lost Age cartridge! It involves inputting a password, but it’s all good. I’m going to try that out after I save my clear data. I’m really anxious to start the sequel 
Anybody excited for Golden Sun DS? 
Tags: game boy advance, golden sun, rpg, Video Games
@999hp
Heheh, I remember playing the Golden Sun games back in high school ^^Anyway, if you’re still hankering for more rpg goodness, have you tried Persona 3 and 4 for the PS2? They have a pretty interesting mix of traditional JRPG and dating sim elements.-= Snark´s last blog ..Ever bought a figure just because its rare? =-.
A LOT of people are getting back into Golden Sun and IDK why haha. The other day I was playing the rom on my friend’s laptop
.I hear there’s another one in the works for the DS ;o.
I really loved those two games. It’s been years since I’ve played them. I played GS1 about 3 times, and GS2 twice. Lost Age is a HECK of a lot harder though, and there are plenty more amazingly unique challenges, as well as getting more into character customization, summon fusions and way way more. It’s also quite longer too. Have fun playing it! I happen to love RPG’s myself, here’s a list of what I would recommend to anyone:The Final Fantasy Series (you’ve probably played at least 1 or 2, but if not I’d recommend starting with FFX, FFVIII, or for a good handheld, FFIII, FFV, or FFI.Xenosaga: An AMAZING series, and very much worth playing through ep 1 to get to the other two, 3 being the best..hack// series : Have to keep up with the anime and books to get the whole story, but the games are great.Atelier Iris series, Persona 3 and 4, Tales series, Odin Sphere, SO4, Lost Odyssey, and The World Ends With You are also some recent favs of mine as well that kicked ass allllll the way around.
Golden Sun really is special though, and I’m glad it’s finally being recognized again. Hopefully, they might go through with making more than just a remake…maybe an anime? That would be sweet eh?-HK