With a pleasant mix of a fantastic storyline, great character development, good pacing of action and adventure, pleasing graphics, and challenging, but fun puzzles, makes Golden Sun practically the “dream” game for fans of the RPG genre.
Golden Sun + Golden Sun: The Lost Age are probably my favorite games of all-time, and I love a 'lot' of games... This 2nd game builds upon the 1st & has even more content + extra superbosses. It's longer though & not as succinct. I actually prefer it to the 1st game because it is so fleshed out & expansive.
There is so much content packed in this journey throughout the 2-game joint story. There's a lot of dialogue with an interesting story. It's not Final Fantasy or maybe Dragon Quest length, but not short either if you do a lot of optional things. The battles are quick-paced with little-to-no wasted time at the beginning or ends of them which is nice compared to some other RPGs, and also has some definite strategy involved for optional super bosses. The weapons, equipment, unleashes, psynergy, summons, Djinn, puzzles are all quite cool aspects of the game. The great puzzles & psynergy used outside of battles are fun & varied too! The sprites & visuals are phenomenal for the Game Boy Advance, a standout game for the graphical capabilities of the system. Also, the OST is a particular highlight; the person who made the music put their soul into the game, developing the different tracks. All the tracks are very nostalgic for me & quite good, like Final Fantasy IX's OST. Check out Coaltergeist's YouTube channel for remastered Golden Sun tracks if you want a taste.
This game is definitely up there with some of the bests from the GBA system for sure(if not besting them all in my humble opinion)... great games such as: Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Advance, Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga, Advance Wars, Metroid, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, and Fire Emblem.
If you like JRPGs, lots of extra content, & want to play one of the absolute best to grace the GBA, definitely check out both Golden Sun & Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
A spectacular game... It's very lengthy, very deep, and has some obvious (yet confusing) puzzles that'll drive you nuts! The story is good, too, and the music is extremely enjoyable.
Age sports some remarkably tricky puzzles and labyrinths. I'm a sucker for difficult dungeons, so these brain-benders kept me enthralled (and occasionally baffled) throughout. [May 2003, p.138]
Bigger, more intricate and rather more absorbing that the first half of the story, The Lost Age is not only a great continuation of the Golden Sun saga but also a deeply satisfying game in its own right.
Whilst some of the novelty of seeing a stalwart RPG on GameBoy Advance has worn off, The Lost Age is still slick, practised and enjoyable. Fans will lap it up. [June 2003]
+ Gorgeous art style and graphics for the GBA
+ Enthralling combat system
+ Epic and evocative soundtrack
+ Memorable world, story and villains
+ Puzzle-laden dungeon design
+ Puzzles are more creative/ abundant+ Builds on the original story+ Bosses & New Summons stand out+ Makes for a great Sequel~ Doesn't stand on it's own~ A lot of callbacks to the original Golden Sun~ Data transfer actually mattered~ New summons have to be earned~ More bonus dungeons- A lot of backtracking- World is considerably empty despite how big it is- Generic enemy design is horrible, with a lot of reused sprites and recolors- First BIG dungeon is horribly designed / easy to get lost in- Too many big dungeons / not a lot of pay off for exploring- Little direction on what you should actually be doing midway through the game
Golden Sun: The Lost Age is a frustratingly dissonant experience. Almost every mechanic is flawed.. All the same, years later, I still throw the soundtrack on to hear its unexpectedly epic sounding pan-flute synth rock and roll mixed with low, droning, tones. The oppressive KU-KRASHHH of the magical glowing blade of the Ragnarok spell smashing your enemies in an explosion of earth-element particles followed by the sharp CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! as each monster contorts in damage is objectively the best sounding and best looking thing to ever appear on a Gameboy. It may actually carry the whole game - It's hard to find anything else deserving of the critical acclaim Lost Age boasts.
Story/Characters: 2/5
The story is... well. You are Felix and pals, on a quest to light two lightouses and awaken an ancient magic, without which the world will end. Officially, the cast from the first game are trying to stop you, but they do nothing show it. Amazingly, outside of a few contrived squabbles between these characters, the game goes without a primary antagonist.
Except for a few tidbits of backstory that come up in dialogue once in a while, the protagonists are devoid of character. 90% of the dialogue delivered could come from any character - they are interchangeable.
You may wonder how the game handles a final boss without a villain. One literally falls out of the sky.
Combat: 4/5
Character powers focus around elemental spirits called djinn that can be assigned to any character. There is an incredible amount of depth to the system - mixing and matching elemental djinn can lead you to thousands of class combinations across your four characters. In short, combine lots of elements in one character to create a tanky physical fighter who can wreak havoc with a sword. Concentrate a single element to create spellcasters. Or find yourself anywhere in the middle of the spectrum for more flexible characters.
It's a neat system! Unfortunately, the dichotomy I just described is not explained anywhere in the game. Without a proper guide, you'll likely make your characters weaker any time you deviate from giving your earth-character all the earth-djinn.
The single most inexcusable aspect of the battle system is that a handful of spells actually do damage calculated from your attack stat rather than your elemental power stat. Imagine the physical/special split in Pokemon attacks - just entirely undocumented.
Dungeons/Exploration: 2/5
The world is entirely open. Except, you cannot just explore wherever and expect to accomplish anything. Each dungeon revolves around puzzles solved with a utility spell gained in a previous dungeon. So, no, really, it's NOT open world. The path of dungeons you must solve is linear, but you the game won't tell you the correct path.
Imagine Zelda if you could enter any dungeon at any time, but you get to explore the first few floors fighting past random encounters until you find out that you actually need the hookshot or boomerang to progress any further. Except, this is not Zelda. This is Golden Sun. The cues for when a puzzle requires psyenergy are not quite so obvious. Without a guide, all you can do is squint at a funny looking object, wonder if it's something you're supposed to do magic at, and then spend five minutes unloading every spell you've learned so far on it hoping that one of them is the key. Or hey, maybe it's not actually a lock. It's just a funny looking statue. Better go back into the overworld and find another dungeon to attempt.
Did I mention there are 21 of these utility spells? And nearly every one is attached to an item that must clog up your limited inventory space for the rest of the game? Not to worry, the spells that aren't attached to items are made available with the djinn system... meaning you'll have to muck up your carefully tuned djinn-class system in order to get to them.
Overall:
For the time and the platform, this is a decent rpg. When you're in the right dungeon with the right spells with the right class setup, it's a great game. Just up until you leave that dungeon and have to drag your pack of teenaged, no-personality protagonists back into the overworld and click through a drawn out conversation with somebody who's not even a villain.
Fairly inferior than the original (THE best rpg on GBA) I felt lost on my objectives and the story seemed too loose. Also, it didn't show noticeable improvement over the first game.
ok, here's my first negetive review. I don't like the game too much because of the game design. It barley tells you what to do or where to go. I felt like they didn't really have a good tortorial. I bought the game wanting to try a new IP and I liked the combat but I just felt like if I'm not getting anywhere and that I have to look up a walkthrough every 5 minutes, the game isn't for me. I understand if other people liked it especially if they played final fantasy alot but for me, more pokemon please. It honestly represented everything I hated about gaming as a kid. Hard, little directions, and frustrations.
SummaryIt is the dawn of a new age...And the heroes of Golden Sun have been abandoned. Now, the world is falling into darkness. A new band of adventurers is the world's final hope...but they may also be its doom. Pursued by the heroes of the original Golden Sun, they must race to complete their quest before the world becomes lost to the ages.