Genki Reviews: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Been a while since I put on my reviewy pants, but this game just needed to be reviewed because it opened itself up for hilarity.
-- INTRODUCTION --
- Set the stage -
Golden Sun is an old boy in the RPG world. Not as old as Square's titles and not nearly as popular, but it can go toe-to-toe with Final Fantasy and in all likelihood win.
Golden Sun is probably the best fantasy RPG to come out on the Gameboy Advance. We began with Golden Sun for the Gameboy Advance in 2001. For me it was love at first sight even knocking out Final Fantasy in my personal top favorites. I've been there for Golden Sun since the beginning.
Golden Sun was lucky to have a sequel for the same platform; Golden Sun: The Lost Age came out in America in 2003. The Lost Age was critically acclaimed and loved by critics and fans alike. There were some issues with the combat but it was quickly overshadowed by the rich world, deep characters, and engaging storyline.
And then, like the skies over Weyard, everything went dark. Nobody heard hide nor hair of Golden Sun for years. The franchise was largely forgotten except for a fairly small and loyal fanbase. The series got a track in Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Isaac (the main character of the original game) was made an assist trophy, which gave some fans hope that the sun would once again rise for the series.
In 2009, 6 years after The Lost Age, the dawn did come. At E3 2009, Camelot and Nintendo released a trailer of the third game which had been secretly under production; Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. The game was released the following year.
I recieved Dark Dawn for Christmas, and I have been waiting ever since E3 to get my hands on it. I was not at all disappointed with the story, it's still a masterpiece like the previous titles. That's not to say this is the perfect game though.
-- GAMEPLAY --
- I can manipulate a joystick like it's nobody's business -
(That's what she said)
Gameplay is not much different from the Golden Suns of the past. It's still your random encounter turn-based combat we've seen in many other RPGs and it's still very theatrical with summons and weapon effects (which is not really that unusual from fantasy RPGs out of Japan)
Golden Sun was famous for its brain-breaking puzzles, especially the second title, The Lost Age. More challenging than a sudoku puzzle in Mesopotamian script, old fans still curl up in a fetal position and cry when reminded of tridents. Your mileage may vary here, but the puzzles really weren't challenging at all thanks to Amiti's very useful Insight psynergy. It's like Camelot knew you were going to check GameFAQs eventually and wanted to save you the trip.
I did use GameFAQs (I'M SORRY) and I noted that in some of the boss battles the guide writer would say that it was "the most challenging boss yet." Except that there really isn't any strategy involved in any of the bosses. They all can be defeated the exact same way.
Step 1: Have Karis cast Healing Gust every turn.
Step 2: Have everyone else use a Djinn every turn.
Step 3: Summon everything.
Step 4: Do it again.
You'll notice in this review the section about characters and story is like three times as long as the gameplay. Why? Because the gameplay is samey and cookie cutter. If you've played any Final Fantasy, you've played the combat system. It's not inherently unique but quite frankly if you're playing Golden Sun for the combat you're going to be sorely disappointed.
-- CHARACTERS --
- Represent -
Let's see... it's a fantasy RPG. From Japan. You should know where this is going. It's a ragtag band of colorful heroes with colorful hair and colorful impractical-in-combat outfits. Unlike Square Enix who measures its self worth in belts and zippers, the designs are much more Western but still retain the goofiness of Japanese RPGs.
You play as the children of the main characters from the first game. I'll give some of you shippers some tissue to cry in as we go through this section, I know you're just plain devastated fanon has been ruined forever.
The main character is Matthew who looks like Isaac. Not even in a parental sort of way, like they just took the sprites from the first game and made them chibi there is that little difference in character design. He's strong and silent like EVERY OTHER RPG HERO EVER. Only opting to speak in ellipses and bemused punctuation and at one point he says something along the lines of "&@!%" when Arcanus shows up. So my head made him go "..... fuck" and that made the scene ten times funnier. HEAD CANON FTW (THE SAME THING POWERING THE FANDOM THE LAST 7 BLEEPIN YEARS.) Of course it's not like he sprung right the fuck out of nowhere. Nope, you find out later that Jenna, the fire adept from The Lost Age, is his mother. Talk about taking it from one side of the family. Wait, why aren't they living together? Mystery for the next game if there is one I guess.
Let's move onto the son of Garet, Tyrell, or as I call him; Axel Jr. Now Axel Jr's mouth moves faster than his mind. His personality is a copy-paste of Garet, except missing a few neurons and common sense. His impulse control rivals that of a small child after consuming enough espresso to energize the entirety of China. He's probably the only character you will want to pop in the mouth. By the way, the whole fucking game starts because Tyrell is an idiot.
Because every party needs at least one woman to keep the manchildren from killing themselves, we have Karis. The practical and level-headed daughter of The Last Airbender (Ivan, who technically isn't but for the sake of the joke go along with it,) she's the one who seems to have most answers and can think with her head and not her sword. Once you get to Bellinsk, you probably won't see her anymore because Sveta will take her place.
To finish off the main party, you have Rief. You won't get to know Rief because as soon as you get the next character, you'll shove Rief into the reserves and make him your pack mule. He levels slow as shit and is pretty much not usable except as a healer. Like mother like son!
I'm not gonna dwell too much on the next few characters, but two out of the next four are worth mentioning because one is important to the plot and one is just hilariously unfortunate.
The hilariously unfortunate one is Amiti. I say hilariously unfortunate because of his origins. Very rarely have I been shocked in a video game but my jaw dropped because of how fucking terrible this is. Okay, let's begin this story.
*** SPOILERS BUT IT'S KINDA TOO LATE FOR THAT OH WELL DON'T YELL AT ME ***
You meet Amiti in Ayuthay. Being a bishie, a royal, and shirtless, he automatically got cool points from me. You are taken to the throne room and meet Amiti's uncle, Paithos, who is the presiding king of Ayuthay. He then proceeds to tell Amiti his origins. See, Amiti believes that his mother concieved him through psynergy and that he has no father. Basically, he's fucking Jesus.
Well, no. See, Alex (it's not outright stated but Camelot has the subtlety of a meat tenderizer being pounded into your frontal lobe) stopped by Ayuthay, knocked up his mom, started the Alchemy Well, and left. All in a day's work for a professional dick, I guess. I knew Alex was a self-centered ass but I never thought he'd resort to "wham bam thank you ma'am." This makes Amiti and Rief cousins, by the way. Ha ha, element-pairing slashers.
Just thinking back to this; what is the point of lying? Seriously, the kid is fucking royalty, so what if his father just loves 'em and leaves 'em? What, does Paithos just mindfuck his nephew as a side hobby or something?
Next is Sveta. Sveta is a part of the eastern race known as beastmen. That's right! Furries are now canon! This makes the roleplayer in me happy, let me tell you. Sveta only becomes important to the plot at the end, and I'm not spoilering this any more. Go play the game.
The other two characters in your party are Eoleo and Himi. Himi really doesn't have much going on with her character, all you really need her for is the Search psynergy and that's about it. Eoleo is the son of Briggs, you've seen him in previous games and you'll see him here now. He does have some quotable gold, though.
As a concluding sidenote; as you're leaving Tonfon, I believe, Kraden says that Rief's sister, Nowell, ran off with Piers. Nowell is, totally ballparking it, maybe 17-ish. Piers, at the time of The Lost Age, is.... well, we actually don't know. In The Lost Age, he refused to answer. We find out later that people who live in his home-island, Lemuria, barely age at all. So he could be, oh, 150.
Piers, please have a seat over there. (and he's my man, bitch, hands off.)
-- MISCELLANOUS GRIPING --
- Odds and ends -
The game strikes an odd balance between a call-back to the old fans and introducing new victims into the series. In terms of story, the game is mostly geared to the oldbies. You see and hear familiar names and familiar places and it's Nostalgia City population you for a good long run.
When it comes to explaining fucking everything with the borderline useless Encyclopedia feature, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn falls flat on its face. There is such thing as too much detail to the point that your brain fries; you start trying to remember which civil war is which and which vaguely Asian village is pissed off at the furries and eventually you get so bogged down with details it's overwhelming and frightening.
While Weyard is probably the most masterfully crafted and indepth world I've ever seen in a game, it gives you way too much homework to even begin on the midterm. It's great for the roleplayers and the wiki writers, but it's an absolutely informational nightmare for the casual player. It's a lot to take in and remember.
Thankfully, all you need to know are these few facts;
1. Chalis, Arcanus, and Blados are bad. You don't like them.
2. The darkness is bad. You don't want the darkness.
3. All of the leaders of the big cities are either idiots or evil.
4. All of the leaders of the small towns are kind.
There ya go. You're set. Get your sword, shield, and Djinn and get out there.
-- OVERALL --
- Your final score -
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is just as deep as its predecessors, but some RPG fans will find its story overwhelming and its gameplay underwhelming. If you're looking for a game that tells a fantabulous story with a highly developed world and engaging characters, you'll love the bejeezus out of the game. If you're looking for a new RPG experience, you'll be very very bored.
Old fans might not be challenged enough and may get bored, but the storyline is the life blood of the franchise. New fans may be intimidated by the huge amount of information, but it's endearing enough to keep the ball rolling.
I'd reccommend this game to any RPG fan with a DS. And while you're at it, go play the GBA games too, they have great replay value!
-- INTRODUCTION --
- Set the stage -
Golden Sun is an old boy in the RPG world. Not as old as Square's titles and not nearly as popular, but it can go toe-to-toe with Final Fantasy and in all likelihood win.
Golden Sun is probably the best fantasy RPG to come out on the Gameboy Advance. We began with Golden Sun for the Gameboy Advance in 2001. For me it was love at first sight even knocking out Final Fantasy in my personal top favorites. I've been there for Golden Sun since the beginning.
Golden Sun was lucky to have a sequel for the same platform; Golden Sun: The Lost Age came out in America in 2003. The Lost Age was critically acclaimed and loved by critics and fans alike. There were some issues with the combat but it was quickly overshadowed by the rich world, deep characters, and engaging storyline.
And then, like the skies over Weyard, everything went dark. Nobody heard hide nor hair of Golden Sun for years. The franchise was largely forgotten except for a fairly small and loyal fanbase. The series got a track in Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Isaac (the main character of the original game) was made an assist trophy, which gave some fans hope that the sun would once again rise for the series.
In 2009, 6 years after The Lost Age, the dawn did come. At E3 2009, Camelot and Nintendo released a trailer of the third game which had been secretly under production; Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. The game was released the following year.
I recieved Dark Dawn for Christmas, and I have been waiting ever since E3 to get my hands on it. I was not at all disappointed with the story, it's still a masterpiece like the previous titles. That's not to say this is the perfect game though.
-- GAMEPLAY --
- I can manipulate a joystick like it's nobody's business -
(That's what she said)
Gameplay is not much different from the Golden Suns of the past. It's still your random encounter turn-based combat we've seen in many other RPGs and it's still very theatrical with summons and weapon effects (which is not really that unusual from fantasy RPGs out of Japan)
Golden Sun was famous for its brain-breaking puzzles, especially the second title, The Lost Age. More challenging than a sudoku puzzle in Mesopotamian script, old fans still curl up in a fetal position and cry when reminded of tridents. Your mileage may vary here, but the puzzles really weren't challenging at all thanks to Amiti's very useful Insight psynergy. It's like Camelot knew you were going to check GameFAQs eventually and wanted to save you the trip.
I did use GameFAQs (I'M SORRY) and I noted that in some of the boss battles the guide writer would say that it was "the most challenging boss yet." Except that there really isn't any strategy involved in any of the bosses. They all can be defeated the exact same way.
Step 1: Have Karis cast Healing Gust every turn.
Step 2: Have everyone else use a Djinn every turn.
Step 3: Summon everything.
Step 4: Do it again.
You'll notice in this review the section about characters and story is like three times as long as the gameplay. Why? Because the gameplay is samey and cookie cutter. If you've played any Final Fantasy, you've played the combat system. It's not inherently unique but quite frankly if you're playing Golden Sun for the combat you're going to be sorely disappointed.
-- CHARACTERS --
- Represent -
Let's see... it's a fantasy RPG. From Japan. You should know where this is going. It's a ragtag band of colorful heroes with colorful hair and colorful impractical-in-combat outfits. Unlike Square Enix who measures its self worth in belts and zippers, the designs are much more Western but still retain the goofiness of Japanese RPGs.
You play as the children of the main characters from the first game. I'll give some of you shippers some tissue to cry in as we go through this section, I know you're just plain devastated fanon has been ruined forever.
The main character is Matthew who looks like Isaac. Not even in a parental sort of way, like they just took the sprites from the first game and made them chibi there is that little difference in character design. He's strong and silent like EVERY OTHER RPG HERO EVER. Only opting to speak in ellipses and bemused punctuation and at one point he says something along the lines of "&@!%" when Arcanus shows up. So my head made him go "..... fuck" and that made the scene ten times funnier. HEAD CANON FTW (THE SAME THING POWERING THE FANDOM THE LAST 7 BLEEPIN YEARS.) Of course it's not like he sprung right the fuck out of nowhere. Nope, you find out later that Jenna, the fire adept from The Lost Age, is his mother. Talk about taking it from one side of the family. Wait, why aren't they living together? Mystery for the next game if there is one I guess.
Let's move onto the son of Garet, Tyrell, or as I call him; Axel Jr. Now Axel Jr's mouth moves faster than his mind. His personality is a copy-paste of Garet, except missing a few neurons and common sense. His impulse control rivals that of a small child after consuming enough espresso to energize the entirety of China. He's probably the only character you will want to pop in the mouth. By the way, the whole fucking game starts because Tyrell is an idiot.
Because every party needs at least one woman to keep the manchildren from killing themselves, we have Karis. The practical and level-headed daughter of The Last Airbender (Ivan, who technically isn't but for the sake of the joke go along with it,) she's the one who seems to have most answers and can think with her head and not her sword. Once you get to Bellinsk, you probably won't see her anymore because Sveta will take her place.
To finish off the main party, you have Rief. You won't get to know Rief because as soon as you get the next character, you'll shove Rief into the reserves and make him your pack mule. He levels slow as shit and is pretty much not usable except as a healer. Like mother like son!
I'm not gonna dwell too much on the next few characters, but two out of the next four are worth mentioning because one is important to the plot and one is just hilariously unfortunate.
The hilariously unfortunate one is Amiti. I say hilariously unfortunate because of his origins. Very rarely have I been shocked in a video game but my jaw dropped because of how fucking terrible this is. Okay, let's begin this story.
*** SPOILERS BUT IT'S KINDA TOO LATE FOR THAT OH WELL DON'T YELL AT ME ***
You meet Amiti in Ayuthay. Being a bishie, a royal, and shirtless, he automatically got cool points from me. You are taken to the throne room and meet Amiti's uncle, Paithos, who is the presiding king of Ayuthay. He then proceeds to tell Amiti his origins. See, Amiti believes that his mother concieved him through psynergy and that he has no father. Basically, he's fucking Jesus.
Well, no. See, Alex (it's not outright stated but Camelot has the subtlety of a meat tenderizer being pounded into your frontal lobe) stopped by Ayuthay, knocked up his mom, started the Alchemy Well, and left. All in a day's work for a professional dick, I guess. I knew Alex was a self-centered ass but I never thought he'd resort to "wham bam thank you ma'am." This makes Amiti and Rief cousins, by the way. Ha ha, element-pairing slashers.
Just thinking back to this; what is the point of lying? Seriously, the kid is fucking royalty, so what if his father just loves 'em and leaves 'em? What, does Paithos just mindfuck his nephew as a side hobby or something?
Next is Sveta. Sveta is a part of the eastern race known as beastmen. That's right! Furries are now canon! This makes the roleplayer in me happy, let me tell you. Sveta only becomes important to the plot at the end, and I'm not spoilering this any more. Go play the game.
The other two characters in your party are Eoleo and Himi. Himi really doesn't have much going on with her character, all you really need her for is the Search psynergy and that's about it. Eoleo is the son of Briggs, you've seen him in previous games and you'll see him here now. He does have some quotable gold, though.
As a concluding sidenote; as you're leaving Tonfon, I believe, Kraden says that Rief's sister, Nowell, ran off with Piers. Nowell is, totally ballparking it, maybe 17-ish. Piers, at the time of The Lost Age, is.... well, we actually don't know. In The Lost Age, he refused to answer. We find out later that people who live in his home-island, Lemuria, barely age at all. So he could be, oh, 150.
Piers, please have a seat over there. (and he's my man, bitch, hands off.)
-- MISCELLANOUS GRIPING --
- Odds and ends -
The game strikes an odd balance between a call-back to the old fans and introducing new victims into the series. In terms of story, the game is mostly geared to the oldbies. You see and hear familiar names and familiar places and it's Nostalgia City population you for a good long run.
When it comes to explaining fucking everything with the borderline useless Encyclopedia feature, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn falls flat on its face. There is such thing as too much detail to the point that your brain fries; you start trying to remember which civil war is which and which vaguely Asian village is pissed off at the furries and eventually you get so bogged down with details it's overwhelming and frightening.
While Weyard is probably the most masterfully crafted and indepth world I've ever seen in a game, it gives you way too much homework to even begin on the midterm. It's great for the roleplayers and the wiki writers, but it's an absolutely informational nightmare for the casual player. It's a lot to take in and remember.
Thankfully, all you need to know are these few facts;
1. Chalis, Arcanus, and Blados are bad. You don't like them.
2. The darkness is bad. You don't want the darkness.
3. All of the leaders of the big cities are either idiots or evil.
4. All of the leaders of the small towns are kind.
There ya go. You're set. Get your sword, shield, and Djinn and get out there.
-- OVERALL --
- Your final score -
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is just as deep as its predecessors, but some RPG fans will find its story overwhelming and its gameplay underwhelming. If you're looking for a game that tells a fantabulous story with a highly developed world and engaging characters, you'll love the bejeezus out of the game. If you're looking for a new RPG experience, you'll be very very bored.
Old fans might not be challenged enough and may get bored, but the storyline is the life blood of the franchise. New fans may be intimidated by the huge amount of information, but it's endearing enough to keep the ball rolling.
I'd reccommend this game to any RPG fan with a DS. And while you're at it, go play the GBA games too, they have great replay value!