Gallery: Here's Another Look At Golden Sun For The Switch Online Expansion Pack

My favorite RPG series fora very very long time. I am lucky to still have my 2 CIB copies 🥰

This is going to be such a joy. I'm going to get cozy af and play these in bed. Ugh. Can't wait.

Oeff.... I remember i said i will never upgrade to the +expansion .... Why is Nintendo making it soo hard to resist. Lol. Best rpg ever created. I hope they remake this gem. And keep going forward with it.

This might sound stupid, but aren't these the games where if you sat outside or in light it altered the game in some way? Maybe I'm crazy

Nevermind looks like that was Boktai I guess I could have just googled

Man, I am pumped to give these two games, a playthrough.

@rvcolem1 Man I loved Boktai.

Golden Sun never hooked me. I seem to recall the start of the first game really dragging. Just an interminable series of cutscenes or some such. They could learn something about in media res from their contemporary Final Fantasy games.

Golden Sun may be the best looking GBA game, I was really impressed by it back in the day. It still looks much better in a modded GBA with IPSv2 than these screenshots. Wonder how hard would be to just remaster it.

I think I'll have to give these a pass unless they do a new review and it is awesome as i have no history with them. Random encounters are best left in the past for me. I loved breath of fire on snes but I tried to play it last year and that game is so obtuse, poorly translated and ground down with random encounters. I hope these are better. Let me know if I should try them (I liked secret of mana, chrono trigger, Mario rpg from that time).

@LastFootnote looks like Boktai has a pretty strong secondary market...it isn't cheap to say the least.

@dimi Getting a modded SP was a great decision. Wonderful console. And I am sure a ton of people look down on this, but I don't care...pssst, there's a great cartridge repro scene for the GBA. And a lot of the carts are super affordable. I have PC versions of Doom 1 and 2 on carts and translated Mother 3. Worth it.

@dimi
The graphics were designed for a screen that’s so low resolution that subpixels and pixel grid are very noticeable, this causes an effect similar to scanlines in that the chunkyness of the graphics is broken up creating a sharper image, the screen was also prone to ghosting but a lot of games like F-Zero Maximum Velocity used it to fake transparencies by rapidly flickering graphics on and off using the ghosting to blend them into the background to create transparencies. The Switch GBA app’s “reproduce classic feel” mode recreates both of those fairly faithfully.

@LastFootnote Boktai is one of my favorites game on the GBA. It's one gimmick however killed the series.

With that said, I couldn't get into Golden Sun either. However, if you can't, I suggest you watch a youtuber by the name of "Josh Stife Hayes". He played the entire series, and gave a nice visual walkthrough of the game itself. From talking about it's story, to it's characters, and the mechanics. He is very thorough.

So you might like that.

Been looking forward to them putting these up but probably be awhile before I actually get around to them since it's kind of happening while I'm in the middle of replaying Xenoblade 2 and that's its own giant timesink.

I prefer to play gameboy colour/advance on my analogue pocket, but it's great that anyone on switch can play this games now. I hope nintendo make a (2D) sequel for it 😃

Complete with Nintendo’s lovely no-option border..

@rvcolem1 Give it another chance mate. It's easily best RPG on GBA and for many, myself included, is the greatest JRPG game of all time.

And don't get me started on the soundtrack... The OST's for the game are superb. It really is worth playing it for the music alone!

As awesome as this is I haven’t bothered renewing my subscription. I tired of throwing money away on it and not having anything to show for it. It’s always in the back of my mind Nintendo will just remove the games one day.

@LastFootnote I remember somehow, someway getting stuck in the tutorial section of the first game. It was definitely Twilight Princessque in its leisurely opening section.

I love this pair and appreciate NL showing it love. I hope it will generate enough interest to revive the series, but that’s probably not very plausible.
If you haven’t played them, I’d say that the combat is more engaging than most turn-based games imo, and the dungeon/overworld puzzles are the best I’ve seen in any rpg!

I actually just replayed the first golden sun, and despite my fine memories of it, it didn’t really hold up. The dialogue goes on and on for ages, you have no agency over the story (simple “yes” or “no” answers, that’s it), the combat is actually rather shallow, and the puzzles are pretty simple. The game is pretty linear except for a few parts of you want all the djinni, which is made extra painful by the fact that there is no fast travel. This game blew my mind as a 10 year old, but now…give me FF VI over this any day of the week.

@rvcolem1 Sadly, you won't find it too cheaply. Boktai is unique among the gba library for relying on solar power.

The problem is outside of Japan, the game's gimmick didn't catch on. Especially depending on where you lived. As a result a third title in the series never made it outside of Japan.

Because of how niche the game is, you won't find it cheaply. There is another game for example, on Gamecube called Gotcha Force. That game too sells for almost a whopping 1000 USD.

Back on the topic of Boktai. The only way to play it legit is to go bargain hunting. The other way is what we all know I can't say here. Sadly the 3rd title can only be imported. If you know Japanese, that's great. If not, there is a fan translation.

The last game we got was a soft reboot/sequel back in 2012 for the DS. You could try the DS game. It's alright for what it is, and requires no knowledge of the past games. Plus I think it's cheaper.

Boktai is my top fav gba games of all time and sadly it's becoming more and more lost to time. Konami, nor Nintendo has expressed interest in emulating the game nor has their been any attempts of revitalizing the series.

The series plays like a vampire spaghetti western. Moreso the second game. You get a get cool solar gun powered by the "sun" used to kill vampires. The fun part is your arsenal is customizable, so you can get different gun parts, used for different situations.

First game is a bit more straighforward, but the second game does a job of fleshing out the characters and world abit. So if you feel like you didn't get completion out of the first game via characters and story, the second one should fix that a bit.

If by some chance you manage to snag the old games for a good price, keep in mind a couple of things:

1.The first game plays more like a stealth game. Boktai is an idea hatched by Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid.

2. The second game however play's more like an action RPG. I don't know why the sudden jump, but that's how it went. You get other weapons besides a gun like swords, sabers, and axes. As well as armor. All of them with their own stats and special abilities.

If you do get a chance to play these games, I hope you enjoy them. They were a fun part of my childhood minus the sunburns.

I love Golden Sun 1 & 2. I think they need some touching up though. Perhaps an HD remaster?

Not necessarily for the game itself, but for the text at least.

I started replaying Golden Sun on my Steam Deck recently and it's pretty hard to read the text. I don't know how I did back on the GBA.

It's a shame they aren't getting the baiten kaitos treatment as I'd love to play them but with better visuals, I've only played the one on DS and that was an excellent game.

Playing Lost Age now on my DS -backlit and loving the sharp pixels and original media. BeST GBA RPG. The music, fight backgrounds and sequences, the story mechanics. It’s all amaze. Glad people can play these and enjoy them first time round or revisit.

@SalvorHardin I appreciate that breakdown. It was oddly titillating.

@wiiware i do too, but sort of waited with the gab announced titles to give them a shot here too..

(just got my dock and created my little Tate arcade paradise)

The Golden Sun games are great! I highly recommend them if you like that 16-bit style RPG.

@rvcolem1 I think you should give the first one a go. Speaking that as someone who loves the series, but like every other, it has flaws. The intro is long, and Golden Sun loves long text filled cutscenes, but the battle system, story, and music are some of the best in the genre.

At least now you'll have the benefit of save states before each major boss, so you don't have to sit through the whole cutscene again.

Hypothetically, there's also class customization with Djinni mixing and matching, but its underused and most people tend to put the same type Djinn on their characters. It's not necessary to win the game, but the system is there if you want to experiment with it, and you get some really cool classes out of it. Doubly so in TLA, which adds so many more.

Also each summon is just so dang pretty. I love Atalantea's, Cybele's Iris', and Judgement's animations.

When I first played Golden Sun way back when, it was an exchange with a friend. They played Chrono Trigger (my favorite JRPG at the time,) and I played Golden Sun and TLA. I feel like we both won at the end of the day.

@UltimateOtaku91 I'm glad someone else likes Dark Dawn. It's viewed a bit as the Black Sheep of the family, for sundry quality of life reasons and that it was never followed up on, but it's such an amazing game that I adore it.

Golden Sun also shares a composer with Baten Kaitos, and both series are some of my favorite JRPGs of all time.

Saturos' Battle theme is up there with The True Mirror and Vitriolic a Stroke as one of my favorite RPG battle themes of all time. IIRC, that theme was remixed into Dullahan's battle theme for the DS one, Dark Dawn.

Wonder how the send function will work

@AeonicB I'll give it a go after the new Prince of Persia. Thanks for a realistic response, plus I'm not out any more money so even if it isn't for me no harm no foul. I think I'm through my backlog and have officially caught up so I'll try almost anything besides the 1000s of Japenese romance sims or those weirdly acted fmv games.

@rvcolem1 I prefer random encounters.

• I don't want enemy sprites messing up the scenery.
• I don't want to have to wait for enemies to respawn when I am grinding.
• If you aren't grinding it's easier to determine how to not skip any battles but also not grind. Just fight every battle but waste no time getting to your destination.

This near universal hatred of random battles has really changed JRPG design and not for the better in my opinion.

@AeonicB At least now you'll have the benefit of save states before each major boss, so you don't have to sit through the whole cutscene again.

You also had save states on the Wii U release of these games.

@Aventurier Probably just the password system like with the Ages and Seasons games.

@Crono1973 True, but it still applies as compared to playing against the GBA original. Which I have and love, but good lord do I remember the couple times I failed a boss and had to sit through either game's final dungeon's cutscenes again.

@rvcolem1 No problem! Honestly, hope you love it, and if not, no extra money lost.

This is amaaaaaaazing!! My dreams come true! I think Switch 2 will provide NDS games and Golden Sun 3 with it!

@Crono1973 While you may enjoy it, random encounters gets a bad rep because of how poorly balanced it was in many games.

You had games where the encounter rate so insanely high that it made going through a game a chore.

They're not going to remaster it.

I don't know what Camelot, the developers of Golden Sun, are doing right at the moment, but I'd argue that if anything it'll be yet another Mario Sports game.

But, back in 2012, the producers asked fans if they want a Golden Sun, ask for it.

Apparently, not enough fans asked for it, or asked the wrong people: those asking for a playable Issac in Smash Bros for instance...

Kind of like how the Chibi-Robo team asked people to buy Zip Lash to ensure the franchise had a future, regardless if it was the type of game people wanted.

I’d love to play these on Switch, but I’m not paying $50 just to play these games. If i could go monthly sure, but since I can’t, I’ve gotta pass.

Nintendo should have released all three games in a collection (repurposing the third game for a single screen), complete with physical release. Many of us would have been all over that in lieu of a new game.

Still not paying to rent old ROMs, Nintendo.

@romanista I want the dock but the shippping cost is crazy, $60 for the $100 dock. I wish I bought my analogue with the dock and screen protector back then

@Quiet2down Too high is subjective.

@Crono1973 Indeed, which is why it's universally hated and why it changed.

@Sisilly_G Be careful, there are people who will call you out on that lol. "You should be grateful derr herr herr" or some crap. I agree, NSO uses good emulation, (Wii U's emulators were garbage in terms of accuracy) but renting them is lame.

Having save states and rewind features and easy access to the Japanese versions are going to make script re-translations so much easier!

Don't get me started on how many hours I've spent on translation work for Goldensunwiki.net (Golden Sun Universe). I'm glad I own the JP version carts of all three games as well, but it'll be REALLY nice to have the rewind feature to jump back to before a Yes-No dialogue tree split for script analysis!

@Baler
I only we could purchase individual games instead of having to subscribe.

@Radbot42 no. You literally don't have a pass.

@GameOtaku if only

@wiiware yes i know, had that thought as well, but couldn't rresist the white one, with my white pocket... and had to be customs as well in the end// grrr. .still happy with end result thought..

@dimi,

Not hard at all, just not much call for it.

@GameOtaku,

That ship sailed many years ago, as the popularity of the virtual console service peaked on the Wii , then took a nosedisve on the Wii U.

Outside the core hobby gmaers there is just not that much interest in this stuff, the market is pretty niche, divided up between collectors who only really want physical consoles and games, the emulation crowd, then the retro Nintendo game fans that would jump all over a retro console service, just not enough of them for it to be a viable option.

Never played these, but they're good-looking games.

@JohnnyMind,

Pretty sure they are saving the GameCube for the next console, the Switch online service will still be a big part of whatever Nintendo do next.

@JohnnyMind,

Possibly, as Nintendo do have a lot of third party developers to undertake the extra work.

@johnvboy
I’m just saying that the subscription route should be an option but not the **ONLY** option. What about consumers that don’t play online and just want the games? To get all the classic games it’s $50 a year! That is an ongoing fee to play only a handful of games you’d actually play while you are given many you’d never play. Myself I’d be better off to just select what games I want and buy individual titles and if Nintendo going forward is using the account system like they should’ve already done our classic games will roll over to the next gen.

@GameOtaku,

Like I said, I just do not think there is a massive demand for it. otherwise Nitendo would be offering it, pretty sure they could make more money selling people individual releases on a virtual console, then selling them to you over and over, each and every generation.

@johnvboy
In August last year switch had sold over 129 million units. At that time though I looked to see how many had subscribed and the search result hit only 36 million subs. That's not even half of switch owners back then! Sounds like they would be raking in the money selling individual classic games.

@GameOtaku,

No evidence to suggest the conclusions you are jumping to, it could point to most Switch owners not giving a hoot about retro games.

By the way that is not 129 million individual users, you have to take into account people buying multiple consoles and familes, 36 million subs is actually pretty decent.

@johnvboy
No evidence to suggest it doesn’t either. I’ve never known a business to be logical.

@GameOtaku,

I would suggest that Nintendo not having a virtual console service, tells you all you need to know about it's financial viability.

@johnvboy
Again businesses aren’t known for their sense. Trust me if something makes common sense they are hesitant to do it.

These have perhaps the best graphics on GBA.

@GameOtaku,

I would suggest Nintendo have been doing very well from a business perspective, they released the retro mini console series to test the waters, and even those systems sold pretty well, but were still pretty niche.

It's a commom misconception that Nintendo are not very good at business, usually from people who often confuse what Nintendo should do, with what the personally would like them to do, from a business perspective.

@johnvboy
Common sense also says why pay for an online service when you don’t play online, don’t have internet access most of the time and would only play a small portion of the classic games that are available that you play offline but only for every other week due to how the check in requirement works due to looping back to not having access to internet!

@GameOtaku,

Not sure how many people have a Switch and no reliable internet, pehrhaps I am wrong, and there are millions of people stuck with consoles, no games or Internet in the Amazon jungle.

@johnvboy
More than you’d think.

@GameOtaku,

I have no doubt there will be many with no reliable internet, but the question is.... do they own a Switch or other gaming console etc, not so sure of the latter.

@johnvboy
Do you really find it that hard to believe that gamers play single player offline games? You don’t need the internet.

@GameOtaku,

Not at all, most of my gaming is single palyer, but I still have an internet connection and the online service.