(Game Boy Advance)

Golden Sun (Game Boy Advance)

Game Review

Golden Sun Review

USA USA Version

Posted by Corbie Dillard

Fun in the Sun

For a long time it was felt that portable gaming and role-playing games just didn't mix well. Despite some early attempts for the original Game Boy system, it was a widely accepted opinion that these portable game systems just didn't pack enough processing and storage power to be able to offer up a truly epic and engaging RPG experience, as well as the nature of portable gaming itself. It wasn't until games like Dragon Warrior III and Final Fantasy Legend III came along that RPG fans began to sit up and take notice of just what could be done on a portable game system when in the proper developer's hands. Camelot, probably best known to Nintendo fans for its Mario Golf series but also responsible for Sega's Shining Force series, obviously sensed that even more could be done using the increased horsepower of Nintendo's upcoming Game Boy Advance system and turned its focus to creating a truly console-quality role-playing experience on a handheld system.

The traditional Japanese RPG formula is intact in Golden Sun, but the developers didn't stop there when they put together the many mechanics used throughout the game. You'll still spend the majority of your time travelling across the world map and doing battle with enemies in order to level up your characters, but you'll also find yourself taking on the many challenges laid out for you at each stop along the way. Of course with all of these familiar touches, you can't help but mention many of the new and unique gameplay ideas the game brings to the table as well.

The best and probably most predominant feature of Golden Sun would have to be the game's puzzle elements. Whether it be pushing pipes together to guide various streams of water or using your Psynergy to push and pull obstacles that get in your way, there's never a lack of tricky challenges to solve. And if these puzzles weren't enough of a twist, there's also the game's unique Djinn elemental characters that can not only be summoned for devastating attacks in battle, but can even be used to manipulate your character's magical growth throughout the game.

Combat, while still very traditional in feel and execution, is also laced with innovative touches here and there. You'll still be able to select both physical and magical attacks to use during combat, but figuring out how to best use the Djinn can also play an equally important role in how effectively your party performs in battle.

The increased emphasis on magical attacks not only gives the battles a bit of a unique twist, it also tends to create added levels of strategy for times when you not only have to figure out what spells to make use of, but also which enemies to direct the attack at. It's all carefully crafted by the developers to give the game a very balanced level of difficulty, at least as long as you properly outfit your characters with better weapons and armour, not to mention take part in enough battles to level them up adequately.

While the single-player Story Mode is obviously the game's main focus, the developers did manage to squeeze in a Battle Mode that will allow a player to take on many of the game's enemies in the arena, or even link up with another player via the Game Link cable for a little 3-on-3 battle between your current party and that of your opponent. It's a nice diversion from the main game, but the two-player Battle Mode does require that both players have the cartridge and a Game Link Cable.

You can't help but appreciate the simple nature of the gameplay system used in Golden Sun, but by the same token, the new ideas do go a long way in adding a nice and often refreshing feel to the game's play control. When you couple all of these traditional and new elements together with an a wide degree of character customisation, you end up with a game that's not only quite easy to pick up and play, but also engaging enough to keep you coming back time and time again. Other than the occasional difficulty spike from time to time, generally stemming from a lack of character levelling, the game remains extremely smooth and rewarding.

The developers at Camelot certainly didn't waste any time in showing off the vast graphical capabilities of the Game Boy Advance with Golden Sun's vivid and lush environments. Every area you visit features the same attention to detail and you'll hardly ever see the same style of area twice, a testament to the broad level of diversity found throughout the game's vast landscape. The characters and enemies are equally impressive in their construction and there's even a hefty dose of scaling and rotation effects on the world map, although it tends to look a bit rough when compared to the extremely detailed standard visual elements.

You can't talk about an RPG without mentioning the game's musical score, and while the RPG soundtracks found on most of the portable game systems of the time period were fairly hit or miss, there's no denying the impressive audio presentation found throughout the game. The orchestrated musical effort is not only beautifully composed, but it seems to perfectly convey the various moods you'll experience during your travels. And much like the visuals, the music is every bit as diverse and varied. While there will inevitably be those who'll criticise the game for its lack of any voiced dialogue, given the ambitious scope of every other facet of the game, it's an understandable omission given the limited storage of the cartridge format. After a listen to a few of the amazing musical tracks, you'll forget all about any voiced dialogue or lack thereof.

Conclusion

There's no denying that Golden Sun is still one of the best original portable RPG titles ever created and a true testament to what can be accomplished when developers take the time to truly stretch the limits of what portable gaming has to offer. Not only do you get to watch an absolutely epic storyline unfold in front of you, but you also get to take on the game's wide range of monsters using one of the most strategic, albeit fairly traditional, turn-based combat systems ever to grace an RPG, portable or console. Toss in some mind-bending puzzles to solve along with a host of unique gameplay mechanics and what you have is one of the most enjoyable RPG experiences you're ever likely to encounter and a game no RPG fan should miss.

User Comments (47)

warioswoods

#3

warioswoods said:

Oh, so that's what Golden Sun is. I kept seeing it mentioned, but just kept my distance.

James

#5

James said:

I love it - just the right mix of Zelda and Shining the Holy Ark for my liking. Cannot wait for the DS one, it could be the DS RPG I've been waiting for...

Bloodysaber

#7

Bloodysaber said:

This is easily one of my top GBA titles. I can't wait for the new installment to come out...something I had honestly given up on.

TheLonelyGamer

#8

TheLonelyGamer said:

I'm not very fond of this game, for some reason. It's good, but games like this aren't my cup of tea. The music is awesome though. :D
Oh, and funny tagline too. :D

Link-Hero

#11

Link-Hero said:

I would love to play this game, but Gamestop barely sells any Gameboy Advance games anymore, and I'm not sure where else I can buy them without looking online. If there is going to be a Virtual Handheld on the 3DS, then I hope this game is going to be put onto it.

Noire

#12

Noire said:

That's so awesome how this review comes out exactly a year after the announcent of Golden Sun DS (and the day I joined this site.) It's an awesome present, even if it's not really a present. :3

Also, the review is flawless. It captures perfectly how I feel about this game. It's so great~

theblackdragonAdmin

#13

theblackdragon said:

i really do need to finish this game D:

@Link-Hero: don't give up on finding a copy at Gamestop -- that's where i found both the original and its sequel a few months back. just try at multiple stores, or if you go out of town, try there too. :3

WolfRamHeart

#14

WolfRamHeart said:

Great review Corbie. I remember when I first played this game. It was one of my first purchases for my Game Boy Advance system and it is still a fantastic game today. I just can't wait for the new Golden Sun game.

mrt181

#15

mrt181 said:

Played both on the wii, it's a traditional jrpg. the main downside of this game (as with most jrpgs) is that it takes very long before the story becomes really interesting

Link-Hero

#16

Link-Hero said:

@theblackdragon

I've already tried multiple of Gamestops, but none of them have both copies of the games, though I did see one of the two games in a Gamestop close to my house quite awhile ago. Though, that was before I truly wanted to play the games, but it's too late now since it’s gone.:(

I think I might as well as go onto Amazon and order cheap used copies once I get a job.

DamoAdmin

#17

Damo said:

This game is probably the first GBA title that I really got my teeth into. Excellent review, Corbie - now all we need is the next entry to come out!

Slapshot

#18

Slapshot said:

Bout time we get a review Corbie ;) Great game thats not to be missed!

@Prosody... heck man ANY DS release is worth getting excited about, seems like the systems barely has anything released anymore with exception to DSiWare.

Buster13

#19

Buster13 said:

I bought this game, along with it's sequel about a year ago, but I sort of just put them by the side.

I suppose I should get to them soon.

fishman100

#20

fishman100 said:

now i'm regretting now buying this game and saying "who needs another stupid RPG anyways?"

WaveBoy

#21

WaveBoy said:

You know, I'd really love to play this....It's just, well...I can't play RPG's. I just can't :p

Bassman_Q

#22

Bassman_Q said:

I still think Superstar Saga is a better RPG on GBA than this. :P But its still a pretty good game. I just really couldn't get into it much. I think I stopped at the town that's all flooded... I couldn't stand the constant random encounters in the mine! That, and Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls stole my attention. :P

grenworthshero

#23

grenworthshero said:

I played the second title for a while, and liked it alright, but I didn't get very far because I hated how you just had to wander around aimlessly for hours just trying to figure out what to do. I sold it, and I'm sorry to say I don't regret it.

pixelman

#24

pixelman said:

"I still think Superstar Saga is a better RPG on GBA than this."

^ This, this, a thousand times this. The excessive dialog in this game really killed it for me. If you lose a boss fight, you have to sit through pages and pages of dialog to try again. Hope the DS one doesn't have this problem.

CorbsAdmin

#26

Corbs said:

While I like Superstar Saga a bit more as a game, it's more of a gimmicky RPG than a full-blown epic JRPG like Golden Sun.

CanisWolfred

#27

CanisWolfred said:

It's an okay game, IMO. The story is the main draw, but it's poorly paced. The graphics were steller for the GBA at the time, but I hate the art style. The gameplay is decent, but the battles are fairly basic and not very challenging. The puzzles were a nice inclusion, though I found many of them to be pretty tedious. Oh, and the controls and/or hit detection was annoying. I kept trying to position myself just right in front of a box or barrel and I somehow kept turning, sometimes all the way around.

It's a fun game, just nothing memorable or spectacular. It just didn't really stand out at all to me, and to be quite honest, it seems more like a game that tried too hard to emulate a bunch of other games rather than try to differentiate itself from the pack. Then again, I guess these kind of games just aren't for me. As someone mentioned, it's a lot like Shining The Holy Ark, and I felt the exact same way about that game, too.

@Grensworth

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Most games at least give you hints and stuff, but I rarely ever noticed any in Golden Sun. It just seemed like if they didn't tell you exactly what to do, you were on your own. And even if they told you where to go, they didn't always tell you how to get there or what you had to do there. I remember one time I was wandering around for a half an hour trying to figure out how to get to the Sol Sanctum. I ending up looking it up online and found out it was in a place that didn't even look like you could go, and once you got there, you had to do some obscure thing exactly right in order to get in it.

I just used a walkthrough after that, I couldn't take it anymore.

CorbsAdmin

#28

Corbs said:

Are you guys telling me that you actually had to use a walkthrough on these two games? I personally found them to hold your hand a bit too much at times almost giving you TOO much information. Ah well, different strokes. :)

pixelman

#30

pixelman said:

@Corbie: I love a good JRPG, but Golden Sun went way overboard on the dialog. So much of it was pointless text. Granted though, the battles were pretty epic. Can't wait for the DS version. :3

Ravage

#31

Ravage said:

This RPG is miles better than almost every Final Fantasy. You actually do more than grind through dungeons of enemies. Puzzles FTW!

CanisWolfred

#32

CanisWolfred said:

@Ravage

Every Final Fantasy since 5 has had you do loads more than grind. Golden Sun is actually fairly simplistic in comparison.

Adam

#33

Adam said:

Superstar Saga? Golden Sun? Child's play. Mother 3 is the best GBA RPG, fools. Recognize.

HanuKwanzMasBif

#35

HanuKwanzMasBif said:

My friend says I should get this, he got it last year... I might, now that you folks have given me another good reason.

miketh2005

#36

miketh2005 said:

I had this for GBA. I bought it for just 3$ from a guy at school. I played it for awhile and was enthralled with the story, but I hate RPG because I always need a walk through and hate carrying papers with me every time I want to play the game!

JakobG

#37

JakobG said:

My first GBA game.
I bought it blindly, and was amazed by the game afterwards.

jackaroo

#38

jackaroo said:

Awesome game. I loved this one. Cant wait for the DS game. That should be awesome.

OldMan-Tech

#39

OldMan-Tech said:

Wow this game gets some retro love. Loved both of them on advance. Cant wait for the ds version.

Adamant

#40

Adamant said:

I disagree wholly with this review, but you probably knew that already. It got 9 points too many.

mjc0961

#41

mjc0961 said:

"When you couple all of these traditional and new elements together with an a wide degree of character customisation, you end up with a game that's not only quite easy to pick up and play, but also engaging enough to keep you coming back time and time again."

You aren't kidding. I don't even know how many hours I sunk into it. I was always playing it, always playing...

@40: YOU got 9 points too many.

RyuZebian

#43

RyuZebian said:

@Axoloth
My thought exactly!
@28
YES, Corbie. Finding the world map djinns is just hard and annoying!
AWEsome game anyway, one of my favorites! And yeah, I think a 10 is appropriate for Lost Age! It's the sam as with SM Galaxy and SM Galaxy 2 - First one makes a great formula, the second game perfects it! :D Oh well, maybe Lost Age wasn't perfect... But who cares now, they'll just fix that in the upcoming game! :)

Paperclip

#44

Paperclip said:

@Adam: I know right? More like best RPG AND Handheld game ever (only with the English patch though, otherwise the game is rendered useless).

But Golden Sun is fun so far. Just DL'd it, and just picked up the old guy so I can go climb a mountain :3

Ski_Deuce

#45

Ski_Deuce said:

I got both games together off of ebay for a grand total of $10 around 3 years ago. The first one is much better than the second, but the second one does get good.

Leave A Comment

Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...