Topic: It's Time for Golden Sun on Nintendo Switch

I'd definitely swap Fire Emblem for it. I love that someone famous for a game as different from Golden Sun as God Of War is such a huge fan. It's such a quietly beloved series.

I think given those series, I would probably trade out Kirby. I don't personally care for Splatoon or Fire Emblem, but Kirby is just such an incredibly stagnant series at this point.

I don't really like this, though, I don't think we should have to sacrifice any series to get Golden Sun back. I think we can all acknowledge that right now Nintendo has already gone through a lot of their largest series on the Switch and that beyond Animal Crossing New Horizons, 2020 looks empty as can be (unless BOTW2 releases in the year, but that would likely be on the tail end of the year). Nintendo also doesn't have many more Wii U ports to fall back on to "pad" out the months.

But then again a Camelot Mario Golf could very easily be a filler game to release during all of those empty months and we're right back to step one. That is my biggest fear for the next Direct. I used to love the Mario sports games, but when I got Aces it was just such a slog. I recently traded it in.

Agreed, think the concept of "trading" a series in for a new Golden Sun is just Barlog's way of having a little fun. There are quite a few series Nintendo has yet to bring a new Switch entry to. A new Donkey Kong or mainline Star Fox title would be great. Pikmin 4 is still on the quiet side. Golden Sun is in good company, I'd say.

I just thought of this. I'd love to see them do for Golden Sun's art style was Octopath Traveler did for old school Final Fantasy art. I'd love to see that for more games in general, its a real cool take on retro graphics. But Golden Sun on GBA in particular looks genuinely different from other games (outside Camelot's other GBA games), so it'd be cool to see a new take on that.

@kkslider5552000 Please no. I'd never be able to play it, because Octopath's style hurts my eyes.

Besides, as you noted, Golden Sun is different. The series has never been a standard sprite style game, it's always been pseudo 3D. I imagine that a modern Golden Sun - unless they go full 3D - would be 2.5D like Link's Awakening HD or Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee, except with its own style, of course.

I do think that Golden Sun was particularly beautiful as a GBA game, though, and I would be kind of disappointed if they low balled it into something like LGP/E on the Switch. But I don't see them shaking it up too much if we do get lucky enough to get another Golden Sun.

I do see them taking it in a Link's Awakening HD sort of direction, Dark Dawn's style seemed to be a small step towards that sort of semi-cute highly stylized look. I would love if they tried their hand at a more serious Octopath Traveler style, as it would bring back the beautiful spritework the original duo are famous for. Really like how Octopath looks. I think the only presentation issue I can think of that could cause eye strain is the just slightly overdone lens blur bokeh effect overlaid with a vignette (I think the vignette is a screen overlay rather than a lighting thing, could be wrong though), which can be a little much when both are active. I really like the concept of traditional sprites interacting with a 3D environment, think Golden Sun would be the ultimate way to really make the most of the Octopath style. I found Octopath's world a little wanting in terms of puzzles, really made me wish it were a Golden Sun game in some places. Would love to see Golden Sun perfect that Octopath style.

@Harmonie please not like link's awakening's art style.

I would defintively enjoy an octopath method though.

Bit of a shame about Byleth's announcement as fighter #5 in the first wave of DLC fighters for Smash. To its credit, its play style looks alright. Isn't as cut-and-paste as many of the now seven other Fire Emblem characters in Smash. Not holding my breath for Isaac as a DLC fighter for Ultimate given he is already an Assist, hoping the next iteration of Smash Bros. will be the one to finally bring him on, but that is however many months of development time that could have been used to develop a cool new fighter from a new IP foreign to Smash, or a new fighter from a currently underrepresented IP. Would have been great to see another fan-favorite character make it in.

Well, if you think about it, Splatoon is kinda like the spiritual successor of this game. So yeah, there's that.

They are both definitely video games, that's for sure.

@StephanDLW You would be surprised. The first two Golden Sun titles outsold comparable Fire Emblem games that sold in the same regions and released on the same system at the same time. It is hardly a poorly-selling IP (excluding the black sheep title Dark Dawn, which sold poorly for several reasons beyond the scope of the game). Fire Emblem continues to be a relatively niche strategy series, yet it receives plenty of support and is currently a hair below Mario in its Smash Bros. representation. It seems popularity isn't always the primary deciding factor Nintendo considers when deciding which games to greenlight or promote.

I think the primary issue that has made Golden Sun releases so uncommon is the fact its developer is consistently tasked with the production of the Mario sports games, not to mention Nintendo had a bit of a roller coaster decade due to the Wii U. Golden Sun is the sort of game they bring to successful systems that have sold well and already have a sizable user base, something they are now enjoying with the Switch (the 3DS was very successful as well, though I think the reason why a Golden Sun game was not brought to that system was partly due to Camelot's development schedule and partly a result of their company-wide Wii U-era sales strategy at the time, which in a nutshell seems to have been to focus on just the guaranteed sellers to make the best of a bad situation, hence why big games that normally would be console-only like Hyrule Warriors and Smash Bros. came to the 3DS).

@StephanDLW I was surprised too. I was vaguely aware of Fire Emblem at the time because of Marth and Roy's inclusion in Melee, but I always assumed it was a decently-sized series like Animal Crossing or something. Very surprising to see how lukewarm its sales history has been throughout the years. Sometimes it's just the "Nintendo" factor — their logic is uniquely theirs lol, they pick and choose what they want to do when they feel the time is right. Just a matter of time until they finally decide to get some mileage out of that golden IP they have waiting in the wings.