Golden Sun (2001)

The first entry for Golden Sun is widely regarded as one of the finest RPGs for the Nintendo’s handheld, striking a balance between familiar genre traditions and inventive mechanics. At its core, it offers a polished turn-based battle system, but what makes it stand out is the Djinn system, a clever feature that allows players to mix and match elemental creatures to change character stats, unlock new abilities, and unleash spectacular summons.

This adds a deep layer of strategy that keeps battles engaging from start to finish, and I was not aware of this mechanic until I first played it, but I consider this one of the best JRPG mechanics I've ever experienced. The use of Psynergy, essentially the game’s form of magic, extends beyond combat into exploration and puzzle-solving. somewhat similar to some mechanics in Breath of Fire IV (PlayStation). Whether it’s moving objects, revealing hidden paths, or manipulating the environment, Psynergy ensures dungeons feel interactive and rewarding rather than linear slogs.

This blend of combat and puzzle design makes the world feel alive and gives players constant reasons to experiment. On a technical level, this title is one of the most impressive-looking GBA ones, the bright, detailed environments and smooth character animations make the game visually striking, and the summon sequences push the system to its limits with dazzling effects. Narratively, the game starts with a familiar “young heroes against an ancient evil” setup, but it gradually unfolds into something more layered, especially once you realize it’s only half of a larger saga.

While the story is charming and filled with likable characters, some people may find the dialogue-heavy pacing a little slow, especially early on. And I can't blame them for feeling this way, even though I'm a big fan of games that have this trait, I still think it is a bit too much. Even with those minor drawbacks, Golden Sun remains a standout RPG experience, it combines strategic combat, clever puzzle design, and technical mastery into a package that feels ambitious for a handheld release. This is a must-play for fans of the JRPG sub-genre, as much as it's sequels which complement the story even further.

Oh Golden Sun, you marvelous gem.

I feel like this is the Kill Bill of JRPGS: On its own is not that much, but as a two parter uuuuuh boy it shines bright like a diamond!

(Actually that analogy sucks ass because Kill Bill vol. 1 is perfect on its own, but don't mention that)

The thing is this game is like an entrée, a delicious opening for a spectacular main course. With this game you get the basics and what the story can do and them boom!, The Lost Age. Luckily I played those games when both were already in stores, so I did not have to wait. I just ate that up and man, it was great.

Usually, after I finish a game I need some time out before trying a similar game. Whenever I finish a JRPG, I don't immediately jump into the next one instead I try like an FPS or a city builder. You know, to clean the narrative palate. WIth this one is impossible, you finish this and you have to jump the second one.

I would gamble that the team that created Golden Sun had a considerable wishlist of features and a heated desire to beat everyone to the punch of creating a full bodied RPG on the Game Boy Advance. Not quite rushed or bloated, but expansive mechanically, leaving the trimming and remastering to the second game that was already confirmed.

Golden Sun’s artstyle is chunky and charming. Still, by the end I found myself liking the dupled about overworld design and sprites better than the granular combat sprites. The dynamic camera in combat helps with monotony, but random repositioning ran aground after the first hour. It may have pushed the hardware, but imitating camera work requires you also imitate an intelligent director.

The gameplay’s forward momentum is pleasant but lacks fast travel options while puzzle rooms reset behind you. Long form games call for some busy work or mastery testing, but Golden Sun’s scope doesn’t really call for as much as you’ll be doing. The pacing is skewed, the story ends up a bit too short even for a cliff hanger, but the playtime feels an equal amount too long for a handheld romp.

Pacing issues extend into the plot, dialogue, and cutscenes. Not only do you end up with two ‘try everywhere’ abilities, Reveal and Read Minds, but all cutscene dialogue is double what is needed to progress the story. Watching the characters chatter, derail conversations, or perform low-res slapstick Golden Sun feel like a string of sitcom episodes reaching for a runtime.

Completionism elements are bizarre. 24/28 of the collectable spirits are involved and fun side content, bewildering that the remaining 4 aren’t (the ‘wilderness encounter’ Djinns that are invisible in the corners of the Overworld). The optional, 10 floor dungeon makes it clear that they had room designs, puzzles, enemies to spare, making ‘hiding’ anything of value completely unnecessary.

Golden Sun’s highlight is its depth of combat, puzzles, and player input. While several elements feel stretched, there is a solid plot, likeable characters, and well used art assets. Customization is balanced while also checking off a generational wishlist, custom-ish classes, ‘big 4’ staples but also options like Ninja or random Mage types, a huge focus on animated summons, and an elemental damage system that rides the line of ‘matters’ and ‘I want my main guy to be lightning themed’.

Brilliantly, except when put up against the game’s 2 or 3 hardest bosses, you’ll never be faced with simple choices in combat if you maintain that forward momentum. Golden Sun is a great example that the balancing act of game design never really ends. You make functional systems, achieve balance while highlight player input, but still must build for your form factor. A game with mechanical flair needs to rest on a world that’s fun to reexplore if needed or a menu’ing system that takes advantage of shortcuts. I took the time to scour Golden Sun for all its treat

Taste is subjective, of course and this isn't meant to impugn anyone who likes Golden Sun, but even accounting for time and platform I can't for the life of me understand the high ratings for this game. The story is largely incoherent and bland, and both the characters and the world lack any defined personality despite the huge amount of text in the game- it feels like a bit like a cautionary tale about how more isn't usually better, especially considering how hollow traversing the large and empty map feels. It's not much better to play, either- the puzzles tend to be fairly similar, which wouldn't be a problem if there was any sense of increasing difficulty or iteration on them. The battle system is pretty similarly uninteresting, with summons doing most, if not all, of the work for the bosses- any regular enemy isn't much more than cannon fodder.

I wish I got it. But two Fire Emblems, the GBA Tactics Ogre, Superstar Saga, Ruby and Sapphire, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Battle Network 3 came out no later than two years after this for the GBA, and while none of them are purely a JRPG like Golden Sun is, they all feel miles ahead of Golden Sun, which doesn't feel like much of anything.

"The elephant had fallen to the bottom of the sun. Everyone aboard was GRILLED!" -Tom's Terrifying Tales from the Toaster

Golden Sun is a video game that exists in both a state of popularity and unpopularity, the most I heard of it was in the mid-2000s when it was relevant and then never again until its strange invisible fanbase shows up every time Super Smash Bros is relevant again. I have never met anyone who played this game for more than a bit so out of morbid curiosity I decided to give it a go and... it's pretty good actually.

This video game of sorts on the GBA involves you controlling a group of four cool and radical teens on their way to save the world from Team Rocket. This includes Issac, who can be renamed but nobody else can be renamed which is fairly pointless as he never speaks anyway, Garet, the best friend archetype who has garbage HP, Ivan, the funny wizard, and Mia, the girl who looks like that one pic of the sad cat. After sneaking into the Sol Sanctum and stealing some rocks that they give to bad guys Issac and his friend and the other friends they meet later on go on a journey to light the four lighthouses and restore peace, except there are actually only two.

The game follows your standard turn-based JRPG format. Characters can attack, defend, or use their magic known as PSYnergy. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with Korean pop hit sensation PSY. The one unique thing setting this game's battling apart is the Djinn, funny little creatures who you fight or sometimes don't fight and they will join you. Djinn can be equipped to one character, giving them a stat boost as well as changing their class. Each of the four characters has a unique set of classes and their skills and stats will change to match that class. In addition Djinn can use a unique skill in battle, then can be re-set to a party member using either a summon or just calling them back. This essentially allows party members to change classes on the fly and their skills, making for a pretty fun battle system that doesn't feel stale even in the late game.

The game uses a pretty standard RPG world map that you can run around and look at, unfortunately there is no fast travel but there are bridges that open up to previous areas and the game is mostly linear so it's not a huge deal. Being a sort of old RPG this game also lends itself to the dreaded Random Encounters which can be temporarily blocked out by a certain item but they are random encounters nonetheless. Overworld stuff includes talking to people, buying stuff, and solving puzzles using overworld Psynergy. A lot of the time the game can be sort of vague as to how Psynergy works in the overworld and some kinds of Psynergy won't ever appear unless a character has a certain class, with the exception of special items that always give you the Psynergy you need to progress the story. Each character also has their own inventory space, which isn't a huge deal as items are not a super important thing in this game but they can fill up pretty fast. Fortunately consumable items like herbs and medicine can be stacked. Speaking of old RPGs this game also lends itself to some unfortunate tropes such as having to backtrack through some dungeons or not having one but TWO shitty desert areas or having a long boat cutscene before a particularly tough boss but aside from that annoying stuff? Everything else is pretty fun

This game uses pre-rendered graphics as sprites that are unfortunately not present in the game's official art, I really wish I knew what Issac's stupid looking 3D model looks like. However on the GBA it looks great, with the camera switching sides depending on who's attacking. Meanwhile on the overworld everyone looks like funny little toy dolls and that's also great. The music was done by Motoi Sakuraba of Camelot, who developed this game by the way, so you're going to be fighting to Mario Tennis music, effectively making this a Mario Tennis sequel of sorts.

Overall this game was pretty fun aside from some annoying quirks, while it's a bit short for a JRPG and doesn't really have any side content that's ok by me as I have a hard time finishing these kinds of games anyway. For an early GBA game it looks great and it really showed what the hardware can do both for good gwafics and gameplay. The bad news is that this game ends on a cliffhanger which is resolved in the sequel so now I have to get around to playing that, eventually

A great, classic RPG for the Game Boy Advance, Golden Sun's nostalgic feel and graphics were mind-blowing at the time. By today's standards it's a bit dated and shallow however, and the story and dialogue feel much sillier than they used to. In the end though, it more than makes up for this with it's sheer fun and enjoyability, both of which make it well worth playing today.

Score: 7.5/10

Golden Sun is a great RPG and puts equal effort into it's story, battles and puzzles.

The game was challenging, but not overtly difficult. You could definitely feel the effects of leveling up your characters as well us upgrading your equipment, which really makes the player feel like their hard work is paying off. I never found that I needed to grind, and that a solid battle plan was usually enough for me to deal with stronger boss fights. The puzzles were equally challenging, but never enough so that I needed to go find the answers online.

The visuals were great for the GBA, and the music was a perfect compliment to the games varied situations.

Some small critiques:
I found, at times, that the story would become very chatty, and I'd be sitting for several minutes, clicking through dialog and watching set pieces. I would've preferred if the longer segments were cut down ever so slightly.
I also felt that the ending to the story was lackluster when compared to the rest of the game. Please don't misinterpret, I loved the story, but the ending did not give me that satisfying feeling I was hoping for. I assume this is because the Developers were planning to carry on the story in the sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

If you are a fan of the classic RPGs or JRPGs I highly recommend Golden Sun and I guarantee that you'll enjoy it.

Golden sun isn't good. That being said, it also isn't bad.

I played Golden Sun at the behest of my friend who insisted it was the greatest JRPG of all time. After citing the reasons that "It has the spell Meteor and Summons in it," I decided to give it a shot. I had also heard on a few websites that it was pretty good, so perhaps it was a hidden gem. Clocking in at just under 40 hours, which is pretty impressive for a GBA game, I can now say that it is not a hidden gem. I came in expecting a riveting odyssey of epic scale about a cast of fantastic characters. I got a generic clone of Final Fantasy.

Visuals and Sound:

The game looks fine. It's nothing to write home about, but its not bad. It sounds fine too. Unexciting but inoffensive.

Story:

Relax, there won't be any spoilers here, mostly because you already know how it ends. The story opens up meeting our player character Isaac and his two friends, Garet and Jenna. They live in a small northern town, blessed with a mystic force called Psynergy and tasked to guard the Sol Sanctum, where the four Elemental Stars are kept, one for each element: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. Wait, sorry, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter. See, it's different. Now before we go on, you may be thinking, "huh, are some generic evil guys gonna show up and steal the stars to complete their evil plan to bring about evil?" Yes, that's exactly what happens. Three of the stars are stolen and you are told to get back the other stars before the bad guys can activate the lighthouses, bringing about evil and sadness. This might be a nitpick but why are we trying to stop them from turning the lighthouses ON? At the first tower you fail and when you descend, you find magic healing water that cures the plague going on in a nearby town. In what world is that bad? Either way, onto the more pressing issue: this is the most generic JRPG story there is. Before you go any further, before I took a single step outside the starting village, I knew what the ending was. This story has been done to death a million times over, and while it isn't bad, it was a little disappointing to see it done here again. This was done on the NES. It was so generic that I just stopped caring. Halfway through the game, I had forgotten why we had gone on our quest in the first place. Something to do with my lady friend being kidnapped, or the world ending or something? Golden Sun has an expectation that it's killer narrative will draw you in but this narrative has been done before a million times over.

Golden Sun also has a VERY bad habit of giving you choices, without ever actually giving you a choice. Dialogue is occasionally broken up by a Yes or No question and every single one of them, is totally irrelevant. "Isaac, should we go on a long side quest to help this guy we met 20 minutes ago?" "Yes." "Great! Lets go!" "No, I changed my mind." Well, we're gonna go do it anyway!" Aren't we supposed to be saving the world? Furthermore, it has another habit of just straight up not explaining things to you. After the incident at the first lighthouse, I continued to wonder why the bad guys were lighting the towers. After the final boss, Garet asks them "Hey, why do you want to activate the towers?" to which he responds, "Wouldn't you like to know," then leaves. Excuse me? I've been wondering this, for the entire game, and you're not gonna even tell me your motives?

Characters:

The characters are, like the story, incredibly predictable and archetypal. None of them have any kind of arc or significant changes. They learn nothing about themselves, the villains, or the world. I harped on the story quite a bit, and many of my arguments can be applied here, just know that the characters aren't that great. Don't look here for a compelling character driven epic.

Gameplay:

Golden Sun brings two unique things to the table of game play: using Psynergy outside battle to solve puzzles, and summons. Ok, so it has one unique selling point. No no no, you equip these summons and they make you more powerful before you summon them. You know Final Fantasy VI already did that, right? Psynergy outside battle is all well enough, and I guess its good, but its kinda token. It certainly wouldn't be enough to warrant a purchase. Equipping the summons is kinda cool, but your available Psynergy is based on which summons you have equipped so if you say, decided to use a summon to try and kill a boss, you have to re-equip that summon to get your spells back, and when your mage can't use healing magic, that's pretty feelsbadman.jpg. Other than that, what do you think? Ever played Final Fantasy? Turn based, select actions, movement order is based on a speed stat. About as basic as it gets. I did like that summon equipping mechanic, it added a layer of strategy to the combat, since you can attack, defend, use magic, and also use or equip summons. I just wish that using them didn't make you unlearn your spells.

Final Analysis:

Golden Sun is by no means a bad game, don't get me wrong. If you liked Final Fantasy 1 and you want a game that uses that formula and doesn't deviate from it with a half baked story, play Golden Sun. However, if you're looking to get into JRPGs, play something else first. Find out if you like this style of game. Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Bravely Default, something like that. This is not the game to hook someone on the genre. This is the game for people who already like JRPGs and want something simple to fill time with.

7/10; meets expectations. Tentative recommendation.