Golden Sun Official Thread

JRPG's that stick to their roots and use old established methods such as turnbased combat, random encounters these days are always called out as being outdated or slow.

I guess I can see why some people are sick of it, or just plain don't like it but as you say ifrit all I want from golden sun is more of the same.

The name is still Dark Dawn in UK (thank god), as is evident from the advertisements and boxart screenshots on various websites, it would be too late to notify a change as big as the name title, considering copies will start being shipped throughout this week.

As for the reviews, from people I know who have it, apparently there are some story/character inconsistencies, it feels like Camelot are a little rusty, but overall it feels like Golden Sun.

I'll be updating the first post soon.

SuperLink said:
As for the reviews, from people I know who have it, apparently there are some story/character inconsistencies, it feels like Camelot are a little rusty, but overall it feels like Golden Sun.

I want to play more JRPGs but I can't stomach the excessive dialog and the shitty interface still used to display it (tap a a million times).

Different strokes for different folks. I wouldn't force myself to play games from a genre that I generally don't dig, even if I used to like them. Of course every genre has exceptions.

Anyway I briefly updated the first post with some reviews, just a few so you can get the gist. I'll be updating it with more character info now.

Raff said:
I want to play more JRPGs but I can't stomach the excessive dialog and the shitty interface still used to display it (tap a a million times).

Maybe you coud give dragon quest VIII a go? I have been playing it and it's kind of a breath of fresh air in some regards.
The main story is standard villain fair but the characters them selves are quite charming, and so far I have kind of forgotten about the main story as It makes you go on other quests to flesh out the characters storys in towns or whatever
They all speak with British accents which is a nice change from always having American accents (sorry American peeps but your voices are in too many games!)

The main guy is a mute, similar to Zelda so you don't need to here about him.

Graphics are really nice and bright (bit crap on a HDTV unfortunately) has a pretty amazing world map for a JRPG game, puts to shame the efforts this gen so far.

On second thoughts I'm going to wait to get the game before I update the first post with more info, I just came across a pretty big spoiler I think, so it'd be best for me to avoid the community until I know the game myself...

But I slightly updated Matthew, Karis and Tyrell's profiles anyway. Matthew is the son of Isaac and Jenna, Karis is the daughter of Ivan, and Tyrell is Garet's son.

Rief is Mia's son. The other characters are:
- Sveta, a badass Jupiter Adept who is half beast half human
- Amiti, a ~*~*~prince~*~*~ Water Adept
- Himi, a priestess from Izumo (that place in GS2 with the Serpent who likes to eat pplz)

SO EXCITE.

Bump. Surely some of you guys have it by now?

I've been playing it for the last couple of hours, I'm taking my sweet time, but so far:

- The battle graphics and animations are really amazing, screenshots just don't do them justice
- This feels just like a Golden Sun game. 7 years later, Camelot have perfect captured the original feel, and I can't get over how great that is
- The file selection screen music made me tear up when I first heard it
- Karis is such a badass holy crap
- Tyrell is even more of a retard than Garet
- The music oh my god

Golden Sun is the reason I fell in love with RPGs, it's an important part of my "gaming childhood", and this is just so amazing for me. Everything is familiar, everything is right.

I won't allow myself to buy it until after finals...

Jacob4000 said:
I won't allow myself to buy it until after finals...

I was gonna get it for xmas but my bro said he was gonna get Dragon Quest IX and so I decided to get a copy of that as well to play multilayer.

I will get it eventually though, no rush!

I simply couldn't give it the time it deserves. I'm hoping to get it in the New Year once the xmas chaos dies down.

I'll get it for Christmas. I still haven't finished Shadow Dragon and WoW: Cataclysm is barely a week old.

This thread really hasn't been posted in since last year? Well allow me to do the honours then~

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
I finished it the other day, fantastic game, mostly does justice to the originals, but it ultimately bogged down by the insultingly easy battle difficulty, in which things don't even begin to get challenging until the final boss and optional bosses. That's how bad it is.

That said, the puzzles are brilliant, extremely clever, lovely flow, just as we'd expect from Golden Sun. The music matches up perfectly too, everything about this game suits the feel perfectly, and while the story starts out complicated, filled with names and terms that go in one ear and out the other due to lack of familiarity (Weyard's layout has dramatically shifted, it may as well be an entirely new world with new exception, and many new settlements have been created), it ends up really good, and expands the universe in a lot of ways, while keeping a tight grip on consistency.

It kinda asks more questions than it answers too.

First thing's first, the name Dark Dawn does make sense, and it makes more sense than Obscure Aurora or Mourning Moon would have done. While the "Mourning Moon" is a pressing point in the game's story, it's.. also not. I can't say much without spoiling things.

But I'll just say that whereas I'm not blown away or massively impressed, it's all I expected it to be and I doubt I could be much happier (minus the difficulty problems). Plus I am blown away by the visuals during battles, especially summons. Wow it's really pretty breathtaking at times and hard to believe the DS pulled it off.

I might make another post including important spoilers later, but from the sounds of things noone else has played or completed it yet, which would make the post redundant.

I will say however, that GS4 on 3DS is pretty much inevitable, and oh what a game it's going to be.

Camelot have already confirmed they're working on a 3DS title, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was GS4. I remember people were upset that DD wasn't canned and turned into a 3DS game, however I think it's more likely that upon hearing of the 3DS' development, Camelot purposefully planned another set of games, one making full use of the DS' hardware (minus touch control which is pretty much pointless), and another which will be a huge 3DS adventure I'm guessing.

Oh god I am so happy.
SUMMARY
Would give it an 8 or 9 out of 10. While it's become one of my favourite RPGs, it's nothing massively special, it will probably mean a helluva lot to big Golden Sun fans. The only thing stopping my 9/10 from being certainty is the crappy difficulty. Where the hell is hard mode when you actually need it.

( Edited 05.01.2011 20:52 by SuperLink )

I am ashamed to say I do not yet own this, yet I shall make it a purchase-priority to do so.

...eventually.

I'd really like to check this out but basically my whole DS library consists of RPGs and I'm not exactly having a lot of money right now with the 3DS, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Okamiden and Black/White coming up.

Don't worry Josh, I'm with you on GS =D

I've spent about 19 hours and 40 minutes on it, and I just got past the juicy bit.

If only I had more time, I'd probably have finished it by now

Loving just about everything about it.

It's miles ahead of Dragon Quest IX, which I also bought a while back (together with Final Fantasy 4HoL).

And even though the counter on DQ is twice that of GS, probably only 1/4th of that was actual story/gameplay (instead of grinding. That is NOT gameplay, it's vegging.)

Man, I fucking love this game T_T

EDIT: It helps that I bought Golden Sun Dark Dawn for �£11.

Yes. For srs.

( Edited 06.01.2011 10:07 by Faust D. Strooijer )

I got it a few days ago and I'm still early in the game, I think. I've got my four characters and am off to Kaocho to hopefully get the Sol Mask.

So far, I'm loving it. It's been very nostalgic for me. I'm very glad I bought this game.

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought this would be worth a double post to bump the thread.

This has minor spoilers from Dark Dawn and Lost Age.

I think that GS4 will have more than 8 characters. The 8 from DD plus some new and perhaps returning party members.

Plus, yeah a few of them do feel out of place or pointless, but they all serve their place and I feel near certain that some of them (Amiti and Himi for one) will become even more important in the next game.

SuperLink said:
I think that GS4 will have more than 8 characters. The 8 from DD plus some new and perhaps returning party members.

Plus, yeah a few of them do feel out of place or pointless, but they all serve their place and I feel near certain that some of them (Amiti and Himi for one) will become even more important in the next game.

This. Having completed the game, I can say that Amiti can become a mighty interesting character in the inevitable sequel. =)

This thread is old and dead but my love for Golden Sun never will be. Twitter has just made it known to me that Golden Sun is officially 13 years old, and damn do I feel old.

Hopefully someday Nintendo will celebrate Golden Sun anniversaries like they do for Mario and Zelda, (haha, I can dream). For now, Happy Birthday Golden Sun, here's always hoping the saga hasn't been abandoned yet.