Seven years later, a beautiful world still has problems.
-Seven years later, after seven years of waiting, we have a Dark Dawn. I was excited, but in a different state of mind being that I am now 22 video games are not as exciting as they were in my teenage years. So how is the game?
-Graphics: Well visually it is beautiful. From the environment, to psyenergy, to summons the game shows amazing 3D graphics, very high caliber for the Nintendo DS. The only flaw in the graphics might be when you are in the world map the character has a bit too much of a block look; the rest is however very well done.
-Music: Golden Sun:Dark Dawn has a great soundtrack and like a bottle of wine it keeps on getting better as the game goes on. The sound effect from battles, to summons to items everything is done really well.
-Gameplay: How does it play? Well here Golden Sun:DD has both good and bad, where all other aspects of the game have seen significant improvement this section seems to have the most issues (I use most in relative terms)The gameplay is user friendly, the touch screen is responsive making psyenergy in puzzles feel more interactive than previous games. However I found the scroll system of selecting magic/attacks/items to be less friendly than the previous two games which used a top-down approach. The battle system also has improved compared to previous games in that the random battles don't happen as often, except for some dungeons. But overall this is a very welcomed change. It is worth mentioning that the difficulty is on the easier side when it comes to battles. There is also the ability to fast forward battles by holding B; this makes the action go around 2.0 times the speed making battles quick but fun. The puzzles in the game really stand out especially towards the end you will be challenged to think and to admire the creativity of the producers.The Dijin are back, and from my experience from the 60 that I so far have gathered (there are well over 70) they have more defensive roles than past games but they do bring a lot to the gameplay through new powers and summons.
-Story: If you haven't played the original two games you should, but that doesn't mean you can't play this first, the DS game does a great job filling in the gaps. As a veteran of the series I liked the story but not feel in love with it. The first five hours the game goes through too much dialogue, at moments the dialogue isn't even that great in these first five hours. The rest of the 25 hours it is paced very well. It took me 30 hours to finish the main story. I am I traditionalist, I didn't really enjoy all the significant changes in the world. Cities and locations I wanted to see I didn't; not that new is bad but I find that 30 years seems like such a short time for the Weyard world to change so much. The story itself (this is good and bad) goes on many avenues in the first 10 hours until it finds its' purpose until the end. This is done with the intention to set the stage for future games. The characters are ok, only a couple really have much development but again that's because I am attached to the previous cast. Dark Dawn seems to be more about the future of the series, to capture the demographic that I was part of when the first 2 games came out nearly ten years ago. It is a good story probably the darkest in the series but it lacks the scale of The Lost Age.
-Overall: In the end I gave the game an 8 because I felt a little cheated, the game was not as challenging battles wise (puzzle wise it was fair) as previous games. It didn't really have the epic feeling that TLA had and the size it presented; as well it misses the originality of the original Golden Sun. But what it does very well without a doubt is that it plants seeds for a new game that could easily be on par and why not even be better than the others in the series. As a veteran I think this is a good game but not great to satisfy my thirst for Golden Sun. Those new to the series can have an 8.5 experience with this game because it is a solid RPG with few flaws, these flaws only magnify if you have played the previous games. So don't wait, go out and buy Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.