Simply one of the best RPGs ever to grace a handheld. Don't miss it for the world.
The Bad: It might feel like the part before the Jupiter Lighthouse is filler in many areas; the game will be extremely difficult for those who don't explore for those djinn; there's no sequel.
I haven't played a lot of RPGs in my day. Final Fantasy games on Nintendo systems, the handheld Pokemon games, Tales of Symphonia and Golden Sun are just about as far as my RPG gaming has gone. But I can tell you that you will have one amazing experience with Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
If you can get past the graphics being GBA level, you can recognize some true beauty in those pixels. The care Camelot put into this sequel, which is superior even to its predecessor in just about every way, is evident the entire way through.
There really weren't a lot of flaws in the first Golden Sun. The combat system gave you a lot of options, exploration was encouraged and fun, and the main story was executed wonderfully. The biggest issue: it was way too short.
And that complaint has been more than quelled with the follow-up. The Lost Age is more than twice the length of the first Golden Sun, and therefore even more enjoyable.
All those Psynergy powers, djinn, summons, puzzles, and excellent combat system pieces are all in place. The game even takes a very unique turn as a sequel by starting the player off as a completely new company: Felix, Jenna, Sheba and Piers.
Yet you'll be meeting Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia, the gang from the original series, and play as them once more, before the game is up. This combination is a brilliant stroke from the developers, and just adds to the experience.
The game allows for tons more exploration than was ever available in the first Golden Sun. It is true that parts early on felt unnecessary, and might only be there to give you a better chance to level up your characters. But this is a much better developing decision than expecting you to level up your characters on your own, a very tedious process in many RPGs.
It's too bad that much of the game is done by the time you get Isaac and crew back in your company too. The Jupiter Lighthouse takes a long time to get to, but again, this lets you level up much more efficiently.
Not that there's no reason to level up your characters on your own. Without leveling up (or grinding, if you prefer that term), you can still more or less beat the game, so long as you don't run away from battles during the main adventure. There may be a little training to do prior to the Mars Lighthouse and the stunning conclusion, but Golden Sun never forces you to train your characters five to ten levels before the next level.
But if you do choose to level up your characters just one or two extra levels before each boss fight, by the end of the game you'll have many more chances to explore, get some cool new djinn, classes and summons, and end up with a better experience. As with many other RPGs, the final boss isn't the hardest boss in the game.
The reason I said the game is hard, not just right, is that if you don't train your characters on the way through the game, and you want those summon tablets, life is really going to suck toward the end. You'll end up leveling up your characters a ton, and that's never a very enjoyable experience in RPGs.
That said, the game doesn't expect you to, as do many other RPGs, which I find extremely annoying and not very welcoming to new gamers. The Lost Age finds the happy medium between those, and despite how perfect the ending is (and it's not as much a cliffhanger as the ending to the first game), you'll still be wanting more.
The gorgeous music and graphics, the spectacular summons and Psynergy and the sheer freedom to the game allows for Golden Sun to be one of the best RPGs I've ever played. I may not have played many of the Final Fantasy numbered titles (I-XII), and I may not have played Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story or EarthBound, but I can tell you that you will highly enjoy the experience The Lost Age has to offer.
In fact, I'd have to say the combination of both Golden Sun games is the best experience I have ever played on a GBA. These games are classics despite the 32-bit, 2-D graphics, and shouldn't be missed. If you ever go looking for used games, these are the way to go. If not, get them anyway, because you'll never regret for a second fighting for the world of Weyard.