The second half of the GBA Golden Sun saga improves on the original while still maintaining its 16-bit era flair.
Actually, it's still confusing even if you played the first. You start out following pointy-haired Felix and his party on their mission to light all of the elemental lighthouses in the world of Weyard. Notably, this is the exact opposite quest for pointy-haired Isaac and his party in the previous installment, which seems really strange but is explained semi-satisfactorily eventually. This continuation of the plot is very much an extension of the standard RPG formula of the original, which is basically a young boy coming of age while saving the world. It is notable to mention that neither half of the serious had much of a strong villain but sort of a series of characters that guided and misled the main characters for their own reasons. Your party is essentially on a mission to save the world from the actions of a previous generation who themselves were trying to save the world. It is kind of complicated and you could see how they had to spread the whole mess out over two different games.
To fit this complexity, The Lost Age has a much less linear feel than the original. The extended second segment of the game has your party completing dungeons in any order they please. Most gamers on a first playthrough will wonder just what the heck is going on at a few points but the world map is small enough that it's a small aggravation and there are ways to control how often you find yourself in the random battles.
The battle systems is really one of the best things about this game and a standout among its genre. It is straight-forward and simply turn based but your character's can be customized by equipping them w/ little monsters called Djinn which give them additional elemental powers or can be reserved and summoned as strong attacks and other spells. Towards the end of the game, you are reunited w/ the party from the first game who can then be swapped in and out of action even in the middle of battles. W/ all these elements at play there's tons of ways you can build a successful party. You can do a bit of level grinding and build up a simple hack-n-slash brute force attack plan or you can spend time experimenting w/ your Djinns and come up w/ a powerful spellcasting party.
The difficulty of these battles is fairly mild and this reviewer in particular did not have to spend much time on his first playthrough building his party for anything but the sake of it. The real challenge comes in the form of puzzles in the dungeons which are clever and tend to be balanced enough to feel challenging but not frustrating. Playing through these is a real joy and most are segmented such that you can finish a whole segment or discreet chunk of a puzzle in one sitting which is great for bite-sized handheld play.
Like it's predecessor, Golden Sun: The Lost Age is a retro-feeling and fun RPG in the sixteen bit style but rather than feeling like simple sequel it is a refinement and an expansion to the original in basically every way possible: gameplay is longer but no less excited, the story is better developed and their are greater opportunities to customize your party. It is more or less the same thing but better. If you were not a fan of the first, you will probably still want to steer clear of this but for those who enjoyed it or are fans of the genre in general, you really can't go wrong w/ this one.